After years of raving about my love of the Polar Vantage V2, I used to be actually curious to check out this new entry stage operating watch. This Polar Pacer Professional overview will assist breakdown the important thing options, together with the important thing variations to the Pacer and Vantage fashions.

The Polar Vantage V2 is a high of the road operating watch with the most effective in wrist based mostly coronary heart price and all of the bells and whistles you may need on a operating watch. However for lots of runners, that’s merely pointless once you begin operating so there’s NO NEED to splurge for that high greenback watch.

The truth is, I are inclined to advocate for the entry stage watch. It’s straightforward to make use of, you might have actually extra options than most runners use and it’s cheaper! That being mentioned, we’ll cowl any options you may be lacking.

Then when you’ve been operating awhile, it’s additional thrilling to stage up.

After utilizing the Polar Pacer Professional for various runs from the roads, to treadmill to path, I’ve obtained a full overview right here.

Polar Pacer Professional Evaluation

A lot of years in the past I examined out the Polar M and I’m discovering this new watch could be very comparable, however with a number of notable exceptions. The HR readings have been upgraded, simpler to learn display screen and all of the know-how updates which have come alongside since then.

One factor that Polar does nicely is offering updates to even their base fashions, quite than saving them just for high finish.

This watch is marketed actually to these targeted totally on operating which is why they’ve the tremendous primary Polar Pacer and this barely upgraded Pacer Professional. Nonetheless, it’s an over nice smartwatch health tracker that’s going to offer greater than sufficient so that you can monitor different exercises.

See the total watch particulars on Polar >>

Sensible Watch

Like most GPS operating watches now it may well show textual content notifications, calendar gadgets, telephone calls, and so on. However I’m a fair larger fan of the climate display screen, which exhibits me the temp for the following few hours and I can drill down for extra particulars.

• Music Controls for no matter is taking part in in your telephone
• Step monitoring, 24/7 HR Monitoring
• Straightforward to customise watch faces per exercise by way of the Polar Circulate app
• Holds as much as 20 sport profiles (custom-made on the app)
• Obtainable in only a one measurement matches all strap, however you possibly can swap out straps
• Obtainable in 5 colours

There may be plenty of speak in regards to the upgraded processing pace, however I suppose since I’ve been utilizing the very quick V2, I by no means realized this was a problem.

With 5 buttons the watch is fairly easy to make use of. The most important pink button is what you’ll hit to point you’re able to do a exercise. Then you definately’ll choose from the checklist of operating, strolling, swimming, and so on to start out your exercise.

The opposite proper aspect buttons are up and down.

The decrease left button is pause

Battery Life

• 7 Days in smartwatch mode
• 35 hours with full GPS and HR monitoring
• 100 hours in energy save, which suggests much less accuracy in HR and GPS
• Tremendous quick charging for these oops I forgot mornings

It’s a special charger than the V2 and in a fast take a look at I discovered that for about 10 minutes of charging, I might certainly get a minimum of 10% battery life which is sufficient for many of us to get in a weekday run.

Wrist Based mostly Coronary heart Price

The Pacer makes use of their latest coronary heart price know-how which is superb in an entry stage watch. It additionally has a flatter floor than the V2, so this could assist with readings. To date on my runs it’s been correct in comparison with comparable runs with a chest strap.

• They’ve extra sensors on each watches for higher studying accuracy
• Make the most of completely different coloured gentle sensors to attempt to get even higher readings

GPS Accuracy

Not solely does this matter after we’re on the paths, however operating by means of cities with plenty of tall buildings. Polar truly offers you the choice to hook up with a wide range of completely different satellite tv for pc choices, which is able to assist with accuracy and be particularly helpful to modify in case you are within the US vs Europe.

You may select GPS + GLONASS, GPS + Galileo or GPS + QZSS.

It additionally has “Assisted GPS” that will help you purchase a satellite tv for pc sooner…much less time spent waving arms within the air. I can say I’ve all the time discovered it to choose up shortly.

NAVIGATION: Import a route and observe the road in your watch to keep away from getting misplaced in new locations or on trails.

Gasoline

Have you ever ever been inquisitive about what gas you’re predominately burning throughout a exercise? With FuelWise it exhibits you what share of energy come from fats vs carbs. That is totally a guesstimate based mostly upon the depth and length of your exercise.

Ideally in a simple run you wish to see 50% or extra coming from fats. That’s the way you construct endurance.

FitSpark Exercises

I really like that it not solely jogs my memory that I ought to add in energy, core, mobility or a stretch, but when I choose that choice it can stroll me by means of a exercise on the watch!

Are they probably the most superior or like watching a video, no.

However might they ensure you truly do one thing, sure.

Coaching Load

One frequent function throughout all Polar watches is coaching load.  Whereas some customers know this as a Garmin Standing of Productive or Unproductive, it’s all the identical factor with completely different labels.

The concept is to assist take a look at the entire workload you’ve been doing, alongside your HR price and restoration to assist decide in case your coaching is on monitor, reducing again or sending you in to overtraining.

You may learn extra about the best way to use coaching load right here.

Sleep and Restoration

Like most smartwatches or health trackers, the Pacer Professional contains sleep monitoring.

It’s going to measure the standard of your sleep by taking a look at how a lot time you spend in deep sleep, wakefulness, and whole length. This knowledge is all used to calculate your Nightly Recharge rating.

A great way to remain on high of your restoration and can assist you understand when a relaxation day may be the only option.

Polar Pacer vs Polar Pacer Professional

Each watches are designed for the brand new runner to provide the primary options you want, however the Professional model has only a tad extra inbuilt.

For the extra $100 to get the Professional, right here’s what has been added to the bottom mannequin (in addition to some minor upgrades to feel and appear):

Route Navigation

For those who take pleasure in utilizing that little on watch map to assist discover your method, it’s solely out there on the Professional. It permits you to use “Again to Begin” to get flip by flip instructions again to the place you began, which is very nice in case you run in new cities like I do.

It additionally syncs with Koomt so that you can create routes, load them to the look ahead to flip by flip navigation.

Barometer and Magnetometer

This permits the watch to show an influence meter, which is a software that some runners choose to make use of over Coronary heart Price for measuring exercise depth.

Moreover, the barometer is used to find out change in elevation. It is a function that I truly actually admire as I’m monitoring vert or attempting to get my coaching to match the hills of a race course.

Hill Splitter

For those who like getting granular along with your knowledge to see issues like hill splits, it’s robotically inbuilt to the Professional. It’s going to let you know how large the hills had been, how a lot you climbed and the way a lot you descended.

Polar Vantage V2 vs Polar Pacer Professional

The Vantage V2 is the clear winner towards the Polar Pacer, however when you get to the Professional it’s much more nuanced. Then you definately begin actually wanting on the high quality of the watch and just some options that may entice you to improve.

Understandably for $200 extra it’s important to decide what’s value it to you. There aren’t a ton of options included now on their excessive finish watch that you just gained’t discover right here. However these are a number of:

• The watch band and watch really feel nicer to me
• Altimeter simply exhibiting elevation positive factors
• Nightfall and Daybreak timing
• For much longer battery life, I swear I can go weeks with out charging
• Touchscreen
• Can use the V2 in pool, open water, diving and snorkeling

With these being the main distinction factors, I’ve to marvel if there isn’t a brand new Polar V2 within the works. One would hope they’d add one thing extra to the excessive finish watch to actually make it sing compared. Then once more if ya don’t want extra, it’s excellent!

I’ll proceed to fortunately run in my Polar Vantage V2.

See my full Polar Vantage V2 overview >>

The place to Purchase Polar Pacer Professional?

Personally, I’m all the time going to buy round a bit to seek out the most effective value. However with Polar I have a tendency to seek out the costs are fairly comparable throughout all websites.

I do know that they typically run good Black Friday gross sales!

See costs on Polar.com >>

See costs on Amazon >>

In search of extra evaluations to seek out the most effective issues for you run?

Checkout our full web page of my will need to have operating gear evaluations and guides to avoid wasting you time looking and cash! I share what’s labored for me and fellow runners, together with what wasn’t definitely worth the price ticket.

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