Polar makes good multisport watches. They’re just not very smart. This wasn’t always a problem because there used to be a clear line. Athletes chose Garmins and Polars. Casual users chose an Apple Watch, Fitbit, or Samsung smartwatch. Now things are not so clear. There are more casual, stylish Garmins, while Apple and Samsung have their own clever multisport watches — and that leaves the $749.95 Polar Grit X2 Pro stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The Grit X2 Pro is designed to be a premium outdoor watch. It improves upon the previous Grit X Pro with improved sensors (eg heart rate, skin temperature, etc.), larger display, dual-frequency GPS, ECG (no atrial fibrillation detection, just more accurate heart rate data) , offline cards, and USB-C. These types of updates are usually good. The problem is that everyone else has made much bigger strides in the last two or three years. The Grit X2 Pro feels a bit frozen in time.
As far as fitness tracking goes, it’s a capable watch with plenty of battery life. (I get about eight to 10 days on a charge.) But for $750, it’s a lot I can not do on this watch. For example, you get notifications and alarms, but that’s about it. If I want to leave my phone and i play my music through the watch i can’t. Offline playlists aren’t a thing; the most you can do is use your Grit X2 Pro as a media controller. Let’s say I want to pay for a Gatorade after a long run at the local 7-Eleven. No, there are no contactless payments. If I want to make a phone call, use a voice assistant, or feel confident that someone will be notified if I take a hard fall, it doesn’t happen.
Five years ago, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But in 2024, I can pay $800 for the Garmin Fenix 7S Pro Solar — fancier than the standard model — to get almost everything the Grit X2 Pro has plus solar charging, offline playlists from Spotify and YouTube Music, Garmin Pay , safety features (although they require your phone) and ECG tracking on it does have a diagnosis of AFib.
The $800 Apple Watch Ultra 2 gives me a much better third-party app ecosystem, LTE connectivity, car crash and fall detection, music streaming, EKG, and much better integration with my smartphone. When it arrives this fall, watchOS 11 will bring a training load feature that, while not as robust as what Polar or Garmin offer, gets the job done the easy way. Samsung is rumored to launch the Galaxy Watch Ultra this month – and I’d bet good money that it will offer a similar experience for Android users. The point is, if you’re going to spend on a premium fitness smartwatch, you have plenty of alternatives that provide more bang for your buck.
It could be argued that Polar isn’t trying to fix what isn’t broken. It made its name with in-depth fitness metrics, great GPS, and long battery life—much like Garmin. As long as he does these things well, who cares? That’s a fair point. If those are the only criteria that matter to you, I have few complaints about the Grit X2 Pro, other than it’s expensive and a bit clunky for my taste. In testing, GPS and heart rate accuracy were on par with my Apple Watch Ultra 2, several Garmins, and a bunch of other Android smartwatches. Sleep tracking and recovery metrics were about the same with my Oura ring. The newest metric was Sleep Boost, which predicts the hours of the day you’ll be most alert. (I have a hard time trusting it in practice, as it’s very hit or miss.)
Whatever statement Polar is trying to make with the Grit X2 Pro, it’s windows. You can go for a more premium design and upgrade a few sensors, but the Grit X2 Pro doesn’t meaningfully improve on things that have always been annoying about Polar watches. The Polar Flow app still looks terribly cluttered and stuck in 2016. It’s not easy to digest. On the wrist, Polar’s interface is still clunky with subtle swipes and one too many button presses to get what you want. It’s a matter of taste, but the Grit X2 Pro’s dials are average at best, don’t make the most of the OLED display, and don’t convey the elegance warranted by this price.
$750
The Polar Grit X2 Pro adds an ECG, improved sensors, preloaded offline maps and a more luxurious design than its predecessor.
Given what else is out there, I think only Polar devotees would seriously consider the Grit X2 Pro. And even then, I’d go with the $599.95 Vantage V3. It gets you about 95 percent of what the Grit X2 Pro offers, but trades the heavier materials and luxury look for a lighter, more wearable design. Honestly, I think it’s something most athletes – Polar’s target audience here – would prefer.
Unfortunately, the individual parts of the Grit X2 Pro don’t add up to the premium watch that I think Polar was hoping for. For that, it had to be smarter or add something that Polar lacked before. As it is, it’s a competent watch. But for $750 competent just isn’t good enough.
