Polar vs Whoop – Polar lets more info slip
I’m currently on holiday on the UK’s rather beautiful South coast. Of course, many devices arrive for the September rush as soon as I leave home. I am hoping for Polar’s new Whoop competitor around about now, but as I write, I pretty much only have the same info that you do, so no NDAs are broken here.
Polar Leaks a new image
The new image appears to be a quality band at first sight, similar to Apple’s Alpine Loop. Apple’s band uses the loops as part of the adjustable buckle mechanism. Polar does NOT appear to do that, its loops look cosmetic.
Perhaps Polar uses a magnetic fastening mechanism. These have become more common in the last few years, generally with a premium feel. Polar may be doing the same here. There’s also a tag at the end of the band which should help with fastening and unfastening.
Check out the band material on the B2B Polar 360, there is some similarity, but it’s a modified or improved design.
An interesting image is shown on the Gadgets & Wareables site, which has a different mechanism for attaching the pod to the strap. Maybe that’s an old image showing an earlier prototype, or just wrong? Maybe there are different band options?
Final Point
Don’t get too confused by other sites saying that the new band will be a consumer version of the existing Polar 360 that uses Polar FLOW. Whilst that’s grammatically correct, the device will be entirely different in technical terms – for example, with a next-generation optical sensing pod.
3rd September – not long to wait now!
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Isn´t the launch date 3. September according to Polar?
ty…typo.
Longtime lurker from the Dorset coast here. I hope you’re enjoying.
🙂 was cycling over the hills near Corfe yesterday and walking the ones near Lulworth/durdle Door. Jeez the tourists! 4 collapsed on the way to Durdle Door from the car park…i was at the end of a 10k at the time! it was hot…but…
stayed at an ok place in Creech and had the best ever bacon/full breakfast at The Salt Pig in Wareham
dorset/+Devon (Salcombe) could be our new go-to’s
”the device will be entirely different in technical terms – for example, with a next-generation optical sensing pod”.
Interesting! So it will not be the same optical HR sensor that Polar 360 uses? I haven’t seen this confirmed by Polar.
Not confirmed by polar but I’d be surprised if its simply a rebadged 360 using precision prime.
The idea of a Whoop competitor is great, but does the data just go back into the same Polar Flow that exists now, or do we think they will add more metrics? There’s really nothing in Polar Flow today that would motivate me to wear a Polar device outside of exercise and sleep.
idk
we will have to see. i would have thought that something more is needed in the app for the reasons you allude to.
The band looks to me very similar to garmin’s enduro 3, its a velcro thingy i think
I am still excited for this to drop but also am very worried that Polar will manage to mess it up and disappoint all the expectations.
Or maybe it’s age and I just have to accept the subscription everything reality of today?
Polar has already said “no subscription”
Not long to go. The ones I have seen so far have not intrigued/convinced me enough to buy one.
I wish Polar would launch the Verity Sense successor, with the new Elixir sensor to track more parameters. Are there any rumours it’s somewhere around the corner?
I woul dimagine the whoop competitor is the SENSE successor in Polar’s eyes.
Whoop’s biggest competitor is its monthly fee. If it wasn’t so much every month, they’d likely sell more and have many more subscribers. The fact that I can buy a Garmin, download and use their entire ecosystem for free, and it gives me 85% of what whoop does is plenty reason to stay with it.
We are getting close to the launch, but haven’t seen much concrete information yet. Polar is really playing this one close to the chest. And no website leaks so far bummer.
Not sure when it happened but this Polar page was updated: https://www.polar.com/en/watch-this-space