Best Polar Fitness Tracker – With so many good fitness trackers on the market and promising ones on the horizon, it’s hard to contain them all in just one list. We’ve limited our picks here to trackers that have scored four stars or higher, but there are lots of other very good options out there that might be right for you. We update this article often, so make sure to check back for our latest recommendations.
ROUND UP
back to menu ↑1.VANTAGE
Features
- ULTRA-LONG BATTERY LIFE : The Polar Vantage M Advanced GPS Running & Multisport Watch lasts for up to 30 hours of training time
- POLAR PRECISION PRIME HEART RATE : Polar’s heart rate monitor watches redefine the gold standard in optical heart rate accuracy by combining the latest in bio-impedance electrodes and optical sensors
OUR TAKE
I don’t normally do reviews of wearables on this site. I’m much more comfortable writing about home technology topics like smarthomes, Home Assistant, and cord-cutting. A few months ago I bought the Polar Vantage V Titan. I like this watch enough to share my thoughts in the hopes it helps someone looking for a fitness watch with smart capabilities.
You can find a lot of reviews of the Polar Vantage series online. However, most of them are early reviews and don’t account for the numerous features Polar added over the last year (e.g. Fitspark, notifications, Strava integration). This review is an up to date of review of the Polar Vantage V with the latest firmware and features as of April 2020.
back to menu ↑2.COROS APEX
Features
- Designed for fast and light mountain athletes with route navigation and checkpoint features supported with 24 days of regular battery life and 25 hours in full GPS mode
- Built-in running power metrics from the wrist plus native and complete integration with Stryd power meters
OUR TAKE
The Coros Apex is a breath of fresh air for endurance athletes that care about simple design, excellent battery life, and a great deal. While it doesn’t have preloaded layered maps or extras for navigation, it has all the features you need and none that you don’t.
It offers excellent battery life, a breadcrumb trail map, TrackBack, and sensors to measure barometric pressure, altitude, temperature, and heart rate. On top of that, GPS accuracy is one of the best. After testing it during open water swimming, trail running, and skiing, we are impressed at its performance, especially for the price.
back to menu ↑3.Garmin
Features
- Vastly extended battery life through solar charging
- Rugged GPS Watch is water-rated to 100 meters and constructed to U.S. military standard 810 for thermal, shock and water resistance
OUR TAKE
We’ve tested the best Garmin watches around to help you pick the right one for you. Whether you’re a runner, swimmer, cyclist or someone just starting to look after their fitness, we’re here to help.
We’ve put all of these watches through rigorous real-world testing, weighing up the accuracy of their GPS tracking, the responsiveness of their heart rate monitors, and the quality of their training tools. We’ve also evaluated their battery life, plus display quality, and overall design so you know how each one will feel to wear and use during workouts and in everyday use.
back to menu ↑4.Fitbit Charge
Features
- Use built-in GPS to see your pace and distance on screen during outdoor runs, rides, hikes and more and see a workout intensity map in the app that shows your heart rate changes along your route
- With Active Zone Minutes, feel a buzz when you reach your target heart rate zones during exercise, and celebrate when you earn extra minutes outside of exercise.Operating temperature: -20° to 60° C
OUR TAKE
Fitbit says the Charge 4’s battery lasts up to seven days, or up to five hours while using GPS. After wearing it for a full 24 hours (before testing GPS), the Charge 4 still had 85 percent battery, which is pretty good. Using GPS to track a workout depleted that number significantly faster, but that was expected.
To preserve battery life, you can enable a feature called Dynamic GPS that uses your phone’s GPS when you have it with you, and the Charge 4’s GPS when you don’t.
The Charge 4 is water resistant to 164 feet; I wore it in the shower several times without incident. Fitbit says you should dry the tracker after wearing it in water to avoid skin irritation. Fitbit also recommends regularly cleaning it and your wrist, especially after working out or sweating.
back to menu ↑5.Apple Watch
Features
- GPS model lets you take calls and reply to texts from your wrist
- Measure your blood oxygen with an all-new sensor and app
OUR TAKE
That’s a gentle way of saying that if there’s nothing wrong with your current watch, there’s nothing in the Series 7 that should compel you to upgrade. If you’ve been waiting for some key feature before buying your first Apple Watch, I don’t know that it’s here, either. I wrote very nearly the same thing last year about the Series 6 and I think that’s just what we should expect from the Apple Watch series going forward: iterative updates that will be great when you replace your current watch, but not a reason to upgrade.
The Apple Watch Series 7 is great. The larger screen and faster charging are the two headline features and both are welcome. The Apple Watch is in a class entirely of its own right now. Nothing else is as good for iPhone users and nothing like it is available for Android users.
back to menu ↑Best Polar Fitness Tracker – BUYER’S GUIDE
back to menu ↑Go Sport-Specific
Swimmers will want a waterproof tracker, but keep in mind that not all water-safe trackers actually track swimming. Runners will probably want a watch that shows time, distance, pace, and lap time, at the very least. If you want good accuracy for those metrics without having to carry a smartphone, you need a runner’s watch with built-in GPS—see our picks for The Best Fitness Trackers for Running.
Also consider the display. If you want to see your stats at all times, or simply use your tracker as a wristwatch, look for one with an always-on display. How you control the tracker is also important. If you like to run in the cold while wearing gloves, you may want to steer clear of devices that only have touch-enabled displays.
Cyclists have even more considerations. There’s a difference between tracking how many miles you pedal and calories you burn versus monitoring your power and cadence. If all you want is the former, you can find a few fitness trackers that supports bicycling as an activity. More serious cyclists will want a device that can pair with additional bike equipment, like a cadence sensor, and should look at devices from sport-specific companies, like Garmin and Polar.
back to menu ↑The Fitness App Experience
A fitness tracker’s app matters. Whether on your phone or on the web, the app is absolutely vital because it is where you make sense of the information the tracker collects. Fitbit has one of the best apps and websites we’ve tested. It lets you record all kinds of data that many other companies don’t, such as calories consumed, allergy severity, and stress level.
If you want total body analysis, look for a system that incorporates a smart bathroom scale. Fitbit, Polar, Withings, and Wyze do. Check out the Fitbit Aria 2, Polar Balance, Withings Body Cardio, and Wyze Scale. These send your weight directly to your account, so you can’t cheat the system by entering a lower number. The QardioBase 2 is another top choice, especially for pregnant women.
back to menu ↑Smartwatch vs. Fitness Tracker
Several fitness trackers have some smartwatch functionality, and some smartwatches have fitness features, too. The Fitbit Versa 3 comes close to blending both worlds, but at the moment it still lags far behind the Apple Watch in terms of third-party app support.
back to menu ↑Frequently Asked Questions
back to menu ↑Will You Track Sleep?
Many fitness trackers record your sleep. When they do, they generally watch for movement using a three-axis accelerometer to a more sensitive degree than they do during the day. Some devices report graphs showing the times when you were in light sleep and deep sleep based on motion.
back to menu ↑Do You Want Heart Rate Monitoring?
Heart rate monitoring sounds like the best feature ever, but there are different kinds of heart rate monitors, and frankly, some people don’t need it at all. A built-in heart rate monitor can drive up the price.
back to menu ↑WRAP UP
When you’re training to reach a specific fitness goal, fitness trackers and sports watches can be a huge help. A workout tracker will make all your hard work visible – you’ll always know how demanding your workout was and how many calories you burned. Polar fitness trackers guide you through your workouts and help you follow your progress on your way towards your goals.
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