Polar - Grit X Pro

Polar Flow is fine, imo. They have more important priorities than making slick software to appeal to casuals when their watches themselves have many more significant problems. If you want a flashy interface pair with a "fitness band" for tech enthusiasts, go buy a Whoop or whatever and be done with it. It's not happening with Polar anytime soon, in all likelihood. There's been rumors of their poor financial situation for years now. Their hardware and functionality on the existing hardware is a serious issue. Their watches have gotten a ton of heat from reviewers for being far behind competitors in terms of feature set. Even their HRM and GPS accuracy, which was once Polar's advantage, has been matched by competitors. They need to make high quality hardware with features that match the competition and with the appropriate build quality. I've been using Polar devices for over a decade and their build quality on $700 watches like the Grit X Pro is atrocious, with failures in barely over 2 years. Those should all be much higher priorities than trying to cash in on the "fitness band" trend. Besides, if they make it half-assed and with horrid build quality, there's no way they will be able to steal away any share in this crowded market.

I ended up getting a Grit X2 pro but I hope it lasts longer. My Grit X Pro failed in barely over 2 years and the Vantage and M430s I had earlier also had stupid issues like buttons getting stuck. Not to mention the horrible charging port corrosion issues in the M400 days. Polar needs to get their shit together. I honestly don't mind that they have less features (which has cost them a lot of buyers in the market) but loved the tracking ecosystem and was willing to overlook the less "smart" features for the quality. If Polar doesn't get their act together, this will be my last Polar watch. Although I have my doubts the company will even exist if they continue to fall further behind and continue focusing on chasing stupid fads like their fitness band.

I use the Polar Grit X Pro Titan, the Polar H10 chest strap, and the Polar Vantage V3. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend the Polar Vantage V3. I experience inaccurate heart rate readings far too often, even during slow walks, not to mention during workouts. Sleep tracking is straightforward and easy to follow, but the Polar algorithm often struggles when it comes to calculating sleep stages and awakenings. I’m personally considering switching to the Garmin Forerunner 970, as I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from friends.

The first thing I used was a Garmin Vivosmart 4. It was a thing fitness band, so turning it inside on my wrist wasn't too uncomfortable. Then I got a Polar H10 chest strap. First tracking using my phone in the Polar Beat app. I think this is the only option if you want to use the "save on device" feature. Which is useful if you're going to be doing something like martial arts training. Now I use my Polar H10 paired to my watch (Polar GritX Pro). I think this is the best of the options I've used. I put the watch beside me on the ground and still use the buttons to count sets (I'm surprisingly bad at this when my heart rate gets high).

If your goal is training, I don't think I'd get the Samsung. Seems to me like you'd be paying for "smart watch" features (which I personally don't want) when you want "training / health monitoring" as the primary function. Polar Pacer is $300 USD. The Pro is $350. Polar Unite is $200 USD. Probably also worth looking at Sunto (Run) and Coros (Pace 3) too. Both under $250 USD. No mater what you're thinking about getting, if you live in the US you should absolutely wait a month and buy on Black Friday. But if you're looking for the best value, Polar probably won't be the right brand (especially if you live in the US). I like their watches (currently have a GritX Pro1). But their pricing strategy seems is pretty odd. They aren't on par with a company like Apple, but they seem to have adopted an Apple-light pricing strategy.

I think this was true when I got my GritX Pro \~ 2 years ago. It might even still be true with some watch series. Your Vantage V3 is $700 USD. For price, Garmin's Forerunner 970 is comprable at $750. The 970 has maps and has a sapphire lens for $750. If I'm spending $700 on a watch, personally I'd spend the extra $50 for the sapphire...but I'm rough on my watches. Which is why I like the GritX line. But the value here is pretty terrible now IMO. X2 Pro is $1000. Same price as the Fenix 8, which I think is probably a better watch. Basically every review I saw for the X2pro when it came out was "really nice watch...but the pricing strategy here is very aggressive making it a poor value". X2 is $800 in the US. Same price as the Fenix E (not sapphire though). And more expensive than any of the Forerunners (970 is $750). I think I'd take the 970 over the X2 if I was going to spend that much (and I don't want to spend that much). If the X2 was at price parity in the US vs. rest of the world, it would be a reasonable value IMO (and would make the X2 Pro kind of irrelevant IMO). It's not clear that the Polar watches are better than similarly priced Garmin watches IMO. Looking for price parity on similar (maybe worse?) watches vs. the brand with the highest name recognition / snob appeal in the market doesn't seem like a good strategy for the much less well known small brand to me. Brand wise, Polar is probably more on par with Suunto, but the value is so much less with Polar. Vertial 2 is $600, and probably comparable to the X2 (pro?). Race 2 is $500. I would strongly prefer to buy another Grit series watch when my current watch dies. And I would also prefer to stay in the Polar eco system (unlike many I like the app vs. hate it...and I also think that staying with Polar will mean fewer connectivity issues with my H10s). But I can't justify spending an extra $300 - $500 for a comparable watch when compared to Suunto. And if I was going to spend that much, I'd probably just get the Forerunner 970 and save the $50 over the X2.

I would go for the Grit X2 (latest, just a bit more expensive than the M3). Polar watches have the same OS, so the only difference will be design, materials (for sturdiness go for the Grit X2), weight and battery life. For premium feel and long battery life go for the V3 or Grit X Pro. Pacer is old, it has MIPS display, the above mentioned have nice AMOLED. Ignite does not have maps and navigation. You cannot import workouts to polar flow platform, but if you wear your watch during workouts it will sync them to Strava. You can even pair your compatible sensors too (H10, speed/cadence), so you won’t miss any data.

No Polar at all?? (I use a Polar Grit X)

You can get the Polar Grit X second hand for around 100-150 EUR/USD these days. Never had any issues with HR or GPS accuracy. I also use it almost exclusively for running.

The day you really need a watch in the middle of the woods, in the forest, and reliable, routable maps, etc., then you'll realize that Garmin is  years ahead of the crap mentioned in the thread. I've had over 15 Garmins, all Fenix, and I've had Polar Grit X, Suunto, Coros, and those Samsung toys, Pixel, etc. The day you're actually in a real forest and need routable maps and a battery life of two days or more using GPS, you'll never again mention those plastic toys you're mentioning. Until then, keep using those toy watches and considering these idiotic trade-ins.

I use a Polar Grit X. Reliable and robust and easy to sync with a phone. Already survived multiple crashes. Compared with other Polar models the Grit-models are more robust. It’s not a smartwatch but a regular sportswatch the can receive notifications from a connected phone. Imho a real smartwatch is too fragile and/or too expensive for offroad usage (with chance of crashing). The Grit X works fine on most routes/trails. Only when S-curves are very tight it gets confused and cuts off the route and in the end the total distance shown is not correct.

A fairly old and battered Polar Grit X Didn't want to splash out on my first sports watch, so bought this second hand for under $100 and it does the job for me!

Well, I compared my polar gritx watch to polar h10 chest strap in a threshold session, the difference was still within 1-2bpm, mostly exactly the same. The chest strap was slightly faster, but unless I'm doing 10 second intervals I don't really care that much. It is also more hassle, more uncomfortable, and more susceptible for dropping data in regular use. I just gave it away.

I don't know how to answer that. But basically all modern Polar watches have same standby time. Pacer, Pacer Pro, Ignite 3, V2, V3, Grit X, Grit X Pro, Grit X 2. But if you go back in the lineup you will have a lot more standby. But that doesnt make sense to buy that old today. How ever, the GPS-time you can do a workout differs more. But, I have had best battery on Grit X. 30-40 hours races done with that. Wrist HR and just run. But I think you get same from basically all "top-line" watches.

I am not an apple person but the Apple watch is routinely the best one on the market from independent studies and scientific studies. Personally I use a Polar GritX that's a couple years old.

Its about as good as you are going to get. Apple does lock certain features to apple watch only - so an apple watch ultra 2 is an alternative option you can look at - as does include recreational diving features - but not as much as the fenix 8, and you can cover the gaps the F8 misses via 3rd party apps - but does leave out the cohesive eco system garmin provides - and considering that you barely mention any smart features would then say you are looking at the right watch (definitely from fitness tracking and progress tracking point of view). Fishing - actually it does - you can log your catch and log the spots where you catch..... [https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-EECCAC99-90D6-4AB1-9A3A-EC433D3365E2/EN-US/GUID-A6881EE1-DB08-4922-925F-C7526EFAE8A2.html](https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-EECCAC99-90D6-4AB1-9A3A-EC433D3365E2/EN-US/GUID-A6881EE1-DB08-4922-925F-C7526EFAE8A2.html) and then you can used those saved location spots to navigate back to them at any point (can be very useful for fishing holes whether out on the water or fishing from bank/beach). All garmin have a built in coach for running - think C25K but does up to half marathon distance, then F8 incldues a Daily suggested workout option which you can then add a race event to it, to get the DSW to try and get you to peak for your event - so if you want a hassel free experience and a watch to build your training programme - hard to beat what garmin offers. Hiking- get offline maps and offline navigation (think satnav from car on watch) - so can create routes and get tbt directions on watch and via audio. Plus love the climbpro feature. Maps will work with all outdoor activity so can use for paddling as well as running / hiking etc (have a couple of paddle routes for when on canals / rivers especially canals in towns - great way of seeing parts of a town via water). So yes there isn't really anything else that comes close to matching it. Nearest alternative options would be apple watch ultra 2 (and losts of 3rd party apps); polar grit/vantage and coros pace pro /apex pro / vertix all include built in training systems and with training metrics and analytics like garmin to track progress; suunto at this stage is training metrics and analytics - though their suunto ocean is a full dive watch (garmin equivalent is the descent mk3 which is basically a fenix with full dive capability);