@martintrail I have played with the tought of a vertical 2. I personally dont think it will come this year (considering it has only been in the market place since June 2023). I think its a tough sell to a consumer to upgrade a premium device after just a year, but a 2 year product refresh/cycle is reasonable I think.
I doubt there will be a budget friendly version, because the Race S already ticks all the boxes. And if you have particular battery concerns / requirements then there are already fantastic solutions and options sitting above the Race S.
Seeing that the Race S has a new optical heart rate sensor, I would assume that by the end of next year we see a revised RACE and VERTICAL lineup which includes this update too.
Just my two cents 🙂