Polar Ignite 3 In-Depth Review: Multiband + AMOLED!

Polar has just announced its newest watch – the Ignite 3. And despite being a watch typically focused on the mid-range price bucket, they’ve gone ahead and put their most advanced technology to date into it. It features a stunningly beautiful AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 3, while even more notably adding in multiband/dual-frequency GNSS, making the Ignite 3 the first Polar product to have it, and joining the likes of Apple, Garmin, COROS, and more.

Beyond that Polar has added a smaller slate of updates and tweaks, mostly long-running requests from previous Polar Ignite models. These include the addition of manual laps via ‘Slap to lap’, as well as adding in the Running Test and Walking Test. Further, they’ve increased the processor, added watch face customization, and an always-on display. Coming later this month Polar will roll out two additional features, including what they’re calling ‘SleepWise’, which Polar says is essentially an analysis of how last night’s sleep will impact your day ahead, including a forecast of “daytime alertness levels”. The second feature is audio guidance during training, when using headphones or your phone’s speaker.

Here’s the quick rundown of what’s new in the Ignite 3:

- Switched to 1.28” AMOLED touchscreen display (416x416, 16M colors)
- Switched to Gorilla Glass 3.0
- Added Always-On Display Option
- Added multiband/dual-frequency GNSS
- Doubled the processor power (2x previous Ignite 2)
- Added ability to customize watchface widgets (aka data complications)
- Added Running & Walking Tests (previously only had Fitness Test)
- Added manual laps (via slap)
- Existing Polar Prime optical HR sensor
- Smartwatch Battery life: Up to 5 days in non-always-on display mode
- GPS battery life: Up to 30 hours of GPS time and HR tracking (XXX mode)
- Watch weighs 35g, includes two size straps in box (20mm size)

Additionally, there are two further features not available at launch, but will come later this month in a firmware and app update:

- Adding SleepWise Insights: These will essentially show the impact of last night’s sleep on your day ahead
- Adding Voice Guidance during training: This will use Bluetooth headphones or your phones speaker to give you workout stats mid-workout

Note that Polar says that SleepWise insights will be rolled out to all Polar devices that currently support Sleep Plus Stages, after the initial Ignite 3 rollout, specifying a time of “Later this year”.

#PolarIgnite3 #POlarIgnite #Polar