I'm writing this product first review here after 2w of use. It will be review again from time to time because 5y with Polar - I learned that your watch has its own personality.
First, myself: I am an owner of some Polar products and as written, the past 5y I owned two Polar v800 which was their flagship product by the time I purchased. Why two? scorll down and you'll learn.
I run 20-30 miles per week all year long. Living outside the big city, my run paths are never the same. I can run 3M road path and the day later run 15M on trails. From time to time, I do tempo running, Fartlek training, running events, hills etc.
I also ride my road bike once or twice a month, I ski for a week every year, I swim twice a week during summertime and I hit the gym at least twice a week, well, when the gym is opened and not closed due to a lockdown.
In my day to day life I'd rather walk or ride the bike than taking the car whenever possible and when I'm around home.
Key features and main improvements (again, compared to V800) I was happy to find during my first 2w with V2:
- First, design: this watch is beautiful (compared to V800 everything is beautiful), with a surprising low weight. State of the art. It also has a touch screen which I generally loved. But see my wonders just below.
- Heart rate - The embedded HR is great to use. I check it multiple times a day, when training and in rest.
- The HR is also linked to the sleeping activity report which I check on a daily basis. They tell you how was your night with many KPIs and measurements involved and I think it's a very useful feature.
- Hill splitter: Great feature! Living on a hilly village, sometimes more than half of my running will be either uphill or downhill. The hill splitter helps you to analyze the road and to split it into segments and every segment can stand for its own.
- Watt measurement when running: Although little predictable, the watch can tell your continous energy transfer. It is affected mostly from the surface (up/down/flat) and your pace. I guess one of my upcoming training will be to try to stick to specific power vaule.
- The Polar Flow App has some signifiacnt improvements too and being able to analyze every segment of your run with terms of distance, pace, HR, power, cadence, incline etc. is a significant improvement that can really benefit and affect your performance.
- Komoot link will be tested soon. As a trail runner who got lost in the past, the map on your watch can be very userful.
- Controlling Apple music directly from my watch is the best thing ever, unless you are my 3y old kid who does not understand how I lower the volume everytime he turns up the volume on our amp.
- Some other features I can mention are Serene (breath practice, which I highly recommend), fueling (basically, eating and drinking reminder) and notifications (such: "get limber"). I think I can let my brain tell me when to drink, but the fact that someone in Polar thought about those features needs to be appreciated (although more work need to be done, for instance, how to limber?).
Some questions and wonders:
- Has the way that activity is measured changed? The #1 feature of any sports watch is measuring your daily activity. That can really make a cough potato into athlete. I easily get the 100% daily goal in (rare) days that I don't practice. That was quite challenging in V800. In addition, I in V800 every 1M of running turned normally into 20% of daily activity, in V2 I think that's more like 22-23%. If you run 10M (which I do at least once a week) that's 25% (in absolute numbers) above my previous watch.
- Where is the GoPro pairing? Very important when Skiing or biking and I could not find this great feature from V800.
- H10 HR sensor pairing - a disappointment. Out of 20 times I tried to pair I succedded only once (and even then I don't really know what was the source of my watch display, the watch itself or the sensor). The "couldn't find any sensor" display is really annoying and reminds me on other Polar behaviours which I write down here. Moreover, if the HR from the watch is accurate (and 5-10% deviation is fine from my side), I don't find any reason why Polar recommend to use the H10 sensor and I think they should be more transparent with this one.
- The touch screen is great as written above, but you can't shower with this!!! everytime I shower with my watch virtual buttons are selected. I am happy to change a song, but not when I shower.
- The battary can last for ~3 days and no one can tell me other stories. Yes, I do believe that if you disconnect the continous HR tracking, your phone notifications or your mobile pairing it can last longer, but this is 2021 and I don't have any reason to do so. The bad thing? This is a new watch and I believe that approx in 1y from now it will have to be charged daily. The charging itself is quick, but it must be done frequently.
- Polarflow still lack some important features such trends, w/w or m/m comparison and year summary. It is also constantly changing. That's good, but liitle chaotic. Most of all, I think that this gear should ask YOU what are YOUR goals and to help you achieve them. For instance: lose weight, train 5 times a week, ride 50M or run 10M in less than 80m. I couldn't find any advisory from Polar products with this goals and think they should be the basic of every sports watch.
Last and least, why my Polar V800 was only 3* rate and how V2 can be a true 5* watch:
All in all, a great product. I like to spend my money on products that I feel that they are best of breed, and this is a significant improvement against V800. However:
- When I had Polar V800 - I had to change the wrist every year. I think I spent about 50% of the price of a new watch on changing wrists. It is never about the money, it is about your feeling that again and again the wrist is broken, driving your car to the service center, wait, explain, etc. I really expect this wrist to stay for a much longer period of time.
- Moreover, my both V800 died the same way: "Foggy" on the inside of the glass, that turned out the power forever in 48h. And why? because I love hot baths. I will remove my watch while bathing, but I expect this product to last at least 4 years.
- Updating the app turned to be impossible. Neither directly from my watch to my Iphone, nor via wires to my PC. I had to do soooooo many weird things to send data to my polarflow such turn on and off the flight mode and many other unacceptable methods which I'd rather to forget and I hope V2 won't remind me of them.
As a recap, again, highly recommended. Good value for your money. I promise to update this review from time to time to see if I am satisfied the next...4 years.
| Item Package Dimensions L x W x H | 4.88 x 3.7 x 3.31 inches |
|---|---|
| Package Weight | 0.38 Kilograms |
| Item Dimensions LxWxH | 2.95 x 1.77 x 1.97 inches |
| Item Weight | 0.36 Kilograms |
| Brand Name | POLAR |
| Model Name | Vantage V |
| Color | White |
| Material | Silicone Other |
| Suggested Users | unisex |
| Number of Items | 1 |
| Manufacturer | Polar |
| Part Number | 90069636 |
| Model Year | 2018 |
| Style | Vantage V + H10 |
| Included Components | H10 Sensor, Soft-Strap, Sportwatch, cable |
| Size | medium/large(38-44) |
| Sport Type | Cycling, Exercise & Fitness, Running, Swimming |
