Polar Pacer Pro review: same watch in a slightly different package

There’s no scarcity of GPS operating watches. Severely. After I ran the New York Metropolis Half Marathon final month, I shortly misplaced rely of the totally different manufacturers and fashions of watches I noticed on the wrists of my fellow runners. Runners are among the many most wanting to quantify their exercise knowledge with tech — be it with watches, sensible sneakers, sensible insoles, apps, or perhaps a linked treadmill. So I used to be wholly unsurprised when Polar billed its $299.95 Pacer Professional as a GPS watch that’s particularly designed to assist runners take their race to the subsequent degree.

The factor is, I don’t actually see how its options are that totally different from Polar’s different multisport watches. I additionally don’t see how this can be a watch that caters to runners.

In observe, we’ve principally seen this watch earlier than. So far as worth, characteristic set, and design, it jogs my memory lots of the $299.95 Polar Vantage M2 from 2021. In actual fact, I’d say the 2 watches are so comparable, I’m stumped why this watch merely isn’t the Vantage M3.

It’s not that there aren’t any variations. The Polar Pacer Professional has quicker {hardware} and 5MB of inner RAM. That may sound low in comparison with one thing just like the Apple Watch, nevertheless it’s much more than what each different Polar watch has. Certainly one of my greatest points with Polar watches through the years has been how laggy the screens and syncing may be. The Pacer Professional fixes that. The Professional additionally provides a barometer, which Polar says can assist you measure operating energy, aka your output, in watts. And whereas the Professional and M2 have equally sized shows, the Professional’s show is simpler to learn. The case additionally feels a smidge smaller, thinner, and extra light-weight. The way in which the straps connect can be totally different. The Pacer Professional makes use of Polar’s proprietary Shift adaptor whereas the M2 makes use of your customary spring launch pins.

(A fast detour concerning the Shift adaptor. I recognize that it allows you to use customary straps it’s possible you’ll have already got. That mentioned, it’s annoying. It’s a must to use a ballpoint pen to come out the proprietary pin after which swap in a special set of lugs simply so you should utilize customary straps. It’s not straightforward to determine simply by wanting, and I needed to Google a video tutorial. I additionally now have black pen ink throughout my white evaluate unit.)

The Professional’s resemblance to the M2 apart, 99 p.c of the options you’re getting on the Pacer Professional aren’t new. Hill Splitter, FuelWise, Nightly Recharge, Fitspark, Coaching Load Professional, operating efficiency checks, turn-by-turn route navigation — we’ve seen all of those earlier than on different Polar gadgets. Positive, premium Polar watches just like the Grit X Professional include a bit extra (i.e., extra dashboards, health take a look at sorts, and so on.) however this feels lots like reshuffling options with out actually including new worth.

When Polar says this watch goes to assist operating “professionals” get an edge, the typical individual would in all probability count on running-specific instruments and insights — maybe mid-run alerts to up your cadence or scale back your depth to preserve stamina. The closest factor to that on the Professional is the operating energy characteristic. It’s meant that will help you gauge how effectively you’re operating, however of all the same options I’ve examined on different operating watches, this isn’t essentially the most intuitive implementation of it. I used to be typically puzzled as to what it meant throughout a run and the right way to adequately interpret that chart afterward.

The fact is the overwhelming majority of options on this watch aren’t only for runners. Flip-by-turn route navigation is helpful to hikers, cyclers, walkers, and anybody who’s directionally challenged open air. Restoration insights like Nightly Recharge and exercise solutions like Fitspark are nice for anybody making an attempt to craft a coaching schedule. Hill Splitter — a characteristic that contextualizes your uphills and downhills — works for cyclists, too. The identical is true for Fuelwise, which is a characteristic that helps you determine your diet technique for endurance sports activities. That’s nice for long-distance runners but additionally for cyclists and hikers. This isn’t essentially unhealthy! Normally, having a number of capabilities throughout a number of classes is an effective factor. It’s simply barely deceptive to market this as a look ahead to runners when triathletes, cyclers, and out of doors fanatics on a funds would additionally get lots from it.

The one utterly new characteristic the Pacer Professional introduces is the strolling take a look at. Polar markets this characteristic as a simple health take a look at for folk simply beginning out on their health journey who is probably not bodily able to doing Polar’s operating efficiency take a look at. In complete, the take a look at takes about 25 minutes — a 5-minute warm-up, quarter-hour of quick strolling on flat terrain, and a 5-minute cooldown. On the finish, you’re alleged to get an estimate of your VO2 Max rating. (This rating is commonly used as a method of measuring your cardiovascular skill and progress over time.)

This can be a good thought for newcomers. Manufacturers like Polar are typically intimidating as, let’s face it, they cater to athletes who have already got good habits in place and know what they’re doing. Polar’s operating take a look at can be no joke. It’s 30–40 minutes of operating at an more and more quick tempo till your lungs harm, your legs burn, and also you fall right into a sweaty heap on a close-by bench. It’d be difficult and never that useful for true newcomers.

However, in my testing, the strolling take a look at was means off. For starters, it’s important to stroll at a tempo the place your coronary heart price is at the very least 120 beats per minute (bpm). In line with my Apple Watch, my snug strolling tempo is about 17 minutes per mile (or 3.5 miles per hour). My coronary heart price at that tempo was solely about 100bpm. To get to 120bpm, I needed to hoof it at 14 minutes per mile. A number of occasions the watch admonished me with a message saying, “Don’t run!” However I wasn’t. And for my troubles, the watch informed me I had a VO2 Max rating of 28 — which is, by Polar’s definition, poor for my age and gender. Earlier than this take a look at, Polar and Garmin each put my VO2 Max rating at round 39–40.

Granted, the strolling take a look at is supposed for newcomers simply beginning out. It’s possible not designed for folks like me who already run a number of occasions every week, so that would’ve closely skewed my outcomes. Nonetheless, I can’t say that instilled me with confidence.

I acknowledge I’m griping lots a few very practical GPS watch whose greatest crimes are unclear advertising and being sort of boring. In each different respect, the Professional is your quintessential Polar health watch. Battery life was glorious, matching Polar’s seven-day estimate with no points. The display, whereas not fairly and cursed with enormous bezels, is extremely readable in direct daylight. In my operating checks, the GPS monitoring was spot on with my Apple Watch Collection 7 and Garmin Fenix 7S. The guts price monitoring was additionally largely dependable and precisely what you’d count on from a multisport health watch. It could have struggled to precisely depict my coronary heart price in the course of the strolling take a look at — at some factors, it was about 15bpm off earlier than correcting itself. However, as I discussed earlier, this explicit take a look at wasn’t Polar’s most interesting work, nor was it supposed for somebody like me.

The worst factor I can say is the Polar Move app is convoluted and that its sensible options are restricted — however these aren’t new complaints, both. The Polar Move app continues to be troublesome to navigate though it will get you good insights with out bombarding you with a wall of information like Garmin generally does. You will get push notifications, set timers, and management your music, however you’re not going to get fancier options like security alerts or NFC funds. Simply as how the options are issues we’ve seen a zillion occasions earlier than, we’ve additionally seen the Professional’s weaknesses earlier than, too.

Really, I take it again. The Professional’s greatest crime is that it makes Polar’s present lineup complicated as hell. At $299.90, the Pacer Professional is competitively priced for the superior characteristic set it provides. Multisport GPS watches are an costly class, however you’re getting nearly all of the identical options because the $499.95 Grit X Professional. And, as I’ve talked about earlier, there isn’t actually a purpose to purchase the M2 anymore as a result of the Professional is principally the identical factor with extra up to date {hardware}.

I’d say that calculus may change in the event you discover a closely discounted M2. However, in one other twist, Polar will quickly launch a less expensive entry-level Pacer watch, too. That watch is $199.95 and is sort of similar to the Pacer Professional. It’s simply lacking the barometer that allows the operating energy metric, Hill Splitter, and turn-by-turn navigation. If these options don’t catch your fancy, you’re higher off saving the additional $100.

I’m completely happy that Polar is providing extra of its superior options at a cheaper price level. I really am. The Professional is an effective GPS smartwatch, and I’d fortunately suggest it to runners, triathletes, and multisport athletes who don’t need to spend so much and don’t take care of a ton of bells and whistles. However I might additionally say that about Polar’s Vantage M2, Pacer, and the $229.95 Ignite 2. I want Polar spent a bit extra time clearly differentiating every watch inside its lineup. Although Garmin watches additionally share a ton of overlap, you may simply eyeball a Venu, Fenix, and Forerunner and have a good thought of who every watch caters to. It’s a lot more durable to do that with Polar’s watches on each degree — and that’s a disservice to each customers and all of the issues Polar does effectively.

Pictures by Victoria Tune / The Verge