The Polar Grit X2 Professional. All photos courtesy of Polar.
In releasing the Polar Grit X2 Professional ($750) with a launch video this week, Polar goals to discover a place amongst premium GPS watches for ultrarunners and out of doors endurance athletes. This second model of the Grit X Professional mannequin sees the watch get a bigger watch face, a stunning AMOLED display, longer battery life, extra correct distance and pace measurements, improved coronary heart price monitoring, and extra biometrics, amongst different enhancements.
Launched in 2022, the unique Polar Grit X Professional served an identical market to the Coros Vertix line, however didn’t land with the identical fanfare that has adopted Coros the final a number of years. Since then, Suunto launched its glorious Vertical, one other very rugged working and multisport watch, Garmin launched new Fenix and Enduro fashions, and even Apple has turn out to be a participant within the house with the Apple Watch Extremely and its replace.
A commonality with these journey watches is the huge display measurement. It’s an aesthetic query whether or not you favor it or not, however there is no such thing as a denying it enormously helps with navigating maps — particularly when touchscreen-enabled, which the Grit X2 Professional is — and deciphering the info these watches present. The Grit X2 Professional is 15% larger than the unique. That offers it a display diameter of 1.39 inches. For reference, the Coros Vertix 2 is 1.4 inches, the Suunto Vertical is 1.9 inches, and the Garmin Enduro 2 is 1.4 inches.
Most of those watches, together with the Grit X2 Professional, land round $700, with the Enduro extra like $1,000. That is very costly for a working watch. However in every occasion, you’ll get an especially high-performing watch that may work for nearly each different exercise sort you may throw its approach whereas being almost unbreakable with sapphire glass and a titanium physique, and intensely data-rich. And for endurance aficionados, battery life now generally exceeds 40 hours in a high-performance mode, which usually makes use of the very draining trio of dual-frequency satellites, intensive biometric monitoring, and every-second GPS pings.
Nonetheless, in contrast to these different watches on the identical worth level (save for Apple), the Grit X2 Professional differentiates itself with its new AMOLED display. Suunto includes a related AMOLED show on its cheaper new Race watch, however the Grit X2 Professional is now the one watch in its class to supply this beautiful show. After experiencing the brightness and readability of an AMOLED display, many will discover it onerous to return to a watch with an OLED display.
The Polar Grit X2 Professional’s display.
Polar claims 43 hours of battery life in efficiency mode, which is on the higher finish of those competitor watches. As compared, the Suunto Race is perhaps the brand new finest in school with round 45 precise hours. We intention to substantiate Polar’s declare within the coming months throughout testing. Not like the Suunto Vertical and Garmin Fenix 7S, there is no such thing as a photo voltaic charging assist within the Grit X2 Professional to increase its battery’s run time barely. In a extra restricted smartwatch mode, Polar says you may count on 10 days of steady utilization. We might be stunned if the battery didn’t final for 30 or 40 days in its most conservative settings, just like the competitors.
The unique Grit X Professional didn’t have entry to all 5 international satellite tv for pc networks and didn’t use a dual-band GNSS chipset. The brand new Grit X2 Professional not solely has twin frequency capabilities but it surely’s additionally augmented by the GPS Sign Booster, a hoop antenna inserted beneath the bezel that helps reinforce the built-in GPS. These upgrades ought to result in extra correct measurement of distance and pace.
World mapping is offered by way of separate downloads and turn-by-turn steerage is obtainable along with Kamoot. It was unclear whether or not the downloadable maps might be labeled.
One other take a look at the Polar Grit X2 Professional.
The Grit X2 Professional additionally will get an up to date optical coronary heart price sensor. With it comes the bio-tracking Elixir tech suite first launched within the Polar Vantage V3, which incorporates biometrics reminiscent of oxygen saturation (SpO2), coronary heart price variability (HRV), and sleep monitoring.
Lastly, it’s notable that photos of Karel Sabbe have been plastered throughout Polar’s pre-launch video and advertising imagery for the Grit X2 Professional. Few ultrarunners are as profitable at long-trail quickest recognized instances and the Barkley Marathons as Sabbe, so he’s a logical ambassador for Polar to position round its new premier GPS watch.
In sum, the Polar Grit X2 Professional provides one other full-featured GPS watch possibility for runners and runners who additionally ski, bike, climb, swim, and rather more.
After testing it absolutely, we’ll intention to share a full overview of the Polar Grit X2 Professional within the coming months. Within the meantime, try our intensive GPS working watch opinions, together with a Suunto Vertical overview, and Greatest GPS Working Watches information.
The Polar Grit X2 Professional in motion.
