to solar or not to solar?
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I have the non solar and love the watch. The battery just isn’t an issue. I get about two weeks between charging with 15 or so hours GPS. (No HR or sleep tracking but notification on)
But must admit I like the look of the Titanium!
I find GPS battery usage at best quality is around 2% an hour. I guess living in the UK there wouldn’t be much solar charging going on anyway
️Pays your money and takes your choice, I think you’d be happy with what ever version you choose. Personally I couldn’t justify the price difference.
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Thank you all, black steel SV solar is on the way
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Anyone here using the Vertical Solar just for sports? In this case it could rest nearly the whole day at the window and maybe the battery would last forever then?
This would be my usecase as I love to wear mechanical watches -
@VoiGAS said in to solar or not to solar?:
In this case it could rest nearly the whole day at the window and maybe the battery would last forever then?
This would be my usecase as I love to wear mechanical watchesSame here!
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@ElectronBadger you made a good choice. It s a little more expenssive to have the solar panel but when you will be on holidays or directly exposed to the sun, you will save a little bit battery life. It s funny to see your battery increased with a free energy.
For 45min exposed in direct sunlight your battery will increase of 1%. I am in France and I see that this morning. Everything actived on smartwatch mode (not in a sport mode) and not disturb mode activated (no vibration activated). -
@Jer075 for me the solar is the main reason to buy the vertical .
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Solar because Vertical Ti Solar is currently the best looking Suunto watch
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@ElectronBadger For me non-solar is optimal choice. But I wonder how healthy it is to have the watch in direct sunlight all day, just to extend the autonomy time for max a day (23 instead of 22 days). Users will tell in a year or two
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@ElectronBadger I have the solar and I agree with most. You probably do not need it, but if you really want titanium then…
The only thing I could see it being super useful for is when I do several day (I mean like 7+ days) of backpacking. The solar would potentially take a bit of edge off of the loss of battery due to GPS usage, but having said that most of my trekking is done at least half the time under tree cover so that will make it mute.
The one thing I do not like about the solar is the greenish tint that it gives the outside of the screen. Black would be much cleaner looking in my opinion.
An example for me would be last year then I did the Colorado Trail from Silverton to Durango. Didn’t really see a lot of help from the solar. The only time I would get a good solar bump was going over passes.
If you are a road cyclist and plan on strapping your watch to the handle bars you might see some solar usage out of that. Plus with the MIP it would not need to turn on the light every time you flicked your wrist to see where you were or how you were doing.
If I were to disappear into the bush for a month, maybe.
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Its a sunny but freezing winter day in Austria and the Suunto Vertical is charging indoor (!) in the sunshine. Even behind the window it has “High” values and the battery state increased. So I think it should be technically possible to only charge with sunlight.
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@VoiGAS just drove back from Tirol and wanted to say the same thing
When switched off and in sunshine, the battery charges 1% in 100-120 mins.
When using it, Suunto’s own stats tell the real story… not many people will need solar but it’s a nice to have. -
The Vertical Solar is an absolutely absurde watch. I don’t remember when I last charged it because it lasts like forever. Weeks, Months, or if you don’t use it as a Smartwatch and give it proper sun really forever.
Today in the morning it had 83%.
Put it in the sun (behind a window) for 2-3 hours: 84%.
Running 1,5 hours 82%
Placing it outside in the sun for 2 hours: 83% again! And still charging…Complete massive overkill. But I like it
Race S
Vertical Titanium Solar
Ambit3 Vertical -
I also enjoy mine A LOT. All types of my activities, bike rides, daily trainings, ultra races, adventure trekkings, yoga, you name it. Really excellent battery life. The best watch I’ve ever had.
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@VoiGAS can you share the setup of this ? Do you use oHR? Notifications? Strap ?
Thanks
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@thanasis None of that. Just syncing with the App from time to time. It would not work if you wear it between the activities. I just used it for running and then leave it in the sun.
Today was a pause day, so the watch got a full day in the sun without interruptions. Went up from 80% to 84% -
@VoiGAS
Be aware that it’s not recommended
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@sartoric Didn’t know that, thank you for the warning! Its still cold here, so I hope the watch didn’t got hurt
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@VoiGAS It all depends on the internal and thus battery temperature. You can easily check the internal temperature by looking at Alti/Baro/Temp widget after some time in direct sunlight. It depends on the ambient air temperature and also largely on the amount of infrared radiation the watch is exposed to. For example if the watch is in the interior and behind IR blocking glass window, the internal temperature would be very close to ambient temperature considering the very low charging power generated by photovoltaic panel. If this is let’s say between 20-25°C ambient air, that’s way more favorable for long term battery health than on the wrist temperature of ~32°C (currently on my wrist).
Leaving it directly outside is of course a bad idea for prolonged periods, unless you can compensate by low ambient air temperature that keeps internal temperature from raising to unhealthy levels. -
@Squirrel Thank you! So I will charge it inside from now on.
