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Polar Vantage Update 5 – Slightly Delayed

The last update listed by Polar for the Vantage was scheduled for release in December 2019. The status on the Polar website has now changed to instead give the possibility of a January 2020 update.

No big deal I guess, and a nice present for anyone getting a Vantage for Christmas.

It will be interesting to see what else is planned for 2020 from Polar.

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25 thoughts on “Polar Vantage Update 5 – Slightly Delayed”

  1. If a delay means getting it right then I’m all for it.

    I Would also love to know what they have in store for 2020, hopefully something interesting.

      1. You mean ”hardware” surprise ?!
        Get sick waiting for 655 …. while 245 is good but have buttons problems

      3. A know … a mean a ”hardware” from polar ?!
        Waiting from new watches to a good one whatever polar or garmin or coros 😀 !!

      5. Any firm infoemation about “something big” or just guessing? So far nothing too impressive in CES 2020

      7. Wearable able to measure lactate/glucose levels, this would be “something big”. There is some research on this, I hope to see it in next few years.

      8. there’s lots of research on lots of things.
        I don’t think blood glucose levels will be detected on the wrist at medical levels for quite some time.
        muscle oxygen sensors (moxy/humon), sort of, indicate LT2

  2. Funny, only yesterday I posted a reply to your Flow article that there won’t be an Update in 2019.
    What’s even more funny though is, that I chatted with Polar’s support at lunch TODAY because my Vantage V has so many GPS outages and my Flow App is quite buggy, and they told me that Update 5 was planned for in December.
    I really hope the at Update 5 actually brings improvements to the Vantage (GPS, Training views, watch settings) and not just new gimmicks like Strava, RacePace, and FitSpark

    1. yes i saw that.
      these updates always announce the gimmicks and, sometimes, bring unnacounced improvements behind the scene in the ‘bug fixes and miscellaneous improvements” section

      1. The last Suunto update end of october had new Sony firmware in it that promised to reduce “wobbliness”. Was that firmware already in Polars last update of october? If not, then maybe we can hope for improvements.

      2. there are changes in the chip and changes made by polar/Garmin/ Suunto etc that work on the output from the chip.
        I don’t know which of those changes are implemented each time. I have asked before but have never got a clear response

  3. Race Pace is not a gimmick imho. Was very useful on my old V800 in the past. But agree, would prefer auto lap summary instead of Strava and Fitspark. Don`t have any hopes for better GPS, but don`t actually care as I invested in Stryd sensor.

    1. I’ve never used it before on my V800. But I wonder if it can be of any use with those unstable GPS data on the Vantage V. Race Pace can certainly not be used together with instant pace, because than you would get pace alerts all the time.
      But like you I’m afraid Polar has little ambitions on GPS accuracy anymore. They think it’s good enough or simply accept things as they are: unsolvable. That’s the impression I got recently when chatting with their support.

      1. I used it on all 42+ km road races and V800 has very good GPS accuracy. You may be right it won`t be useful on awful Vantage instant pace but I still hope it will be possible to use this feature with superb Stryd instant pace.

      3. The problem is that all companies invested in that disastrous new Sony chip are at the mercy of Garmin, who is the only company big enough to be able to put pressure on Sony to come up with improvements. As long as Garmin is content that their devices offer good enough GPS, we’re stuck with what we get. I really think that the culprit of the VV is its housing. I also had the M, and its GPS was leaps and bounds ahead.
        Also, with Update 4 my VV introduced nasty outages. Since I use a Stryd I don’t notice them during my runs but afterwards when I look at the map and would see lots of dead straight connections between points where it apparently lost connection. My M430 and 935 on the other wrist are totally fine, so it’s not about GPS signal but a reception problem. The tracks my Vantage V lays down look like a child’s scribbling. Yesterday I unpaired Stryd from the VV and after the run metrics sure enough were completely off. The 935 showed 7.22km at 4:11min/km (from Stryd), and Vantage 6.5km at 4:37min/km (from GPS). That’s completely unacceptable from a device as expensive as the Vantage V. During the run GPS signal was lost a couple times and picked up again up to a minute later. I reset the Vantage to factory settings (what support suggested, obviously, in fact they don’t have a clue as every support these days) and will give it another try today.

      1. Polar’s Race Pace is like Garmin’s old Race Pace, i.e. you set a distance, and time, and the watch will show you whether (and by how much) you’re behind or ahead, together with distance left, current pace, and HR.
        PacePro is more sophisticated as it let you split your race time beforehand manually, and it can even automatically do grade-adjusted splits if you apply it to a route.

    1. I really hope, nothing is planned when it comes to features, that are merely there to tick the back of boxes and sound good in marketing material. I’d rather they improve what’s already there before cluttering their devices and app Garmin style
      – Some training views are still missing that were available on V800 and M430
      – lap summary
      – recovery pro needs to be much more transparent, with muscle load respecting the lower power numbers Stryd puts out vs Polar. It’s promoted as a feature for “Pros”, yet as a semi-pro athlete I need more information about how this allegedly “holistic” view is put together.
      – cardioload pro needs more customization like the option to choose 7/24 or 7/42
      – option to choose black on white display for training
      – setting auto-laps directly on the watch
      – setting GPS directly on the watch
      – clean up Flow App, the introduction of serene breathing and nightly recharge made a mess of Polar’s generally sound UIX

      Sadly, most of those “improvements” would merely be catching up to Polar’s own older products.

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