Tested Polar Vantage V2 |In major leagues |The press

Whether through its exceptional autonomy or the astounding range of available data, the Polar Vantage V2 watch is designed for the seasoned sportsman.But at this price, it is not for you if you are just looking for an intelligent watch or if you are a living room athlete.

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From the outset, Polar warns us: Vantage V2 is a "GPS Watch for running and Ultralgère Triathlon".Wear it for half a dozen 5 km of jogging and steps around the house before the curfew, as we did, it's a bit like using an F-35 to make Montreal-Brossard.Let's say there are more economical ways to complete the journey.

So we have a beautiful round watch in the wrist, quite bulky with its diameter of 47 mm, and weighing a very small 52 g.This lightness is all the more remarkable since it is clad in sensors - heart rate reader, barometer, compass and GPS - and contains a battery capable of giving almost two weeks of autonomy on a single load.

Using GPS during training, which makes it completely autonomous of her smart, Android or iOS phone, we can count on a 40 -hour autonomy.

On its dial, when you start training, you can configure up to five data simultaneously, in the position that suits us best.The Polar Flow application also allows you to record up to eight different provisions.You are spoiled for choice: almost sixty data is offered, classic, such as heart rate, average speed or distance, or more pointed, such as power, left-right balance orelevation.

Between the bodybuilding session, the triathlon, the carpet race or the jogging, you have 130 sports activities, for which you can create 20 different profiles.It is difficult to imagine that a sportsman does not find his account there, whatever his level of activity.

And for swimming, it has resistance up to 100 m, where the Garmin Forerunner 945 and the first Vantage V stop at 50 m.

In jogging, we like to see the heart rate at the top of the screen, going from green to red depending on its intensity, which is also displayed on a semicircle.Everything is configurable, but the watch will for example by default buzz at each kilometer and stop when you take a break.

What the watch then makes data is impressive.First, we have a very detailed graphic, where practically each stride and each race segment are dissected.Everything is there, from heart rate to pace through altitude, cadence in number of steps and power in watts.

According to this data, there is then an assessment for the number of calories spent, divided into carbohydrates, proteins and lipids.You will also be entitled to a general comment on the evolution of your form, for example: "What session!You have improved your maximum speed and your neuromuscular system becomes more effective.»»

And this is only the beginning. À partir de l’application, vous pouvez effectuer des tests pour évaluer votre VO₂ max, votre capacité de récupération, ajuster vos zones d’effort, établir si vous êtes capable d’aller plus vite, et la montre peut même vous prévenir si vous risquez le surentraînement.

This is not his specialty, but we endowed the V2 vantage with some intelligent watch characteristics.Its screen is tactile and minimally allows you to scroll through the menus.We can thus stop music, advance or back up a song, control the volume, display the weather, launch a stopwatch and see all the notifications on your phone are displayed.

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Accustomed to the Apple Watch and other Galaxy Watch, we were rather irritated by the complexity of the VO2 Vantage commands.Nothing is intuitive, you have to grop for a long time between the five buttons before finding the right submenu.The one at the bottom left returns to the main screen, the central red button on the right confirms the choices, the other two allow you to back down or move forward.After several weeks, we still can't find our way.The touch screen can sometimes help, but it is so little sensitive that we prefer not to use it too much.

One of the secrets for the autonomy of this watch is the low consumption of its screen, which has an unfortunate effect: its brightness is clearly insufficient in broad daylight.

At $ 689.99, this watch is expensive.

One buys ?

There is only one category of users who can fully take advantage of a watch such as the thriller V2: athletes practicing their activity intensively, from those who devote to it at least ten hours per week untilto professional athletes.For them, the struggle is lively between Vantage V2 and different models of Garmin.Difficult to decide here between these two rivals, which each have their fans, but Vantage V2 obviously relaunched the debate.

As intelligent shows for ordinary people who do not train for a marathon, it has little interest.

Sheet: VOLTAGE V2FABRICANT: POLARPRIX: $ 689.99 ($ 759.99 with heart rate monitor) Note: 4 out of 5