Polar Vantage V with H10 – Premium GPS HRM Sports Watch for Men and Women with Ultra-Long Battery Life - Multisport and Triathlon Training (Heart Rate Monitor, Waterproof),Blue M/L

This is a running 🏃‍♂️ watch first and foremost. It's not a smart watch pretending to track running, nor a running watch that tries to do everything. It's a running watch for people who run and want to improve their running. I've owned this watch for more than a year now and am still extremely happy. It's the best running device I've owned (and I've had various other Garmin and Polar devices). This is how i've used it: 1) I've set up the watch with all my data and heart rate zones (HR zones are vital for using this watch to its best abilities) 2) I've set up a succession of running programs over the year using the Polar Flow website, that syncs with my watch (via the mobile or a physical cable). This guides me throughout each exercise and gives me a score for each week. Get a good enough score after 4 weeks and the adaptive plan "rewards" you with a modified plan for the following 4 weeks 3) I check my recovery status every few days with the orthostatic test to ensure I don't overtrain (you need the H10 chest strap for this - well worth it). This is surprisingly accurate. A few times i've ignored the result and gone for a run anyway only to have a rubbish run! 4) I use the FitSpark recommendations to do regular core, strength and mobility exercises throughout the week (I target 6 in total per week). This has been a personal revelation with the added exercises really helping my running 4) With the OH1 arm heart rate monitor I have been, for the first time ever, accurately monitoring my heart rate whilst playing squash 😲 5) I regularly check the Polar Flow report data to look at my progression and accumulation of miles. Also after every run i check the Running Index measure which is a good measure of how the run went. You get good satisfaction from seeing the number grow over time What do I particularly like? o Lightweight and REALLY comfortable - I'm fussy about things around my wrist, but haven't struggled with this at all (unlike other devices, including the Garmin FR620 & Polar M600) o Battery life is not a problem - i'm doing a lot of exercises every week and only need to charge once per week o Polar Flow and how it links with the device - it feels like you have your own personal trainer and it provides you with a full complement of exercises o Health stats, particularly the orthostatic test, are very insightful and accurate o GPS is accurate, certainly over the past 6 months after the firmware updates, and catches a signal really quickly o Route following and track back have been a god send for me when running away from home, as i have a habit of getting lost... Niggle: o Wrist based HR is accurate, but unreliable. I've had a few runs where my HR has maxed out within the first couple of minutes and only calms down to a proper reading about 5 minutes later. This is a bit frustrating when following the running program which is HR reliant (and keeping to zones). I've solved this personally by running with the OH1 HRM. Alternatively, I'd advise using the H10 chest strap or any other vversion you can pair to the device. Not sure: o Not yet figured out how to blend wrist based power into my training, but power is definitely a personal development area for my running o Polar Flow app is a bit of a let down, struggling to keep up with the data on the website. I solve this by using the website portal the majority of the time, which is easy enough to access from the mobile o Haven't used the Serene breathing exercises enough. Think this would be a great thing to explore more, though

first of all, if your looking for a smart watch same as apple watch with lots of watch faces and other tech specs, then this watch is not for you. polar vantage V is a watch dedicated for those who are seeking specific data about how they train and the detailed metrics that come with it to help them improve their physical shape and excel in whatever sports they are doing. before buying the watch iv read lots of reviews about it, negative/ positive, and i was so confused if i should buy it or not, especially that i have the A370 already. Eventually i decided to buy it and im really happy i did because the watch is super when it comes to what polar claims it does. lots of reviews said that the heart rate monitor is not so accurate, but i gotta be honest, its super accurate with me using it in the gym for lots of different sports like swimming, wight lifting, treadmill running, cross fit, (of course with little latency due to the fact that its a hand heart rate monitor so its a normal thing) but when it comes to accuracy, it never stops to amaze me. some people who bought the watch said that the accuracy is really bad and i totally understand because the company said the accuracy should vary from one person to another due to different skin tones, size of hand, shape, etc, but in my case the watch is super accurate with me. some people are complaining about other smart features like music control or being able to pay by you watch, now come on guys polar is dedicated to sports and data related to it, so if ur looking for these things then you should look elsewhere. the polar flow app is amazing and so detailed and user friendly, syncing the watch to your phone post workout is super fast and easy. the battery could last almost a whole week with one single full charge which is amazing. the only thing that i didnt like is that the screen is dim in a way, hope that they will increase the brightness level in the upcoming updates. if your a sports dedicated person, then your really going to love the watch. hope my simple review help you decide :)

It isn't a Garmin and thats a good thing, although if you come from Garmin like me it will take a while to get used to. I owned 2 Garmin products prior to this purchase and i had been fairly happy. I just wanted to try and take my fitness to the next level. So i researched and pondered for a while and i kept coming back to the Vantage V or the Grit X. I had seen from previous reviews that early releases of Polar products could be buggy until they nailed their firmware, so Vantage V it was. Good Points, Wow what a battery life !!! Its the Hobnob of the Watch world, it just says use me more !! Buttons !!! I had forgotten how much i had missed buttons. Most accurate on wrist heart rate tracker i have seen. Its rugged and light for its size. GPS connectivity is swift and accurate. I love the sleep tracking and the nightly recharge feature gives real insight. The HRM H10 is mightily impressive especially being able to connect 2 Bluetooth devices simultaneously as well as ANT+. I really like that you can go in to the app and edit the training views with a plethora of different data sets. Fit Spark is brilliant and helps to motivate. Not so good, It would be really good if you could get the training views to auto scroll when training, what would seem a simple thing would make a huge difference. The watch only having Bluetooth and not ANT+ as well. The change from Garmin to Polar meant i had to purchase new sensors for my bike as my existing were just ANT+. The screen can be a little dim, however the inclusion of a backlight button is a + in my view. I cracking watch and HRM belt at a great price

This is my 4th sports watch and is the best so far, the others were a Polar, a Garmin and a Coros. I mainly use it for running, cycling and walking. I don't have the need for offline maps and music on a watch. This is easily my favourite watch and ecosystem for what I do compared to the other devices/brands I've used. The battery life for activities is very good, and ok for normal wear. I find the Polar button layout better easier to use during activities than the others. For training the Web flow app makes it easy to drill into sections of an activity to examine your performance in detail in way you can't on Garmin or Coros. I find the three separate sets of manual, automatic, and hill-splitter laps useful too. Generally the app is well thought out to present data to you in a way that is easy to find and understand. The GPS is ok, not better or worse than the other recent watches I've had. The wrist heart rate monitor seems pretty consistent so long as you make sure the strap isn't too loose. My came with a chest H10 HRM but I only used that once to check it worked ok, so can't comment other than it linked to the watch easily and worked. I don't like wearing even a simple wristband at night, but I did try the sleep tracking for a while and I felt it was accurate. The navigation works well for me, but I also made the one off purchase of komoot maps, which was about $30 at the time.

What I Like: the design, look and feel are slick. I had the 800 which is bullet proof but clunky if you wore it all the time. I don’t even notice this on my wrist. I like the training load status feature and the watch is easy to navigate and simple to use, almost basic! What I dislike: My main issue is the wild GPS signal which means I never know my accurate pace per mile until I syncs with strava. I do get a running summary at the end of a run, giving me an average pace, and although I roughly know how fast I am running based on feel, I need to see this as real time information. It’s really poor, especially if you do a fast turn or go of track, or on track! I also had issues with the heart rate dropping out and I didn’t know if that was because I was not wearing the watch tight enough, or if the watch was flicking between my H10 heart rate monitor and the watch. I’ve tightened the watch and removed the H10 and now it’s fine, although I feel like it’s a couple of BPM’s quick than my H10. I’ve contacted polar support but they said ‘they are very busy dealing with customer enquiries’ I am not surprised! I hope they manage to get it sorted, as the watch has a lot of potential in my view. On balance, I will keep it but only just.

Changed from Fenix 5 X to this watch, due to the inaccuracy and weight of the Fenix range after having used Garmin products for at least 10 years, I have to say I'm not sorry the watch is great, it's light quick to log on to GPS and in my opinion very accurate in what it records. If like me you don't like wearing a chest strap for heart rate while this is the watch for you, I have tested it against Fenix 5 with a chest strap and find it very accurate in all disciplines, swim, bike and run. A couple of the things I particularly like is on the swim side, in the pool when you start a set you don't need to touch the watch again, It automatically pauses when you stop, it is also able to detect what stroke you are doing, with the added benefit of constantly displaying your heart rate, unlike the Garmin product where you have to lift yourself out of the water. Lastly, the battery life is fantastic as well.

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 bought the Vantage V2 just before Christmas to replace an earlier Polar product. I’ve normally used a chest strap for HR, but thought I’d give the V2's optical HR a go. I’ve found this to be fantastically accurate and I’m really pleased. Running Power is also really interesting when doing splits on hills: I’ve found it to be a real motivation. Music controls is also a helpful addition (I always carry my phone in a pouch for emergencies when far from home). The battery life is sensational and I don’t really find myself checking it very often, as it seems to last forever. As the weather warms-up, I’ll also hope to use it cycling (I’m a fair-weather cyclist!) and in the gym (when it re-opens). The V2 is stylish on my wrist, so I’ve been happy to wear it at work (although that’s often in the house at the moment!). All-in-all, I’m really pleased with my upgrade.