With its downloadable maps, its battery of sensors, its unbeatable precision and its autonomy of around twelve days, the Polar Grit X Pro 2 is a high-caliber smart watch primarily dedicated to sport. Which does not prevent it from being a pleasant daily companion, even if its interface still seems mysterious to us. And its price is heavy.
WE love
Before discussing all the little extras that usually accompany a smart watch, let’s first talk about its primary strength, sports and hiking tracking. It can provide statistics for some 150 activities, displaying speed, distance and heart rate with remarkable precision and agility. We mainly tested it for cycling and jogging, with a short hike, and its statistics were perfectly consistent, for circuits where we knew the distance and elevation well.
It is quite fascinating to see this watch packed with sensors, including a dual frequency GPS, a barometer, an optical heart rate reader, a magnetometer compass and an accelerometer adjust to the second to changes in stride or speed while cycling. . Its 1.39-inch AMOLED touchscreen has a satisfactory resolution of 454 pixels by 454, with ample brightness for hitting the sun in broad daylight.
We must point out the remarkable battery life, which should be 10 days according to Polar but gave us 12 full days before needing to be recharged. Which reassures us about the other major specialty of the Polar Grit X Pro 2: hiking.
Its “military grade” design, duly laboratory tested, robust with its scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass and its stainless steel frame allows it to be carried everywhere without fear of damaging it. It is rated WR100, therefore capable of withstanding the pressure of 100 meters of water. It’s not a diving watch, Polar says, but you won’t be afraid of the range when swimming, in the shower or, obviously, in the rain.
The first version of this watch released in 2021 was missing an important element, and we have corrected the situation: we can now download geographic maps into its 32 GB memory. Those for North America and Europe are already integrated, and others are available for free on the Polar website. Concretely, you can switch to Mapping mode at any time during an activity and see all the surrounding streets, trails or wooded areas listed on these maps.
A compass is also available, and you can choose Breadcrumbs mode which shows you on your watch the direction to take for the chosen destination.
Polar also wanted to play a little in the field of more traditional smart watches. You can display notifications and text messages received by the phone, control the volume and progress of the music, obviously count daily steps and have weather information. If you agree to carry this large object while sleeping, you will also be entitled to an assessment of the quality of your sleep.
This is just an overview of the capabilities of this watch that we have literally packed with functions. Views can be modified to show multiple statistics or focus on one in particular, such as altitude or energy deployed. It has been tested in environments ranging from -20 to 50 degrees Celsius, in salt water, in shock and in very humid environments.
We like less
We’ve tested half a dozen Polar watches, and we don’t yet fully understand how they navigate. The big red button on the right in the center, as we can see, allows you to quickly start the selected physical activities. For the other four buttons, we are reduced to struggling each time to achieve our goals.
If you can read text messages and the caller’s name on the watch, you cannot answer. Any interaction is impossible.
All this technological paraphernalia comes with a hefty price tag: $1,099. This is roughly the price of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. We are in this type of league.
One buys ?
It would be ridiculous to buy such a watch only for sporting activities and Sunday walks. With its autonomy and its capabilities, the Polar Grit
For this type of user, the Grit X Pro 2 is a great success, probably the best watch produced by Polar.
reference: www.lapresse.ca