Polar Grit X2 Pro is a large, rough and rugged, health and fitness tracker with an AMOLED display, designed for multisport athletes and outdoor adventurers.
In the same way that Apple Watch Ultra 2 was a bigger and slightly better version of Watch Series 9 made with more premium materials, Polar Grit X2 Pro is essentially the ultra-premium version of the firm’s Vantage V3.
But it’s a huge step up from its predecessor, Grit X Pro.
READ MORE: Nothing’s new Ear Open wireless buds offer one experience that Apple and Samsung can't give you
Grit X2 Pro comes with an impressive range of features dedicated to fitness, rest and recovery. It boasts a stunning bright and colourful 1.39in AMOLED display that you can see easily in any conditions, dual band GPS, built-in maps and improved performance and battery life.
You get an optical heart rate sensor, an SpO2 sensor for monitoring blood oxygen saturation, a skin temperature sensor for keeping tabs on sleep quality and stress levels and a non-medical ECG sensor monitoring your overall heart health.
Polar Grit X2 Pro design, build and display
The large sleek and stylish 49mm Grit X2 Pro watch looks and feels great on your wrist, and the user interface is fast and fluid whether you use the touchscreen or the five physical buttons that are easy to use.
What’s new compared to Vantage V3 is the stainless steel casing and tougher Sapphire Glass screen - Grit X2 Pro looks similar to the likes of Coros Vertix 2 or Garmin Epix Second-Gen.
That new casing means the Grit X2 Pro has a different GPS antenna design to Vantage V3. You’ll notice this in the best-ever navigation tracking by a Polar device.
The casing also means this 79g watch is waterproof up to 100 metres deep, whereas Vantage V3 was 50 metres deep.
The built-in compass bezel on the casing protects the watch face and case, while functioning as an actual compass whenever you are using the GPS map view.
The rear of the watch houses all the sensors (blood oxygen saturation, body temperature and heart rate) and is crafted from bio-based plastic.
The standard Grit X2 Pro ships with a premium quality interchangeable silicone strap and you can easily swap in any 22mm third party strap. The strap uses a standard pin and buckle enclosure to secure it to your wrist.
There is also a Titan version of Grit X2 Pro that comes with an additional leather strap.
Health and fitness features
The sports and fitness tracking features along with the accompanying Polar Flow app are as rock solid as we’ve come to expect from the firm.
New algorithms mean the heart rate accuracy on Grit X2 Pro is consistently better than any other wearable from the firm.
On the left side of the watch face are two buttons, and on the right are three. Pressing any of the five wakes the watch up (if you don’t have the always-on display enabled), while the function of the buttons will vary depending on what mode you are in.
For example, in training mode one press on the lower left button pauses your session, while a long press for three seconds ends the session; the top and bottom buttons on the right side allow you to toggle various views such as a GPS-connected map and your real-time metrics.
Grit X2 Pro gives you body temperature tracking for insights into sleep and stress levels, blood oxygen saturation monitoring for potential signs of serious illness or conditions, an ECG sensor to keep an eye on your heart, an optical heart rate sensor to monitor your pulse, a barometer to measure altitude gains and an accelerometer to track your movement.
Some sensors work automatically but in order to measure your blood saturation or take an ECG you need to manually take a reading.
More than 150 sports profiles are available. These include everything from jazz dancing to windsurfing and from electric biking and badminton to table tennis. You can customise and save up to 20 profiles on the device.
And you get in-depth analysis features such as Training Load Pro, Recovery Pro insights, FitSpark suggested workouts and FuelWise fuelling reminders. There is clever Hill Splitter technology too.
Grit X2 Pro’s amazing large AMOLED display comes into its own when in training mode as it is so easy to see and read while you are working out, even when you are on the move. You can customise, to some degree, what data is shown on screen for each activity you are tracking.
The excellent Polar Flow app allows you to set and monitor workout goals, with three levels of activity plans to choose from.
One thing to note is Polar watches convert all non-step activity into steps too. This means if you swim, cycle (even on a stationary bike), or do any other heart-rate-driven exercise, it’ll convert these to steps.
Sleep and recovery insights can help you decide the most effective times to go to bed and wake along with the type of workouts that suit you best based on your overall fitness goals. Grit X2 Pro’s sleep analysis reports on how much time you spend in various sleep cycles, changes in your core body temperature and your periods of restlessness.
Navigation
Polar Grit X2 Pro comes with European maps pre-loaded in a basic configuration. But you can easily download other regions, and the more detailed maps, using the Polar Flow website and by hooking up your watch to your PC or Mac. The maps are free and there is 32GB of storage onboard for downloading them for offline use. You can use the buttons to zoom in and out of the maps. You can get turn-by-turn navigation if you use the watch with Komoot.
Grit X2 Pro can receive signals from GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou. Which means it can find a signal in even the most difficult to track locations such as forests or cities with tall buildings. The dual-band GPS tracking ranks as among the best on a wearable.
Other Polar Grit X2 Pro features
Grit X2 Pro displays texts and other smartphone notifications, whatever way you’ve configured them on your phone’s notifications control centre. You can’t respond to these messages from your wrist, but you can dismiss them.
And while Grit X2 Pro has plenty of storage onboard for your maps, there is no music storage or offline playback. Instead, the wearable has music control of your phone’s currently playing media (play/skip/pause/volume), but it cannot otherwise navigate your music library. It also lacks NFC for contactless payments.
Battery life
Battery life is decent. Using Grit X2 Pro in smartwatch mode, battery life from the 488mAh cell was about eight days, or about five days with the always-on display enabled.
In dual GPS mode, the battery life is 43 hours while in single GPS mode you can get up to 140 hours. For comparison, the 47mm Garmin Epix Pro Gen 2 offers 32 hours of dual GPS mode and up to 75 hours in single GPS mode.
Polar Grit X2 Pro verdict
Overall, Grit X2 Pro is an excellent package and one of the most advanced adventure-oriented fitness wearables you can buy, with a stunning screen and impressive battery life too.
It gives targeted multisport watches from Garmin and Coros stiff competition. However, the only downside is that it's more expensive than a lot of its competitors.
Pricing and availability
Polar Grit X2 Pro costs €749.99 from polar.com or €777 from Amazon. The Titan version (with an additional leather strap) costs €869.90.
Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the latest news direct to your inbox
Join the Irish Mirror’s breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive breaking news and the latest headlines direct to your phone. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.