Polar smartwatch users just got a cool free software upgrade
The Grit X2 Pro and Vantage V3 just got smarter with better navigation, extended battery life, and new personalisation features
Polar’s smartwatches are extremely capable health and fitness wearables, tracking everything from sleep and stress to training and recovery with high accuracy.
Now, two of the company’s best multisport watches, Polar Grit X2 Pro and Polar Vantage V3, will receive even more features, thanks to Software Release 3.0.
The Maps feature will now include points of interest (POI) navigation, similar to Garmin watches. Polar says POI allows users to “easily identify key landmarks during outdoor workouts, such as shelters, supermarkets, cafés, and more.”
A more exciting upgrade is the function called Charging During Training. This allows you to charge your watch while your workout is either paused or active, meaning you can record runs that last multiple days and even weeks.
According to the brand, a quick 20-minute charge will provide up to 10 additional hours of training time with GPS and heart rate monitoring enabled.
Pre-training and training summary views are also changing. Apparently, after outdoor workouts, you will be able to ‘relive’ your session and see your route directly on their watch instead of having to pull data up in the Polar Flow app.
Swimmers are also in for a treat and will receive detailed data on the watch, with a breakdown of swimming styles displayed immediately after a pool session.
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Polar users are also getting some smart updates, including the Find My Phone feature that shows the last synced location of the phone on your watch map and lets you play a sound on your phone when it’s within Bluetooth range.
Not quite Apple Find My levels of sophistication, but the battery life is way better on Polar watches, so there is that.
Finally, Software Release 3.0 introduces more personalisation options with two new analogue and three new digital watch face layouts.
Software Release 3.0 is available to all Polar Grit X2 Pro and Polar Vantage V3 users today through the Polar Flow app. The same update will be released for Polar Vantage M3 and Polar Ignite 3 (the Ignite one isn’t getting the Maps and Points of Interest features, tough) in Q2 2025.
For more details on all the new features and improvements, visit Polar today.
Matt Kollat is a journalist and content creator for T3.com and T3 Magazine, where he works as Active Editor. His areas of expertise include wearables, drones, action cameras, fitness equipment, nutrition and outdoor gear. He joined T3 in 2019.
His work has also appeared on TechRadar and Fit&Well, and he has collaborated with creators such as Garage Gym Reviews. Matt has served as a judge for multiple industry awards, including the ESSNAwards. When he isn’t running, cycling or testing new kit, he’s usually roaming the countryside with a camera or experimenting with new audio and video gear.