Thanks for the review. Was waiting for that :)

Thanks again, always appreciate these reviews!

You’re such a treasure, man! Thank you for your videos!

I currently run with the fr245 and i really like it However i really liked the polar eco system for it's clear and simple style I want to go back to polar at some point so im still hoping for a polar watch that checks all my boxes Great review! Ty

Thanks good review and I am enjoying my V2

Sadly I too saw the same Heart Rate spikes in my Vantage V2 data. Otherwise generally pretty accurate but it's hard to overlook those deviations. Great video as always Ray!

Excellent video as always... for running, which ecosystem do you prefer, Polar or Garmin? And what about triathlons? Thanks for sharing!

Super great review as always. In the start I thought you spoke a little fast.. but not a big problem.. anyways is the buttons on the V2 been smoother then the previous model?

Can always count on a review available minutes after a new smartwatch is released. :)

Great review, I just sold my Apple Watch 4 and bought a Polar Vantage V a couple of months ago. So far I love it, it lacks some smart watch features but the fitness analysis, ability to put workouts in your watch, workout recommendations and recovery all make up for it. I do miss music control and, as a personal trainer, would love to have the Vo2 tests and see the fuel analyses ... but I’m not sure if it the upgrades are worth it enough to pay out €500.00 I’ll think some more on it, but your review has helped! Thanks

Nice and thorough video! I just got mine and I'm so confused. How do you get the colors so vivid? With mine it is almost like monochrome :o also is there a way to turn the AOD off?

Hello! Please tell me if it is possible to use "nightly recharge" and "recovery pro + orthostatic test" in this watch at the same time or you need to choose one of these functions, as it was in the previous Polar vantage V? Thanks.

how sensitive/prompt navi is? Is this any quicker than v800? I've been struggling many times to go proper way when there were a few options to chose - as it gives no base map. i was wondering if they've improved it any way.

at heart rate accuracy test you should have compared it to a chest strap. V2 might actually be accurate and other devices wrong. Especially when u clash it up vs a Garmin watch. So many reports saying Garmin is way off. Thank you for the review man !

Hi there. Are the wrist bands swappable between V and V2 ? Thank you

I enjoy all your reviews. There are so many smartwatches out there now. I have a Garmin Fenix 5S, was thinking of upgrading. If you were looking at any smartwatch on the market today which one would you buy and wear?

Hey, can you write more about the test results. What does polar do with test result? Does it update you HR zones according to test? I'm looking for a watch which could set my HR zones by test results.

Polar seems to be making this their main cycling computer, which is nuts. The V650 isn't perfect by a long shot... connectivity issues and a serious lack of power based training options... but it's a darn sight better than strapping your watch to the handlebars as if this is the mid-90's.

This is a silly question but can you use the touch screen only or do you need to push the physical buttons when browsing the menus and selecting things?

Any news about Huawei gt 2 pro? It seems odd you didn't review it yet.

I noticed that your jump tests are higher than mine. Not cool. Also, touch screen on a rainy day and you're making it work. Impressive. I wonder if the HR issues is due to skin tone. I noticed mixed results and I'm ultra pale. Also, I just noticed that sticker in the background. Very nice of you but I was expecting you to stick it to some unsuspecting dutch citizen that you didn't like. Amazing video! Great work on this Ray!

Do you know how the guided running programs are with polar, compared to Garmin Coach programs?

Man, I really wanna love this watch, but Polar keeps letting me down by not including ANT+ Are they even aware how important that is? When I ride on Zwift my powermeter is paired wvia Bluetooth to my iPad so I wouldn't be able to pair it to my watch. With Garmin I can pair the power meter to my Garmin and my tablet. Darn Polar!!! Somebody wake them up!!!!!

Can you test if it works reliably with Garmin Speed Sensor 2?

Is there a way to upload Zwift activities to Polar Flow? I wrote couple of times to polar support team but they keep forwarding !!! It seems they don't understand why we need during all those lockdowns

How are Polar running programs comparing to Garmins coach ? A lot of comments here on why Garmins beat Polar (for tracking runs which is my purpose) but Vantage V still works for me (had it for 3 years) so not sure if FR255 or 955 would be great upgrades?

I am going to keep my VV a while longer and buy the VV2 when there is a discount. Right now my VV works great.

Any idea when polar will release one with music??

It seems to be an already old just released sportwatch.

Maybe you should add a disclaimer regarding HR zones. In the Polar community I see that hardly anyone has their HR zones set correctly; they just go with the standard setting which will give you an average HR Max for your age and divides the 5 zones in increments of 10% each. (You should actually do a well supervised HR Max test to set each HR zone correctly according to your personal respiratory performance). This results in some ridiculous HR zone measurements, like 25 minutes of a total of an hour spent in Zone 5 - the red zone. It is NOT possible to perform for more than a few minutes at a time in Zone 5. Let me repeat: If your results show that you are performing for more than 3 minutes at a time in Zone 5 then it's all wrong. Zone 5 is anaerobic training - Anaerobic exercise is any activity that breaks down glucose for energy without using oxygen. (And adding to that it also gives totally wrong Running Index results). Basically people are buying these highly technological and expensive watches but have no clue how to use them. PS: After writing this diatribe I continued watching your video, and lo and behold, at 6:59 we get to see that not even DC Rainmaker has his HR Zones set correctly ... Ooops ..

Thank you Ray always the best reviews, is it easy to look at your rest while you running at Max effort? why no SPO2 Polar. still wearing Fitbit Sense😁.

Is it accurate in steps and calories?

In your opinion which round face smart watch has the biggest display in the entire industry, as in the actual display size?

Hey Ray, great review. As usual to put this clear!! I would be interested in how you see Polar’s firmware update strategy in comparison to their competitors. I got my Vantage V v1 about 1,5 years ago when firmware was not just buggy but lacked most (!) of the features. With the release of the Vantage V v2 it is clear that there won’t be new furqther development for the v1. Do companies like Garmin or Suunto drop development that quickly for their premium watches as well. Quite a bummer!

Will there be a Titan 2 ??

It’s a damn shame that polar took all the features from the Grid X and The one thing that I would like polar to do is to have the recovery pro feature on the Grid X.

I tested the V2 for a week and was ALMOST there, switching from Garmin to Polar after four years rocking the first. Then, I ran with my brother who fell (he did not hurt himself that much) and his Apple Watch send me a message that he had an accident. I remembered that one time I would have needed an incident detection feature on my Forerunner 645 breaking my arm on a run years ago, before it got that with a firmware update. I have it on my Forerunner 745, and I have peace of mind knowing that for when I run or bike alone (which I do most of the time). I returned the V2 the same day. But, if Polar eventually does update the V2 with a crash detection, I´m ready to switch.

Hill reps in Amsterdam? 🙊

Hey Ray, This is Manson. Not sure you can remember me, the ex-Mio guy (Mio Link, "His" & "Her" casebacks). I have a suggestion about your HR graphs. Would you please enlarge the legend font size? They are hard to see. Thanks for all your reviews!

Is there any hardware upgrade over the Vantage V, is the sat chip the same, are those new optical sensors more accurate , it seems to me that those new features are gimmicks, many not even linked with running, its music, weather, all that nonsense junkware.

Hi Ray! Are you planning on reviewing the Galaxy Watch 3?

I have the Grit X. Is it possible that Polar will update the G-X with the new features found in the Vantage V2?

Hi Ray. Thanks for all your good work. I've owned and used both the Vantage V and V2 and while the V2 has certain advantages, it has a huge disadvantage for me. For some reason, it doesn't allow reporting out with any accuracy of pool lap information (total yards and time is more or less accurate). I tried to look at the CSV file to discern if this is a reporting issue (maybe), but I know for sure the V gave me the laps, lap times, rests, all with pretty good accuracy. That information is junk when coming from the V2 and unusable. I don't think this is a user error. Any insight here?

On the music control, they did mention the smartphone can be left at home. Does it true?

Hello DC Rainmaker, What is your daily watch or what what do you find that you use more frequent than otherse?

Hallo does the Vantage V2 count the steps while cycling?

Fenix 6 or Vantage V2? What does the rainmaker thinks? I am a trail / halfmarathon runner, looking to increase my distances

3:21 "Maximal is you run until you die, which was what I did." Reason why this video was delayed by 3 days.

Not exactly the topic for this video... but did you ever do a review of the enormous Casio GBDH-1000?

Garmin watches offer pace alarm sensor and Polar does not. I have not find how to set a pace range and get alarm from my Polar Vantage watch.

Bought the garmin vantage 2 ultra when it came out! And was blown away with the features! BUT now March 19,2022 the battery just last ONE day! What happened!??

What would you recommend for a sportive guy like me, who primarily does his workouts for getting fitter and better for competitive badminton? Mainly bodyweight HIIT, rope skipping cardio and Intervall, some running too. Normally I play 3-4 days per week at my club/tournaments.

As always.... Great review. But the V2 without NFC is a no go nowadays.

Apparently the V3 with amoled is coming soon

What about swim accuracy? The first Vantage Gen had lots os issues with swim.

Is the V2 screen brighter than the Vantage V? Thanks.

Must say that the tool wall back there has very random tools on it :D

OK, so....I was going just about to buy the Grit X, stick to the Grit X or wait on this?

Is a power meter necessary to do the Orthostatic test?

Now, if only bike rides could be pulled from Strava (or uploaded from Wahoo I guess) and included in the fitness calculations and so on, happening on the Polar side. Polar barely even has a bike head unit available. Is there any watch/platform that will include data recorded "outside the ecosystem" into the core metrics?

I bought a Polar Grit X in August, 2020. Tried it for three days and unfortunately hated it: touchscreen is cumbersome and unresponsive, the plastic base feels and looks extremely cheap, smartwatch features and connectivity are abysmal. I have been previously a Polar user and really wanted to get back to Polar but yeah... after three days I took it back to shop, paid additional 170 and switched to Garmin Fenix 6 Pro and now I'm a happy camper. Did really not want to piss on Polar but lately their devices suck.

Will you be doing a review of the Samsung galaxy 3?

do you think polar will bring a software update to the vantage v1 with some features of the v2?

So the only new thing is that the v2 costs more?

Nice watch, but as always I feel the are still short from Garmin. Nothing in this products would make me change Garmin for Polar (even though I love Polar flow). Music storage, 22mm wrist bands and interchangeable watch faces are some things that a watch at this price point should have!!!!.

I like that Polar stays focused on the main thing - sports training! But actually even the newer models are moving more and more direction of Garmin. I think that’s a mistake. I still think the V800 is still the best Polar training watch. I don’t need/want battery draining color/touch displays or super small text that you can’t read when running or if you have older eyes.

I've owned a Garmin Fenix 5 plus before the Vantage V1 I currently use. The main thing I love about the Vantage is the integration of recovery feedback, training load and training advice, something that is missing in other watches. Garmin beats Polar in sheer number of features but the features that are implemented in Polar are in general more useful, for me at least. Polar should really look into local music storage though, it would be interesting to know how difficult that really is, or at least make two versions like Garmin. I have €40 Mighty that can even do that.

I would love these manufactures to stop making screen data where you need a magnify glass to actually see it. Not of all us are 25 year old devs with pin sharp 20/20 vision. I am not taking my reading glasses on a bloody run or cycle. Grump aside, as premium watch is not really good enough.

When is it available?

I’ve really come to the conclusion that Polar is just making watches meant to be worn during activity and not really other times (considering sleep an activity as well). Which I don’t mind as I just use my M for training and sleep and wear my Apple Watch as my daily driver. I think they’ve just given up on making lifestyle or true smart watches like Apple and Garmin are.

Honestly, I'm looking for a top spec fitness band to be released. One that I can wear on the opposite wrist to a more general smartwatch or a good old analogue/digital one. It's odd that after the Grit X that they're pushing ahead with the different heart rate sensor.

Very informative review. Please consider to review Garmin 6X Pro. Looking forward to it. Liked & subscribed. Thanks

👍🏻

When I want to know how fast I am, I go on a track or I do a competition. For me all those new features are a desperate attempt to make people buy new devices. Unfortunately Polar doesn't go for Maps and Navigation, so still no competition for Garmin in that field.

I will keep my V800

Not being able to store music on the watch is a disappointment. A feature I really like when going to the gym or a run when I leave my phone at home. Even though the sound quality isn't great I've realy come to like this feature on my Garmin. I'd be very intrested to see how it plays together with Komoot.

Hi Ray. Why doesn’t Polar put out another Wear OS watch? They could likely put out a better watch than the Suunto 7.

So if I have a fenix 6x...is this worth the upgrade

Still waiting for V800 V2. Then ill come back to polar.

Did you slow down the video on purpose? You seem to talk slower than usual ;)

for me! if Polar can add answering/making calls' to the vantage V2, so we don't have to take out your phone or stop training during my training session will be a perfect watch for me.

Really want this watch to be better than most things Garmin offers, we're getting dangerously close to some sort of monopoly...

I’ll wait for the V2 Titan

Maps?

After being a Polar Loop 1 then a Vantage V user, I can say that Polar lost my trust. I just ordered a Garmin Venu 2. I think the V2 is overpriced for what it offers. Yes, I agree that it’s purpose built, but I’m using my watch not just only for training. I want phone integration throughout the day and wireless payment. These are dealbreakers for me. Not to mention that Polar still not fixed a lot of annoying things for the Vantage, like the continuously upcoming fw upgrade notifications for versions that already installed months ago, saving option for the interval timers and the all or nothing phone notifications. And the list just continues.

Thumbs up for the vid, but thumbs down for the watch. Really disappointed to hear about the HR and GPS inaccuracies, especially when cycling outdoors. You'd think that by now watch manufacturers would have worked out that these metrics are kind of important to us. I'm also starting to get tired of these full price incremental upgrades.

Recycled watch, very large bezel almost half of the watch face is bezel ! Same interface and color scheme , to expensive for that price are better watches discounted garmin forerunner 945 and fenix 6 /6X

I've a Polar Vantage V and I'm very disappointed (and It's not my first Polar) but in this moment I would prefer a Garmin

The running test is nothing really new with Polar. They had something similar decades ago...

Do you agree that it is just a firmware update? I really didn't like it when they said they won't introduce the updates to the previous version. proves my theory that only software is updated, now 550 bucks for a software? noway bro. And Polar lost a fan right here. they stooped too low on this.

It's so frustrating the differences between watch(vantage v) results and the Strava app. I usually run and swim, In open water it is the worst. makes me think about my next watch ..

had been a polar user, now a satisfied garmin FR245 user. But the price for something that average is really getting ridiculous. Never ever I would pay more than $€300 for a regular watch (same goes for garmin). My training matters, not the funny watch.

Eat pasta GO FASTAAA

So the gritx won't even have the dashboard customization? Shame on polar :(

"Kinda of a nice touch...."

500 dollars for that watch is ridiculous. Should have a bezeless oled dial and watch faces as with android os.

😂😂😂😂 bought the initial V, won’t do the same mistake twice.....

I stopped listening at the 8 minute mark when I found out there isn't any music storage on the watch. Boo.

The watch shows the wrong wake-up time and unfortunately it cannot be edited. Poor product

Polar is stupid. No music storage in 2020? PASS!!!