Suunto's latest adventure fitness tracker finally introduces a bright AMOLED screen that's great for maps.

Limited feature set with iPhones versus Android. Training insights need to be better presented. A little too big. Unreliable sleep and heart rate tracking.

The Suunto Vertical 2 is a fitness tracker that’s going to please a lot of Suunto’s loyal fans. It’s also going to pull in some new ones, especially those that can’t stomach the cost of an alternative, like Garmin’s Fenix 8 Pro.

Those fans feared the worst when Suunto’s parent company Amer Sports was acquired by Chinese technology company Lieshing in 2022. The first Vertical was the first major launch under that new ownership. I tested it, and given my previous experiences with watches like the Suunto 9 and Suunto 7, I kept my expectations low. I was pleasantly surprised. It was a Suunto with some unexpected design charm. It had offline maps and delivered both an ...