Polar Grit X2 Pro – Single track smartwatch for multisport

The watch itself, I'm testing the titanium bezel model, is quite large and bulky, which just makes it well-suited for adventurous outings in the wilderness as it's also durable. However, this also makes it less good for measuring sleep or for everyday wear. In terms of measurements, it does its job, but ergonomically, I think it feels clumsy when I have it in bed during the night. Then it is clearly visible on the arm. During the day it happens that it receives if I have a shirt on so that the sleeve cannot be buttoned.

When I get started with the watch, I get to choose whether I want to make all the settings in the watch directly, with the help of a computer or with the mobile phone. I choose the mobile phone, during the first part of the test period I use an iPhone and during the second part an Android, to see what the differences are. Getting started is a bit complicated, both when I connect to the Iphone and then to the Android I am met with error messages repeatedly and it is only after a few tries that it suddenly works without explanation.

Not so smart

I've mentioned that the Polar Grit X2 Pro is arguably more of a sports watch than a smartwatch and it also has an ambivalent relationship with mobile. From the beginning, notifications from the mobile phone are switched off by default, but it can be activated. However, there are limited notices. On the one hand, I notice that the notification icon sometimes does not match the real one at all, but seems to show something completely different. In addition, I cannot respond to the notifications from the watch, but only at best mark, for example, an incoming email or chat message as read, or archive it. That's how it works in Android, in Iphone I can't even mark a message as read.

In a strange way, the watch is sometimes completely dependent on the phone and other times almost unaware of its existence. For example, I have repeated problems with the synchronization between the watch and the phone's app. When I take a walk, then a run, then a walk, the walks sync to the phone app, but the run doesn't. Meanwhile, only the first of my sleep reports comes to the phone, even though the watch shows three logged nights. This resolves itself after a day or so, but there seems to be a random lag at times and the sync is not entirely reliable.

However, the actual measurements of my training sessions and of my sleep appear to be reliable and accurate. I get detailed reports and even during the training sessions the watch works well. The screen is sharp and clear and provides information about the performance during the training session. The main objections I have are to the interface, in the watch and above all in the phone app which I find very messy.

Messy and hard to learn

If we start with the watch, it is basically good that I can use both the touch screen and physical buttons independently of each other. No problem starting a workout with gloves on, then, although I have surprising trouble remembering every time what each of the full five different physical buttons controls. It's not self-explanatory, but when I finally take the time to familiarize myself with the features, it works fine. The lower left button means “back” or “take me to the context menu”. The upper and lower right buttons scroll up and down, the middle button confirms selection and the upper left button turns off the screen. The last button also acts as a sensor when you measure your EKG.

The watch doesn't have very many functions, so once I learn how it works I can handle the watch. Notifications I see if I swipe up from the bottom of the screen, shortcut menu for airplane mode, do not disturb, timer and alarm are available when I swipe from the top and sideways I find, for example, weather, heart status, various activity/sleep reports and music controls. The music itself, however, is only about controlling what is played on the phone, because the watch itself has neither the ability to play music itself nor to connect wirelessly to bluetooth headphones.

In that way, the watch has a confused relationship with the mobile phone. Notifications from the mobile phone are visible in the watch, but the synchronization of training sessions and sleep reports is somewhat random. For training sessions, I can choose to receive mileage reports as a spoken voice, but then it's the phone's speaker and the Polar app on the phone that handles it. So it assumes that I have the phone with me during the training session.

I also get annoyed that during the training session itself, for example when I measure a walk, I cannot get notifications in the watch, but then it is completely locked on the training session in particular and does not give me access to other functions.

The app itself then, it looks different depending on whether you use Ios or Android, but what they both have in common is that they are very messy and don't really follow any guidelines for how apps usually look and work. I find it hard to get a quick overview and the menu in the Android version is divided into 15-16 different headings (depending on how you count), unclearly worded so it's hard to find what I'm looking for. The iPhone version of the app instead has four tabs at the bottom with the rest of the content hidden behind a “more” button, but that doesn't really make it any easier to get an overview. It's hard to get a clear overview in both apps. All this training information is also available in the web version of the service if you log in to flow.polar.com, so you can see it on a larger screen. There it is easier to actually get a little overview.

I can connect Polar to either Apple Health in iPhone or Google Fit and Health Connect in Android. Regardless of whether I have an iPhone or Android, it is also possible to connect Polar to, for example, Strava, Nike Plus, Myfitnesspal or Komoot. When I connect Strava to Polar in iPhone, however, all training sessions are duplicated, so that they are reported twice in Apple Health. I don't get that problem in Android. However, I notice in Strava that the times of my training sessions are sometimes not correct so that a training session during the day in Strava is named Nightly Run and looks like it was done at 2 in the morning completely wrong.

Sports focus, but not better than others

All this, that the watch is focused on training and not on being a smartwatch the rest of the time can of course be an advantage if that is exactly what you are looking for. The battery life in the Polar Grit X2 Pro is well suited for longer adventures and the measurement data I get are credible. The watch measures using the Polar Elixir sensor launched last fall, which Polar claimed at the time was an incredible advance, but the result is what pretty much all smart watches today measure, i.e. pulse, GPS, EKG, blood oxygen content and skin temperature. I have not seen any big difference in how accurately it measures. The route looks correct when I look at the map where I ran and when I tested other smart watches on the other arm, Huawei and Apple Watch, the kilometer markings came with only a few steps difference, so no difference worth mentioning.

Given the function and design of the Polar watch compared to many competitors that perform similarly, the price is probably the biggest drawback, even if you look at the Polar Grit X2 Pro as a distinct sports watch.