Review: Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar

I’ve been wearing the Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar since November 2023. I had the opportunity to test it in a wide variety of outdoor environments, doing different sports, and even keeping it on my wrist in my day-to-day… taking it off just to clean it.

As mentioned, the build of the Suunto Vertical is made for adventure so during these months I took it with me hiking in the mountains, trail-running in places with thick vegetation, climbing indoors and out. Of course it took some bumps from time to time, even on the screen. But even now, the watch doesn’t have a single scratch and still looks box fresh.

Another feature I must mention is the screen’s readability. Even in direct, strong sunlight, the screen is very clear thanks to its brightness and screen contrast.

But the feature that really stands out for me is the GPS accuracy. I used it off-route, and it worked with astonishing precision, so I never felt lost. The mapping is also great, with all the landmarks and contour lines if needed for better navigation. You can also download the maps onto the watch to use them offline. That may come in handy when there’s no phone signal, or if you don’t want to drain your cellphone battery or turn the bluetooth off (as I like to do).

The battery lasts for a ridiculously long time, even when it is constantly used in performance mode. It is advertised to last up to 85h of exercise tracking on performance mode – which is the the most accurate GPS setting and with full screen brightness – and it really keeps its word. Most of the time, I used the watch in endurance mode, which just lowers the brightness of the screen, and all-in-all, even when training 8-9 hours per week, I only had to recharge the watch every 2 or 3 weeks. At times I genuinely forgot this watch even needed to be recharged.

Now for the solar charging feature: it’s nice to have, even if not strictly necessary. To test this, I kept the watch off of my wrist for few hours in direct sunlight, and the Suunto Vertical gained 1% battery life more. The feature can definitely come in handy to prolong the already extra-long battery life, even if I wouldn’t count on it to extend it.

The widgets are minimal but sufficient. There are some health features, such as HRV (heart rate variability), blood oxygen levels and sleep tracking.

The heart rate monitoring works quite well, but did go a bit wonky when running or working out. If you want accurate HR measurements, to be honest you should consider buying a heart rate belt.

What stood out to me was the HRV and sleep tracking features. Whenever I wear it during the night, it gives me exact measurements on how I slept, indicating the hours of sleep, those of deep sleep and the quality of sleep. Whenever I was feeling I had poor sleep quality, it matched with the watch, and whenever I felt energised from the sleep, the watch told me the same. Doing some research, the sleep tracking has something to do with heart rate variability (HRV), which, to be good, must fall in a certain range. The Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar will tell you if your HRV is too low or too high, advising you to pay attention to your training and resting.

Other features include the altimeter, that in my opinion is a bit laggy and the weather forecast for the day – that works after synchronisation with the Suunto app.

The Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar is not cheap. It’s among the most expensive watches with this set of features, being frank. But even if at first I was skeptical about how expensive it was, I think it’s fair to say that the value of this product justifies its price, 100%.