Polar Ignite 3 Review: Lagging Behind

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$312.04

The Polar Ignite 3 is the first Polar watch ever with an AMOLED screen, and it’s certainly a glow up compared to the monochrome screens the brand’s devices normally sport.

The watch also has a neat set of fitness features in a lightweight body that made me sit up and pay attention, having used several Polar trackers previously.

But the software on the Ignite 3 is so basic and lags so much that it is hard to recommend. Add to that the fact that at $329.95/£289/€329.90 it’s more expensive than the Apple Watch SE, and Polar is fighting a losing battle with the casual, fashion-conscious buyer it’s trying to attract here.

Then again, you might prefer the Polar’s features to those on an Apple Watch. It makes the Ignite 3’s flaws all the more frustrating because this could have been a killer fitness watch.

Design & build

• Very lightweight
• Nice AMOLED screen
• Four colour options

The Polar Ignite 3 is a very simply designed watch with a circular touchscreen and just one button on the left edge to open and close menus or pause and end workouts.

It comes in black, sand, purple, or brown copper colours. All of them, oddly, have different casing finishes with grooves, lattice, smooth, and scored respectively, so be sure to check out which one you prefer.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

All the straps are silicone with a traditional buckle and a loop to tuck the end into when wearing. They are smooth on the inside but have a patterned texture to the outside that I dislike as it feels coarse and collects dust and (sorry) skin particles that make it look dirty.

They are 20mm size and are easy to switch out if you want to use other ones from Polar’s online store. I reviewed the black model which is incredibly plain but the best choice for a subtle look.

The Ignite 3 is amazingly lightweight and is only 35g with the strap. This is very impressive considering the watch has a heart rate sensor and built in GPS, and it’s one of the main reasons to buy to it as you can forget you’re wearing it – it’s the most comfortable watch I’ve worn to bed for sleep tracking, where other, bulkier smartwatches are a pain (literally). It’s definitely one of the thinnest watches with GPS out there.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

That featherlike feel is down to the fact the watch’s 1.2in display is fairly small, but I still found it large enough to easily read the time and stats when out and about tracking walks and runs.

It’s also waterproof up to 30 metres.

Performance & software

• Frustratingly laggy
• No mobile payments
• Simple tile-based information

I’ve reviewed other Polar watches before this one, but the experience is more frustrating on the Ignite 3. Though the Ignite has an AMOLED touchscreen that feels premium compared to the monochrome memory in pixel (MIP) screen on something like the Polar Pacer, the lack of buttons and laggy software make the Ignite frustrating to interact with.

Where the Pacer and other Polar watches have buttons to let you quickly cycle through Polar’s software menus in the absence of a touchscreen, the Ignite 3 insists you use touch. But the low-powered internals can’t keep up, resulting in a very delayed and laggy feel to the watch which, frankly, ruins it.

Even simply swiping up to view notifications results in stutter, and I don’t like that you can’t touch the screen to wake it up. You have to raise the watch to wake, or press the side button.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

This doubles the frustration when you’re actually exercising, coupled with the fact there’s no full always-on display option. So, when you are running for example, you have to raise the watch to your face to view your time, pace, and other handy stats, but the watch either doesn’t realise it has been raised or is slow to turn the screen on.

Compared to other running watches that either permanently show stats or are responsive, the Ignite 3 is wearisome to use because it can’t keep up with my simplest demands.

It’s only got a 192MHz CPU and 5MB of RAM, the bare minimum that works fine on watches with lower resolution screens but with the Ignite’s bright AMOLED it’s simply not enough to keep up.

Thankfully scrolling left and right of the clock face is smooth, which cycles through full screen tiles of activity, weather, sleep, and other functions, including a ‘today’s suggestion’ panel.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

You can get smartphone notifications to ping the watch but they are very basic and you can’t interact with them or use them to reply to a message, for example.

Audio controls appear when you’re playing music or a podcast so you can control what you’re listening to from the watch, but only as a phone remote – you can’t load tracks onto the watch itself. If you run to audio, your phone will have to come with you every time.

As with every Polar watch, you have to hold down the button to manually sync your latest data with your phone. I still find this annoying and don’t know why Polar can’t get automatic sync to work like the majority of other brands can.

Also, considering Polar is trying to appeal directly to a more fashion or lifestyle conscious buyer with the Ignite 3, the absence of any form of mobile payment option is more glaring than on the company’s more hardcore training devices.

Health and fitness tracking

• Slightly wonky GPS tracking
• Several workout modes
• Detailed sleep stage tracking

The Ignite 3 is not a smartwatch. It’s a fitness tracker with GPS tracking and a solid set of wellness features and nice-to-have things like customisable watch faces.

It can track running, walking, cycling, HIIT sessions, swimming, indoor cycling, treadmill running, strength training, hiking, and mountain biking specifically but you can also select general indoor or outdoor activity if what you’re doing isn’t listed. This will still ensure your heart rate and GPS movements will be tracked if necessary to allow to you to log that exercise.

I used the watch extensively over several weeks as my everyday watch and to track walks, long hikes and runs. Aside from the performance issues I’ve mentioned, the Ignite 3 does a good job with the actual tracking. But when I zoomed in to the GPS trail overlay for some of my runs, the route cut corners, suggesting I ran over greens that I did not, or gained the ability to run through walls.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

As much I’d like, that’s a power I do not have. The Apple Watch SE and Polar Pacer (both cheaper than the Ignite 3) did a better job in my testing. It’s a shame especially considering the Polar has dual-band GPS that is supposedly more accurate.

The Polar Flow app you sync the watch with on Android or iOS requires a small learning curve as it’s not the most intuitive app, but when you view your workouts you can get a solid granular view of data such as heart rate and zones, pace by distance, elevation change, calories burned, and a full GPS map with distance markers.

I found the GPS to lock on well and it rarely if ever disconnected. Looking at the result in Polar Flow, I trust the Ignite 3 to track what I am doing accurately, which goes a long way towards wanting to continue wearing it and trusting the data it gives.

The more you exercise, the more useful the app and watch become to you. Although most details are easier to view on the app, the ‘today’s suggestion’ tile, when tapped, shows you recommended training for the day that’s based on your recent workout loads and quality of sleep.

Polar’s no-subscription inclusion of basic training programs based on usage data is great to see, and is preferable to similar features from Fitbit, which require a Fitbit Premium paid subscription to get at similar coaching perks.

You can also get optional voice guidance when working out but because the watch has no speaker, this is only heard from your phone speaker or Bluetooth headphones connected to your phone. If you get it set up it’s quite handy though because you can be guided through training sessions without having to look at your phone or watch, but it’s only based on heart rate zones rather than specific exercise activities – so there’s no run coaching, for example, just general exertion.

There are also helpful apps such as Serene, which guides you through breathing exercises to encourage mindfulness, Fueling, which lets you set custom reminders to eat and drink in line with training programs, Timers, and Tests, which test your baseline walking, running, and fitness levels.

I really like Polar’s sleep tracking. Wear the Ignite to bed, and it’ll give you a solid summary of how well you slept and tell you straight up if that’s ‘VERY POOR’ or something a little better. There’s a good breakdown of sleep stages too, estimating when you were in light, deep, or REM sleep and if you had any interruptions.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

Battery life & charging

• Multi-day battery life
• Proprietary charge cable
• No wall plug in box

The Ignite 3 has reasonably good battery life. I would have to charge it every four days or so, which usually included one or two workouts of over half an hour. Using the GPS for outdoor activities will use more battery but the watch will last at least three days, in my experience.

The battery life started out a little erratic but steadied out after a few weeks. It drains a little at night, but that’s to be expected when it’s tracking heart rate and movement. It’s more annoying that it drained at a similar speed even if I wasn’t wearing it.

It charges via the included USB-A proprietary cable that clips onto the back. There’s no wall plug in the box but you can charge it with a charger you may already have or in a computer’s USB-A port.

Price & availability

The Polar Ignite 3 costs $329.95/£289/€329.90 direct from Polar.

This is quite expensive considering the Polar Pacer has most of the same features for $199.95/£169.50/€199.90, though it lacks the Ignite 3’s AMOLED screen.

The Apple Watch SE is a strong competitor and a better buy for its $249/£259/€299 asking price and far superior smartwatch features, but the battery only lasts a day. You could also consider the $449/£399 Garmin Venu 2 Plus if you want a good mix of fitness and smartwatch and have a bit more money to spend.

Verdict

The Polar Ignite 3 is a slim and capable GPS fitness device for people at the more casual end of the workout spectrum. It’s got a nice lightweight design and an attractive AMOLED display, and decent multi-day battery life.

But the software is so annoyingly laggy that it ruins the whole experience of using the watch daily. It can be unresponsive and downright frustrating to use, with daily annoyances like being slow for the screen to wake when you raise your arm to view the time or your workout. The lack of fully always-on display is a shame too at this price and with OLED tech.

It’s a good choice if you want one of the slimmest fitness watches with GPS and value not having to charge every day but there are better options out there for the money.

Specs

• 1.2in 416×416 AMOLED touchscreen
• Gorilla Glass
• 192MHz CPU
• 5MB RAM
• 32MB storage
• Polar’s OS
• GPS
• Glonass
• Galieo
• QZSS
• Bluetooth 5.1