The Polar Ignite 3 Titanium is a great all-rounder that offers everything fitness enthusiasts need. As is typical for Polar, the range of functions is limited to the most important things, so that the smartwatch is not overloaded. There were a few things about the predecessor that the media criticized. At the time, both GPS and surgery were criticized. Has Polar corrected its mistakes in the new version of Ignite 3? Read more about the smartwatch in this report.
tl;dr: If you want a precision smartwatch without too many bells and whistles and don't want to spend 500 euros, you'll hit the mark with the Ignite 3 Titanium from Polar. It has a good battery life of up to 12 days. GPS readings were accurate and game readings detailed. Can only read messages and not reply, but that's good enough for me personally. The watch is not overloaded and it performs well. Getting the H10 chest strap from Polar would be even more accurate. I can highly recommend.
Design and Engraving
In the smartwatch, Polar no longer makes the bezel out of stainless steel, but out of titanium. Visually it makes a neat appearance. The weight of the smartwatch has not changed compared to its predecessor, so you won't notice it while running.
The watch comes with a leather and 20mm wide silicone strap. As for the bezel, I don't find the leather strap to be of high quality. Unfortunately, it was difficult, so I used a silicone bracelet during the testing phase. The smartwatch has a 43 mm case and an AMOLED display that has a resolution of 416 × 416 pixels and measures 1.28 inches. The Ignite 3 series is the only Polar (for now) to feature an AMOLED display. You can dive up to a depth of 30 meters with the smartwatch, so nothing should stop the swimmers among us. Even better, the watch recognizes swimming movements and processes very accurately.
Unlike other models from the manufacturer, the smartwatch has only one button on the left side. It has a touch display so you can use it all. Other models from the manufacturer have five buttons, which is personally more convenient for me. The touch display is all well and good, but when I get sweaty from running, the display becomes unresponsive, making it tricky to use. I would have liked a solution like Garmin. I have the standard Fenix 7 with options to use swipe gestures or buttons. But you can set it to support swiping gestures during the day, but only respond via buttons while playing games. That would have been the best choice. But regardless of functionality, the ultra-high-contrast display was easy to read at all times.
Image: Tech News
Functional scope of Polar Ignite 3 Titanium
As mentioned above, Polar has been in the sports watch business for a long time and is a leader in heart rate monitoring. If you're expecting this watch to be purely a smartwatch, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The main focus, as usual at Polar, is on sports activities and everything related to them. Other models from Polar offer you a huge range of functions, such as the slightly more expensive Pacer Pro, Vantage V2 or Grit X Pro – and recently on the market: the Vantage V3. They cost around 500 euros.
Sleepwise
Polar introduced this functionality with Ignite 3. what is that? It provides a comprehensive overview of sleep and measures sleep quality, while also providing an overview of when you can exercise. Information is presented in a clear dashboard in the Flow app.
Skin temperature
Skin temperature measurement is also included, but the temperature is only measured while you sleep. To do this, you need to keep the watch on your wrist for at least three days or nights while you sleep. Personally, I wear it all the time, it's light, comfortable and doesn't bother me. The advantage of this measurement – if you wear the watch for a long time, here we are talking 28 days plus – the watch can also show temperature deviations, which can indicate a possible disease or infection. Thank God everything is fine with me.
Image: TechnikNews/CodeX
Recovery optimization
If you are a high-intensity exerciser, you can use the Polar function to analyze recovery and exercise phase based on heart rate. This way you can see when you need to rest or wait a little longer for a harder workout. What functions are unfortunately not included? It disappointingly doesn't offer navigation or map support. These are only available for expensive watches from the Polar series.
Polar flow-up
Polar's Flow app obviously has its pros and cons. It's pretty clear and if you want to see more data, you should Log in to the computerBecause you have a more comprehensive perspective.
In the app you have an overview of:
- diary,
- Activities,
- Initiation (Training),
- calendar,
- Sleep,
- night recharge,
- Increases energy through sleep,
- Skin temperature and
- A blog with useful tips about sports.
Thanks to POLAR for providing Ignite 3 Titanium!
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