One of the new watches has arrived, specially designed for climbers, adventurers or anyone who wants to get lost where coverage doesn’t reach and maps are essential.
There are few things more important in a smart watch than autonomy and functions that make your day to day more efficient and simpler. In the world of adventure smartwatches, if anything else matters, it’s autonomy and offline maps.
European brand Suunto has launched the new Suunto Vertical, a new smartwatch specially designed for these kinds of adventure-loving people.
With a price that we can define as adjusted taking into account the prices of other similar watches, there is no doubt that it comes face to face with other brands such as Garmin, Koros or Polar.
Adventure smartwatch with a large touch screen, physical buttons, long autonomy and offline maps for offline routes.
We are going to talk about this new Suunto Vertical, its benefits as a smartwatch for adventure and if you want a smartwatch in this category that doesn’t go off after a day or two of use If yes then how does it become one of the best options for you.
In essence, the new Suunto Vertical is a continuation of the Suunto 9 Peak Pro, one of its most important watches. Its hardware has improved, but also the software as we’ll see below.
- autonomy
- Screen
- offline navigation
- solar charging
- pressio
Autonomy up to 60 days
We said it before, but we repeat it again. A watch dedicated to adventure can never fail with something as important as the battery, which is why one of these smartwatches can’t last one, two or even just three days, it should last longer.
For those who are able to stay offline for several days or weeks, this Suunto Vertical will be perfect as it has an autonomy of up to 60 days with normal use. Yes, 2 months of normal use.
This changes when we start using GPS, important when you do trail running races or mountain getaways. It reaches an autonomy of 85 hours of continuous monitoring in the titanium version and 60 hours with GPS in the standard stainless steel version.
Big screen, but still not OLED
Suunto built this Suunto Vertical with a large 1.4-inch screen, which is appreciated in a watch of this type. Also, the resolution gets bumped up to 280 x 280 pixels.
The screen is tactile and in full colour, but unlike other brands like Apple, Samsung or even Garmin, they continue to use technology like MIP (memory-in-pixel) screens which save a lot of energy. It’s similar to the transflective technology used by other brands, but with better contrast.
While it’s still possible to control the watch’s options with its three physical buttons, what’s even better at times is the screen is touch screen.
With offline navigation and wifi to download maps without your mobile
Maps are usually loaded by connecting the watch to a computer, although nowadays the most common is to use your mobile phone to load your own maps or download via Bluetooth from platforms such as AllTrails or Wikiloc.
In this new Suunto vertical they have added Wi-Fi so that new maps or map updates can be downloaded without keeping the mobile nearby, which you can directly download in its 32GB memory. Of course, you’ll need to be connected to your charger in order to download using Wi-Fi.
The maps you can download from the Suunto app are separated by country and region. You can see maps with information on the path you must follow with full level details or a basic level where you can see your “breadcrumbs” that you drop while giving you directions to go .
Solar charging in premium version with titanium case
While the standard model is made of stainless steel and is quite wear resistant as well, the Suunto comes in a vertical titanium case edition with a solar charging ring.
It’s similar to the Garmin Fenix 7 Solar System, a ring-shaped solar panel that allows you to recharge your battery.
The amount of energy you get from solar charging will depend entirely on the amount of direct light you are exposed to. Ultimately, what these types of solar panels allow you is that you don’t have free energy and never have to charge it, rather it takes longer to discharge your battery.
Suunto Vertical price: not bad for an adventure watch under €600
The final price for this Suunto Vertical is 599 euros in its stainless steel version, while the solar and titanium versions will be 799 euros.
Adventure smartwatch with a large touch screen, physical buttons, long autonomy and offline maps for offline routes.
Considering its competition, it’s not a bad price considering the features and functions. By comparison, an Apple Watch Ultra costs 999 euros. A Garmin Fenix 7 costs 699.99 euros and a Kairos Vertix 2 costs 699 euros in its standard version.
That’s why this Finnish timepiece is one of the best affordable adventure watches out there right now, unless you find it on sale.
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