Vantage V2 - Premium Multisport Smartwatch with GPS

I'm writing this product first review here after 2w of use. It will be review again from time to time because 5y with Polar - I learned that your watch has its own personality.First, myself: I am an owner of some Polar products and as written, the past 5y I owned two Polar v800 which was their flagship product by the time I purchased. Why two? scorll down and you'll learn.I run 20-30 miles per week all year long. Living outside the big city, my run paths are never the same. I can run 3M road path and the day later run 15M on trails. From time to time, I do tempo running, Fartlek training, running events, hills etc.I also ride my road bike once or twice a month, I ski for a week every year, I swim twice a week during summertime and I hit the gym at least twice a week, well, when the gym is opened and not closed due to a lockdown.In my day to day life I'd rather walk or ride the bike than taking the car whenever possible and when I'm around home.Key features and main improvements (again, compared to V800) I was happy to find during my first 2w with V2:- First, design: this watch is beautiful (compared to V800 everything is beautiful), with a surprising low weight. State of the art. It also has a touch screen which I generally loved. But see my wonders just below.- Heart rate - The embedded HR is great to use. I check it multiple times a day, when training and in rest.- The HR is also linked to the sleeping activity report which I check on a daily basis. They tell you how was your night with many KPIs and measurements involved and I think it's a very useful feature.- Hill splitter: Great feature! Living on a hilly village, sometimes more than half of my running will be either uphill or downhill. The hill splitter helps you to analyze the road and to split it into segments and every segment can stand for its own.- Watt measurement when running: Although little predictable, the watch can tell your continous energy transfer. It is affected mostly from the surface (up/down/flat) and your pace. I guess one of my upcoming training will be to try to stick to specific power vaule.- The Polar Flow App has some signifiacnt improvements too and being able to analyze every segment of your run with terms of distance, pace, HR, power, cadence, incline etc. is a significant improvement that can really benefit and affect your performance.- Komoot link will be tested soon. As a trail runner who got lost in the past, the map on your watch can be very userful.- Controlling Apple music directly from my watch is the best thing ever, unless you are my 3y old kid who does not understand how I lower the volume everytime he turns up the volume on our amp.- Some other features I can mention are Serene (breath practice, which I highly recommend), fueling (basically, eating and drinking reminder) and notifications (such: "get limber"). I think I can let my brain tell me when to drink, but the fact that someone in Polar thought about those features needs to be appreciated (although more work need to be done, for instance, how to limber?).Some questions and wonders:- Has the way that activity is measured changed? The #1 feature of any sports watch is measuring your daily activity. That can really make a cough potato into athlete. I easily get the 100% daily goal in (rare) days that I don't practice. That was quite challenging in V800. In addition, I in V800 every 1M of running turned normally into 20% of daily activity, in V2 I think that's more like 22-23%. If you run 10M (which I do at least once a week) that's 25% (in absolute numbers) above my previous watch.- Where is the GoPro pairing? Very important when Skiing or biking and I could not find this great feature from V800.- H10 HR sensor pairing - a disappointment. Out of 20 times I tried to pair I succedded only once (and even then I don't really know what was the source of my watch display, the watch itself or the sensor). The "couldn't find any sensor" display is really annoying and reminds me on other Polar behaviours which I write down here. Moreover, if the HR from the watch is accurate (and 5-10% deviation is fine from my side), I don't find any reason why Polar recommend to use the H10 sensor and I think they should be more transparent with this one.- The touch screen is great as written above, but you can't shower with this!!! everytime I shower with my watch virtual buttons are selected. I am happy to change a song, but not when I shower.- The battary can last for ~3 days and no one can tell me other stories. Yes, I do believe that if you disconnect the continous HR tracking, your phone notifications or your mobile pairing it can last longer, but this is 2021 and I don't have any reason to do so. The bad thing? This is a new watch and I believe that approx in 1y from now it will have to be charged daily. The charging itself is quick, but it must be done frequently.- Polarflow still lack some important features such trends, w/w or m/m comparison and year summary. It is also constantly changing. That's good, but liitle chaotic. Most of all, I think that this gear should ask YOU what are YOUR goals and to help you achieve them. For instance: lose weight, train 5 times a week, ride 50M or run 10M in less than 80m. I couldn't find any advisory from Polar products with this goals and think they should be the basic of every sports watch.Last and least, why my Polar V800 was only 3* rate and how V2 can be a true 5* watch:All in all, a great product. I like to spend my money on products that I feel that they are best of breed, and this is a significant improvement against V800. However:- When I had Polar V800 - I had to change the wrist every year. I think I spent about 50% of the price of a new watch on changing wrists. It is never about the money, it is about your feeling that again and again the wrist is broken, driving your car to the service center, wait, explain, etc. I really expect this wrist to stay for a much longer period of time.- Moreover, my both V800 died the same way: "Foggy" on the inside of the glass, that turned out the power forever in 48h. And why? because I love hot baths. I will remove my watch while bathing, but I expect this product to last at least 4 years.- Updating the app turned to be impossible. Neither directly from my watch to my Iphone, nor via wires to my PC. I had to do soooooo many weird things to send data to my polarflow such turn on and off the flight mode and many other unacceptable methods which I'd rather to forget and I hope V2 won't remind me of them.As a recap, again, highly recommended. Good value for your money. I promise to update this review from time to time to see if I am satisfied the next...4 years.

I upgraded from the polar m430. I recently started riding again after a 3 year break. I want to get back into shape, but at over 50 years old I wanted to do it with as much info as possible to prevent overtraining and injury. The info this watch provides helps me do that.

The display is biggest disappointment here. I had $80 Amazifit 5 years ago. It had the same quality but was brighter than maximum brightness of the Polar Vantage V2. The overall product looks cheap. I am returning it. I will go for Garmin 7x Solar Sapphire (of course it is another price level).

The Polar brand has always intrigued me. I always associated the Polar brand with providing incredible data points about exercise and fitness. The Vantage V2 and Polar brand do not disappoint! Admittedly, I am a person that gets easily frustrated with technology, but working out and wearing this watch for the past 5 days has been simple and a joy. The moment I am done with my workouts there is a spate of data available instantaneously on the watch face. (I don't even have to wait to synch my watch to an app to do a deeper dive into what happened during my training session) Additionally, launching any of the screens "on the fly" is as easy as swiping up/down or left/right. Perhaps the most enjoyable thing about the Vantage V2 is that looking at my data or even updating screens to suit my preference/update metrics is never a challenge to accomplish -- something that I have always been intimidated doing with my old watch! I find the software/user interface to be extremely intuitive. Additionally, the Polar Flow app that is used is just incredible. I am used to using a very popular competitor's watch and app, and I find this to be far superior. Multiple segments of the app available for easy data consumption. I am finding everything is presented in a format that is approachable and understandable! The more I poke around, the more intrigued I get -- and less confused!! For me....that is a huge compliment!! Congratulations Polar - I'm hooked!

It was the perfect gift for my teenage son. He started crew and used his watch religiously. He followed the feedback from the watch and became a great athlete.

First, the elephant in the room. Wrist-based HR monitors are crap, and Polar even alludes to this in their documentation. If you want accurate HR numbers, buy something like the Polar H10 (a must-have in my opinion). I purchased this watch for the GPS and battery life. A 3-hour run destroys my phone battery with all the sensors going. I don't use the phone alerts; I don't listen to music. Heck, sometimes I don't even take my phone running! The GPS is pretty spot-on with my phone's accuracy, and the battery life is good. The Polar app integrates nicely with Strava. The rest of the app features are meh, but I bought a watch, not a flashy companion app. The watch recharges very quickly. It is expensive, but I think it's a great performer compared to the price points of the top-of-the-line Garmin stuff. The V2 is a great bargain on that scale! It works seamlessly with my H10 HR monitor. I run 5-6 days a week, and this has been an integral piece of maintaining training metrics. If you're more interested in texting from your wrist, go buy an Apple product.

Meine Erfahrung mit Laufuhren umfasst den Garmin Forerunner 620, Polar V800, Garmin Forerunner 930, Polar Vantage V Titan, Forerunner 945, und nun Polar Vantage V2.Unterschiede zeigen sie alle und gleichzeitig haben sie alle erstaunlich viele Gemeinsamkeiten.Für mich persönlich hat Polar die größte Einschränkung in der fehlenden ANT+ Kopplung von Sensoren, aber selbst das kann ich kompensieren, weil ich ANT+ beim Radfahren über einen Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT draußen oder über ein ANT+ Dongle von Tacx an meinem PC drinnen als Verbindung nutze und Polar sich die BTLE Signale der Sensoren greifen kann. Schon länger nutze ich die Polar H10 und OH1 Pulsfrequenz-Sensoren, weil sie in ihrer Qualität (Gurtmaterial) und der Verbindungsmöglichkeit erstklassig sind.Für mich herausragenden Merkmale der Vantage V2 sind der ausgezeichnete Tragekomfort und das Design der Uhr hinsichtlich Anordnung der Tasten (Knöpfe) und deren Haptik.Das verwendete Armbandmaterial und die Form (Konzept des Verschlusses, Übergang zur Uhr) bieten ein sehr angenehmes Tragegefühl. Ich muss beim Schreiben der Rezension gerade schmunzeln, weil ein „Kritikpunkt“ anderer Rezensionen außerhalb Amazons das proprietäre Armband ist und nicht die Adaption von Standard-Armbändern wie bei der Grit X. Aber wie könnte ich etwas bemängeln, wenn gerade die praktische Erfahrung mich lehrt, dass für mein Handgelenk offenbar die ideale Form und Materialeigenschaften dieses besonderen Armbands maßgeblich scheinen?Der Touchscreen bietet Vorteile beim Blättern durch Diagnose- und Statistik-Seiten gegenüber reiner Tastenbedienung, die Tasten selbst sind während der Aktivitäten präzise Steuerinstrumente.Sehr schön ist die Möglichkeit, automatische Runden (Laps) auf Zeit einstellen zu können, was mir bei Indoor-Training auf der Rudermaschine oder Ellipsentrainer entgegenkommt. Das war tatsächlich ein Detail, das ich bei Garmin vermisste.Polar Flow bietet für mich einige Möglichkeiten der Auswertung bzw. Darstellen von Daten, die ich sonst nur über Anwendungen von Drittanbietern (wenn überhaupt) erhalten kann.Die Aufzeichnung von Schlafdaten mit der Vantage V2 scheint mir gegenüber den von Garmin FR ermittelten Werten schlüssiger und eher nachvollziehbar.Der optische Sensor misst erstaunlich gut im Vergleich zu parallelen Messungen mit dem H10, natürlich mit der Latenz, die optische Messungen generell aufweisen. Aber weder offensichtliche Spitzen noch starke Offsets sind zu verzeichnen. Für Cardio-Training drinnen absolut ausreichend und selbstverständlich für die dauerhafte Messung tagsüber allemal genug. Verglichen mit Messungen am Handgelenk mit den Forerunnern in meinem (ehemaligen) Besitz funktioniert es mit der Vantage V2 bei mir besser.Das Display (die Anzeige) der Vantage V2 ist tatsächlich generell dunkler im Vergleich mit Garmin.Trotzdem ist für mich die Anzeige völlig ausreichend. Ich finde es nicht nachteilig, wenn abends die Anzeige dunkel ist und ich mal das Handgelenk schwenken muss, um die Anzeige zum Leuchten zu bringen. Oder auf den Knopf drücke, um das Licht gezielt anzuschalten. Für mich ist das OK.Den Titel dieser Rezension habe ich bewusst gewählt - ich bin zufrieden mit der Vantage V2. Hat alles, was ich für meine sportlichen Aktivitäten brauche (und noch so viele Funktionen obendrein) und trägt sich fantastisch.Als ich die Vantage V2 von Amazon erhalten hatte, war die Primärverpackung nicht mit einem Siegel verschlossen und Fingerabdrücke auf der Schutzfolie auf dem Display waren ein Hinweis, dass die Uhr schon jemand in der Hand gehalten hatte. Aber das ist für mich auch OK, im Prinzip kann ich ja auch verstehen, dass es reizvoll ist, diese "edle" Uhr mal in der Hand halten zu wollen ;-)

I was excited to purchase the Vantage V2 after falling for the advertising and pictures on the website so let down with the quality of the display which was so dim it was impossible to see the time & stats either I received a faulty watch or this is how you can get 100 hrs of use as advertised there are no brightness controls just dim and dimmer even with the backlight on or in a well lit area. GPS and the stats synced to the phone with the app was impressive gets a star just for that but it is no good if you can not see the stats and time on the watch during exercise. Returned for credit left disappointed for a premium price extremely poor display

Wow....now sent v2 back as stopped working 4 months ago....was too busy to waste my life.....tried again at Xmas.....still would not work or sync, Polar support 100% useless....useless....tried again today.....and 3 hrs later of uninstall, re boots factory resets....still not working so god bless amazon....now returned to polar and refunded in full..... off to purchase a Garmin....Ended up sending the V1 watch back after 6 months as it would no longer sync with my phone.This one feels a much better watch, the strap it also better and does not pinch when you wear it tight for exercise.Battery life is currently not as good as the old one,...maybe as the old one never synced any more.

This is my 4th sports watch and is the best so far, the others were a Polar, a Garmin and a Coros. I mainly use it for running, cycling and walking. I don't have the need for offline maps and music on a watch.This is easily my favourite watch and ecosystem for what I do compared to the other devices/brands I've used.The battery life for activities is very good, and ok for normal wear.I find the Polar button layout better easier to use during activities than the others.For training the Web flow app makes it easy to drill into sections of an activity to examine your performance in detail in way you can't on Garmin or Coros. I find the three separate sets of manual, automatic, and hill-splitter laps useful too. Generally the app is well thought out to present data to you in a way that is easy to find and understand.The GPS is ok, not better or worse than the other recent watches I've had. The wrist heart rate monitor seems pretty consistent so long as you make sure the strap isn't too loose. My came with a chest H10 HRM but I only used that once to check it worked ok, so can't comment other than it linked to the watch easily and worked.I don't like wearing even a simple wristband at night, but I did try the sleep tracking for a while and I felt it was accurate.The navigation works well for me, but I also made the one off purchase of komoot maps, which was about $30 at the time.

The new V2 looks amazing on the outside, but the functionality is almost the same as for Vantage V, and to my experience the battery lasts a shorter time. In terms of size and weight: size is pretty similar, but it is lighter. The back HR sensor seems to work differently (different LEDs) but you can't really realise the difference in the measured HR. The display quality is similar (low quality). Overall the price tag does not justify the upgrade.