Vertical Titanium Solar - battery performance after june 2025

fedequei

First of all, I want to make it clear that this is not meant as a criticism of the Suunto Vertical.
I absolutely love this watch. It is my favourite sports watch, it works extremely well, and despite what I am going to describe, I would not replace it with another watch.
I simply wanted to share my experience because I have noticed a very significant change in battery performance since the June 2025 update (version 2.43.12), and I am curious to know if other Vertical users have experienced something similar.
Before the June 2025 update, my watch was losing approximately 3% of battery per day, even with regular sports activities. This was consistent with what I had experienced since I bought the watch.
After the 2.43.12 update, I noticed a clear deterioration in battery life. After a couple of months of observing this behaviour, in September 2025 the watch unfortunately stopped working. The problem was related to water exposure. Fortunately, the watch was still under warranty, so Suunto replaced it free of charge.
What happened with the replacement is, in my opinion, quite interesting.
The replacement watch arrived with a software version released before the June 2025 update. I immediately noticed that the battery performance was much better. It was not simply because the watch was new and had a new battery: the battery behaviour was very similar to what I had experienced before June 2025.
Because of this, I disabled automatic updates, hoping to keep that software version and continue getting the previous battery performance.
However, the watch updated itself overnight to a newer software version, despite automatic updates being disabled. And, almost immediately, I noticed the same battery behaviour I had experienced with my previous watch after the June 2025 update.
I have kept track of my battery consumption, and the difference is quite significant:

Before the June 2025 update: approximately 3% battery loss per day, even with GPS activities.
After the update: approximately 8–9% battery loss per day under comparable usage.
I am not saying that the watch itself works badly. The Vertical is an excellent watch and it does everything I need it to do. I am still very happy with it.
My point is simply that, based on my experience, there appears to be a significant software-related deterioration in battery performance since the June 2025 update.
The replacement watch is particularly interesting evidence for me: it was a brand-new watch with a new battery, and with the software version from before June 2025 the battery performance was immediately good again. As soon as it updated to a newer version, the battery consumption increased dramatically.
So, in my experience, this does not seem to be a matter of the battery getting older or the watch deteriorating over time. The same behaviour appeared again on a brand-new replacement watch immediately after the software update.
I am sharing this simply because I think it is an interesting experience that may help identify whether there is a software-related issue.
Has anyone else experienced a similar change in battery consumption after the June 2025 updates, particularly on the Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar?

surfboomerang

I can’t confirm this.

I purchased my Vertical Solar on it’s release date and I am on the latest firmware.The watch is losing 2-3% per day on days without sufficient sunlight
The last time I charged the watch is 2 days ago, I did an hour of running and the watch is now at 96%.

I do have sleep and 24/7 HR disabled.

mickywickyftw

@surfboomerang said:

I do have sleep and 24/7 HR disabled.

That makes a huge difference though.
I would really like 24/7 HR disabled except for sleep and HRV.
Anecdotally I do lose more % per day than I used to - my watch is from Nov 2023, so it is to be expected. But I always wonder whether some firmware update made it worse.

thanasis

@surfboomerang said:

I can’t confirm this.

I purchased my Vertical Solar on it’s release date and I am on the latest firmware.The watch is losing 2-3% per day on days without sufficient sunlight
The last time I charged the watch is 2 days ago, I did an hour of running and the watch is now at 96%.

I do have sleep and 24/7 HR disabled.

Disabling those 2 does probably change a lot…if you enable power saving mode it can be even greater , but the watch is supposed to be much more energy efficient with those things enabled . Actually the 2-3% was the normal discharging level at the beginning when everything was On

Milan Šádek

@thanasis My SVTiS battery life has also dropped significantly. Below you can see my tracking data showing the daily consumption percentage. I only started logging this after I felt the battery was getting worse.
Even without GPS use (blue dots), the daily drain matches what my watch used to consume including GPS tracking (red dots). I received a warranty replacement last September, but both units have had similarly poor battery life on the same firmware.

fedequei

@Milan-Šádek It is therefore quite clear to me that this issue is related to the firmware updates, and I can say that it started in June 2025.

For the next update, if there ever is one, my only wish would be to see this issue fixed. In my opinion, the watch does not need any new features, it already does everything I need perfectly. However, I don’t think it is acceptable to sell a watch with a claimed battery performance that simply does not match the actual battery life users experience.

KSGravelJunkie

I hate saying it, but my battery life woes (Suunto Race albeit) and seeing the same problems on other models have me looking long and hard at a switch to a MIP based, solar powered Garmin watch. I held out for a long time due to the price increase of switching to Garmin but I feel like I don’t get what I am promised with a Suunto and I can’t trust faceplate specs, specifically battery life. The only thing that would make me reconsider would be the reintroduction of a solar powered, MIP based Vertical 3 (or some new model?), which I highly doubt will happen.