Amazon.com: Customer reviews: POLAR VANTAGE V – Premium GPS Multisport Watch for Multisport & Triathlon Training (Heart Rate Monitor, Running Power, Waterproof), Pro (Includes H10 HRM Chest Strap), White

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2019

Recently purchased this watch to replace a Polar M430, which worked perfectly well. My reason, having run marathons for many years, I was looking to make a breakthrough race by ramping up the volume. Based upon three weeks using this watch, I believe it will be an incredibly useful tool for me to get the most out of my training without getting injured.

The trick to top performance is to maximize stress (in a smart way, i.e., a mix of intervals, tempo runs, long runs, and rest) without getting injured. This watch, with its othostatic test and cardio stress software, offers to provide guidance to push the edge to stay right on the line between productive and destructive training. So far I am very happy with the feedback it has given. The orthostatic test seems to provide a great heads up to when I have gone too far and am risking injury by overtraining.

Further, although I have not raced with it yet, measuring "power" from the wrist (a unique feature of the watch) promises to be a very useful means of monitoring for a consistent effort over varied terrain. For example, on tempo runs, I aim for a consistent effort. Not surprisingly, my fastest miles have always been the downhill miles and my slowest the uphill ones. What I did not know, until checking the power feature of this watch, was that my uphill effort was significantly greater than my downhill. Now I know that I should aim to get even more speed going downhill so that the effort going up and down is closer to the same. Theoretically, the consistency of effort over the run should allow me complete the entire run at a faster rate than if I let the hills dictate my effort.

I agree with the criticism in one of the reviews that the display can be too dim at times. This is annoying but not a significant impediment. For me, the reason to get the watch is to get more nuanced and unique information and the software (Polar Flow) that can makes sense of the data. For that purpose, this is a great watch unmatched by anything else in the market.

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Freddy

Fallas

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023

Este reloj NO es resistente a los golpes (El tablero presentó un daño luego de que me cayera desde una altura de 50cms). Ahora, los LED han fallado y debo pagar al servicio técnico para que los remplacen

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Kaitlin M.

Amazing tech for Tri!

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

i was looking for a product to help me get ready for my first half ironman in 2019. Ive done a bunch of research on the top tri watches from all major brands and ultimately decided to give the new Polar Vantage V with H10 a try. The ability to get indoor swim metrics and run power were the major factors in my decision but I decided to spend a little more money and get the bundle with the H10 in the box. The recovery pro options with the Flow app are awesome plus I get to use the H10 for indoor riding with Zwift. Really love the product and I cant wait to use it more

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Bark the Shark

Great battery life, accurate HR & GPS, intuitive and easy to read displays

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

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POLAR REVIEW VANTAGE V – November 17, 2018
I have been wearing the Vantage V for two weeks straight now, and have used it for a dozen workouts, including running a marathon, strength training (TRX), swimming and continuous daily use.
* Note - I am an experienced triathlete (going on 30 years now, including 6 full Ironman races, dozens of 70.3 distance races and 13 NYC Marathons since 1990) and longtime user of Polar products, most recently the V800, M400 and M430 units. I loved the V800 until I was able to leave the strap behind with the M430 and have a V650 permanently mounted on my bike.
The Vantage V is immediately intuitive if you’ve used Polar products before, and easy to learn otherwise. Center right button to select/start, up and down buttons to scroll, lower left button to go back or see the main menu, top left button for the light. The touch screen makes the buttons almost superfluous. A single tap on the start button provides your current heart rate. I have found this
Sizewise, it’s bigger (46mm diameter, 13mm thick) than earlier Polar HRMs, but nowhere near as big as the giant Garmin’s I have seen.
Everyday Use – I wear the Vantage V as my everyday watch. I have gotten complements on it and so far, it has only needed to be recharged once, unlike the Garmin units I have also used, which in my experience ALWAYS needed to be charged when I needed them. Polar HRM battery life in general for me has always been superior to any other HRM or GPS unit. The last Garmin I owned was a 610 – I gave up on them after the frustrations it gave me from horrible battery to random resets and loss of data.
In the Box - The Vantage V, charging cable and a Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor chest strap. Getting started with the watch and pairing it to my iPhone and chest straps has been quick and simple.
Software/App – The Polar flow app is an amazing tool for demystifying training. Letting you easily see both your moment to moment data simultaneously displaying it as a graph, as well as letting you separately view both automatic laps (you set the distance or time length) and your own laps from hitting the button.
Like the V800, M400 and M430, the Vantage V uploads to automatically to the Polar Flow app, and I have it set up to automatically upload to Training Peaks and Strava. I currently have 9 sports profiles (workout types and associated screens) loaded up and over a hundred to easily choose from and customize using the app.
GPS – Since the V800 and through to the Vantage V, I have always found Polar units to be highly accurate, moreso than even the Garmin Forerunner units I have used. A trip from New York to Maine and a couple of runs there let me test out the syncing of the GPS signal far from my home base. No problems encountered.
Running – I wore the Vantage V for the NYC marathon last week, and it passed the trail by fire with flying colors. I wore the M430 on the other wrist and glanced at both as I ran. I am including images of the automatic splits and graphs from Polar Flow. It even corrected for signal loss while crossing the lower level of the Queensborough Bridge, which in the past has vexed both Polar and Garmin units.
Swimming – for the last year or more, I’ve used the M430 for swim heart rate but had to track my yardage separately. It’s all in one with the Vantage V and, similar to the V800, it knows when I’m doing breast stroke and backstroke (butterfly seems to be too similar to freestyle to tell the difference).
The V800 was excellent for this but needed a chest strap to get HR and it would never stay on through a push-off. The Vantage V included the new H10 chest strap, but I have to remember to bring it to the pool (I’ve gotten spoiled by wrist based HR and keep forgetting to pack it in my morning bag).
With the Vantage V, I like getting HR feedback immediately and being able to read it clearly even with my goggles on. That’s a big deal for me – can’t easily use reading glasses in the pool.
Its also super easy to change the pool distance. My Masters team workouts alternate between short course years (25y), short course meters (25m) and long course (50 m). Pool length comes up as an option when you scroll to the swim profile and you can set a custom distance as well.
Fitness Tracking – Using the Vantage V for both workouts and everyday use, Polar Flow tracks steps, total distance, active time, calories burned and shows them to you on the Vantage as well as in Polar Flow.
Running Power – I haven’t used this before and I will be monitoring it for a future update to this review.
Training Load Pro, Recovery Pro – acts like a coach to give you feedback on your training load and recover. Since I used the Vantage V for a marathon after two days of taper, it told me I was overtraining, and it gave me messages that I am detraining over the next few days during my recovery. Two weeks in, it is learning from my workout patters and frequency - today the screen displays that I am “Productive - training progressively which should improve my fitness level”.
Sleep Tracker – How it knows, I don’t know, but it knows when I am sleeping, it knows when I’m awake, it knows when I am restless and rates my sleep (for goodness sake). In the last decade, I came to realize that tracking my sleep has had a direct positive affect on my overall health.
Colors – I got the White band but it also comes in black and Orange.
Chest Strap - I haven’t used the included H10 chest strap for swimming yet, but the strap seems like it might survive a fast lane push-off without ending up around my ankles. Stay tuned on that front. The chest strap is needed for the orthostatic test. In the coming days will try it out on a run as well and compare it with the M430 and post an update.
Pros
- Heart Rate Accuracy - Chest strap not required! Wrist based sensors in general do not seem to be as immediately accurate as the chest straps (optical in the wrist, electrical impulses detected by the chest strap), but its close enough that I have no desire to go back to the chest strap except for the Orthostatic Test but I am only just starting to use the included H10 chest strap.
- GPS Accuracy – As good as any Polar and better than Garmin in my experience.
- Battery Life. I ran a marathon last week and it was still going on the original charge a week later with several workouts and other functions. I only recharged it because I was going out of state for a long weekend.
- Easy to read. I don’t need my reading glasses to see the screen. The larger face and control of the screens (using the Polar Flow app) allows me to customize the view but I can still easily see the numbers at night with the light activated as well as through my goggles when swimming. The first update made the screen even brighter and easier to read.
- On screen indication of training zones. I love this feature – the customizable heart and power zones are displayed in color as both an analog scale along the top and on the HR or power reading itself. I LOVE this feature.
- Easy to sync and update. All setup and updates can be done through the Polar Flow app. No need to plug It into a computer.
- Comfort – the band and watch are not overly big and awkward. I doesn’t sit too high on my wrist and this is a key feature for me as I’m a bit of a klutz but haven’t smacked the Vantage into any walls or tables yet after more than a week on continuous use.
Cons
- A chest strap is needed for Orthostatic test. Whatever telemetry the chest strap provides can’t be provided by the optical sensor. The test works with the H7 chest strap as well.
- It’s not complete yet. No show stoppers for me but some folks are not pleased that its incomplete. Firmware updates have been announced (according to Polar):
o Update 1 – November 8, 2018 – Bug fixes, brighter backlight (installed)
o Update 2 – December 2018 – (Polar Vantage V&M) - Stopwatch, countdown timer and interval timer: Enhancements for existing features.
o Update 3 – “Early 2019” - Smart notifications, Route Guidance, Waypoint navigation for downloaded routes: Discover new routes from other users in Polar Flow and third-party services, Enhancements for existing features.
o “Future Updates”: Strava Live Segments, Fitness Test, Enhancements to existing features. Other features to be confirmed.
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Overall Review – I love it, it’s a winner! The battery life, ease of use and large screen make it esthetically pleasing and the functions it currently has will carry me through the off-season and unto the late Winter/Early Spring when I ramp up my training. The only reason it’s not a five star review is the delay in fully realizing all the functions I have come to use and enjoy in the M430 and V800, all of which are coming in the future updates.

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Gerard Reski

Finally a watch that has everything I want and easy to use

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

Finally, a running watch that has everything I want and easy to use.
Fast GPS hook up, easy charging, readable display with colors and easy to use software. The Polar software is great I'll be dropping Strava.
I like to look of the watch as too.

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Jaime

My best sport watch, it's excellent by far and I love it.

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

I love this watch, for different reasons that I am going to share with you and that in my opinion make vantage V the best option among what you can find, especially with this price.

I use it day and night, to track my physical activity and sleep quality and recovery, I use it for swimming, running, cycling, and home or gym workouts mainly.

It is very good looking. Its wide and soft strap and the shape of the watch case are excellent. the screen lights up very well in low light places and direct sunlight is even better. It is super light, with just 66 grams in weight, especially compared for example with suunto or garmin. The building materials are exclent, the feeling is very very premium, and it is very comfortable to wear all day and night.

I really like the interface because it is very easy to operate, both from the buttons and from the screen itself because it is touch screen.

It has a quick menu to activate the flight mode, the do not disturb or the constant backlight for night workouts features which is great. you can also program the “do not disturb” feature while you sleep.

For December 31, 2019 polar made a new update and now the watch has new features such as the strava live segments, Race Pace and FitSpark, which added to the update they made in October 2019 where they joined the vantage V the features of "sleep plus stages, Nightly Recharge, Serene, Galileo and QZSS satellite system support,
Manual stride sensor calibration, ZoneLock, Quick settings menu for Vantage V (flight mode, do not disturb, alarm) accessed by swiping down from the top of the display in time view, Constant backlight setting for training, Inactivity alerts on your watch, Fitness Test with wrist-based heart rate, and those that I had already received as Back to start and Route Guidance, in my opinion make this watch the best option both in functionality, as in quality / price.

to swim is great, it is very easy to read the information on the screen in the pool and to configure the size of it, it also worked excellent in swimming in open water.

In my opinion the battery life is excellent for what is required, because I can go out to train without worrying about running out of battery for the consumption of GPS. In my experience the battery lasts the week without problems, training an hour and a half per day.

the straps are not so easy to change, but it is also not too complicated to do, so I have two other straps to vary the color.

The notifications on the watch and the polar-flow app work excellent, beyond which you can access all the information about sleep, recovery, activity status and many others directly on the watch.

About the polar service and support, I can tell my experience with an ignite that I bought about three months ago, in which the watch came badly from the factory, and after some comings and goings, polar finally did the replacement for a new one, so I could say that if you get to have a problem, the company responds, at least in my experience.

I think polar, after these updates has greatly strengthened the vantage V, which in my opinion makes it the best value for money option. Highly recommended.

About H10 heart rate sensor, I have been trying it, and I have to tell you that There are a big improvement with this version. You can use it even without your watch, using the polar flow app.

The measure is pretty accurate every time, in the pool, running, cycling or wherever you'll be doing. I realize that the measure between watch and H10 is almost exactly the same in all conditions. I recommend this H10 heart rate sensor too.