Polar Grit X - Rugged Multisport GPS Smart Watch - Ultra-Long Battery Life, Wrist-based Heart Rate, Military-Level Durability, Sleep and Recovery, Navigation - Trail Running, Mountain Biking

Blown away by the battery life. Running 70-80 miles a week. I charge the watch ONCE a week. My cheaper Garmin I was charging every 2 days and had it die on a bunch of runs.I read the negative reviews about the watch not syncing automatically and I have had ZERO issues like that. It syncs automatically after each run and loads right into Stava. The data provided on the free Polar Flow app is much more detailed than Garmin Connect.The pace on the screen is accurate down to the millisecond on pace, the heart rate is super helpful on interval workouts to keep track of your heart rate in recovery runs.The Polar Flow interval set up could be more intuitive, but I figured it out after 10 minutes or so how to set up interval workouts.5 stars on this watch.

I am writing this review as a recreational athlete that participates in mainly trail running and mountain biking. My top priorities in selecting a product were 1. Durability/Rugged; 2. Battery Life; 3. Accurate GPS (HR was a bonus but not the biggest deal to me). I was comparing this to the Garmin Fenix and Suunto Bar 9. The other products had more features but I probably didnt need them nor did I feel like paying the extra price for them. The Grit X delivered on my three major needs and had some hidden gems. The fueling reminders and Komoot integration are fantastic and I definitely do not regret my purchase. BUY THIS!

The primary requirement of a GPS device is to track my location, distance, and pace. This device fails at that. And it fails in crazy ways.Today, I ran a 16 mile trail run. At the end of the run, the Grit X showed that I ran 4.93 miles. It was failing in the first mile. I had good GPS reception, so I have no idea why this would happen. The device actually did track the entire route, heart rate, elevation changes, etc., but the distance and pace were completely wrong. This is the second run in three runs where the device has failed. I ended up tracking today's run on my iPhone, and it had no problem tracking.The other night, I left the device to charge all night. When I woke up, the Polar Flow app and the device were showing that I hit 503% of my activity goal. Again, it was on the charger all night. When I reviewed the heart rate data, it was fluctuating all over the place between 120 bpm and 175 bpm all night long.I did reach out to Polar on both issues, but I have not heard back from them. However, I've been running for almost a decade and a half, and I've used many GPS units. I've never had one fail so badly. It is not a good sign for this product. I need my devices to do the bare minimum, at least: track my route, distance, heart rate, and pace. If you can't do that with an almost $500 device (with tax), it is a complete fail. Possibly Polar can fix it, but how could they ship a device this flawed to begin with? Maybe this is a defective one. I don't know, and I don't have time to figure it out. It's very disappointing, but this device is being returned.UPDATE: It has been three weeks, and Polar still have not responded to my two support requests. I've checked my Junk folder and anywhere else the email could end up. They have not responded. I understand we are living through a global pandemic, so maybe they are short-staffed. But Polar decided to release this device in May, in the middle of the pandemic, so they should have support available (working from home, I hope) for this brand new device. But they do not.I'm not sure why there are so many positive reviews for this device when my experience was so bad. However, if you plug this Amazon product page URL into the website fakespot dot com, you'll see that it gets a low rating (a "D" at the time of this writing) in regards to legitimate reviews. So, if you are still interested in this device, be prepared to be frustrated. But more importantly, check the return policy and order it. I don't recommend it, but maybe you will have a better experience. My experience was very bad. It was the worst device I have ever tried in my 12 years of running long distances and mountain biking on road and trails (mostly trails).

I am an endurance athlete that tends to overtrain unless I am on a program. I may have high tolerance for pain, or maybe enjoy to suffer, who knows. I have been through every fitness watch on the market including Garmin 945, Fenix 5, Fenix 5 plus, Suunto Spartan WHR, Apple Watch S3/4/5 and Coros.Here is what I like about the Polar:1) Polar Grit X gives me actionable information. Fitspark technology has been very accurate in terms of recommending what work out I should do the next day. The nightly recovery feature is spot on in terms of how I feel the morning when I wake up and the cardio load feature is very helpful (once you get 30-45 days of data) in preventing overtraining.2) Wrist based HR is accurate. It is not as accurate as my Apple Watch S5, but it does the job. Sometimes it tends to spike especially at the beginning of a run. When this happens, I just pause my run, wait a minute, and then it remains locked for the rest of the run.3) Wrist-based power is nice especially if you do not own a Stryd. HR is a lagging indicator and power readings give you an idea of how hard you are pushing yourself.4) I love the weather watch face. Just the right amount of information.Here is what I do not like about the Polar Grit X:1) The display is dark indoors even with the backlight on.2) Bluetooth sync was hit and miss until I figure out that it does not like to be separated from my phone (iPhone 12) overnight. I am not going to put my phone in the bedroom, so I just wait about 15 minutes before I hit sync to upload my nightly data.3) This watch never ever auto-synced for me. The only way to get it to sync is to press and hold the left-down button until it starts syncing.4) Some nights (about twice a month) the sleep does not record. I have not quite figured out the pattern that causes this but it does not bother me.Conclusion:It is a quirky but great watch. Battery life is good. I work out a lot, so for me I need to charge it every 3-4 days. Bluetooth sync is slow and sometimes inconsistent. What I really like about it how it tells me how I am doing as opposed to Garmin and its tens of metrics without any logical explanation (and no body battery does not cut it Garmin). I wish Apple would buy Polar and integrate these features into Apple Watch.