Polar Grit X2 Pro

Verdict

The Polar Grit X2 Pro offers a more complete all-round package for on- and off-grid adventuring. A punchy screen, slicker styling, snappy performance, good accuracy, along with much improved navigation skills and a long-haul battery life, make for quite a list of improvements. However, it’s not quite as accomplished as the similarly-priced rival Garmin Fenix 7X Solar and if you don’t care about the rugged build, the Polar Vantage V3 offers the same for £100 less. 

Introduction

The Polar Grit X2 Pro is the company’s flagship adventure GPS watch. The headline upgrades include a bright AMOLED touchscreen display, accuracy-boosting dual-frequency GPS, a faster processor, offline mapping, plus the same upgraded sensor tech that shipped first on the Polar Vantage V3. 

It’s out to rival the Garmin Fenix 7, Epix Pro Gen 2 and the new Coros Vertix 2S, but with identical tech and tools the real question might be whether you’re better off going for the cheaper Vantage V3.

I’ve had the watch on my wrist for six weeks to find out.

Design and Screen

• AMOLED screen is excellent
• Comes in two models: stainless steel and lighter titanium
• Snappier processor and new GPS and heart rate sensors

The Polar Grit X2 Pro comes in two models: the regular 79g Polar Grit X2 Pro has a stainless steel bezel and case; the lighter 64g Polar Grit X2 Pro Titan has a titanium chassis. 

Polar has made big strides in the aesthetics department and this is arguably its best looking watch to date.

Both models pack a 1.39-inch, 326ppi resolution AMOLED touchscreen display that’s nicely responsive. It’s 15% larger than the previous Polar Grit X Pro with plenty of room to bring your vital stats to life. There’s also a resilient scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass lens that, as of yet, has shown no signs of weakness.  

The screen is a big step up from the original MIP Grit X Pro display. It’s not quite as crisp, bright and clear as the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s 3,000 nits but it kicks out an impressive maximum 1050 nits brightness and is easy to read in all light conditions. It’s also nicely responsive. There’s none of the lag that has sometimes hampered previous Polar devices. 

That’s in-part due to a better processor that increases the speed by 129% over the Grit X Pro. Navigating stats and tools is smoother and snappier, though I found the raise to wake really temperamental, often not firing when I raised my arm mid-workout. I’d also like control over the relatively short screen timeout. 

Other hardware highlights include a flashlight. Polar converts the screen into a torch which is slightly more awkward to use than Garmin’s front-facing torch when you’re trying to aim the beam. 

The Grit X2 Pro is also tested to MIL-STD 810 standards and is waterproof to 100m. 

Sports Tracking and Features

• Full suite of training, recovery and activity tools
• New accuracy-boosting climb and descent insights
• GPS accuracy still has some way to go

The Polar Grit X2 Pro doesn’t have too many shiny new features to shout about. The highlights include new VAM and vertical speed tools that measure the rate at which you climb or descend, serving up more accurate information in lumpier terrain. There’s also a new 3D speed readout to calculate your true speed as you tackle those ascents.  

Polar’s Work-Rest-Guide is another useful addition that landed first on the Vantage v3. It helps you decide when to start a new set during a workout based on your heart rate data. 

Beyond those new bells and whistles, the Grit X2 Pro offers the most comprehensive suite of training, racing, recovery, activity and sleep tracking you’ll find on any Polar device. 

It offers more than 150 sport modes – including a triathlon multisport mode – along with familiar tools including Training Load Pro, Recovery Pro and Nightly Recharge recovery insights, Sleep Plus Stages and SleepWise sleep tracking.

FitSpark workout recommendations deliver recovery-linked daily workout ideas. The fitness benchmarking tests are the best you’ll find on any sports watch, including a new walking test for a low-impact way to assess fitness. 

Polar’s FuelWise recommendations make it easy to create fuelling plans for longer endurance events while the estimated energy usage breakdown is a handy (but estimated) window into your main fuel sources for each workout and the day.

The Grit X2 Pro also offers non-medical ECG tests – great for taking intentional HRV readings along with SpO2 blood oxygen and nighttime body temperature monitoring. 

The Polar Flow app and web tools act as the hub for all your data. There’s a huge amount of information here, with easy to decipher top level insights for each workout along with detailed tools for mapping training trends and higher-level coaching tools. 

However, I found the Grit X2 Pro has a frustrating habit of sometimes failing to sync with the Polar Flow app. You often have to reconnect your watch and phone. 

Navigation smarts have been improved, too. The watch now comes pre-loaded with offline Topo maps for North America and Europe (you can download other regions for free with up to 32GB storage). There’s also breadcrumb navigation – a big miss from the original Grit X Pro – and support for Komoot and Strava routing. That’s added to Hill Splitter automatic climb and descent detection, turn-by-turn powered by Komoot, plus route and elevation profiles.

Building routes in Strava and syncing to the watch was a doddle, and the maps really come alive on the sharp, colourful AMOLED screen with good detail. I like that you can use the touchscreen to scroll around but found having to switch to the physical buttons to zoom in and out somewhat fiddly. 

The Grit X2 Pro now offers dual frequency GPS (with the L1/L5 channels) and a new signal-boosting antenna. In terms of GPS hardware, it now rivals the likes of the Garmin Forerunner 965, the Fenix 7 series and the Epix Pro 2.

I tested it up against other dual frequency-packing watches including the Vantage V3, the Garmin Forerunner 965 and the COROS Vertix 2S. In general, I found the accuracy to be good. In most cases it came within an acceptable 10% margin for error on my regular routes. 

I used it to run the London half marathon where it came up slightly short at 13.03 and during the Adidas Manchester Marathon where it clocked within 0.1 mile of the Vantage V3 and Garmin Forerunner 965 dual frequency modes, and just 0.2 miles over the official distance. Another solid performance.  

Reliability drops significantly when you use the power-saving “Every 2 Mins” mode. On two test runs it was more than half a mile out. Over an ultra distance where you’re most likely to use this setting, it might become too unreliable to be useful. 

The Grit X2 Pro has the same upgraded biosensors as the Polar Vantage V3, pairing Polar’s Elixir technology with the new fourth generation optical heart rate sensor, plus ECG, nightly skin temperature and blood oxygen sensors. Updated algorithms help to weed out wrist-based heart rate inaccuracies during interval sessions and strength training. 

In my tests, I found the optical heart rate sensor accuracy to be nicely reliable. It’s not perfect though as it occasionally struggled at the start of runs, sometimes spiking before settling – a common issue with optical sensors, but on the majority of my workouts it was a close match for the Polar H10 chest strap, often giving identical max and average HR reads. It was about as reliable as optical heart rate readings get. 

Battery Life

• Up to 43-hours dual frequency GPS tracking
• GPS life extends to to 140-hours in power save mode
• Ultra-friendly levels of endurance

The Grit X2 Pro’s claimed battery life has increased marginally versus the original Grit X Pro but it doesn’t rival the Garmin Fenix – a sacrifice you make for that lovely AMOLED screen. However, the Grit X2 Pro still has good staying power. 

It’s not quite Garmin Enduro 2 or Coros Vertix 2 levels but in my tests, there was more than enough juice. The Performance Training Mode came up just short of the claimed 43-hours, closer to 40-hours but I got 13-hours GPS workouts over 11 days before needing to charge the watch. 

Overall, I’d estimate you’ll get an average of 7-10 days usage on a single charge with approximately 10 hours of training, although that seemed to drop rapidly when I used the music controls paired to my phone.  

Polar’s overnight battery burn has also improved with an average of 3% per night. That’s about the same as most Garmin watches.

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