Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsSwipe interface problems. User intefaces lacking.
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2020
I bought the watch as a gift to someone else but they suggested I wore it a few days to figure it out and see if it indeed a good choice because I do own a Garming Vivoactive 3 thus I can draw some parallels to that product.
The first negative experience was the watch does not sync automatically. You have to hold the button to sync it. Not a big deal, but felt annoying actually. When it comes to connecting to the phone, the Polar Flow interface is (in my opinion) far inferior to say Garmin Connect. Polar Flow is gratuitously flashy but hard to get any sense of what is happening. The information is sparse, and no page feels to me like one that decently summarizes my day.
One advantage of the Polar Ignite is that it has more pre-built activities - I get pretty much the same numbers with Garmin's general Cardio as with Bodycombat on the Polar. Still it is nice that the activity is already named accordingly.
The Ignite's watch face is much brighter, and very colorful and pretty (this is one reason I picked it actually) but is only on when activated, the Vivoactive is always on albeit not nearly as strong on contrast. Over long term I found the Polar watch face a bit distracting and less friendly. Anyone can see a mile away what your watch face shows. The Vivoactive 3 watch face ended up feeling more friendly, and informative, especially since you can customize the Vivoactive 3 watch face but not the Polar.
The second day with the Polar Ignite I ran into serious technical problems, and I decided to return the watch. After syncing the interface went wonky, the view is constantly wiggling (as if someone were trying to swipe), even when the watch is laying flat on the table. To make it stop I have to reboot the watch.
While the watch itself could be replaced, I really did not like the Polar Flow interface at all. Felt wrong to have someone stuck looking at that.
Edit: for gifting I replaced the Polar Ignite with a Garmin Vivomove HR
