Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical
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Raise to rake works perfectly well on my Vertical. I never struggle to read the time. Maybe asking for advice more and ranting less would get better responses
️I think the Vertical is a fantastic watch for everyday wear and sport.
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@zapatista You actually do get a warning about watchfaces limit when you install the last one and when you attempt to install another one:
And as mentioned by others - raise-to-wake works perfectly. Is your watch brand new?
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@zapatista said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:
Pinned widgets: Only one allowed. Again, no message, no option. Just “one and done.” Why not give users freedom? One person’s “essentials” aren’t the same as another’s.
All such whys almost always have technical reasons.
You also have:
- Drop down list with quick widgets. You can order that list and hide unnecessary widgets
- Configure top and down button long-press as a shortcut to do an action or open widget you like.
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@zapatista
I read your comments.
While I respect your comments, they’re harsh for a 25-year Suunto user. I disagree with most of them.
If I’m not moving my arm, I don’t need to look at the watch. The watch is ready the moment I turn my arm.
Of course, it has some shortcomings, but every brand has its own style of operation.
For example, Garmin has invested in navigation for years. Then they released a smartwatch. Naturally, their mapping system is very good. They even got involved with satellite in their latest models, but the price is over $1,000.
I use Veritcal. I have 5-6 different bands that go with every environment—at work, in the mountains, camping. I choose bands and interfaces accordingly.
By the way, it warns you when you exceed the 9+1 interface.
It wouldn’t make sense for a deo forum or ecosystem to be open to everyone.
These are my personal opinions and experiences.
Best regards -
I have had the Vertical since it was released and it has only gotten better with updates. I use it daily for running and CrossFit - never once disappointed. Take time to learn all the features and how they work and ask questions.
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Thank you for the replies. I guess the tone of my opening post got a lot of people on the defensive, but such was my frustration, trying to get to grips with my new watch. This is a Suunto community forum after all, but I still think I raised some valid points, and hard to believe other people haven’t raised these at some point on here too.
@Ecki D. only being able to have 7 watch faces is by no means a deal breaker, my only gripe here is that I wasn’t told this. And no, @kriskus, despite having an up-to-date Android app and a fully updated brand new watch, I got no warning like the one in your screenshot. It just goes through the syncing and finishes, as if it has worked, but it hasn’t. I can only think that update hasn’t been rolled out to the UK yet…
So, this is what I’ve discovered over the course of the day.
First, ignoring raise-to-wake, and setting that to “off”. The following was observed with the watch lying face up on a desk.
After the last button press/swipe, 8 seconds later the backlight goes off, so the screen dims. This timing is very consistent. (By the way, to be able to adjust this time would be an obvious and very useful feature to include - even the cheapest smart phones have it!)
Then anywhere between 1 and 2 minutes after that, the screen goes completely black – this time period appears to vary widely, dependent on what, I have no idea! (@Egika so I don’t know why your screen never goes black, maybe it’s always on your wrist.)
These timings appear to be the same whether standby is set to on or off, the only difference being the intensity of the screen between the initial dimming and it going fully black.
So, if you’re in a dark place, with standby mode off, after 8 seconds you can no longer see the watch face. The intuitive thing would be to assume that to get the screen to turn on again you press a button, say the middle button. But no, the watch screen has effectively gone off but the screen is still fully interactive, in the sense that any button press/swipe moves the view away from the watch screen so when it lights up again you don’t see the time, but a different screen. At some point in between 8 seconds and 1–2 minutes when the screen goes fully off, there is a cut-off at which this behaviour changes: a single press only lights the watch face, and then a second press is required to move away from that.
You may think this is fussy, but I think it matters. By the way there is nothing at all about this in the manual.
The reason I want to know exactly how this behaves, is that if I’m in a tent in the middle of the night, half asleep, freezing, I can really do without any extra frustrations. I like to know exactly how a button will behave when I press it, and I expect to be able to find this out in the product documentation, not by conducting lengthy and tedious experiments of my own… with a stopwatch! I can adapt to the limitations of the device, but to do this I need to understand what I’m up against, and consistent, predictable behaviour is essential.
As for raise-to-wake, it doesn’t seem too bad, but it doesn’t really wake the watch in the sense that you can then interact with it straight away. It activates the backlight and then you still have to press twice to move away from the watch face.
@isazi @Tieutieu As for this being the best watch that Suunto have ever made… I thought it was going to be the best watch I’ve ever owned! In fact, maybe it’s because I had such high expectations for this watch, that the initial frustrations and irritations have resulted in such an acute sense of disappointment. I really want to like it… I thought I would love it – but we’ve got off to a pretty rocky start!
I’ve used Suunto watches on and off since the late 90s, I was mountaineering in the Andes for many years with one on my wrist and was extremely happy with it. I hate to say that now, with all the software updates and demand for new bells and whistles, they’ve neglected to pay attention to the absolute basics. It’s really such a shame because physically, hardware-wise, I think it’s a beautiful thing… but sorely let down by the software. I’m a computer programmer and I can spot flaky logic when I see it!
As for the other annoyances, the need for a second account for this community forum… whatever the reason, it’s for Suunto’s convenience – certainly not for mine. Either way, I hope they do pop in here from time to time, because there’s definitely room for improvement.
So, the romance is shattered, really. Seriously considering seeing what things are like on the other side…
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Don’t want to sound patronizing, but to all those questions like “Why Suunto don’t let us <…>” in the vast majority of cases the answer is either:
- There are technical reasons
- There are resources reasons (cost, people, time)
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@pavel.samokha Well, they’re just not good enough answers, are they!
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@zapatista everyone wants the device tailored specifically for his tastes and needs, so ofc such answers wouldn’t satisfy anyone. Yet, that’s how it is.
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@pavel.samokha Expecting a >£500 watch to be tailorABLE to my specific needs… I don’t think is too much to ask for at all!
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@Tomas5 Before Vertical I owned S5 (which I still have) and that’s the reason I can compare the two and arrive to the conclusion I made. In total darkness no watch is readable no matter the technology. The point is that these situations are relatively rare during the day… In low light situations the screen of Vertical is much more readable than S5 without backlight and well readable in absolute terms!
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@zapatista Well I have to disagree with you. For high alpine fastpack trips that are off trail and for running ultra marathons as well as extensive ski mountaineering, the Vertical, its navigation capabilities and features for me cannot be beat. I have used Suunto Vector, Suunto Ambit, Garmin Epix 2 (most recently). Nothing comes close to battery life and features. I typically have only one data screen then the navigation screens. Raise to wake works for me as it is plenty fast for ultramarathons. I realize you are unhappy and sorry about that.
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@zapatista said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:
@pavel.samokha Expecting a >£500 watch to be tailorABLE to my specific needs… I don’t think is too much to ask for at all!
I have a €800 washing machine and can’t turn off the stupid music when it is finished. But hey… that’s life. I have to deal with it.
Choices are made in the manufacturing of the products. And like @pavel.samokha mentioned, they are made for different reasons. Not even always clear for us.
In the end they try to create a product that fits the needs of the marjority of people. -
@zapatista said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:
I’ve owned Suunto watches on and off for over 25 years, most recently upgrading from the Suunto 9 Peak (non-Pro). I’ve always had a soft spot for Suunto, but what I’ve found with the Vertical has left me more disappointed than with any Suunto I’ve owned before.
Here’s what I’ve run into in less than 24 hours of ownership:
Watch face limitations: Only seven faces can be installed at once. Try to add more and the app just silently fails — no warning, no error, nothing. How hard would it be to display “You’ve reached the limit of 7 watch faces”?
Complications and essentials: Why do some faces not even show the date unless I waste a complication slot? Time and date are the bare minimum I expect without sacrificing a slot that should be for actual extras.
Pinned widgets: Only one allowed. Again, no message, no option. Just “one and done.” Why not give users freedom? One person’s “essentials” aren’t the same as another’s.
Missing tap-to-cycle watch faces: On the Suunto 9 Peak I loved being able to tap the watch face to cycle through different data. That was elegant, minimal, and powerful. The fact that Suunto removed such a stellar feature in the Vertical strikes me as absolute madness. Why take away functionality that worked so well?
Raise to wake / tap to wake: Raise to wake is flaky at best, and tap to wake isn’t even officially a feature — yet sometimes it half-works. Neither are consistent enough to rely on.
Button behaviour: Because raise and tap were so unreliable, I turned to the buttons expecting them to be a consistent fallback. But there is no button on this watch that will reliably wake it to the time screen with backlight. Sometimes a press does what I want. Other times it dumps me into the pinned widget, the Activity menu, or other widgets, and I have to swipe back just to see the time. This appears to be due to a two-stage sleep state: if the watch has been idle for “long enough,” a press wakes cleanly. If it hasn’t, the exact same press overshoots. From the outside, the screen looks the same (off!), so you never know what you’re going to get. Absolutely ridiculous.
Standby: “Standby on” burns more battery but at least makes wake behaviour less infuriating. “Standby off” saves battery but guarantees overshoot headaches. Why should I have to make that trade-off in a premium watch?
General UX: Poor communication everywhere. Features silently failing, limits undocumented, no feedback to the user. It gives the impression of half-finished software design layered over excellent hardware.
To top it all off — forum registration nonsense: Why on earth do I need to create another account just to post here? My Suunto App account isn’t good enough? That’s a ridiculous, user-hostile choice — and to make it worse, I was forced to consent to email notifications during signup.
The hardware is outstanding — the battery life, the GPS, the maps — but none of that matters if I can’t depend on the basics. For me, the most fundamental requirement is simple: press a button, see the time. Every time. The Vertical can’t even deliver that without workarounds, quirks, or luck.
Has anyone else experienced these problems? And if so, have you found any reliable ways to get around them?
… because I’m on the point of packaging this watch up to return it!
I get that you are disappointed. We are here to help (if we can). Let me know if you want a hug.
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@zapatista I think you are exaggerating a bit? Rather than complaining what it cannot do, why not enjoying what it can do? How is able to cycle through complications making your life any different than now? Regarding UX, I think Suunto watches have one of the best UI/UX on the market, simple and easy to use. Sure, there are bugs, and it’s annoying. But still. And to top it off with a complaint about registration here with a different account, I think you are having just a bad day, or?
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From all the issures raised from @zapatista, I surely miss the tap to cycle. Not a big deal anyway.
I have not tried other sport brands (only Apple for some weeks). But I am absolutely happy with my S9PP (some shortcomings here and there, but I guess this is always the same with any consumer product that cannot be tailored to specific needs) and always amazed at what a piece of technology mi S9PP. I can imagine SV would be even better. And also (althouhg a bit less lately) on the how good the UX is (shared with S9PP). Maybe it is just a personal question and the SV is not the adequate piece for you as the S9PP is for me.
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@timecode Yes, I was having a bad day, for sure. It was a long series of “What the ****, it won’t even let me do this?” moments, and plenty of head-scratching “Now, why has it done that?” and “Why isn’t this in the manual?”.
Maybe I did exaggerate in my annoyance, but I still think the core points are valid.
For me it comes down to design priorities. I understand trade-offs have to be made, but somewhere along the line I think they got skewed. Why give us a dozen accent colours, but no way to adjust how long the backlight stays on? That’s aesthetics over functionality — and for me, functionality matters far more.
The operating system the Vertical runs on has been around since, what… 2018/19? My impression is that some of what I consider to be missing basic features — and the difficulty of adding them now — trace back to those early design decisions. When “technical reasons” are mentioned, I can’t help but suspect it’s a euphemistic way of saying those foundations can’t easily be changed now. In other words: bad calls were made early on, and the user’s flexibility wasn’t prioritised.
For me, it’s about user choice and freedom. I use Linux and wouldn’t touch an iPhone with a barge pole! But everyone’s different. Perhaps I do have high standards and expectations — but is that really such a bad thing?
Thankfully, today’s going better, and I’m sending the watch back. I’ve ordered a Garmin Fenix 8 Sapphire Solar. I’m sorry to leave Suunto, but I do so with real disappointment, which is a shame after 25 years of using their watches on and off.
P.S. I spoke too soon! After resetting the watch to factory settings before packing it up, I turned it on again just to check. That was a mistake. It turns out that once it’s been powered on from a fresh state, there’s no way to turn it off again without going through the setup process and pairing with the app. Really? I doubt I’m the first person to run into that. Another questionable design decision to end on.
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@surfboomerang said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:
I have a €800 washing machine and can’t turn off the stupid music when it is finished. But hey… that’s life. I have to deal with it.
Man, that sucks too! Lucky you never have to share a tent with it!
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@JonasLarsson said in Title: Long-time Suunto user — bitterly disappointed with the Vertical:
I get that you are disappointed. We are here to help (if we can). Let me know if you want a hug.
I’m sure nothing will make your “helpful” community prouder than a flippant remark like that. I didn’t post here for jokes — I’m trying to get a £500 watch to behave consistently in the basics, and I probably wouldn’t be here at all had the user manual answered my questions.
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@zapatista that was fast, enjoy your new watch
