Polar Debuts Grit X2 Pro Watch: Top GPS Watch Ranks Grow

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 outside endurance athletes. This second model of the Grit X Professional mannequin sees the watch get a bigger watch face, a beautiful AMOLED display screen, 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 operating and multisport watch, Garmin launched new Fenix and Enduro fashions, and even Apple has change into a participant within the area with the Apple Watch Extremely and its replace. 

A commonality with these journey watches is the huge display screen dimension. It’s an aesthetic query whether or not you favor it or not, however there isn’t any denying it enormously helps with navigating maps — particularly when touchscreen-enabled, which the Grit X2 Professional is — and decoding the information these watches present. The Grit X2 Professional is 15% greater than the unique. That provides it a display screen 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 operating watch. However in every occasion, you’ll get an especially high-performing watch that may work for nearly each different exercise kind you’ll be able to throw its means 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 typically makes use of the very draining trio of dual-frequency satellites, in depth biometric monitoring, and every-second GPS pings.

Nevertheless, not like these different watches on the identical value level (save for Apple), the Grit X2 Professional differentiates itself with its new AMOLED display screen. Suunto includes a related AMOLED show on its inexpensive 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 screen, many will discover it onerous to return to a watch with an OLED display screen. 

The Polar Grit X2 Professional’s display screen.

Polar claims 43 hours of battery life in efficiency mode, which is on the higher finish of those competitor watches. Compared, the Suunto Race could be the brand new greatest in school with round 45 precise hours. We purpose to substantiate Polar’s declare within the coming months throughout testing. In contrast to the Suunto Vertical and Garmin Fenix 7S, there isn’t any 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’ll be able to count on 10 days of steady utilization. We’d be shocked 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 nevertheless it’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 obtainable by means of separate downloads and turn-by-turn steering is obtainable along side Kamoot. It was unclear whether or not the downloadable maps will likely 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 resembling oxygen saturation (SpO2), coronary heart price variability (HRV), and sleep monitoring.

Lastly, it’s notable that photographs of Karel Sabbe had 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 occasions 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 choice for runners and runners who additionally ski, bike, climb, swim, and rather more.

After testing it totally, we’ll purpose to share a full evaluation of the Polar Grit X2 Professional within the coming months. Within the meantime, try our in depth GPS operating watch critiques, together with a Suunto Vertical evaluation, and Finest GPS Operating Watches information.

The Polar Grit X2 Professional in motion.