ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Polar Grit X2 Pro is offered for $749 or for $869 for those who purchase the Titanium variant.
- The rugged design, vibrant OLED show, correct GPS monitoring, highly effective Polar Movement coaching options, and lengthy battery life make the watch a winner for athletes.
- It’s costly in comparison with rivals, the Bluetooth connection is inconsistent, and the person interface wants a bit of labor.
GPS sports activities watches are superior wearables, as individuals paying greater than $500 for a watch are in search of greater than a pedometer. That stated, strolling is without doubt one of the most elementary types of train that’s accessible to most individuals, and the well being advantages of strolling can’t be ignored. My grandma walked two miles a day for my complete life, and she or he lived to 100 with only a few well being points, at all times believing that strolling was a key issue for her longevity and high quality of life.
To check the pedometer performance of some units, I not too long ago wore the Polar Grit X2 Pro on one wrist, a Garmin Enduro 2 on the opposite with an Apple Watch Extremely 2 in hand, an Oura Ring on one hand, and an Amazfit Helio Ring on one other hand. I then walked for 5 classes, manually counting my steps out loud as a result of I’ve seen current articles the place even easy pedometers fail, for a complete of 10,021 steps.
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The Polar Grit X2 Pro was the champion with a complete rely of 10,008 steps, adopted by the Apple Watch Extremely 2 (9,930), the Garmin Enduro 2 (9,887), the Oura Ring (9,761), and eventually the Helio Ring (9,530). It is encouraging to know which you could belief the Grit X2 Professional to supply an correct rely when actively strolling, however that is not the total story.
After waking up, preparing for work, after which driving to the practice station, I observed that the Polar watch had already recorded greater than 1,260 steps firstly of my day when the Garmin on my different wrist confirmed simply 240 steps. It then did extraordinarily properly whereas I actively walked throughout my counting classes.
The appropriate facet of the Grit X3 Professional (high) and Vantage V3 (backside)
Matthew Miller/ZDNET
The Polar Grit X2 Pro additionally confirmed the most important improve in step rely after I was simply sitting at my desk working in between my strolling classes. Polar could also be changing non-step actions into steps, so whereas this can be very correct for particular strolling classes, bear in mind that your every day rely of steps will probably be overestimated.
I wore the Garmin Enduro 2, Oura Ring Gen 3, and Polar Grit X2 Professional for a busy morning with errands and yard work. The Enduro 2 confirmed 5,814 steps, the Oura Ring confirmed 6,473 steps, and the Grit X2 Professional had me at 12,134 steps. Certainly, it’s best to use the Grit X2 Professional for particular exercise monitoring and never as an general every day step counter.
The Polar Grit X2 Professional is sort of the identical watch because the Polar Vantage V3 with the identical inside specs, coronary heart price sensor, and person interface. The Vantage V3 suffered from some coronary heart price sensor inaccuracies at launch, so when Polar launched the Grit X2 Professional, the corporate launched an replace to repair coronary heart price efficiency accuracy and reliability. Coronary heart price monitoring apart, the skin case design is the most important differentiator right here, together with some GPS antenna tweaks optimized for the case design.
The Grit X2 Professional is constructed for outside adventurists with the primary ever Polar MIL-STD-810H certification that additionally has a 100-meter waterproof score, in comparison with 50 m for the Vantage V3. I personally favor the rugged beauty of the Grit X2 Professional, however I am not satisfied these beauty are definitely worth the $150 value distinction. The Titan model with the titanium case, as a substitute of chrome steel, and the extra leather-based band could be good to have, however that’s one other $120 over the Grit X2’s $749.95 value level.
If you’re shopping for a Polar watch, then you might be shopping for it for sports activities and exercise monitoring, areas during which it excels. The Polar Movement web site is incredible, and the smartphone utility has been improved over the previous couple of years.
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Whereas Garmin and Coros even have helpful web sites, the Polar Movement customization and particulars are the gold commonplace. I like spending time viewing my coaching, exercise, working index, and cardio load reviews to test my progress and encourage me to do higher. The free customizable coaching applications are additionally excellent for runners like me.
Since I stay on a hill and each single run consists of hills, I like the Hill Splitter performance and the way the hills and my efficiency on them is proven with none required setup on my facet. Different watches require a path to be entered for hill monitoring, however Polar makes use of GPS to detect uphill and downhill terrain. Polar was additionally the primary to launch with working energy on the wrist, and it continues to make use of this metric in its applications.
The left facet of the Grit X3 Professional (high) and Vantage V3 (backside)
Matthew Miller/ZDNET
As a lot as I like the Polar Grit X2 Professional and the Vantage V3 for the unbelievable Polar Movement utility and web site that helps you enhance your efficiency, there are a number of small issues that annoy me so usually I’ve a tough time sticking with a Polar look ahead to lengthy.
Listed below are some examples. Urgent the bottom-left button brings you to a piece of the watch with choices resembling Begin coaching, Strava Reside segments, Settings, and extra. You possibly can press the highest and bottom-right buttons to maneuver up or down the listing of choices with an infinite scrolling strategy in order that once you get to the highest or backside of the listing, the UI mechanically strikes via the listing once more.
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Say you then select Settings, center button press or a faucet on the show. If you end up in Settings, checks, or Strava Reside, you now have a distinct expertise the place the choices cease on the high and backside so it’s a must to press repeatedly to get again to the opposite finish of the listing. It is not an excellent UX.
I additionally discovered that I often, each two to a few days, should restart the watch to be able to get it to sync by way of Bluetooth to my iPhone. No different wearable I take advantage of has a lot bother syncing reliably to my iPhone. I am unsure if it’s the older Bluetooth 5.1 radio or a Polar software program difficulty that hangs up syncing, however it’s an annoyance.
The Grit X Titan, Grit X2 Professional, and Vantage V3
Matthew Miller/ZDNET
Generally the Polar Grit X2 Professional misses an evening of sleep monitoring, which then impacts restoration and different steering within the Polar ecosystem. You possibly can barely modify the sleep interval of an evening, however you can’t add missed days.
One other frustration is the common requirement to calibrate the compass. Most watches require that you just make determine eight arm rotations sometimes for compass calibration, however on the Grit X2 Professional it’s a must to transfer a ball round on the show utilizing severe arm gymnastics. Not solely have I seen calibration fail a number of instances, however calibration is required each few days. I just like the map/compass house display screen widget, however stopped utilizing it as a result of calibration requirement.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
The Polar Grit X2 Pro is clearly Polar’s greatest GPS sports activities watch, particularly for those who go together with the Titan mannequin that has that beautiful leather-based band included within the package deal. GPS positioning is correct, coronary heart price monitoring is constant in most conditions, and the included functionality of Polar Movement is hard to beat.
Provided that the Vantage V3 provides the identical experiences for $150 much less, it is robust to justify the Grit X2 Professional only for its rugged beauty. I might additionally wish to see Polar spend a while on the watch person interface to enhance the consistency and usefulness.
Polar’s Grit X2 Pro is the corporate’s greatest sports activities watch. If you’re in search of assist with coaching applications and monitoring your actions to be able to enhance your well being and wellness, then this watch is a compelling choice. The colourful OLED show and rugged design look incredible, and the battery will final you not less than per week, even with common coaching classes and sleep monitoring each evening.