Best Polar Vantage M Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

After a top-of-the-range Vantage V dedicated to top athletes, Polar launched the Vantage M, more accessible for the general public and wallets. This watch therefore makes some sacrifices on the performance side.

Presentation

With its Vantage M, Polar wants to convince motivated athletes, but also the general public. Marketed at € 279, the Vantage M is in a way a compromise between the Vantage V, the flagship of the brand, and a more classic connected watch. We therefore find Polar’s sports expertise, but also a whole bunch of notifications, whether for Messenger, WhatsApp or Spotify.

Best Polar Vantage M Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. POLAR VANTAGE M –Advanced Running & Multisport Watch with GPS and Wrist-based Heart Rate (Lightweight Design & Latest Technology)

2. Polar Ignite – Advanced Waterproof Fitness Watch (Includes Polar Precision Heart Rate Integrated GPS and Sleep Plus Tracking)

3. Polar Vantage V – Premium GPS Multisport Watch for Multisport & Triathlon Training (Heart Rate Monitor, Running Power, Waterproof)

4. POLAR 90069740 Vantage M Multi Sport GPS Heart Rate Watch – Black (S)

5. POLAR Vantage M Multi Sport GPS Heart Rate Watch – White with USB Charging Cable (M/L)

Ergonomics and design

Suffice to say right away, the Polar Vantage M does not shine with its elegance. Imposing and thick (46 x 46 x 12.5 mm), the Polar watch stands out. Luckily, it turns out to be rather light (45 g with the bracelet) and well enough finished to remain pleasant on the wrist. Its bracelet does not irritate the skin, even when it is wet. Detachable, it can be replaced if necessary. Unfortunately, this approach requires certain dexterity.

Like the Vantage V watch, this model offers very hard side buttons. Strong pressure is required to activate them. This enhances the robust appearance of the product, but makes navigation somewhat complicated. Especially since the slab of the Vantage M is not tactile. So to compensate, the watch multiplies the growths. There are thus five buttons which require a certain adaptation time. But in the end, the whole thing turns out to be coherent. Two buttons are used to scroll the menus up or down, a third allows you to return to the previous screen, a fourth allows you to validate while a fifth increases the brightness of the screen.

The Vantage M watch also offers a 1.2 inch screen displaying 240 x 240 px. Its resolution is limited (282 ppi). At the rear, the heart rate monitor is housed in a slight protrusion which does not spoil the ergonomics.

Interface

If there is one point on which the Vantage M has shortcomings, it is ergonomics. The watch is a bit capricious, with its five buttons of rare hardness. And the menus are not necessarily very obvious. The simplest thing is to focus on the back button, giving access to a drop-down menu using the buttons dedicated to travel. There is access to sports activities, notifications, stopwatch and settings. Polar has opted for an aesthetically sober interface, and offers minimal visuals. So we are not dealing with the prettiest menus, but they have the merit of being clear. 

The home screen is well configurable, but in a small area. The time remains fixed while it is only possible to modify the second complication, in order to display the number of steps taken during the day, the live heart rate or the sleep time. The trick is that each complication is linked to an additional screen. This details the data in question and appears by pressing the validation button from the menu.

To start a sports session, the procedure is simple. A long press on the validation button brings us directly to the choice of sport. Otherwise, you must press the back button to access the drop-down menu where the basic choice is to launch a physical activity. Then just press the validation button to arrive at the list of sports. The last physical activities appear first. Convenient.

The parameters on the wrist are quite complete. They give access to “airplane” mode, “do not disturb” mode or even the activation of continuous heart rate monitoring. Note that this last setting must be activated for sleep tracking to be done automatically.

Application

The Vantage M syncs with two apps available on Android and iOS, Polar Flow and Polar Beat. Let’s start with Polar Flow. It is the central application of the manufacturer. Sort of a hub, it brings together all the data collected by the watch. We therefore find the number of steps, the activity time of the day, the number of calories expended or even the sleep time. Enough information to draw up a complete daily report. The application is not stingy with graphs summarizing the week or the past month, in order to have an eye on possible developments. Sleep monitoring is also detailed in some detail. Finally, physical activities are listed, detailed and classified in a calendar. The objective is always to favor a kind of global vision.

Polar Flow can also request after each follow-up, whether it be a sporting activity or a sleep period, a user assessment. This allows the application to offer adjustable rest times, but also to remind the user of his feelings of the moment. This works through a scoring system ranging from “extremely easy” to “maximum difficulty”. All this is accompanied by a choice of emoticons illustrating the state in which the user is after the session.

It is also possible to configure your Vantage M watch via Polar Flow. The choice of the type of time display (12pm or 24h) or the sorting of notifications (see Interface) is done via the application.

Polar Beat is much more down to earth. The application only serves as a launching platform for physical activities. Luckily, she does it extremely well. The interface is clear, and the data display is perfectly readable. The already very clear graphics in portrait mode of the smartphone become truly relevant in landscape mode.

Uses and precision

To measure the performance of the Vantage M, we compared its results with those of the Polar H10 chest strap, which we consider to be very reliable in terms of measurements. We evaluated the watch during a running race by linking the laps on a 1.9 km circuit. Regarding cycling, we perform a typical circuit of 3.12 km.

As a good sports watch, the Vantage M has its share of sensors. There is therefore a gyroscope, an accelerometer, a heart rate monitor and a GPS. The latter turns out to be rather precise. Even after a 10 km follow-up, the value collected differs only by a handful of meters compared to the GPS of the smartphone. It is therefore reliable. Note that the Vantage M does not offer a barometric altimeter.

So let’s go to the heart rate monitor, the nerve of the war for sports watches. For the occasion, Polar has integrated 9 LEDs at the back of its Vantage M, the objective being to obtain the most precise measurements possible. And we must admit that it proves to be of excellent quality, and even better than that of the Vantage V. The two watches are however equipped with the same material, but it is highly possible that since our test of the flagship of Polar bets have come to adjust the reception of the values. We are therefore faced with an excellent quality heart rate monitor. During gentle activity (walking), the margin of error compared to a Polar H10 chest belt is less than 1%.

Autonomy

With its 230 mAh battery, the Polar Vantage M offers more than comfortable autonomy. Like the Vantage V, it offers just over 4 days of autonomy. A very comfortable score which is all the more pleasant as it offers quality heart rate readings as well as access to notifications – as strange as it is (see Interface). The icing on the cake is that only 1 hr 15 mins is required to fully charge the watch.

CONCLUSION

The Vantage M is presented as a quality sports watch. Its heart rate readings are relevant, its autonomy is exemplary, and the Polar applications that allow its management are excellent. On the other hand, when the watch turns into a simple connected watch, things become more complicated, and for good reason; the ergonomics and interface of the Vantage M can be improved while the notifications are managed in a very strange way. In short, if you want a high-performance watch with the aesthetics of a sports watch, choose the Vantage M, otherwise turn to the Galaxy Watch , more versatile and fairly relevant to exercise.

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