At some point during my test of the Suunto Vertical 2, I stopped bringing my bar-mounted GPS on mountain bike rides. Unlike a larger GPS unit, the Vertical 2, with its ride tracking abilities, brilliant color screen, and smartwatch functions doesn’t beg attention, but it’s there when you need it. The Suunto Vertical 2 even bests the more expensive Garmin Forerunner 970 along a few, though not all, key dimensions.
Suunto Vertical 2 key specs
On the trail
I don’t ride new-to-me trails as often I would like. It was this realization that made me wonder why I was bothering to charge my bar-mounted GPS before every ride, that is if I even remembered it before heading out the door. The Suunto Vertical 2 is always on my wrist, and it only needs to be charged about once every 10 days.
Reviewer profile height: 190cm (6’3″) weight: 75kg (165lb) testing zone: Southeast, USA
With a 48.6mm diameter and a hefty 88.4g weight, I can’t say the watch isn’t noticeable. It’s a big watch, so if you have a small wrist it may not be the best fit. However, I found it to be comfortable and unobtrusive while riding. There’s only one size of the Vertical 2; mountain bikers looking for a smaller Suunto should consider the Suunto 9 Peak Pro with its 43mm diameter and much lower price tag, though that watch doesn’t offer the same brilliant OLED screen or nearly as much claimed runtime.
The high-resolution OLED screen is easy to read in direct sunlight, and at night too. The level of detail and crispness makes everything readable, even without my glasses, which is great on the trail. The Vertical 2 can display your position on the offline map, and you can navigate pre-recorded routes, though one thing the map is missing is labels for road and trail names. A digital breadcrumb trail is shown on the map during the ride with a “Find Back” feature to route you back to the start. Voice alerts can be configured through the free smartphone app, though the watch doesn’t have its own speaker.
The Suunto Vertical 2 has a touchscreen, and I found it works with my riding gloves just fine. Swiping the screen makes navigating menus fast and easy, and allows you to pan the map just like on a smartphone. Though the Garmin Forerunner 970 also has a touchscreen, it gets confused by sweat and drops of water, particularly in the shower, so much so that I had to disable the touch capabilities on that watch. The Vertical 2, on the other hand, is more effective at distinguishing between intentional and accidental inputs.
Because the Vertical 2 has just three physical buttons, the touchscreen is crucial for navigating watch functions, some of which are three or more screens deep. The menus don’t generally cycle back to the top of the list when you’ve reached the bottom, and not all menus have a “back” option. There’s no back button either — just up, down, and select — so you need to swipe right to exit. Menus and data screens are fast, smooth, and responsive thanks to a powerful chip inside the watch.
I really like the default watch face because it packs a lot of info onto the screen at once without feeling cluttered. Sunrise and sunset info is visible so you know how much daylight is left for your ride while high and low temperature info helps you plan your day. The time of day is displayed prominently so it’s easy to see at a glance. Suunto also managed to squeeze the date and battery life onto the default watch face as well.
You can view extended weather forecast details, air quality, and other environmental variables, though this requires a smartphone connection. That means if you’re away from service for an extended period of time, the information may become out of date. The Garmin Forerunner 970 works similarly, though that watch adds a radar view that’s helpful for keeping an eye on approaching rainstorms.
The Suunto Vertical 2 boasts the ability to track more than 115 activities, and fortunately it keeps the most-frequently used options at the beginning of the list for quick selection. And if you are into nordic walking, padel, or mermaiding (seriously), the Vertical 2 has you covered.
Health and fitness data
I’ve really come to rely on the health and fitness data collected by my smartwatch, and the Suunto Vertical 2 offers pretty much all of the key metrics including HRV status, step count, heart rate, and sleep stages. Using this data, Suunto calculates a recovery state score to let you know if you’re overtraining, or if today is the day to go all-out. There’s a sleep score too, which tracks your various sleep stages each night. Based on your sleep score you can learn, for example, how alcohol consumption affects your sleep and make adjustments accordingly. Suunto gives you a 100-point “Resources” score that’s similar to Garmin’s Body Battery metric.
While testing the Suunto Vertical 2 I also wore my Garmin Forerunner 970 to see how my fitness and health metrics compare between the two. Both watches show trends that are directionally similar, though for a few calculated dimensions — including step count, HRV, and VO2 max — the Vertical 2 shows consistently lower numbers than the Forerunner. I’ve long suspected that the Garmin errs on the side of painting a rosier picture of my fitness data, and this testonly adds to my suspicion.
Some smart watches, like the Coros Pace 3, allow you to transmit your heart rate data to another device, like a bar-mounted GPS. Unfortunately, I was unable to pair the Vertical 2 with my Garmin Edge GPS.
The Suunto Vertical 2 does not include an ECG function, a feature the Apple Watch offered beginning with their Series 4 models. The more expensive Forerunner 970 can take an ECG reading, though this feature is not offered on the $549 Forerunner 570, which is priced more in line with the Suunto Vertical 2.
Suunto Vertical 2 form factor
The Suunto Vertical 2 offers impressive battery life, as it should given its size and weight. I’ve been getting about 10 days to two weeks between charges. Suunto claims a much longer battery life than the Garmin Forerunner 970, though in practice I’ve found the Suunto usually needs a charge about a day before the Garmin. Compared to the battery life of an Apple Watch, which needs to be charged every other day at best… well, there’s no comparison.
To save the battery, the watch display is turned off unless you’re actively viewing it. A twist or shake of the wrist activates the screen. Compared to the Forerunner 970, the Vertical 2 is more responsive, requiring less movement to turn on the display. The only downside is that this surely results in more accidental screen activations, which could explain the lower real-world battery life I experienced.
Though Suunto doesn’t offer a smaller version of the Vertical 2, there is $699 titanium option that weighs about 13g less than the stainless steel model I’ve been testing.
Like the Forerunner 970, the Suunto Vertical 2 has a built-in LED light that’s handy for finding your keys at night, or stumbling to the latrine in the dark. The LED has multiple brightness options and a red light setting to keep your night vision sharp. Unlike the Garmin watch, which allows you to turn the light on with the double tap of a button, you need to navigate a couple menus deep to activate the Suunto’s light. One trick the Suunto adds is an “SOS” mode that sets the LED light to blink.
You can use the Suunto Vertical 2 to control music apps on your smartphone which is handy if you’re listening with headphones. Sadly, there’s no ability to store music on the watch or play it back directly despite the watch’s massive 32Gb of internal storage. If you like, you can display smartphone notifications on the Suunto Vertical 2 just like any other smartwatch.
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Also like other smartwatches, the Suunto Vertical 2 requires the use of a proprietary charger, so if you forget it on a trip, you’re SOL. I haven’t lost my Suunto charger yet, but it happened to me with my Garmin watch earlier this year. Fortunately, I was staying in a place where Amazon Prime next-day delivery was available. It would be great to have wireless induction charging on the Vertical 2.
Buyers can choose from four different watch band colors; the band I tested is “Pine Green.” I like how the end strap uses a pin to secure itself to the band, similar to many Apple Watch bands. It’s a lower-profile solution than the loop-over-strap design other watches use.
| Suunto Vertical 2 | Garmin Forerunner 970 | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 88.4g | 56.3g |
| Screen resolution | 466×466 | 454×454 |
| Battery life* | up to 65hr | up to 26hr |
| Touchscreen | Yes | Yes |
| Maps and navigation | Yes | Yes |
| ECG function | No | Yes |
| Music | Controls | Controls + storage |
| MSRP | $599 | $749 |
Pros and cons of Suunto Vertical 2
Pros
- Brilliant and responsive high-resolution touchscreen
- Navigation built-in
- Useful heath and fitness metrics
Cons
- No music storage on the watch
- Maps are missing labels
Bottom line
The Suunto Vertical 2 is an excellent GPS smartwatch for mountain bikers who want navigation, fitness tracking, and a brilliant OLED touchscreen that actually works with gloves, all at a similar or slightly lower price point than comparable Garmin models. While it’s a large, heavy watch that lacks music storage and ECG functions, the Vertical 2’s excellent battery life, responsive interface, and comprehensive health metrics make it a compelling choice that could replace your bar-mounted GPS entirely.
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