More: Polar Grit X2 PRO Review
Today’s BIG news is the launch of the Polar Grit X (review), which is a souped-up Polar Vantage M that almost has all the features on the Vantage V, except Grit X is cheaper, more rugged and has some neat new outdoorsy functions too – one of which is Komoot support.
Fear not, Vantage owners. Komoot is already working on your Vantage V ie right now! and I’ve been using it on my Vantage V for over a day.It also looks to be working on the Polar V650 as well but I’ve not tested that.
You can see a little test route, above, that I created on Komoot yesterday cleverly called ‘Up the road‘ and you can guess where that went too 😉 I was checking if Vantage V also supported the TBT instructions from Komoot but sadly not – TBT is only on the Grit X ie You just get the synchronisation to the Vantage V of your favourite breadcrumb routes with no TBT instructions nor, I believe, elevation either.
What is Komoot? It’s a pretty-looking routing service which many people use alongside their camping apps for longer, planned hikes. In the UK it is quite lacking in public rides/runs that you can use but it does seem to have a good (popularity?) routing engine that works well for the few trips I’ve planned on it. It is easy-to-use, perhaps more so than STRAVA or RwGPS and certainly worth a look.
Somebody could try loading up a TBT enabled route file manually to the Vantage V…but I don’t think you will see anything TBT-wise. Let me know if you do please!
Are you a Polar V650 owner? Don’t worry you get Komoot support too.
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Any chance that FuleWise is also present on the vantage?
FuleWise would be just great on the V, since the V800 already had some simple reminders during workout…
Not even just simple time based reminders on the V800, actually fuelling/gel reminders based on the number of kcal burned… Sounds like most of the functionality of fuel wise right there. I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t already in the VV and honestly expected it to turn up in a firmware update. Seems like it might be arbitrarily limited to the Grit though, which is annoying.
unlikely
Tried it today and Komoot works pretty good. Easy to make routes and easy to sync to the watch.
I think it will be a matter of time before also other features will come to the Vantage V. The price difference would then only be to get Recovery Pro, that is not enough to convince people to but a Vantage V I suspect.
That make sense to me too…
pretty sure tbt wont go to VV
W’ll see. Polar’s comment on all these questions is that it is not planned right now. So they leave it open for the future.
Problem with these features is that if they introduce it, you want it, but if you have it you might see how useless they are (I have use Fitspark a few times and realized, it is better is to have a custom set of exercises and a timer….)
Hill splits is nice, but I live in a flat country . FuelWise , I had the reminders on the V800 and it gets annoying at some point, so switched it off again, listen to your body instead of your watch… And having the weather on your watch is just a waste of resources, a phone will give much more info on weather.
And for the battery use. I understand that the 40 hours is extended by reducing GPS connection and switching of the optical HR by using a BT HR monitor. The last we can already do on the Vantage. That is what I see when I use the OH1., the OHR on watch is disabled. I understand that would give the Grid X 35 hours more. Now I just need to get in shape to do an event of over 40 hours to test this…. (8 hours is my max, still a long way to go)
GPS might be a slightly more accurate. I fail to see why some people are so fixated on it. So what the your track on Strava put you 3 meters next to the road, no-one cares. (I use a Stryd foot-pod to get the most accurate distance/pace so I don’t care)
But, if I had a choice, the Vantage V Titan or the Grid X (Titan version should come…) for 100Euro less I would choose the Grid X(Titan)
some good points there Bernard as always
– I don’t think we will see materially new features on this iteration of vantage (idk if a new iteration)
– yes everyone wants every feature but that’s not how product differentiation works.
– hmm I like the balance of what fitspark offers across sports. again as I said in the article it’s not for people doing more than 5 hours/week (Source: Polar)
– fuel…yes all these alerts for anything annoy me as well after a while (even varia radar beeps that warn of impending death)
– weather…i generally agree but sometimes when cycling i would certainly like to know wind direction but, of course, it varies km by km due to micro conditions
– battery, I need to look more at that. you should find that oh1’s ble connection wastes more battery than using ohr (sounds crazy but said to be true on other devices)
– gps accuracy – people want it for pace accuracy. but, as we know, it’s simply easier to use a footpod. and yes I dont care bout GPS accuracy either now !!! my pretty picture of my route is as good as the person’s I run with
– choice – ha ha! I think for features the grit x might tempt me but I like the titan look and feel and I like the recovery info
i’ve said to many companies, many times. if you add native dropbox support I will use your product MUCH more often (eg wahoo). it’s that simple thing that ties me to wahoo and to Garmin’s direct cable access. (I’m pretty sure dcr would want native dropbox support too, although for data management reasons). for me many of these other features are toys…but i DO like toys. (Dear Other Reader…STRYD is NOT a toy)
This is what I read on DCR on the battery of the Grid X
Up to 40 hours: 1-second GPS recording, optical HR enabled, normal screen update rate
Up to 60 hours: 1-minute GPS update rate, optical HR enabled, normal screen update rate
Up to 65 hours: 2-minute GPS update rate, optical HR enabled, normal screen update rate
Up to 100 hours: 2-minute GPS update rate, optical HR DISABLED (but using Bluetooth HR strap instead), screensaver mode enabled
So you get 53% more when HR is disabled, using a BT HR strap + screensaver mode.
Yes I saw that too. I’ll wait until his results come back from the 100-hour adventure 😉 It’s possible to extrapolate from shorter exercises, although that assumes the displayed battery reading is reporting correctly.
Previously, my specific assumption was that a BLE strap saves battery juice however two non-Polar developers have both told me the opposite.
Although if the BLE capability is in use anyway then I’ve no idea what adding a chest strap over it would do to battery
I appreciate the info probably comes from Polar via DCR and so you have to accept it as true unless proven otherwise. I agree with DCR’s generally sceptical approach to vendor claims and the need for corroborating evidence.
30 hours is WAY enough for me in any case.
£400 for an Ultra watch without maps will be a tough sell IMHO.
But on the positive side the screen looks very nice.