Premium materials, dashboards, tests and coaching

SPECIFICATIONS

• Display: 1.2-inch color touchscreen, 240 x 240 pixels resolution, sapphire glass
• Materials: Titanium case, fiber-reinforced polymer cover, FKM and perforated leather bands
• Connectivity: Bluetooth Low Energy, GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
• Water resistance: 100m waterproof
• Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer, optical heart rate monitor with nine sensors, vibration motor, barometer
• Battery life: 346 mAh, for 7 days in watch mode with continuous heart rate tracking, up to 40 hours with GPS and heart rate enabled
• Watch bands: Standard 22mm watch strap
• Dimensions: 47mm diameter x 13mm thick, 53 grams (leather wristband)

HARDWARE

It’s been a couple of years since I tested a Polar watch, and I never had a chance to try out the Grit X, so I went into this review with no expectations. I was very pleased to see Polar send along the Grit X Pro Titan model that is much lighter than the stainless steel model with attractive design features. It’s $100 more than the standard model, and that increase covers the case material and extra band.

The retail model ships with both a FKM and perforated leather band, but my review unit just included the leather model. I had to find another standard 22mm silicone strap to take the Grit X Pro outside for exercise so I don’t ruin the leather band.

WATCH SOFTWARE

We will explore the watch software in detail as we spend more time with the Polar Grit X Pro Titan, but one obvious improvement is the new dashboards. Dashboards are called widgets by others and are quick, glanceable information on the watch face. You can either swipe left and right, or use the up and down hardware buttons on the right side, to scroll through these various dashboards. Dashboards currently available include an altimeter, coordinates, compass, weather, daylight times, heart rate, nightly recharge, performance status, and more.

Training Load Pro, FuelWise, wrist-based running power, Hill Splitter, Sleep Plus Stages, Nightly Recharge, Serene breathing exercises, performance tests, recovery tests, music controls, notifications, and more will be explained in more detail in the coming weeks.

SMARTPHONE APP

Polar has a smartphone app for iOS and Android that captures all of the data from the watch and provides various glimpses of that data. Sections for activity, training calendar, sleep, nightly recharge, weight, sport profiles, and more are found in the app. The smartphone application isn’t my favorite, and it’s the one area I would like to see improved in the future. We’ll also cover this more in the full review.

POLAR FLOW WEBSITE

I described the Polar Flow website in my Polar Vantage V review, and it looks about the same after a few days of usage. I’ll go into more detail when I post my in-depth review after I have worn the watch and gathered more data to analyze.

After using smartwatches from Apple and Samsung, I am personally pleased to see that Polar has a website where one can dive into all of the details for the data collected by the watch. Garmin also has a website for this type of data analysis, but Coros does not. I find that to be a limitation on some watches.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

You can purchase a Polar Grit X Pro Titan now for $599.95. The Titan model has a titanium case and is an amazing 24 grams lighter than the stainless steel model while also including a perforated leather band in the package. The Grit X Pro, stainless steel instead of titanium, is available for $499.95 in Black DLC, Nordic Copper, and Arctic Gold.

The Grit X Pro Titan is extremely well-made, and I still cannot believe how light it is for such a large watch. So far the GPS tracking, heart rate measurements, sleep stages, and more match up with other wearables I’m testing along with the watch. There is no onboard music, wrist-based payment systems, or advanced smartphone connectivity, but this watch is focused on helping you train and improve your performance.