Polar’s huge free watch update adds Garmin-style controls and makes your phone less important
Polar’s huge free watch update adds nine new graphs, better battery protection and a shortcut Garmin users will recognise
by Matt Kollat · T3
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Less than a year after its latest software update, Polar just made six of its best running watches much less dependent on your phone with a huge free update
The company is rolling out a big software update, with a key improvement being reduced reliance on your smartphone.
Polar OS6 is arriving today as a free update for the Polar Vantage V3, Vantage M3, Grit X2 Pro, Grit X2, Ignite 3 and Street X.
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The update concentrates on removing some of the little frustrations that crop up when you actually live with one every day.
Leave the phone in your pocket
One of the biggest changes is the arrival of nine additional trend graphs directly on the watch.
Previously, checking trends for many metrics meant heading into Polar Flow on your phone.
OS6 brings that information to your wrist, so you can see how your data is changing without opening another app.
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Key sport-profile settings can now be adjusted directly on compatible watches.
This is a big improvement for people using older Polars, as syncing your watch with the Polar Flow app has always been a treacherous business.
Furthermore, you can enter your weight directly on the watch and view your previous seven entries as a trend graph.
There's finally a programmable button
Polar is also turning the upper-left button into a customisable shortcut.
You can choose what the button activates during everyday use or while training, turning it into a programmable hotkey for whatever function you use most frequently.
The one exception is the Polar Ignite 3, which doesn’t get the feature.
Another welcome addition is an optional 80% charging limit. When enabled, the watch stops charging before reaching full capacity, a familiar battery-preservation technique already used by smartphones and other rechargeable devices.
It’s switched off by default, but could be worth enabling if your Polar spends a lot of time sitting on its charger.
Polar has also refreshed the menu interface with updated colours and smoother transitions, while the watch faces introduced with the Street X are being rolled out across Polar’s other AMOLED models.
Polar OS6 is available from 30 September as a free update for the Polar Vantage V3, Vantage M3, Grit X2 Pro, Grit X2, Ignite 3 and Street X.
It can be installed by syncing a compatible watch with the Polar Flow app.
For more information about the update, head over to Polar.
TOPICS
Garmin