Our review: Interface and navigation could be better, but otherwise a solid, reliable GPS watch with great training features
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Polar is well known for producing excellent training features on its watches and for the accuracy of its heart rate devices.
The brand has been in the GPS watch game for some time now and the question is, is it doing enough to keep up with the likes of Garmin?
Let’s find out how the Grit X Pro fits into that equation.
What’s the design like?
The Grit X Pro has a rugged appearance not too dissimilar to the Garmin Fenix 7.
It employs a stainless steel bezel, a solid plastic case and sapphire glass on the display, while the strap is made of silicone and has proved durable so far.
A weight of 79g is on par with the Fenix 7, while the quoted 13mm thickness is slightly less than its competitor.
How easy is it to use?
I don’t find Polar watches quite as intuitive to use as Garmin watches, but once you’re familiar with how to navigate the menus and use the buttons, it’s not too bad.
Just like the Polar Pacer Pro that we’ve also had on test, it comes with five buttons, broken down by back/main menu, light, select, up and down.
The display also doubles as a touchscreen, which performs reasonably well, but sometimes it can fail to register a tap or gesture.
Speaking of which, you can only use a gesture to go back when in the setting menu. At all other times you’ll have to use the back button.
Another thing that feels like a miss is that there’s no option to turn the touchscreen off and just use the buttons.
Regardless of whether or not you’re using buttons or the touchscreen, the interface isn’t quite as smooth as we’d have liked and at times there was a lag between screens loading up.
How does the display perform?
This isn’t one of the Grit X Pro’s stronger points. The resolution doesn’t seem quite as clear, nor the colours as vibrant, as the likes of Garmin and I felt the need to crank the backlight up to its highest setting for added clarity.
There’s only one screen size available here, too, unlike many competitors, allowing 30.5mm of display real estate.
We’d call that neither small nor large, but the data displayed never felt cramped and was reasonably easy to read and consume.
How good is the navigation?
It’s not bad, but it’s behind some other key players in the market, such as Garmin’s Fenix 7 and Forerunner 955/965 or Suunto’s Vertical Titanium.
You can upload your own routes to your watch with a GPX file via the Polar Flow web software, or you can sync routes across from third-party app Komoot (which can be done on the phone or web).
The routes from Komoot can be premade ones from around the app or ones you create yourself and then export to your Polar.
The good thing about doing this is that the Koomot routes come with turn-by-turn directions, while tracks imported via a GPX file don’t.
We think the lack of route planning in the Polar Flow app is a miss, but at least you can do it in Komoot.
You can select your course from an activity’s settings before starting to record. When doing so you’ll have to select routes, though it’s strangely called favourites in the app.
Before starting you can look at the elevation profile, add hydration/fuel reminders and view the route itself, though this is only in the form of a breadcrumb trail on a plain background.
And that’s how it remains, as there’s no mapping on offer here.
You can then see your progress along the breadcrumb trail, plus the direction you’re supposed to be travelling in. If it’s a route from Komoot, you’ll also get those turn-by-turn directions.
It works fine and is certainly functional enough, but I do prefer the extra detail you get with some competitors.
You do also get a back-to-start function, which as the name suggests will guide you back to the start either via a straight line (not all that useful) or back along the route you’ve already trodden (much more useful).
GPS accuracy, meanwhile, proved pretty reliable and the watch picked up satellites relatively quickly.
What training and performance features does it have?
The Grit X Pro is stacked with training features. For a start, you can store 20 sport profiles on the watch at any one time, but there are over 100 to choose from in total.
You’ll get detailed data on some of the main ones, such as running, cycling, swimming and hiking, with a built-in power meter giving you useful info for the former.
The optical heart rate monitor regularly proved reliable and on par with many other wrist-based options, too.
Then there’s Polar’s Training Load Pro feature, which helps give you an idea of how much impact your activities have had on both your cardiovascular system and your musculoskeletal system.
Working with the Recovery Pro feature, you’ll then get insights into whether you’re maintaining, improving or negatively affecting your fitness.
There’s also a gamut of fitness tests to help you see where your performance or recovery is, while you’ll also get suggested workouts.
What other features are there?
Like most modern GPS watches, you get some general smartwatch functionality.
In this case it comes in the form of phone notifications, music controls (you can’t download music to the watch, though) and weather info.
You also get 24/7 activity tracking for steps, decent sleep tracking (with a host of metrics to delve into in the app) and sunrise/sunset times.
Being a watch targeting outdoor folks, there’s a compass, an altimeter and current coordinates, but there’s no storm alerts.
There’s also no contactless payment options here.
How good is the battery life?
The Grit X Pro offers up to around 40 hours in GPS mode (there’s no multi-band GPS here), which isn’t bad, but isn’t groundbreaking, either.
It’s about on par with the Garmin Forerunner 955, but it lags behind the Fenix 7, Suunto’s Vertical Titanium and the Coros Vertix 2.
Regardless, that’s plenty to see you through a few days of hiking.
In smartwatch mode you’ll get up to around six or seven days. Again, it won’t compete with the best, but it’s reasonable.
Best for...
If you’re not fussed about detailed mapping and want a GPS watch that has a lot of great training features, this isn’t a bad option. Particularly as it’s now available for much less than its RRP.
Facts at a glance: Polar Grit X Pro
Price: £459
Size: 47mm x 47mm
Thickness: 13mm
Weight: 79g
Display type: MIP
Display size: 1.2in (30.5mm)
Battery life: Up to 168 hours in watch mode and
Barometer: Yes
Ready to buy?
You can find more Polar models in our full roundup of the best GPS watches.
