Polar Ignite

I bought this watch after open heart surgery to keep an eye on my heart rate so as no to overdo it during recovery. In my cardio rehab sessions, I occasionally checked my bpm against the monitor I was attached to, and found that normally they were exactly the same or within 1 beat of each other. Unfortunately, I found, occasionally, that checking my bpm too often (2-3 seconds apart) the readings on my watch read significantly lower than the hospital equipment. Just something to keep in mind while exercising.This watch is loaded with features! I have only had this watch for a couple of months and have only used a fraction of the features. I downloaded the pdf version of the instruction manual. The English version is 91 pages! The instructions are clearly written and nice to have if I’m not sure of something.The only other feature I wish it had is the ability to read blood oxygen saturation. I would highly recommend this amazing watch.

I've really enjoyed my Polar Ignite over these last 3 years however, about 6 months ago I noticed I was no longer able to access the lap time information, due to the touch screen on that section not responding. No matter how hard I touched the screen, it would never go to the lap time info. Now, it can take several minutes to choose the workout program as the touch screen response is erratic, causing a program to start that you did not choose. It could take a few minutes of swiping!! Also, battery life was suffering.So, this is my final review as I'm going to jump ship on Polar and choose Coros Pace 3.

This is my third fitness watch, after a Garmin Vivoactive and when it lasted less than a year replaced it with a Polar A360. I bought the A360 even though it was a huge step down from the Vivoactive because a) I had less money to spend and b) it was the only watch near that price point that claimed good HR monitoring in the water. The Garmin gave up in the water and just turned the HR monitor off when swimming. Because of some heart worries HR tracking during all physical activity was a requirement.I recently had enough spare cash to upgrade my A360 and after a lot of research decided to go with the Ignite. It seemed like the best combination of the two - the Polar HR functionality combined with better tracking of sports and a built-in GPS. My biggest worry was that I wasn't too happy with the companion app, the Polar Flow. It literally tracked just HR for all sports - the only difference between sports was the icon displaying the sport on the watch and the app.Fortunately I needn't have worried. When you switch watches, the app changes what it can display, and now Polar Flow is showing laps and distance for pool swimming, and distance and a map for biking/running/walking.The good: HR tracking for all sports is accurate enough for my uses. It generally matches the readout on whatever piece of cardio equipment I'm using (+/- 3 BPM), and when I'm in the pool the exertion level feels consistent with the HR readout. When biking I love being able to match my HR to the leg of the ride I'm on. When I'm boxing, the watch doesn't "accidentally" shut off on the back of my glove like the Garmin did (this drove me crazy!).The okay: Really my only complaint is that this watch still doesn't accurately track lap counts when swimming. If you are using a paddleboard just forget it - it's looking for arm movements to track laps. It still undercounts my regular laps, too. Also, it's supposed to be able to discern between the stroke, but always tells me my backstroke laps are breast stroke (which I don't even do). The Garmin had the same problem.Otherwise I'm really happy with it. I haven't tried the training functions yet as my workouts are heavily influenced by my physical therapy requirements, but everything else works just as well as I need it to.Fitness level: active but not competitiveFrequency: 4-6 times per week, mix of gym cardio, boxing, cycling and swimming.

I had this watch for 5 hours and I charged it fully. It said 100% charged then screen went blank three times and nothing would work. Had to update three times. Each time it failed and never completed. Synced three times. Each time i did it failed and the last time i could never sync it it said no device found/paired when I had paired it 5 minutes ago and confirmed it on both screens. Had to set up my profile three times as well and just got fed up with it. I have had nothing but problems with Polar. The last one I had from 3 years ago had syncing issues but I assumed it was because it was an older model. There is no good reason an expensive brand new watch should be giving me problems on the first day. Sadly I have to send back but I was really excited to use this. I cannot deal with the problems Polar gives me anymore. I'll try a different brand now.

The Polar Ignite does a lot more than I expected. It is more than a FitBit, less than an Apple Watch which is right where I wanted it to be. The GPS works really well for bike rides and, surprisingly, lap swimming. I wear it pretty much all the time and end up charging it every other day from around 30% remaining - it does charge very quickly though. I have verified the heart rate with an external SpO2 meter and the numbers agree very well.As for cons, the touch display is a bit laggy but not aggravatingly so. Also, water on the display in the shower will emulate touch events. One change I'd like to see is a night time dimmer mode, or alternatively a small time display on a black background during the "sleep hours" because in the middle of the night it seems very bright.I really like this watch - as an already active person it tracks my activity, sleep and etc. in surprising and insightful ways. It pairs with the Polar website to allow you to plot all your data and see your trends. If you are already active and are looking for a good fitness tracker, this is a good candidate.