Polar's rugged watch gets AMOLED and improved GPS - is it enough to match Garmin?
The Polar Grit X2 Pro is an excellent all-rounder that closes the gap on Garmin’s leading outdoor watches. But even with the punchy display, slick looks, snappy performance, good accuracy, and much-improved navigation skills, it’s still not as accomplished – or featured-packed – as the similarly priced Garmin Fenix 7X Solar. The new hardware can explain the significant price hike over the Grit X Pro, but, unless you’re married to the rugged design, we strongly recommend the Polar Vantage V3. It offers the same tools and performance for a lot less cash.
Pros
- Big and bright AMOLED screen
- Strava route syncing
- Good HR performance
- Comprehensive navigation tools
Cons
- Flaky phone connection
- Frustratingly slow raise to wake
- Not many smartwatch features
The Grit X2 Pro is Polar’s answer to the Garmin Fenix 7, the Epix Pro (Gen 2), and the Coros Vertix.
It features many upgrades that landed first on the Polar Vantage V3 – including a big, bright AMOLED display, the accuracy-boosting dual-frequency GPS, and the same upgraded optical sensor tech.
There’s a faster processor and offline mapping, too. Essentially, it’s the same watch – just in a more rugged, robust design with a bigger price tag.
The big questions are these: Could you save some dollars and just buy a Vantage V3 instead, and is the Grit X2 Pro a genuine rival to Garmin’s flagship adventure watches?
I’ve had the watch on my wrist for six weeks – here’s a comprehensive run-down of the Grit X2 Pro.
Price and competition
As Polar’s flagship adventure GPS watch, the Grit X2 Pro isn’t cheap. The regular model launches at $749 / £649, while the Titan lands at $869.90 / £749.
That’s nearly a $200 / £200 leap over the original Polar Grit X Pro. It’s also $150/£130 pricier than the Polar Vantage V3 ($599 / £519) and a chunk more expensive than the non-AMOLED Coros Vertix 2S ($699 / £599).
The £649.99 Garmin Fenix 7X Solar is the closest match for price and size.
Key features
- From £649 / $749
- 43-hour GPS battery – extends to 140 hours in low-power mode
- All-systems dual-frequency GPS
- 1.39-inch, 454 x 454, 326ppi resolution AMOLED display
- Touchscreen and button controls
- Size: 48.6mm x 48.6mm x 13.4mm
- Weight: 79g
- ECG and HRV
- Offline TOPO Maps
- Music controls
- Multisport triathlon mode
- Bluetooth 5.1
- Interchangeable straps
- Waterproof up to 100m
Design & display
Polar has released two models of the Grit X2 Pro: the regular 79g Polar Grit X2 Pro and the lighter 64g Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan.
The Polar Grit X2 Pro has a stainless steel bezel and case, while the Titan model has a titanium chassis. I tested the heavier, stainless steel version.
Both variants feature a nicely responsive 1.39-inch, 326ppi resolution AMOLED touchscreen display. It’s 15% larger than the previous Polar Grit X Pro and features a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass lens.
The screen is a notable improvement on the original memory-in-pixel (MIP) Grit X Pro display, kicking out an impressive maximum brightness of 1050 nits.
It’s not quite as punchy as the 3,000 nits from the Apple Watch Ultra 2, but still excellent and easy to read in all light conditions. However, the raise-to-wake function is laggy and unreliable. I also wanted more control over the screen timeout, which is quite short.
New sensors
Like the Polar Vantage V3, the Grit X2 Pro offers dual-frequency GPS (with the L1/L5 channels) and a new signal-boosting antenna. It means the GPS hardware now rivals the likes of the Garmin Forerunner 965, the Fenix 7 series, and the Epix Pro 2.
The biosensor setup is also the same as the Vantage V3, with Polar’s Elixir technology, ECG, nightly skin temperature, and blood oxygen sensors all on board. It even packs Polar’s new fourth-generation optical heart rate sensor, which features updated algorithms designed to weed out wrist-based heart rate inaccuracies – specifically during interval sessions and strength training.
Navigation smarts have been improved, too. The watch now comes pre-loaded with offline TOPO maps for North America and Europe (you can download other regions for free with up to 32GB storage), and breadcrumb navigation and support for Komoot and Strava routing are available, as well.
Other hardware highlights include a flashlight. Unlike Garmin’s popular built-in front-facing torches, though, Polar uses the screen to light up your surroundings, making it slightly harder to aim the beam.
Polar says it has increased the processor speed by 129% over Grit X Pro, and it certainly feels snappier and smoother. The lag that troubled some past Polar watches is gone.
The Grit X2 Pro is also tested to MIL-STD 810 standards and is waterproof to 100m.
Sports tracking and features
The Polar Grit X2 Pro features Polar’s most comprehensive suite of training, racing, recovery, activity, and sleep tracking – but it’s light on shiny new tools.
The most interesting additions include new measurements for tracking speed on ascents and descents.
VAM and vertical speed measurements look at the rate you climb or descend, providing more accurate and insightful data when you train in varying terrain.
There’s also a new 3D speed readout that factors the speed you’re moving on a horizontal plane and vertically to calculate your true speed as you tackle ascents.
It offers more than 150 sport modes – including a triathlon multisport mode – and lots of familiar tools, including Training Load Pro, Recovery Pro and Nightly Recharge recovery insights, Sleep Plus Stages, and SleepWise sleep tracking.
The range of fitness and performance benchmarking tests is the best you’ll find on any sports watch. That includes a new walking test to allow new runners to assess their fitness without actually going running. FitSpark workout recommendations, meanwhile, serve up daily session ideas linked to your overnight recovery.
Polar’s unique FuelWise recommendations are very useful for quantifying your fuelling needs for endurance efforts, while the estimated energy usage breakdown for the day and each workout provide a good window into your main fuel sources.
Like the Vantage V3, the Grit X2 Pro offers non-medical ECG tests – great for taking intentional HRV readings. SpO2 levels also show your blood oxygen level percentage – all alongside your baseline, current altitude, and nighttime body temperature monitoring.
Polar’s Work-Rest-Guide is another useful addition that uses heart rate to advise when to start a new set during a workout. Runners also get wrist-based running power.
Plenty of these insights live on the watch. The at-a-glance week view is excellent for a quick view of the spread of your intensity.
However, it’s the Polar Flow app and web tools that act as the hub for a more detailed deep dive. There’s a huge amount of information here, with easy-to-decipher, top-level insights for each workout alongside detailed tools for mapping training trends and higher-level coaching tools.
Mapping & navigation
Navigation smarts have been improved, and the Grit X2 Pro now has a nicely comprehensive suite of tools.
The biggest upgrade over the Grit X Pro is the addition of offline TOPO maps. The watch now comes preloaded with maps for North America and Europe (you can download other regions for free with up to 32GB storage).
There’s also now breadcrumb navigation with your historical track overlaid on the map, too, plus support for Komoot and Strava routes, Hill Splitter automatic uphill and downhill detection, turn-by-turn powered by Komoot, and route and elevation profiles.
Hill Splitter’s dead handy for segmenting your performance on different up and down sections. I also really like the simplicity of Strava and Komoot route syncing. Once you’ve connected your accounts, you can create routes in either platform and they’ll sync to Polar Flow and your watch. However, there’s no turn-by-turn for Strava – only Komoot routes.
On my first-ever trip to the Lake District to check out the 13Valleys Ultra Trail course, I was able to use Strava on the train to find a popular 11-mile route, sync it with the watch, and follow it easily, running virtually straight off the train.
Maps come alive on the big, bright AMOLED screen and the Grit X2 Pro’s faster processing makes moving around maps – particularly where you need to navigate off what’s on your screen – much snappier.
You can use the touchscreen to scroll around, too. However, using the physical buttons to zoom in and out is somewhat fiddly. There’s good detail already, but Polar is planning to add more points of interest, landmarks, and info, too.
GPS and heart rate accuracy
I tested the Grit X2 Pro against a range of other dual frequency-packing watches, including the Vantage V3, the Garmin Forerunner 965, and the Coros Vertix 2S.
Generally, I found the accuracy to be good; largely within an acceptable 10% margin for error on my usual known-distance routes.
I also did a City of London half marathon race test and the Grit X2 Pro came up slightly short at 13.03 miles. During the Manchester Marathon, it matched the Vantage V3 and Garmin Forerunner 965 dual frequency modes within 0.1 miles – and clocked 0.2 miles over the official distance. Again, this is pretty standard performance.
The reliability dropped significantly in the power-saving “Every 2 Mins” mode. It was more than half a mile out on two shortish test runs. If stretched over an ultra distance, that might become too unreliable to be useful.
When you dig into the GPS tracks in detail, the Polar Grit X2 Pro doesn’t always snap to the roads with 100% reliability, but very few watches consistently do. The Apple Watch Ultra is probably the best, but the Grit X2 Pro was on par with the Garmin Forerunner 965 dual frequency.
On heart rate performance, the optical heart rate sensor accuracy was impressive. Not entirely infallible, but, on the majority of my workouts – and during my race test at the Manchester Marathon – the Grit X2 Pro matched the Polar H10 chest strap very closely with identical max and average HR.
It occasionally struggled at the start of runs. For example on a treadmill session, it spiked high for the first three minutes before settling. But it was about as solid as optical heart rate gets.
Battery life
Polar has tweaked the names of its battery power modes across all of its watches. It now officially lists three new modes: Performance Training Mode, Eco Training Mode, and Smartwatch Mode.
These aren’t preset modes you can switch to on the watch, as you might with a Suunto – they’re simply labels for a group of settings.
However, you can refine your power settings, choosing either single-frequency all systems or dual-frequency GPS and have a GPS frequency of every 1 sec, 1 min, 2 min, or “off” for each of them. But there’s no option to use GPS only. It’s not quite as customizable as Garmin.
Polar Grit X2 Pro battery life headline stats:
- Smartwatch: Up to 10 days
- Performance Training Mode (all systems + dual frequency): Up to 43 hours
- Training Mode (single-frequency GPS): 61 hours
- Eco Training Mode (single-frequency GPS, every 2 mins): up to 140 hours
On paper, the Polar Grit X2 Pro battery life offers more staying power over the Polar Grit X Pro. You’ll get up to 43 hours in the highest accuracy, dual-frequency Performance mode, up from 35 hours. And 140 hours in Eco Training Mode, up from 132 hours in the longest-lasting mode.
In Smartwatch Mode (with no GPS training) the Grit X2 Pro should last up to 10 days compared to six on the original Grit X Pro.
In my tests, the staying power wasn’t quite at Garmin Enduro 2 or Coros Vertix 2 levels, but still impressed. Here are the headlines:
- Overnight burn average 3%
- 1-hour run in Performance Training Mode (all systems + dual frequency) burned 4%
- 3.5-hour marathon test in Performance Training Mode (all systems + dual frequency, every 1 second) burned 9%
- A 2:54 marathon test in Performance Training Mode (all systems + dual frequency, every 1 second) burned 7%
- 1-hour run with single-frequency GPS, every 2 mins burned 2%
- A 5-hour run in dual-frequency mode burned 15%.
One big improvement here is Polar’s overnight battery burn. Sleep and recovery tracking used to rinse the battery while you slept, but that’s dropped to an average of 3% per night. Pretty standard versus Garmin, though the new Coros Vertix 2S is even more stingy at 1%.
In my tests, the Performance Training Mode came up just short of the claimed 43 hours – achieving closer to 40 hours. But there’s plenty of juice for tackling day-long or multi-day ultras.
On one full charge, I also clocked 13.25 hours of run time over 11 days before needing to charge. Overall, I’d estimate you’ll get an average of 7-10 days of usage on a single charge with approximately 10 hours of training.
One word of caution: the battery life was rinsed very quickly during one run test using the music controls paired to my phone. It dropped 26% on a half-hour run, compared to the Vantage V3 which dropped just 5%.
Smart features & connectivity
Polar is still playing catch-up when it comes to smartwatch features.
You get smartphone notifications and music controls for your paired phone, but there’s no phone-free music or contactless payments.
The addition of the AMOLED touchscreen does give the watch a better smartwatch feel than the Grit X Pro, but it’s a long way off the apps and tools to really rival devices like the Apple Watch.
On connectivity, the Grit X2 Pro also has a frustrating habit of failing to sync with the Polar Flow app.
It disconnects from the paired phone regularly, so you’re often forced to reconnect. It’s definitely something Polar needs to improve.
Polar Grit X2 Pro vs. Polar Vantage V3
If choosing between the Polar Vantage V3 and the Grit X2 Pro, the only major difference is the case design.
When it comes to important electronics, the Polar Vantage V3 and the Grit X2 Pro are identical inside with the same features, functions, and battery life.
Unsurprisingly, the Grit X2 Pro is larger and heavier. But beyond the build, there are only very minor differences.
The Polar Grit X2 Pro has a higher waterproof rating at 100m than the Vantage V3’s 50 metres and the GPS antenna has been reworked to fit the Grit X2 Pro’s rugged design – though I didn’t notice any tangible differences in the GPS performance.
Aesthetics aside, these devices should perform the same and you get the same suite of tools and features.
You don’t need to upgrade you’ve already invested in a Vantage V3. And if you’re not after beefed-up, rugged looks, you can get the same performance from the Vantage V3 in a more compact watch that costs a lot less.