Polar had to make the Vantage V3. Health rivals have spent latest years including AMOLED shows, new sensors for sleep monitoring, maps, and different “mainstream” smartwatch instruments. In the meantime, dual-band GPS has develop into a near-necessity for health watches in any respect costs. Polar wanted to deliver these options to a flagship watch to maintain its loyal followers happy.Â
Your perspective in the direction of the Polar Vantage V3 will range primarily based on whether or not or not you are a long-time Polar person. It’s possible you’ll have already got a operating watch with a few of these options, or maybe you have used a GPS-only MIP look ahead to years and need to resolve whether or not or not the Vantage V3 provides sufficient so that you can improve.Â
After months on and off with the Polar Vantage V3, I will say that it will not change your present perspective on Polar as a model. Polar Move is unchanged. The on-watch UI is similar. The massive attracts are nonetheless the Fitspark exercise recs and the coaching load algorithm guiding your exercise calendar and restoration.Â
That could be sufficient for Polar followers, however is it sufficient to justify the excessive worth and lure followers of Garmin, COROS, or Suunto watches? Let’s dive in.
Evaluation disclaimer
I initially obtained a Polar Vantage V3 loaner in December 2023. This mannequin would crash throughout lengthy mountaineering or operating actions, displaying an countless flashing Polar image that might solely be solved by a manufacturing unit reboot. I obtained a substitute unit after Polar’s help workforce could not crack the problem.Â
After months of use, I have not had a single crash or software program subject. I, subsequently, assume that Polar’s preliminary batch of watches could have had {hardware} points however that any new Vantage V3 fashions have had the problems absolutely resolved. That being mentioned, I would not advocate shopping for it used to keep away from potential points like mine.Â
Polar Vantage V3: Value, bands, and equipment
The Polar Vantage V3 launched in October 2023 at $599 / CA$879 / €599 / £519. That places it on the identical pricing scale as different premium multisport watches just like the Garmin Forerunner 965 ($599) and COROS VERTIX 2S ($699), although greater than many AMOLED health watches within the $300–$500 vary (APEX 2 Professional, Suunto Race).
The watch ships in three colours: Night time Black, Sky Blue, and Dawn Apricot. It comes with a 22mm silicone band of matching coloration and a proprietary USB-C charging cable with magnetic contact factors. You should buy spare bands in numerous colours for $35–40. Fortunately, in contrast to the Vantage V2, you do not want an adapter to connect normal Fast Launch bands.Â
Polar enables you to bundle within the standard H10 chest strap for $649 complete; it usually prices $90 or extra. Additionally, you will get free trials of Komoot or Strava when shopping for the Vantage V3, although you will need to decide into Polar advertising emails first.Â
Polar Vantage V3: What you will respect
Just like the Polar Pacer Professional I reviewed a few years again, the Polar Vantage V3 has a UI much like Tiles on a Galaxy Watch 6. You swipe left & proper or faucet the Up/Down buttons to maneuver between full-display widgets displaying key data like day by day step share, weekly mileage, nightly sleep and recharge information, cardio load standing, Fitspark exercise solutions, and the day by day forecast.Â
I’ve a few nitpicks with Polar’s total information method, however I believe this technique could be very accessible. Many of the watch’s summarized information might be accessed in a couple of seconds without having the cellular app.
Polar jumped on the AMOLED bandwagon, and I am grateful for it. MIP shows (just like the Vantage V2’s) have gotten much less standard regardless of their out of doors readability and decrease energy calls for. Because it occurs, the Vantage V3 lasts ten days (4 greater than the V2) due to an additional 142mAh capability, so there’s little trade-off. The pixel-rich Vantage V3 show is as vivid, colourful, and readable indoors as any AMOLED watch, with a reasonably slender bezel.
Polar guarantees 43 hours of dual-band GPS monitoring per cost in its spec sheet. In apply, a traditional smartwatch battery drain will deliver that quantity considerably decrease in-between day by day exercises. Regardless of this, I am impressed by the battery life the Vantage V3 provides, among the many greatest on the market.
At 57g/2oz with the strap, it is on the heavier facet however on par with most different premium operating watches on this vary, just like the Forerunner 965 (53g) and APEX 2 Professional (66g). The identical applies to its 13.5mm thickness: it is simply skinny sufficient to be snug in comparison with many rivals within the 14mm+ vary.
The in-box silicone strap is snug sufficient, although a bit extra inflexible than I am used to; it helps stop any wobbling throughout runs, however feeding the strap by means of the lugs might be surprisingly difficult. I do want Polar allow you to select nylon as a substitute of silicone to mitigate the burden a bit, however you should buy one individually.
Polar made a stunning alternative by giving the Vantage V3 an aluminum body. That is the default to your typical smartwatch, however some health manufacturers default to a sturdy polymer that is mild however ugly. On this case, the Vantage V3 has a nice metallic sheen, accentuated by its lengthy, textured buttons. It nonetheless appears like a health watch however with out the standard plastic brick look to which I’ve grown accustomed.Â
| Class | Polar Vantage V3 |
|---|---|
| Show | 1.39-inch (454×454) AMOLED contact |
| Supplies | Aluminum case / bezel |
| Safety | WR50; Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Dimensions | 47.3 x 47.3 x 13.5mm |
| Weight | 39g / 57g with strap |
| Storage | 32GB |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.1 (No ANT+), dual-band GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BeiDou |
| Sensors | Optical HR, SpO2, ECG, pores and skin temp, accelerometer, barometer, compass |
| Battery | 488mAh; 10 days (smartwatch); 43 hours (dual-band GPS) |
| Key options | Offline topo maps, GPX routes with Komoot, Nightly Recharge, Coaching Load Professional, Restoration Professional, Music controls, Personalised Operating Program, Wrist-based operating energy, VO2 Max / leg stiffness checks |
Apart from the dual-band GPS, the most important change from the Vantage V2 to the V3 is that Polar caught as much as the business for well being information with SpO2, ECG, and pores and skin temperature readings. Of the three, solely pores and skin temp is measured passively at evening, when you should spot-check for blood oxygen and AFib. It is a step in the proper route, although I do hope Polar provides in a single day SpO2 or altitude acclimation information sooner or later.Â
As somebody who hates sleeping with a smartwatch, the Polar Vantage V3 is decently snug to put on, and it offers some helpful insights into your sleep zones, restlessness, restoration time, pores and skin temperature variation, and so forth.Â
I’ve had to enter the Polar app to regulate my wake-up time on sure nights. In a single case, it marked me as waking up at 5:30 as a substitute of 6:30, however once I adjusted the time, it nonetheless had my sleep zones for that final hour, together with some transient REM sleep.Â
Polar’s Restoration Professional information, targeted in your sleep high quality, HRV stress information, latest coaching, and different metrics, greater than competes with the “day by day readiness” scores of different manufacturers without having a subscription. That may reduce the sting of the Vantage V3’s excessive worth.
I am an enormous fan of Polar’s Exams characteristic, which incorporates an Orthostatic check — beforehand requiring an H10 chest strap — and leg stiffness checks. Basically, you may take HRV readings to spot-check your Cardio Load Restoration and readiness to work out or leap up and down in place to check your Muscle Load Restoration.Â
This offers some helpful insights I’d usually miss out on by refusing to put on my smartwatches for sleep monitoring like Restoration Professional.
Past that, the separation between cardio and muscle load is a welcome addition. Polar makes use of your operating energy information to guage your muscle soreness, as a separate calculation from no matter coronary heart fatigue you will expertise from a tough exercise. Polar then makes use of this information to find out your coaching’s short-term pressure in your physique and long-term build-up of your tolerance, to resolve whether or not or not you are bettering or overtraining.Â
Combining the 2, Polar offers you energetic and passive instruments for guiding your health routine, with an easy-to-understand widget summarizing your coaching progress and physique standing.Â
Polar’s “Fitspark” algorithm, related to your Cardio Load information, recommends various kinds of exercises you could possibly full in your present state.Â
As an example, once I’m absolutely recovered, Polar recommends I full a 30-minute body weight exercise—with an inventory of workouts like Good Mornings and Bench Dips and little stick figures displaying how you can full them—to achieve Power or a 50-minute run in particular zones to enhance Cardio, with suggestions for when to gasoline or hydrate.Â
I like Polar’s advisable indoor workouts, one thing no different model provides; Garmin has one thing related with its indoor exercises, however with out the auto-generated routines, its animated train examples are tougher to search out.Â
Polar’s out of doors cardio runs are a bit much less instructive. They deal with period and coronary heart fee zones so that you hit the proper effort stage. You will not get any estimate of how briskly Polar thinks you will have to run to hit these zones, although. I respect that Polar offers you a number of exercise choices per day, however they’re by no means fairly as specialised as those I get from Garmin (aka focusing on low cardio zones or recommending particular intervals).
Polar’s personalised operating program fills in that hole to an extent. You mark down a goal race distance from 5K to marathon, what number of occasions and for a way lengthy you practice per week, and get weeks of advisable runs, power coaching, and relaxation days. These auto-generated runs sometimes advocate Zone 2, 3, and 4 runs at particular factors within the week.Â
I discover Polar’s marathon program a bit simplistic and repetitive, with out sufficient selection within the sorts of runs, but it surely’s definitely an efficient construction and basis to enhance as a runner. I exploit them as a information for the hassle stage to match, whereas adjusting them to my most popular mileage and energy stage.Â
The final important Vantage V3 improve is that it has 32GB for offline maps, together with your area’s “fundamental” continental information downloaded by default. You will wish to join your watch to your pc and obtain the detailed maps to your area. You may’t use the storage for the rest (like music), so there’s loads of room.
When you obtain the maps, you get glorious topographical element of your path environment and first rate velocity when zooming out or scrolling round (with the occasional delayed loading).
You will need to make a Komoot account to create routes with turn-by-turn navigation. I wrestled with whether or not to contemplate this a constructive or damaging; Komoot is a good mountaineering app and is often free to your native area, and I suppose I would reasonably get an important third-party choice than a stripped-down first-party various. However in the event you choose one other app for GPX route information like Strava or Alltrails, be ready to modify manufacturers or steadily export to a different app.Â
Polar Vantage V3: GPS and coronary heart fee
Anybody with the Vantage V2 would possibly discover the V3 improve tempting for the dual-band GPS monitoring alone. In any other case, Polar is greatest identified for its coronary heart fee chest straps, and also you would possibly assume its smartwatches would have glorious coronary heart fee accuracy as nicely. So, I put that to the check.Â
First, I examined the Vantage V3 towards the Forerunner 965 and VERTIX 2S for GPS and coronary heart fee accuracy. In that check, Polar’s GPS map did not do particularly nicely at factors, shoving my path into buildings or the center of the road the place Garmin and COROS had been extra on level. Nevertheless, for coronary heart fee, the Vantage V3 got here fairly near the Polar H10 in accuracy and responsiveness, and it did one of the best of the three for elevation monitoring.Â
Picture 1 of 3
I made a decision to present the Polar Vantage V3 its honest shake and do one other GPS run in the identical situations to see if its points had been a fluke or not. This time, it did considerably higher, although nonetheless imperfectly. You may see within the screenshots above how Polar (blue) compares to Garmin (darkish crimson) for dual-band GPS accuracy.Â
Neither stays completely on my path, with the left-wristed Forerunner and right-wristed Polar splaying out like I am a dozen ft large. That mentioned, in particular cases, Garmin was extra prone to be on the sidewalk, whereas Polar was extra prone to stray into the road, although protecting the identical line. In the end, they had been 0.03 miles aside throughout three miles, in comparison with 0.04 miles final time.Â
My one continued criticism with the Vantage V3’s dual-band GPS is with its accuracy throughout monitor runs. I spent your complete 2.5-mile coaching run within the fourth lane, however my GPS map had me…elsewhere.
For many evaluations, I exploit a chest or arm strap because the management group to fee the watch’s optical sensor. Sadly, this final check had me questioning whether or not my Polar H10 chest strap is all that dependable. You may see within the charts above and beneath the way it had my coronary heart fee spiking or dropping at absurd charges, disproportionate to my effort.
Fortunately, for the primary run I additionally had the Forerunner 965 to check towards, and each watches had the identical 142bpm common and near-identical charts all through. Each watches matched the H10 intently earlier than it began to freak out, then continued to responsively change to my various effort with out the straight-lined dips and crests you get with watches that do not pattern precisely or steadily.Â
For the second run, I solely in contrast the 2 Polar gadgets. As soon as once more, the Polar H10 had me hitting some absurd highs and lows, together with 20 beats above my max coronary heart fee. Nevertheless, as soon as it calmed down midway by means of, it gave a helpful baseline to check towards the Vantage V3. At that time, the watch intently trailed behind the chest strap, lagging barely each time I switched from sprinting to jogging, however by no means off by a lot.Â
General, I am fairly happy with the Polar Vantage V3’s GPS, coronary heart fee, and elevation accuracy in my sensible checks. Even when I do not just like the monitor run’s wild GPS map, it would not appear to have an effect on the tracked distance considerably, so complaining about it feels unfair.Â
Polar Vantage V3: What you will not love
Like some other model, Polar has a particular imaginative and prescient of what a “premium” health watch wants and what options it might skip to save lots of on prices.Â
Whereas different premium health watches sometimes use sapphire glass or (at minimal) Gorilla Glass DX with good anti-reflective coating, Polar gave the Vantage V3 Gorilla Glass 3. I am not thrilled with that alternative of a $599 look ahead to visibility or safety. It makes AMOLED a tougher promoting level for anybody used to MIP shows.
I do not suppose ANT+ equipment are particularly prevalent as of late, however you might resent its absence right here. If that is a priority, solely Garmin watches constantly provide ANT+, whereas different manufacturers more and more abandon it.Â
Extra folks will discover the absence of music storage irritating, given its 32GB of storage. Even when Polar could not make a take care of music streaming platforms, it would be good to retailer your personal MP3 information and join exercise earbuds whereas leaving your cellphone behind.
I additionally observed the obvious lack of an ambient mild sensor, which implies this watch will blind you at bedtime till you activate DnD mode.Â
Given its 32GB of storage, it would be good to retailer your personal MP3 information and join exercise earbuds whereas leaving your cellphone behind.
To me, the software program expertise all the time issues greater than {hardware}. That is what athletes are paying for. And on that entrance, I’ve a couple of hang-ups.
Two years in the past, I’d have cherished the simplicity of Polar’s Cardio Load Standing widget. You are both below/overtraining, sustaining, or bettering. You need not perceive what coaching load or (an)cardio impact numbers imply; you simply run, observe the Fitspark solutions, and attempt to enhance.Â
Extra data-driven customers — the sort which may purchase a $599 watch — will want they may see extra data on the watch itself. There is a weekly abstract widget, but it surely’s mild on information (complete miles, complete energy, time spent in particular coronary heart fee zones) and would not present weekly targets in addition to HR zone percentages. If you happen to faucet the Cardio Load widget, it would not present something new, only a textual content abstract explaining why it’s good to practice roughly.Â
Polar collects the identical information that Garmin Join or COROS EvoLab provides; each post-run abstract reveals a efficiency Operating Index, the kind of Coaching Profit (much like Impact), and the cardio/ muscle coaching load. Nevertheless, the one amalgamation of this information is the Cardio Load Standing widget with its 7-day Pressure and 28-day Tolerance numbers, together with a graph buried within the Calendar tab of the Polar Move app with a bit extra element.Â
For me, one of the best ways to enhance my VO2 Max is to know how you can enhance my Tolerance (or Power Load) with information on whether or not my cardio and anaerobic numbers are optimized. Polar’s information is just tougher to search out, making you depend on Fitspark recs to know what you may deal with.Â
As I mentioned above, I just like the Fitspark recs, particularly the power coaching choices. Nevertheless it appears to place extra inventory in my coaching standing than my physique’s fatigue.Â
Working example: I did a three-mile jog adopted by 2.5 miles of 100-meter sprints and exhausting 400-meter laps interspersed with jogging. After an evening’s sleep, my Garmin watch recommends 60 hours of restoration, whereas Fitspark’s two cardio suggestions are 56 minutes of zone 2/3 operating or 90 minutes of strolling/jogging. That appears ill-advised, and it is as a result of I am nonetheless “Detraining” in keeping with Polar’s algorithm.
Fortunately, Polar’s Orthostatic and leg stiffness checks signaled that relaxation is preferable right now. Nevertheless it’s as much as the person to test that for themselves. Anybody trusting Polar’s algorithm to get fitter would possibly get pushed to work out extra rigorously than they need to.
In the end, I believe Polar has quite a bit to supply athletes, but it surely may make extra data out there on the watch and make the Polar Move app way more accessible. Proper now, it may be very troublesome to search out what you want.Â
Polar Vantage V3: Competitors
The Garmin Forerunner 965 is the Vantage V3’s closest rival in worth and options. You get a 1.43-inch AMOLED show with higher GG DX coating, a design that is 0.3mm thinner and 3g lighter, and an additional 13 days of battery life — although about half the dual-band GPS hours. The Forerunner 965 beat the Vantage V3 in GPS accuracy in a number of checks, whereas they had been comparable in coronary heart fee accuracy. Garmin has music storage and all-day SpO2 information however no ECGs or pores and skin temperature.
I choose the Forerunner 965 for its extra accessible information on coaching load and standing; it is all the time clear how my VO2 Max, latest breakdown of exercise sorts, and my total workload examine to earlier weeks, whereas Polar makes you seek for that information. Each watches offer you exercise and restoration solutions, however Garmin’s recs do not embody power coaching.Â
The COROS APEX 2 Professional is an alternative choice to contemplate in order for you epic battery life, offline maps, and dual-frequency GPS. You will have to just accept the MIP show and lack of non-HR sensors, but it surely’s extra inexpensive and has the upside of EvoLab coaching load information.Â
You might also wish to take a look at the Suunto Race, an AMOLED operating watch with related perks to the Vantage V3 (dual-frequency GPS, teaching, and HRV restoration information). Since I’ve solely simply obtained my evaluate unit, I am unable to give a extra definitive suggestion.Â
Polar Vantage V3: Do you have to purchase?
You should purchase the Polar Vantage V3 if…
- You are a long-time Polar Move person.
- You want coaching steering and information to enhance as an athlete.
- You are keen to spend so much in trade for a high-end show and sensors.
You should not purchase the Polar Vantage V3 if…
- You want smarts like actionable notifications, apps, or music storage.
- You are on a finances and may settle for a less expensive Polar just like the Pacer Professional.
For me, crucial side of a health watch is that it offers exercise solutions which might be each aspirational and reasonable. You want one thing to maintain you motivated but additionally grounded so you do not run your self into the bottom (figuratively or actually).
The Polar Vantage V3 is definitely aspirational. It has operating applications and Fitspark recs that offer you robust exercises that will help you enhance but additionally preserve you grounded with restoration estimates, checks of your coronary heart and muscle load, and coronary heart fee information that had been fairly correct in my checks. On the identical time, I’ve discovered moments the place it recommends exercises which might be above and past what I am able to, so the Vantage V3 is greatest suited to athletes who know their very own limits.Â
In any other case, the Polar Vantage V3 is what it seems like on paper. It is a large however comparatively snug watch with a pleasant AMOLED show, strong battery life, a pleasant smattering of well being sensors, and Komoot maps for hikers. If that each one sounds interesting to you, then you definitely’ll definitely just like the Vantage V3.Â
AdVantage Polar
Polar added the options it wanted so as to add to maintain the Vantage V3 on par with the competitors, from three new well being stats to dual-band GPS, offline maps to an AMOLED show to view them on. It is a strong choice on par with rivals like Garmin Forerunner and COROS APEX.Â
