A&H

Polar V800 vs. Vantage V

Kieran W

Well-Known Member
Currently got the V800, looking to upgrade. If anyone on here has had both, what are the differences to the Vantage and is it worth it?
 
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I used to have a V800 and upgraded to a Vantage V, partly because my V800 was coming to the end of its life and I got a bonus at work.

There are some good articles which cover the differences in features between the two models better than I can here.

Whether it is worth upgrading depends on whether you really need all of the additional features available.

If you just want basic GPS and HRM then one of the cheaper options from either Polar or Garmin might be better.

I do endurance events and things like that so having a device with enough battery power and multiple sport profiles available such as swimming and cycling really appealed to me.
 
Now is the time to do it. I did it on release and regretted it with some of the teething problems. But love it now.
Seems more accurate, I saw a reasonable decline in distance covered and max speed which can hardly be coincidental, I know age will start to affect these things but the difference was immediate.
In summary, I love my vantage V, I wear it all the time now. It has some cool features like sleep tracking which the V800 doesn't have and recovery Pro which gives advice on when to train and when to hold back.
 
recovery Pro which gives advice on when to train and when to hold back.

No matter what watch you get, this feature is a must have in my opinion. While I intuitively have always had an idea of when I needed to scale back my training (i.e. "man, I've done games two nights in a row and my legs are heavy - I need to take a break tonight"), having a display showing that I need to scale things back is invaluable. I use a Garmin, but it also has a "Training Status" that shows my VO2 Max and my training load. Last week, I really busted it and saw my training load rise above an optimal level. I took a night off from running and allowed my training load to dip back into optimal (but still did a bodyweight workout).

Sport science, and our access to it, has really emphasized this aspect of training. While I still try to be at least moderately active six days a week and still go for a longer walk on that seventh day, understanding my training load is helpful to know that I may need to do a less intense or recovery-type of workout.
 
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I've recently replaced my Garmin. The new model replaces 'training status' with 'body battery'
So I consider this stuff a gimmick really. These Smart Watches are packed with functionality, little of which is much use. 'Jack of all trades, master of none', is my thinking. I see the new Apple watch has ECG capabilities... leaving doctors redundant!
WRT 'the body battery', all it has to go on, is a guess at sleep, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (although wrist based HRM's leave quite a bit to be desired). The theory on Heart Rate Variability seems sketchy and open to interpretation. So whilst I'm not gonna take much notice of the body battery, it is curious that it knows when I've had too much to drink as the rating plummets (with elevated resting heart rate). Maybe the police can do away with breathalysers and make body battery watches mandatory for all drivers 🍺
 
I've recently replaced my Garmin. The new model replaces 'training status' with 'body battery'
So I consider this stuff a gimmick really. These Smart Watches are packed with functionality, little of which is much use. 'Jack of all trades, master of none', is my thinking. I see the new Apple watch has ECG capabilities... leaving doctors redundant!
WRT 'the body battery', all it has to go on, is a guess at sleep, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (although wrist based HRM's leave quite a bit to be desired). The theory on Heart Rate Variability seems sketchy and open to interpretation. So whilst I'm not gonna take much notice of the body battery, it is curious that it knows when I've had too much to drink as the rating plummets (with elevated resting heart rate). Maybe the police can do away with breathalysers and make body battery watches mandatory for all drivers 🍺
Whilst not scientifically accurate, a decent guess using reasonably accurate training data is better than nothing at all, even if it just gives you a hint thay you are over doing it/under doing it.
I suppose those features are more aimed at the hard-core who are data obsessed.
I wear a hrm when training so don't rely on the wrist based which as you say can be fairly sketchy.
 
The Garmin Instinct has fewer 'bells & whistles', less glamorous on the eye, but is hardened (so hopefully, I can't break it)
The HRM is much improved, but still can't be relied upon during exercise
It supports 1 second data recording and GLONASS GPS (and GALILEO, although not enough birds in the sky yet), so should be accurate down to 3 or 4 metres instead of the usual 10m or so. I understand that it's really difficult for a watch to be very precise WRT GPS, because the motion of the wrist buggers things up. Anyway, I was after a bomb proof watch with reliable GPS (that works under trees etc.), so this one ticked the boxes
 
Whilst not scientifically accurate, a decent guess using reasonably accurate training data is better than nothing at all, even if it just gives you a hint thay you are over doing it/under doing it.
I suppose those features are more aimed at the hard-core who are data obsessed.
I wear a hrm when training so don't rely on the wrist based which as you say can be fairly sketchy.

I also wear a HRM (but an arm-based one - https://shop.statsports.com/products/scosche-rhythm-heart-rate-monitor) when exercising. I definitely use the additional data as reference points when attempting to set a training plan, but I also look at what I've done and how I'm feeling. For example, I worked my first games in five months last night. While the games were on a smaller field (75 yards x 55 yards or so), I did work the equivalent of close to a full match since the two matches were 20-minute halves (40 minute games). Since I also trained on Sunday night, I'm going to do a shorter recovery-type of workout today (shorter run, and a shorter circuit workout) since I did games last night even though my training load says I could still do a hard workout tonight. I'll do a harder workout tomorrow night so I don't overdo things.
 
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I've recently replaced my Garmin. The new model replaces 'training status' with 'body battery'
So I consider this stuff a gimmick really. These Smart Watches are packed with functionality, little of which is much use. 'Jack of all trades, master of none', is my thinking. I see the new Apple watch has ECG capabilities... leaving doctors redundant!
WRT 'the body battery', all it has to go on, is a guess at sleep, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (although wrist based HRM's leave quite a bit to be desired). The theory on Heart Rate Variability seems sketchy and open to interpretation. So whilst I'm not gonna take much notice of the body battery, it is curious that it knows when I've had too much to drink as the rating plummets (with elevated resting heart rate). Maybe the police can do away with breathalysers and make body battery watches mandatory for all drivers 🍺
Hate to interrupt your rant but body battery and training status are two separate things in Garmin Connect. Under training status you'll find the training load graph as described by the right honourable member for Refladad.

The body battery is a bit gimmicky IMHO as it's a bit murky how it is calculated and is a magic 0-100 number that changes throughout the day/night. (My body battery is down 30 this afternoon and I'll done is sit about, yap and grill!).

I am big Polar fan as it's local to me and I've worked for them a bit. But I am well impressed by Garmin Connect and the 245 music watch I have had for a few weeks. I've also noticed a slight reduction in max speed and distance compared to my old forerunner 220 that I guess is due to more accurate tracking.
 
Well, for those of you with any sort of Polar, you've been several up on those of us with Garmins. It took until Sunday night to sync the scrimmage I worked on Thursday night! Fortunately, I was wearing my StatSports GPS tracker as well, so I was able to review my data after the scrimmage.
 
Well, for those of you with any sort of Polar, you've been several up on those of us with Garmins. It took until Sunday night to sync the scrimmage I worked on Thursday night! Fortunately, I was wearing my StatSports GPS tracker as well, so I was able to review my data after the scrimmage.

Garmin were attacked with ransom ware last week, it took them a while to get the key to unlock/retrieve their files etc.
 
Garmin were attacked with ransom ware last week, it took them a while to get the key to unlock/retrieve their files etc.

Trust me, I'm definitely aware of all of the issues! :) I knew something was up on Friday morning. I didn't even think something was going on Thursday night, but when I didn't see my scrimmage or the walk I took with my wife on Friday morning when I checked Garmin Connect I knew something was up. Garmin has its quarterly conference call with analysts later today, and I'm curious to see what their corporate people will say about the situation.

Given the standard stance of "we don't negotiate with criminals", Garmin's very tight-lipped responses had me thinking some sort of cyberattack from their first tweet on the matter. Generally, if there's an investigation occurring companies will only say the rock-bottom minimum publicly.
 
Trust me, I'm definitely aware of all of the issues! :) I knew something was up on Friday morning. I didn't even think something was going on Thursday night, but when I didn't see my scrimmage or the walk I took with my wife on Friday morning when I checked Garmin Connect I knew something was up. Garmin has its quarterly conference call with analysts later today, and I'm curious to see what their corporate people will say about the situation.

Given the standard stance of "we don't negotiate with criminals", Garmin's very tight-lipped responses had me thinking some sort of cyberattack from their first tweet on the matter. Generally, if there's an investigation occurring companies will only say the rock-bottom minimum publicly.
Having worked in this sort of area, I can absolutely confirm that big companies like to keep cyber attacks well under wraps. I won't say what company, but the words DDOS attack was banned in the public domain and was only uttered internally.
 
Yes second that. They will say very little. My Garmin connect is still logging activities and showing up to date monitoring data but there's "down for maintenance" message and no access to historical data on the phone app.

The web app seems back to normal.
 
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