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Polar Vantage – New Planned Features

Polar Vantage V ReviewThe Polar Vantage Roadmap has been updated and now the next major release will include several new features from the recently announced Polar IGNITE fitness watch. As expected, most of Ignite’s new features are included with the exception seeming to be the FITSPARK training.

Basically, that means more sleep and recovery stuff. And if you check your Polar FLOW app you should see some new SLEEP screens there.

The features in v4 look to cover all the features that I need myself.

UPDATE 4.0

Timing: October 2019

What’s included:

  • Galileo/QZSS/BeiDu satellite system support. This update improves GPS functionality in specific areas.
  • Fitness Test: You can do it both with wrist-based heart rate and chest strap heart rate sensor.
  • Zone Lock: You can lock a training zone during your workout.
  • Lap details: time, distance, average pace etc., in the training file on your Vantage watch.
  • Manual stride sensor calibration.
  • Sleep Plus Stages: Deeper information on your sleep with sleep cycles and sleep score.
  • Nightly Recharge: A recovery measurement that shows how well you recover from stress and training during the night.
  • Serene breathing exercise: Relax your body and calm down your mind with the new Serene breathing exercise.
  • Constant backlight setting for training: you can choose to have the backlight always on during training sessions.
  • Inactivity Alert: When you’ve been sedentary for an hour, you get an alert so that you know it’s time to get up and take a little walk.
  • Enhancements for existing features but nothing like Whoop as we thought would come.

UPDATE 5.0

Timing: December 2019

What’s included:

  • Strava Live Segments support (only for Vantage V).
  • Race Pace.

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22 thoughts on “Polar Vantage – New Planned Features”

  2. Where is FitSpark feature? Doesn`t make sense to include other new features and not FitSpark as well.

    1. unfortunately it DOES make sense.
      I have been having some offline conversations for the last few days and predicted precisely this.
      it IS more of a fitness feature. look at the Suunto 3/5..it’s the same there (so far). the products have to be differentiated.

      Of course, like you, I do see the possible benefits of this sort of feature in the off-season. Keep hassling Polar and they may give in!

      1. I have a vantage V after having the a370 and m430. I’ve only used the multisport mode a couple of times for adventure racing (and glad that I had the feature) but most of my watch use is for general training – in the gym, occasional runs and MTB. I really like the recovery / cardio load pro feature in the V and use the orth test 3 times a week. I am very glad that they are adding a bunch of new features to the watch but also disappointed that FitSpark isn’t one of them. Their target market aren’t always the ones buying the products and at the end of the day, the Vantage V is their top of the line flagship watch; it should have all of the features of the cheaper variants ESPECIALLY if those features are purely software based.

      2. I’d generally agree with you.
        But the brand will say that the features should be targetted to the needs of the target demographic. That’s marketing

      3. The V is definitely overkill for the lifestyle/smartwatch crowd who all this fluff is marketed at. Do you think a professional athlete sleeps with his watch or wants to know what workouts are appropriate on any given day? And it doesn’t end at pros, if you’re serious with your training, then all you need your sportswatch for is for the actual workout. Rest comes from getting to know your body, and for the rest of the day you can wear any other watch that’s actually looking good. Apart from having algorithms based on sketchy science at best (most studies not peer-reviewed, usually very low CoE), most of those functions require you to wear the watch 24/7, at least over night. Usually in a position that’s not even comfortable (for 24/7 HR for instance).
        Don’t get me wrong, I’m a number-cruncher by heart, and would love to get actionable data from my fitness device. I do not, however, wanna be a slave to wearing it, nor do I have any confidence in the data they come up with (garbage in-garbage out is the gist of those metrics usually) YET. I hope this will change in the very near future.

    2. I think they’ll expect that the consumers with the higher-end Vantage M and V watches will have a specific goal or plan in mind, rather than waiting for a watch to suggest what they might want to do that day.

      If they could somehow incorporate what FitSpark will do into training plans to make it more dynamic that would be something awesome to see on the more sport-focussed devices.

      1. New update for Ignite.
        It would be useful for many owners of Vantage series as well, don`t you think?

        In addition, planned training targets from Polar Flow have been added to the FitSpark training suggestions. If you’ve created a training target in the Polar Flow app or web service, the target will be shown at the top of the FitSpark training suggestions list on the day it’s scheduled.

    3. Would love to see FitSpark in the Vantage V. I think it could bei useful in the off-season.

  3. Do you think Polar is catching up with Firstbeat/Garmin with these new physiological features?

  4. Just ordered an Ignite having sold my Vantage earlier this year. It has enough functionality for me (I think) and noticed it has race pace but not zone lock. Do you think this might come to the Ignite as it’s a very useful feature

    1. thank you for the support with Power meter City. the 10% discount code should hopefulyl have worked for you.

      not sure about the answer to your question. I’d guess probably not….but it might. I could ask but polar usually don’t reveal futures outside of official roadmaps.

  5. Would love to see training reminders on my V. The V800 feature did a great job helping me to take my nutrition right in time every 15-20 minutes.

  6. Lap Details: Does that mean that after a year we FINALLY get a usable auto/manual lap alert view? That’d be great. Merely showing the time it took for the last lap is atrocious vs the load of metrics even a M430 displays after each auto-lap. This alone might make me go back to my Vantage.
    Although, upon re-reading it a couple times it might just be that you can scroll through single lap details after a run, also something a basic M430 let you do right from the start. So, what’s it gonna be?

  7. Thanks for all the great articles! I am looking to get a watch to replace my fenix 3. I need a barometric altimeter, so that limits my options. Would you recommend the Vantage V or Vantage V Titan over the 945? I’m having a heck of a time making a choice, going on two months of scouring articles, reviews, and comments. I will also be using a Stryd once it arrives, but both watches seem to be fine for that.

    1. The Vantage won’t let you calibrate a Stryd until October the earliest. For now you’re stuck with auto-calibration which kinda defeats the purpose of using a foot pod for instant pace since you’re – again – dependent on an optimal GPS signal. Something new watches have a very hard time with, thanks to those low-power-consumption GPS chips.
      If you plan on training by power, than both watches are fine, with the Vantage’s native support feeling a little bit more polished than Garmin’s clunky CIQ solutions.
      That said, while I prefer Polar’s ecosystem, nothing beats my trusted 935 (and M430 to some degree). The Vantages still have a ways to go in catching up. Not only to 935/945 but even to their predecessors the M430, and V800 respectively (calibration, data fields, lap display, zone lock to name but a few).

      1. One day I’m going to test one of these Vantage/945 whilst running but using OWS mode. Apparently that boosts the frequency of the device trying to get a fix. Might make it more accurate?

        I’m posting this hoping that someone will do it for me first 😉

  8. In the October update, BeiDu satellite system support is not mentioned/ included anymore. Sad if you live in China
    Pl

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