Polar Vantage V3

The Polar Vantage V3 is a big step up on what we’ve seen from the Finnish brand in the past, including new features and an attractive design with a bright AMOLED display. It’s an excellent watch, but at its price the Garmin Forerunner 965 still has the edge, while the outstanding Suunto Race is much cheaper.

The somewhat dated UI and the overly eager heart rate and calorie expenditure estimations might tarnish the image of the perfect multisport watch, but the Polar Vantage V3 is a true flagship wearable and showcases everything the brand can do with its smartwatches. Thanks to the new Polar Elixir sensing platform, there is an added layer of complexity to the data collected by the watch, which makes training and recovery suggestions more accurate.

The Polar Vantage V3 is a really likeable sports watch that finally brings the Polar flagship more in line with the competition and addresses some of the biggest gripes with its software.

The Polar Vantage V3 is a big update on the Vantage V2 and emerges as a strong AMOLED alternative to watches like the Garmin Forerunner 965. Without Polar's heart rate monitor, HR tracking leaves a little to be desired, but it's a fantastic watch worthy of a place on any aspiring marathon runner's wrist.

The Polar Vantage V3 gets some big new features and a performance upgrade that makes it Polar's best multisport watch. With its top price point, it does feel hard to recommend against the Forerunner 965. Polar still needs to make some strides around the presentation of its data and analysis – and there are question marks around the heart rate accuracy.