Our review: Does a lot of the basics well, but doesn’t quite match up to many of its competitors
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If you’re after a watch with GPS tracking, multisport functionality and a host of training features, there aren’t many options cheaper than this.
As such, the Polar Pacer Pro is competing with Garmin’s Forerunner 255 (£299.99), the same brand’s Instinct 2 (£249.99) and either the Coros Pace 2 (£179.99) or the brand-new Pace 3 (£219).
So does it live up to the competition? Let’s find out…
What’s the design like?
Visually, the Pacer Pro looks more ‘sports watch’ than it does ‘rugged outdoors watch’. That’s most likely down to the lack of a chunky case and its rounded edges.
In this sense, I find it a little dull to look at, and it doesn’t quite have the same gravitas as some of the other best GPS watches for hiking.
The case material is plastic, the bezel is aerospace aluminium and the display uses Gorilla Glass, so it should stand up well to the rigours of an adventurous life.
That being said, the bezel isn’t the largest and is already slightly marked on our test unit.
Meanwhile, the strap fits securely enough and you also get two strap lengths included in the box, which is a nice touch.
How easy is it to use?
There’s no touchscreen here, which means you’ll be relying on the five buttons to operate the Pacer Pro.
That’s not an issue for me, as I prefer using buttons, but this is a personal preference.
The buttons themselves depress well and there’s dedicated ones for select, up, down, back and the backlight.
Once you’re used to it, it’s pretty easy to find your way around.
That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the layout of the different glances on the home screen, as the different data is displayed around the time, which isn’t all that easy to digest.
How does the display perform?
It’s okay, but not as good as some of the other GPS watches we’ve tested.
It felt necessary to crank the backlight up to its highest setting permanently, but even this wasn’t as bright, vibrant or as clear as I’ve seen from Garmin and Suunto.
There’s also a large bezel around the display, resulting in a lot of wasted space. A display size of 30.5mm is also on the smaller end of the scale.
How good is the navigation?
The Polar Pace Pro has breadcrumb-style navigation, meaning you can load up a route and follow it as a solid line on a blank background.
That’s fine for most people, especially if you’re using an OS map alongside your watch (which you should be!), but it is sometimes nice to have extra detail.
As it is, the route stands out well against the background while a pointer marks your location.
It’s worth noting that the watch doesn’t lay down a track as you walk and there’s no back-track function to guide you back along the way you came.
There is a back to start function, but this comes in the form of an arrow pointing back to where you started as the crow flies, so it won’t take any cliffs or lakes into account, for example.
You can add a GPX route to the watch via the web software, but that won’t have any turn-by-turn directions, which you’ll only get if you import a route from Komoot.
Of course, you can create a route in Komoot, or you can find pre-made ones, which is useful considering you can’t create a route in the Polar Flow app itself.
The Pacer Pro also has a barometer and compass.
What training and performance features does it have?
Well for a start, there’s well over 100 sport profiles for you to choose from, though you can only have 20 loaded up to the watch at once. You can pick your priorities in the Polar Flow app.
Data screens are customisable for each sport profile, allowing you to tailor the information you want to see.
This includes everything from heart rate data (which largely proved accurate, though a chest-based monitor is more so), pace, distance, elevation gain, running power and so on.
The Pacer Pro also has a gamut of fitness tests to help you work out how fit you are, including a walking test, running test and cycling test, though it’s worth taking those with a pinch of salt.
Another useful tool is the Hill Splitter feature, which automatically detects how many uphills and downhills you tackle.
It’ll give you performance info and tell you how many uphills you’ve taken on, which is great if you’re doing hill training.
And then there’s Training Load Pro, which helps you establish if you’re overtraining, undertraining or being productive with your exercise.
What other features are there?
As is standard these days, you also get smartphone notifications, sleep tracking, music controls (but no onboard music storage), fuelling reminders (to make sure you’re eating enough to power your exercise) and weather.
How good is the battery life?
Polar says when the Pacer Pro is in watch mode you should get up to 144 hours of battery life, which equates to six days, while it offers up to 35 hours in training mode with GPS tracking.
That’s not bad for GPS tracking at this price point, but the six days in watch mode isn’t the greatest, and the day-to-day battery drain was noticeably quicker than many of the other watches I tested for this group test.
You should get a weekend of walking out of it, though.
Buy if…
You’re on a budget, value training functionality and are happy with fairly basic navigation functionality.
However, this isn’t for you if you’re hoping you won’t need to charge it very often or you want a highly impressive screen.
Facts at a glance: Polar Pacer Pro GPS Watch
Price: £289
Size: 45mm x 45mm
Thickness: 11.5mm
Weight: 41g
Display type: MIP
Display size: 1.2in (30.5mm)
Battery life: 144 hours in watch mode, 25 hours in training mode (with GPS)
Barometer: Yes
Ready to buy?
For more models and expert reviews, check out our full roundup of the best GPS watches.
