Are you looking for a device that can help you work out more efficiently?
Do you want a wearable that can track your sleep and give you data that will help you achieve fitness goals?
Then a Polar Ignite Fitness watch is a device you should consider.
What You Should Know Before Buying a Fitness Watch
The first question you need to ask yourself before buying a fitness watch is what exactly do I want to achieve using it?
Are you most concerned with monitoring your heart rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns? Then a simple Fitbit knockoff should meet your needs.
Do you want a device with many mobile capabilities (such as playing music) along with fitness monitoring?
Then a Apple Smartwatch, or one of its competitors, might be a better purchase.
However, if what you want is to engage in data-driven workouts that use tracking software to help improve your performance, then a full-blown fitness watch is what you need.
The Polar Ignite Fitness Watch
Fitbit and Garmin are two pioneers of the fitness watch that have led the way to portable devices that can track workout performance.
The Polar Ignite Fitness Watch is a strong entry in this field. Polar makes a full line of fitness devices, including the popular M430 running watch, the VantageM and the A370 fitness tracker.
The Polar Ignite gives off an more high-end feel due to its stainless steel bezel that sets it apart from inexpensive devices with plastic cases.
This feature is nice if you want a fitness tracker that doesn’t look out-of-place with work clothes or more formal attire.
You can wear it to social events without screaming, “I’m a workout nut.” This helps set the Ignite apart from the VantageM, which is a similarly mid-priced Polar model.
However, the Polar Ignite doesn’t just look good. It’s a very functional fitness device that helps you keep detailed track of your workouts.
Pros
- Very accurate sleep tracking
- Accurate GPS tracking
- Looks like a regular watch
- True training device that you can customize to your specific needs
Cons
- Display is dim in direct sunlight
- Few smartwatch apps other than fitness
- Unresponsive screen
- Only one control button aside from touchscreen
Features and Benefits of the Polar Ignite
What makes the Polar Ignite one of the top fitness trackers and sports watches?
Here are a few features and benefit that help it to stand apart from the rest.
Design
As mentioned above, the stainless steel bezel makes the Polar Ignite appear to be a regular watch rather than a fitness tracker.
The round watch face is 43mm in diameter but the bottom wastes valuable screen real-estate to sport the Polar logo at the bottom.
The silicone band that comes with the watch is pretty non-descript.
You can substitute any number of third-party bands for the one that comes with the watch. Adding a band can help make the Polar Ignite look quite stylish.
The watch only has one control button on the side of the case. This singular control button wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that the touchscreen can become unresponsive when you sweat.
You can easily find yourself swiping multiple times if you’re trying to bring up different information as you work out.
The display can look quite washed-out in bright sunlight. The Polar Ignite doesn’t have any option to increase the screen brightness to adjust for this problem.
Interface
The home screen is pretty basic, displaying only the time, day and date.
Swiping left and right allows you to access your heart rate, recommended future workouts, time since your last workout, percentage toward your daily activity goal and sleep quality metrics.
Tapping on these different screens brings up further information.
One nice feature under the recommended future workouts screen is FitSpark.
This option creates a personalized exercise plan based on your recent activity data, while also taking into account your previous workouts, recovery time and sleep quality.
The control button brings up the fitness options, such as timers, fitness tests and the app for breathing exercises.
Overall, the interface isn’t at all hard to navigate. It’s easy to figure out even if you don’t bother reading the instructions.
Unfortunately, you can’t customize the information displayed, the fonts or the screen brightness.
Fitness Features
The Polar Ignite is quite an interactive device. It will tell you if you’re ready for a workout based on your sleep patterns and recovery scores.
Of course, you need to wear the watch constantly (even while you sleep), to make proper use of this capability.
One nice thing is the Ignite is waterproof. You can wear it in the shower or while swimming. You don’t really have to take it off.
The device will also notify you if you’re overtraining. This might not be very accurate when you begin using the Polar Ignite, but will become more useful once you build up a workout history.
The watch will even suggest different cardio, weight lifting and stretching routines. It will show you the proper form using stick figure displays.
This will seem a bit silly if you’re familiar with workout routines. But, it’s useful if you’re attempting to perform an exercise you don’t know.
The Polar Ignite also includes an automatic “run pausing” feature. The GPS senses when you walk outside and start exercising.
However, it wasn’t very good at pausing when I stopped at a street to wait for traffic.
Move around even a little bit as you wait at the curb, and the Ignite will start the running timer. This can lead to inaccurate pacing data.
The Polar Ignite can track more than 100 different types of exercise.
These include common exercises like aerobics, swimming, running and basketball, as well as more exotic things like Finnish baseball.
You can store and track up to 20 different exercise types at a time.
You’ll get a lot of data from your different workouts, including time, calories burned and average heart rate.
But, it doesn’t track repetitions during weight training like the Garmin Forerunner.
Sleep Monitoring
The accurate sleep tracking was one of the best aspects of the Polar Ignite. My early (and cheap) fitness trackers were notoriously inaccurate about sleep times.
If I didn’t get out of bed, they would often not recognize that I woke up and over-estimated my sleep length.
The Ignite was spot on with my sleep and wake times, even if I didn’t get up and move around when waking in the middle of the night.
Smartwatch Functions
The Polar Ignite is pretty much a dedicated fitness device with limited smartwatch options. You will get notifications from your smartphone for calls, emails and text messages.
But, you can’t answer them from the watch or even see the entire message. The Ignite doesn’t allow you to view your calendar or play music while you exercise.
I guess that’s a good thing if you want to focus on your workouts.
Battery Duration
The Ignite’s documentation says it can last up to five days on a full charge. My experience was that four days was a more realistic expectation.
You can achieve around a 50% charge in a little over a half hour, and get a full charge in slightly over one hour.
Polar Flow App
The Ignite’s fitness app does some rather advanced things. The “Training” tab examines your workout pattern from the last week and recommends training for the following week.
If you skip training for multiple days, the Polar Flow app will warn you that detraining could occur.
The “Nightly Recharge” tab evaluates your recent sleep and estimates how much your body has recovered from the prior day’s activity.
It will give suggestions about how much you can exercise based upon the prior night’s recovery.
This is a great feature to prevent over-training.
The home screen of the Polar Flow app will show the amount of time you spent, sitting, resting, and even categorizes activities into low, medium or high-intensity exercises.
It will also track your daily progress toward fitness goals which you create during setup.
The Polar Flow app makes the Polar Ignite a personalized fitness tool rather than a generic fitness tracker.
What Others Say About the Polar Ignite Fitness Watch
Amazon shows 803 customer reviews for the Polar Ignite Fitness Watch. Fifty-four percent of these review were five-star ratings, while 12% gave it a one-star rating.
Overall, the Polar Ignite averaged four stars (out of five) in customer reviews.
Review #1
A triathlete’s view called the Ignite a “good looking motivator.” This customer used the watch for swimming, cycling, trail and road running and credited it for suggestions that improved training.
Review #2
Tmore 123 especially appreciated the Ignite’s accurate heart rate monitor after having a heart attack.
Review #3
Lisa Esparaz liked the Ignite’s combination of accuracy and style.
Polar Ignite Fitness Watch Alternatives
Short on time? Here are a few alternatives to the Polar Ignite you may be interested in learning more about.
Garmin Forerunner 35
If you’re interested in a reliable fitness tracker with a long track record of use, then you should consider the Garmin Forerunner 35.
The Garmin Forerunner is a popular fitness tracker that costs less than half the price of the Ignite.
While it lacks many of the Ignite’s personalized sleep tracking and workout recommendations, it does allow you to connect with Garmin’s online fitness community and allows you to join various community fitness challenges.
Pros
- Will warn you to move when sitting too long
- Easy-to-use GPS fitness tracker and heart-rate monitor
- Includes music controls when paired with smartphone
- Will automatically record reps during weight training (which Ignite does not do)
- Does have a customizable home screen (which the Ignite lacks)
Cons
- Doesn’t look like a regular watch
- Lacks the Ignite’s advanced sleep metrics or personalized workout recommendations
- Has a monochrome instead of color screen
Fitbit Versa 2 Health and Fitness Smartwatch
If you’re looking for a wearable fitness device with true SmartWatch capabilities, then you can check out the Fitbit Versa 2.
Fitbit is one of the most venerable names in fitness devices. The Versa 2 is a very popular model with over 22,000 customer ratings on Amazon.
The Versa 2 is a fitness device with true Smartwatch capabilities.
It comes with Amazon’s Alexa AI built in the watch, which allows you to access news an information, set times, and control you home smart devices with voice commands.
It also allows you to store over 300 songs on your watch.
Pros
- True smartwatch capabilities
- Sleep, swim, and fitness tracking
- Looks like a regular watch
- Store music on watch
- Built in Alexa AI
- Costs slightly less than the Ignite
Cons
- Lack’s the Ignite’s interactive workout recommendations
- Doesn’t have as sophisticated sleep tracker as the Ignite
LETSCOM Smart Watch
If you want a basic fitness tracking device that isn’t going to cost a lot of money, then the you can look at the LETSCOM Smart Watch/Fitness Tracker.
This fitness/activity tracker is a bare-bones product that comes with heart rate, calorie counter and sleep monitor functions along with some music control and message notification capabilities.
Pros
- Costs less than the Ignite
- Color display
- Music control
- Sedentary alerts
- Sleep monitoring system not nearly as accurate and more limited
- No workout recommendations to improve fitness based on prior workouts
- No “Recharge” estimate to prevent over-training
- No warning of undertraining
Conclusion
The Polar Ignite is a sophisticated fitness tracker with many advanced features to help you reach your fitness goals.
It’s particularly good at helping you stave off over and undertraining.
It also helps estimate your recovery from prior activity and give you workout recommendations based on your sleep patterns and prior activity.
However, the Ignite is really more of a dedicated fitness device than a full-fledge SmartWatch.
If you’re a serious about tracking and improving your fitness levels, then the Polar Ignite is a great option.
