PolarPolar Vantage V2 with H10 Heart Rate Monitor - Premium Multisport GPS Smart Watch, Wrist-Based HR for Running, Swimming, Cycling, Strength Training - Music Controls, Weather, Phone Notifications

Polar took almost 5 years to amaze us with a 'premium and professional' product that you'd be embarrassed to flaunt and wonder why it couldn't match it's predecessor.I've been through all all the high end polar devices since 2006. I've been watching, testing and using these devices for competitive purposes.Generally speaking, Polar's metric measurements are second to none. The more expensive Garmin products (FENIX 5X plus, which I own) cannot compete with Polar's precision nor its clean and easy feedback. Polar's competition generally track and store a lot more types of potentially useful data, however, for most, these are meaningless or gimikky data. However, the Training Load and Recovery Status available with Polar's ecosystem is in my opinion the reason why they are leaders.But just like Microsoft Mobiles, they are the pioneers that allow brands like Garmin to step into their space with tonnes of features (mostly gimmicks) and take notes out of its pie until one day when they will be left with crumbs.I've been been through the FT60, FT80, V800, M600 and now the Vantage V. I don't make compromises on my gear and I'm prepared to pay any amount it the product is good.So let me explain the situation here:The FT series were great, especially for gym use or work/recovery guided training. The highlight was a feature that displayed a line graph and baseline heart rate that you need to maintain throughout your session. In those days they had no wireless connectivity, so you had to carry a phone and earphones for you music and interval notifications. The synching was long winded, carried out via wired connection to the old polar flow.The V800 was for sure, at the time, the best piece of kit you could find. The post training feedback, recovery status (directly on the watch) and training load kept me at optimum performance all year around. However, when it came to strength training I was really angry that they took away the key feature from the FT series. Despite numerous support queries Polar ignored my frustration. Note, at this stage we have entered a fully wireless generation of products everywhere else. Still no Bluetooth connectivity with earphones. The beeps and vibrations are too soft to be noticed when you're doing circuit training or interval runs. You need that earpiece (somethings Garmin managed to pull off quite well). So I had to continue to carry my phone along with my watch everywhere I trained. Not so smart!The Polar (Android) M600 almost nailed it. Wireless connection to headsets allowed music, stored directly on the watch, along with full Wear OS features (when it finally uodated from older Android OS). Sadly, despite numerous mails to Polar, they couldn't incorporate the training sounds into the earpiece. Now this is Android, they should have no excuse! Now here's the biggest problem... The watch doesn't track training load or recovery status, so I thought I would use my v800 when possible, but mainly use my m600, as this was my smartwatch, used for everything related to work and social. Sadoy, even though I'm a customer of the v800, the two watches combined wouldn't give me the data I needed. I was forced to put my m600 aside.I waited nearly 5 years for polar to release their next pro product, and here we have it - a product marketing as premium and professional, a product that couldn't be farther from its description!Polar was onto something with the ft80, then thr v800; finally they were onto something with the m600. In fact polar have always been onto something and never really quite there. It seems they pack the watches with gadgets but deliberately leave out features between models, and that's understandable, but they never once had a complete solution. This polar vantage v however, is a complete and utter joke! Don't get fooled by the misleading pictures. Nothing on this watch shouts premium, it's all plastic. Nothing is completed. The paint work on what appears to be metal in the picture is a poor spray job in real life - you should see one in real life. The acclaimed top end wrist based heart rate is sub standard, so much so that polar itself confesses you cannot do a fitness test without the HRM strap. The features on my older v800 is clearly still ahead of this new vantage v. The screen resolution, colour, backlight and belt - embarrassingly rubbish.I was so fed up with Polar, I finally switched to Garmin, a Fēnix 5X plus. It's a monster of a watch, when it comes to functions/features etc. However the data and feedback turned out to be relatively useless, unless you train the way Garmin specifically want you to train (there are other reviews that could explain these problems out there).With no further choice, I am now now to my previous V800. My advice, don't throw your money away on the Vantage series. If you want a good sports tracking device, it's the V800. If you've been using high end polar devices for a while you will understand my frustration. if you're new to Polar, well it's a good place to start, and welcome to this space!

I ran my first half marathon 15 years ago with a Polar HRM. I've had many Polar devices since, and would even class myself as a bit of a fanboy. Sad to say therefore that the new Vantage V is simply a terrible, terrible product. This is really a shame as Polar Flow has is a great ecosystem. It's hard to know where to start with the problems of the Vantage. Most inexcusably, I've had the watch only as a few weeks with very light use, and yet the 'metal' finish is already peeling away (see picture) . The touchscreen is simply woeful; it often does not respond for several seconds, or over-responds to swipes so you end up having to go back. Using the buttons is preferable every time. I've used the product twice for swimming. The first time the watch showed --- for stroke rate for the full hour, no matter what stroke I did. Lengths were not counted, or counted twice, the watch mysteriously paused on multiple occasions. So many of the problems could be sorted with better and more extensive software testing, but my goodness Polar, it's been 5 years since the V800, what have you been doing?! The backlight is a case in point. Unfortunately the backlight is necessary a great deal as the display, in anything less than good sunlight, is really hard to read. The backlight shouldn't come on at night in bed like it does all the time when you roll over, it should stay on long enough to see if GPS is locked on in the dark, it should stay on long enough to see the results of an orthostatic test. The font of the watch is often too small to read text, the hands of the analogue watch face obscure the text - I could go on and on, it's just one poor design decision after another after another. Even the much touted 'power' feature for running is not a usable real-time feature - it relys on GPS to calculate power, meaning do not expect to use it to measure power during a 10-15 second HIIT sprint, GPS is simply not accurate to do this. In 2018-9 this kind of unfinished rushed to market product is simply not on. It's so sad when I have to think about scouring Ebay for an old RS800CX, just to see how Polar could really make a superb device in their heyday. I really feel this product could be the start of the end for Polar - if they can't manage to make a device that works for their small target market, then what is the point?! P.S The optical heart rate sensor is still not accurate to not use the chest strap, so again, what's the point?