The Grit X2 Pro Titan is a top-end physical fitness watch from Polar, a Finnish business that has actually been a crucial designer of heart rate sensing unit hardware for years. Polar really is a family name when it pertains to physical fitness trackers.

That high-end label features a serious-looking style and the products to match, a sharp OLED screen and a lot of excellent physical fitness functions. By the time you read this, its tracking precision must be fantastic too, with some error concerns at launch having actually mainly been repaired.

There stays a concern mark over whether Polar’s physical fitness platform is prepared for a physical fitness watch this high-end, pressing the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan to complete with the finest Garmin watches and the Apple Watch Ultra, amongst others.

Minimal mapping and training abilities, and having no regional music playback, will be a Grit X2 Pro Titan dealbreaker for some. Still, this watch is possibly simply a software application upgrade or more far from success.

Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan evaluationPolar Grit X2 Pro Titan: Price and schedule

The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan was launched in April 2024 as a reworking of its flagship watch, with upgrades consisting of a titanium alloy case. The name.

This is not a low-cost watch and costs $869.95/ ₤ 749/ AU$ 1,299.

There are no size alternatives here, however there is a somewhat more budget-friendly stainless-steel variation called the Grit X2 Pro. It costs $749.95/ ₤ 649.99/ AU$ 1,099.99 and is comparable however weighs 2 oz (57 grams) minus strap, compared to the 1.7 oz (48 g) of the Titan variation examined here.

Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan: Design

Our impressions of the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan were twofold. There are the visual elements. This appears like a major watch, with the no-expense-spared combination of a leather strap and an extravagantly sculpted bezel. It’s rather huge and enforcing, a sports view where design hasn’t been disregarded.

The 2nd thing we discovered was practically the opposite. This watch is remarkably light, for which you can thank the titanium alloy utilized in the housing.

Inexpensive smart/fitness watches are frequently made from plastic or aluminum; higher-end ones may be made from hard-wearing stainless-steel. The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan’s titanium is the most pricey of the lot, and integrates fantastic strength with low weight. You may not envision this would be the sort of watch you ‘d wish to use over night, however the 1.7 oz (48 g) weight makes doing up until now more tasty.

You might likewise pay a fortune in other places for the bundled strap, which has a vegetable-tanned leather external and cork lining. It’s a lot more comfy and less skin-indenting than the timeless silicone of a runner’s watch– although you certainly can’t simply thoughtlessly simply run it under the tap like among those. A silicone strap is consisted of with the Titan design too.

Other elements of the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan’s strength are fantastic. It has 100m water resistance, suitable for whatever however diving, and the Sapphire Crystal screen security is top-tier. If you desire this type of develop from Garmin you’re taking a look at investing huge cash, on the much more costly Garmin Epix 2 Pro Sapphire. To provide the complete image, the underside of the Polar watch is mainly plastic, which likely lowers expense and weight.

Like other current high-end sports watches, the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan has both button operation and a touchscreen, and utilizes OLED screen innovation instead of a dull-but-practical transflective display screen. It’s like an Apple Watch screen.

This is a 1.39-inch,454 x 454 pixel display screen that looks vibrant and sharp, and has the ability to relay quite complicated charts of heart rate information legibly. It’s likewise useful for among the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan’s essential functions: on-watch maps. More on those later on.

The screen is intense enough to be clear in direct sunshine, however just when it’s on its greatest brightness setting. It snaps out of this after a 2nd approximately of a direct interaction, in order to conserve battery.

This watch has an always-on mode too (handicapped as basic), however all this will reveal is the time. Still, having the ability to get at the time is the primary task of these modes, which bridge the space in between typical watches and smart/fitness watches.

Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan: Performance

The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan has a huge concentrate on efficiency. Your efficiency. Sure, you can utilize it like any other higher-end physical fitness watch, to track your runs, swims, bike trips and health club sessions. It has modes for those and a handful more.

It likewise has a load of various physical fitness tests: walking, running, basic physical fitness and biking standard tests, plus an orthostatic test and leg healing. You might attempt these every once in a while as a method to mark your development if your 5km or 10km run times will not do. These are side destinations, naturally. And the majority of the time, the possibility of really doing these isn’t going to be appealing.

How’s the real physical fitness tracking? For the very first couple of weeks, it wasn’t all that fantastic. Heart rate precision was quite bad for the first off to 12 minutes of sessions, usually showing a much too expensive HR reading. 160 bpm strolling down the roadway? You ‘d hope not!

Polar has actually given that mainly resolved this with a software application upgrade. Its HR precision has actually enhanced enormously and is now comparable to that of an upper/mid-tier Garmin see right from minute one.

GPS tracking was strong from the very first software application version. It locks on rapidly and preserves a strong signal. The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan utilizes dual-band GPS, which has just end up being widespread in mainstream watches in the last number of years. Simply as the name recommends, this doubles up on the frequency bands the watch can utilize, which can assist in more difficult environments– n in a city complete of high-rise buildings, a greatly forested location or a valley. It’s tough to state just how much this in fact assists the typical rural runner, however we definitely had no problems with the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan GPS.

We did experience a number of bugs with the upgraded software application. On one celebration, the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan ended up being nearly totally unresponsive after stopping briefly a workout. This apparently occurred since some notices had actually can be found in– however it’s definitely what you do not desire in the middle of a run.

Our significant and just major gripe about the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan, however, is that its software application and broader platform are perhaps not established enough to conveniently sustain a watch this high-end. The execution of maps protrudes one of the most.

The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan features 32GB storage for map information. European and United States maps come preinstalled, which is terrific. You have to put in a lot of effort to utilize on-watch maps appropriately.

You can’t produce paths on the watch. You can’t produce paths in the Polar Flow buddy app. You can’t develop GPX path files in another app and open them up in Polar Flow. Rather, you need to develop paths utilizing Polar’s web user interface, which can then be opened up on the watch. This feels years behind Garmin’s execution and provides what need to be the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan’s killer function all the effect of a soaked marshmallow.

We can’t envision this is Polar’s endgame for mapping. We simply need to hope this watch (instead of a brand-new design) will take advantage of the enhancements when they get here.

The phone app simply isn’t that slick if you’re utilized to, state, the design of Strava or Garmin Connect– which itself had a controversial revamp not long before this evaluation. And Polar might enhance its longer-term training tools. The Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan will recommend the kind of strength of workout you need to do every day, however you can’t treat it like a full-on coach as you can with a Garmin Forerunner 965. Or an Apple Watch, thanks to its wealth of third-party apps.

Polar has actually nailed something simply as essential, however– the feel and look of the watch user interface. It’s simple to browse when you get your head around its conventions, makes strong usage of the screen area and feels responsive. Wed that to the luxury-adjacent watch external and you have an engaging bundle on the surface area. It’s just below that some issues occur.

Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan: Features

The ECG is another example of a function not feeling rather completely expanded( yet). ECG represents electrocardiogram, which can be utilized to try to find indications of possible heart arrhythmias.

Polar’s Grit X2 Pro Titan will take a 30-second reading by asking you to put your finger on among the buttons and hold still for 30 seconds. You can see the heart rate pattern evinced through the electrical signals of your body. At the end you simply get to see your typical heart rate, heart rate irregularity and beat-to-beat period.

Wearable ECGs work when they determine possible concerns and indications of arrhythmia, not when they supply statistics that do not provide anything helpful beyond what the rear optical heart rate sensing unit currently supplies. This is Polar merely being reasonable, not over-reaching with a function that can suggest individuals fret about their health. Other brand names utilize this tech much better.

The SpO2 blood oxygenation mode does a minimum of inform you whether your reading is typical or not. Once again, it feels a little restricted as you have to by hand ask for a 30-second reading.

At the lighter end of the function set, the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan does not support cordless payments like a Garmin Fenix 7 or Apple Watch. And while there’s assistance for notices from a linked phone, it’s a fundamental execution.

Polar ranks the Grit X2 Pro Titan for 10 days’ usage from a single charge. That is a reasonable figure, however you can anticipate it to cut in half if you utilize the always-on screen mode, which reveals the time throughout the day.

An hour of GPS run tracking consumes 4% of charge, so while severe volume runners will see this endurance drop even more, a typical runner’s training will not be especially draining pipes.

There’s no other way to really eliminate the battery as the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan does not support music playback. It can just function as a remote for a linked phone. Searching for a watch that will let you run phone-free, consisting of home entertainment? This one isn’t it, in spite of its healthy 32 GB of storage.

Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan: Verdict

On the surface area, the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan looks every bit a first-rate physical fitness watch. The style is severe, difficult and appealing, it’s clued as much as the OLED screen pattern and still lasts an excellent while off one charge.

Thanks to a mid-test software application upgrade, heart rate and GPS dependability are terrific. And the fundamentals of watch navigation have to do with as slick as those of the leading Garmins.

Look more carefully, however, and you’ll discover a couple of crucial functions are missing out on or underdeveloped. There’s no regional music playback for phone-free running. On-watch maps are here, however feel underbaked. And thanks to minimal training functions, the Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan isn’t as great a training tool as less expensive Garmin competitors like the Forerunner 965.

While it appears a lot in regards to its develop and products, it might probably be a bit too costly considering its real abilities. Still, it’s a happiness to utilize and cope with if you will not butt heads with its constraints.

If Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan is not for you

The leading choice for high-end functions at a good-value rate is Garmin’s Forerunner 965. It has higher function breadth and depth than the Grit X2 Pro Titan, however its develop and develop are less excellent.

Step up to the Garmin Epix 2 Pro and you get a more serious-looking titanium bezel and sapphire screen defense. At that point you are looking at investing more– considerably more, if the even bigger 51mm size variation appeals.

Adhering to Polar, the step-down design is the Vantage V3, which has comparable core functions however is less rugged and provides simply 5ATM water resistance rather of 10ATM. It’s a great choice if you will more than happy with a plainer-looking watch that isn’t rather as resilient as the Grit X2 Pro Titan.