Since Polar announced the V800 triathlon watch at CES 2014 (just over a year ago), there’s been a steady stream of firmware updates to the unit increasing functionality of the multisport watch. At the same time, there have also been a lot of update plans announced over the past year for not only the V800, but also the M400, and the backend platform – Polar Flow.
I’ve loosely kept track of these different updates as time has gone on, within the Polar V800 In-Depth Review, since most of them were targeted at that device. A few however that were more platform-wide (such as export) impacted other devices such as the M400 and soon the A300. But since the V800 had the charts in it already, it seemed a perfectly suitable place for it.
Many of you have asked for a bit of a rundown on where some of the previously promised features stand that are still outstanding, as well as some clarification on some features that have had a rougher implementation (Read: Power meter support).
For those that follow along on Polar Updates blog, you’re likely mostly caught up to date – though I cover a few areas in slightly more detail that aren’t in those posts. Below is the simplified updated timeline chart I’ve put together (and Polar has validated) for announced features and their current release timelines:
Polar Updates/Futures Timelines
| Feature | Original Timeline | Current Timeline/Notes |
|---|
| Cycling: Release of Polar Speed-only sensor | Mid-June 2014 | Released |
| Cycling: Release of Polar Cadence-only sensor | Mid-June 2014 | Released |
| Heart Rate: R-R/HRV Recording Analysis | August/September 2014 | Released |
| Polar Flow: Training Load/Recovery: Combining data from V800, V650, Polar Beat | September 2014 | Released |
| Polar Flow: Data export to send files to 3rd party apps and services (+ProTrainer) | Fall 2014 | Released - Sept 30th, 2014 |
| Cycling: Power Meter Support for Polar pedal Bluetooth Smart Power Meters | October 2014 | Released - Sept 30th, 2014 |
| Cycling: Power Meter Support for 3rd party power meters | October 2014 | Released both Sept 2014 & April 2015 |
| Cycling: Release of Bluetooth Smart Keo power meter pods | October 2014 | Released - November 2014 |
| Swimming Metrics: Indoor pool swims (distance/strokes/etc…) | October 2014 | Released - November 2014 |
| Daily Activity Tracking: Realtime inactivity alerts on devices | Later 2014 | Released - Fall 2014 |
| Polar Flow: Ability to move training history from PolarPersonaltrainer.com | September 2014 | Limited support in Q1 2015, expanded in Q2 |
| Mobile Connectivity: Android device support for Polar Flow app | End of 2014 | Released - Dec 31st, 2014 |
| Swimming Metrics: Outdoor openwater swims (distance/strokes/map route/etc) | Later 2014 | Planned End of March 2015 |
| Training Programs: Ability to create programs and templates for targets | Fall 2014 | Planned in Q2 2015 |
| Polar Flow: Ability to move training history from ProTrainer5 | November/December 2014 | Planned End of March 2015 |
| Routing: Ability to define route on Flow to follow breadcrumb trail | End of 2014 | Planned End of June 2015 |
| Footpod support for the M400 | End of February 2015 | Released - April 2015 |
| Smartphone notifications for V800/M400 on iOS | End of February 2015 | Released for V800 only - April 2015, M400 coming soon |
| Polar Flow: Ability to manually add training session to log (i.e. no device used) | End of March 2015 | On Schedule |
| Smartphone notifications for V800/M400 on Android | End of June 2015 | Released for V800 only - October 2015, M400 coming soon |
| Music control of V800/M400 for phone | End of June 2015 | On Schedule |
| Internal/accelerometer detection of cadence/pace/speed for V800/M400 (treadmill focused) | End of June 2015 | On schedule |
A few things of note in there to expand on:
Smartphone Notifications: These were announced back in the flurry of other Polar news at CES. This also includes music control. For now they’ve committed to the V800 and M400, with different timelines for each product depending on the phone platform you’re connecting to.
Power Meter Support: This has been a bit of a rough implementation, though not entirely due to Polar’s fault. They launched power meter support back in the fall for the V800 for 3rd party power meters – but the compatibility between the V800 and those non-Polar units was pretty…nonfunctional. Some paired but wouldn’t work, and some wouldn’t pair at all. Polar has gone back and started working with each company individually on it (for example, Wahoo on the Wahoo KICKR). Part of the challenge Polar faces is that many of the companies doing Bluetooth Smart power meters have implemented the Bluetooth Smart power meter profile slightly differently. A unified standard it is not. Actually, I’m not sure if any two companies have actually implemented it the same way. Polar is planning an update within Q1 (so by March) to try and resolve some of these with the handful of companies currently shipping power meters with Bluetooth Smart support.
PPT.com & PT5 import into Polar Flow: The current plan is that in Q1 (by the end of March) they’ll release the ability to do limited exporting from PolarPersonalTrainer.com & ProTrainer5 into Polar Flow. The limitation will be 25 activities/training files at a time. They will follow this up in Q2 with the ability to do “larger volumes of data”. I’m going to assume they aren’t playing ‘Price is Right’ rules, and that ‘larger’ will be substantially more than just 26 files.
Training Programs/Plans: This functionality will allow people to create/download training plans onto their devices – such as a series of different workouts against a given goal (i.e. a monthly training plan). This functionality has slid to now be in the Q2 timeframe, so sometime by June 2015.
Footpod Support for the M400: Also in the camp of ‘in case you missed it’ at CES, the M400 will get footpod support sometime this month. Down the road they’ll add in support for both the M400 and V800 to get cadence/pace via the wrist (no footpod required) – like most other watches on the market today.
Finally, in the highly unlikely event that you haven’t plugged your Polar product in recently – you probably do want to get around to doing so. There’s been a bunch of updates for the M400 and the V800 over the past few months. So if you normally just sync via phone you might not have caught them.
With that, we’ll keep this one nice and short (as I promised in the title).
Thanks for reading!
(Oh…wait, you wanted to know about that little bike computer up there, the V650? It’s due out sometime this month. Polar seems legit about it now. So we’ll see.)
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No cycling speed and cadence sensor support for the M400? That is unfortunate.
Nothing currently planned.
Yes. I was hopeful that feature was coming at some point as well!!
Also even though I’ve been told the watch doesn’t have vibration I was always hoping that Polar was going to miraculously ‘turn it on’ as I just couldn’t believe they made this watch without it.
Yeah I enquires with Polr a couple of days ago about any compatible cadence products for the M400 and got this (quite short and blunt reply):
“Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately, the M400 is not compatible with any Cadence bike sensors.”
So that is that I guess.
The lack of cadence & speed sensors made me upgrade my M400 to the V800 a few weeks ago. Luckily, I was able to find a brand new V800 w/HRM on eBay for $350.
I had held out hope, but with the announcement of the A300 and lack of comments from Polar, I got tired of waiting. That being said, I’ve enjoyed having the extra features that do come with the V800.
Hey!
You can add another item to the list: Polar Flow can match planned training with results to give a better way do see if the training was good.
Cheers
Speed is but not cadence. The best solution would be to make the polar bear app compatible to use simultaneously with the M400
Thanks for this table! It again makes me wonder if this isn’t the better watch to choose over the fenix 3. Sounds like this can do everything!
I don’t know what table you’re looking at but the v800 has almost none of the Fenix 3 features and they don’t even plan to have most of them!
Referring to the M400 in its capabilities for simple running.
In that case you’re comparing apples to, well, the Moon. If it’s M400 or a Garmin and you only want running then it’s the fr15 or the new vivoactive I’d be looking at. The Fenix family is a super duper Triathlon Ultra running and hiking watch with every feature under the sun except maps (which is what the Epix adds) so it’s not surprising you’d be erring towards the considerably cheaper m400. For what it’s worth I had the rc3 GPS and it was excellent so I’d certainly accept Rays recommendation of the Polar in that price range.
Polar Flow: Data export to send files to 3rd party apps and services (+ProTrainer) – this has been done only for single-sport sessions. Multisport still not available despite multiple requests and reminders :(
Will ability to add training manually include e.g. TCX import or it’ll be just few values like distance and time?
Also: do you know anything about
– speed/pace targets which were pushed into zones with minimum 2km/min range. So they’re unusabe and waiting for Polar to drop the minimum range limit
– Adidas footpod support – you wrote about it after a visit to Polar HQ, but it was not listed as supported (though it is listed on BT SIG site as certified)
I’ve been using adidas footpod for a while, it was updated in like 1.1 or 1.2?
Does autocalibration work for you?
I only ever used for cadence, I see the option in the watch settings so maybe its working now?
Ray,
Thanks for the update. Good to see what is planned and that for the most part Polar have met their their published timelines. A bit disappointing some of the functionality won’t be available until several months after the V650 is launched, e.g. training plans and breadcrumb trails, particularly when it has been delayed so long. Looking forward to your in-depth review.
TomTom used to have a list of planned updates but it was dropped at the end of last year and now just shows a summary of what has been implemented. Have you had any discussion with them about why this change happened or any insights as to why they opted to go from an open process to a closed one? It is a major point of contention on their discussion forums.
Thank you very much for the update, Ray!
Really appreciate.
It seems that, by June, V800 will be good enough to compete with any other high-end GPS watch.
I dont know why they take so long for the V800 navigation… Ive been using it for a while now with a “simple” trick involving importing files into Polar Flow.
Its in spanish, but you can use Google Translate.
link to correrunamaraton.com
The way I view it, they just need to allow third party route files to be uploaded to Flow manually, and then adding them to the favorites. OK, its not like having the routes prepared on the same up, but until then…
Ray, you did not mention the planned integration with My Fitness Pal for M400 that was supposed to come by end of January. Did you get any update on this from the Polar folks as I still do not see any update on this one?
Thanks
Polar USA, Mike said Mid Feb, so a another week or so
Thanks Toby
Folks, it seems the Friday 13th bad luck has set upon us and we have some sad news to share with you. Unfortunately we have to postpone our highly anticipated MyFitnessPal integration. The release for the integration with Flow app iOS and MyFitnessPal is now planned for the end of February.
Just during the last steps of testing we run into a nasty bug, which could have caused problems to all of our Flow users. To avoid this we had no choice than to delay the release.
Our deepest apologies for the delay of this integration which we know you’ve been waiting for.
-Team Polar
All the fancy changes can’t make up for no vibration alert in the m400. I can’t go back.
Have you heard anything about swimming drill mode? I think I have read about it somewhere, but can’t find it in the schedule now.
Thanks, this is very useful.
On the export part, I tried importing a polarflow tcx into Garmin Connect only to get it refused with an “error”, has anyone had more luck with that?
No vibrations on the M400? Can’t say I’ve really ever noticed them on the V800 ;-)
I have been running into the same error, so would appreciate anyone who might have found a way to work around this issue.
The only thing keeping this from being a home run for me is the lack of support for cycling speed / cadence sensor.
Unfortunately polar flow for android is limited to mobile devices. Any news about Polar planning scaling it up for tablets?
If you’re a bit tech savvy, you can download the APK from the Play Store and sideload it to your tablet. It worked fine on my Nexus 7 when I tried it some time ago.
Picture of V650 cycling computer but no update info., Release date?
Read the last line… ;)
Doh!!
v650 released, but whren reading the website, it seems it is without power meter options. No luck for Look Polar Keo Power owners here….
Anywhere in Europe is in stock yet ?
Indeed. I just chatted with them this morning about it, power meter V650 support coming in April.
Thanks Ray for the update.
I have the Look/Polar Bluetooth pedals and also a Bluetooth G3 Powertap wheel. Fun and games……the pedals work with the V800 (as expected) but….
The Pedals don’t work with the Wahoo app 100% ie the app takes the first paired pedal and doubles the power…very Stages like..despite having 2 pedals. They (Wahoo) are working on this they tell me but they say having two power meters connected at the same time needs lots of extra coding.
The Powertap does not work with the V800. It pairs fine but the power values are approximately double what they should be…great for the ego and a FTP of 640W then! The V800 must think the G3 is a single pedal. Wahoo app works great with the G3 though.
Finally export….I can get my data into Strava from flow, but not WKO 3.0 as the file corrupts?
I’ve asked this of Polar before but maybe you know something different – will we see Windows Phone support for sync any time soon.
Also, any chance we might see BTLE sync to PC’s with BT4? (eg. Surface Pro) Even if we had to buy a specific Polar dongle (as is included with Fitbit devices) then it would avoid a lot of plugging in and out of the M400.
Polar said a few times, they have WP on the list but there focusing on Android & iOS at the moment.
I asked them at CES and they said no Windows Phone.
Also, any news on the accelerometer tracking of distance for treadmills?
Yes, that’s listed in the last line of the table as “INTERNAL DETECTION OF CADENCE/PACE/SPEED FOR V800/M400” – but I’ll add in the words accelerometer & treadmill, as I could see how that’s probably a bit confusing.
Thanks, must learn to read with more care.
Very nice. As I’ve been given an M400 recently, this is certainly some welcome information. Now, I wonder if the Loop gets any updates/optimizations? Any word on product enhancements/updates (yea, I know its a simple thing, but even with the M400, I’ve not gotten rid of my Loop – its profile just works)?
Polar is looking at potentially bringing some of the text notifications to the Loop. They haven’t made a decision if it’s something they’ll do – but they are at least exploring it.
The Loop is still a nice product. My wife still enjoys hers, so some kind of update would be nice. I’m even thinking about buying one for my mom for her birthday next month, as she’s started to work on living a healthier life.
All good then it seems. A constant flow of quality updates that will keep the watch up to date for years to come. The hardware is awesome so as long as these updates keep flowing, I can see no reason to upgrade for many a year. Pretty cool.
Personally for me the timing works out nicely. I am working in shanghai till the end of June, so my training options are very limited, so nice to know the watch will be up to speed and the V650 should be out and tested by then, just in time for the UK summer months when I am home :)
Any idea on planned Polar Beat (iOS) updates? Specifically, offering the V800 orthostatic test (recovery test) as an in-app purchase (a la OwnIndex etc.)
Not that I trust OwnIndex: Polar Beat gives me an implausible 62.
What about the fix of the speed/pace targets?
With zones with minimum 2km/min range they’re unusuable!
On Polar’s facebook-site the same day they released that feature they announced it was a bug that was going to be fixed (drop the minimum range limit). Nearly 2 months have passed and nothing happened!
Hi. This was resolved with the latest update of Flow on thursday. Now it works perfectly. The limit is down to 0.01km/mn.
As a previous owner of an S210, S625x, RS800, RCX5 (for a week) Always amazed at the love that persists for a company that consistently not only under delivers features but promises feature sets that aren’t even at the races.
Polar make training tools. You’re right, they have considerably fewer “features” than Garmin but I can’t think of any which genuinely contribute to a training regime. The love persists because for many of us Polar was our first HRM, and they have made generally quality products over the years with very few bugs and problems. If they had moved quicker on internal GPS they would probably be a lot more popular than they are, but since that doesn’t add anything as far as training goes they left it out for a long time while Garmin stuffed every toy they could into their watches along with a few bugs. Garmin are popular because most of us don’t buy these as a training tool but as something to add interest to our training or just to record data which more often than not gets used only for bumping up totals. A good example of this is the graphing on the websites – Polar makes it easy with a rainbow graph to see which zone you were in throughout, Garmin just shows a big block of one colour and makes it almost impossible to determine zone information from the graph. Having read a few books on the subject I have to say it’s obvious which site wants me to train my heart!
it is possible to transfer data from m400 to polarpersonaltrainer.com??
Nope, M400 is flow only
Owner of Polar Accurex plus (old but still good as a simple pulse watch)
Polar 920i (Old discarded and clumsy)
Polar RCX5 (hated from the start)
The common thread saying “Never a Polar watch again”
Software was then with watches, worked mostly very good.
When they later came with the polarpersonaltrainer, so had all previous great features disappeared, even on watches disappeared suddenly something as simple as being able to display the pulse without storing in memory.
Although the ability to make your own marks with the red button, to then be able to see how long you were in the switch zone, or flat tire on the bike.
Plus lots of other things as current Idiots on Polar’s development department does not understand.
And with the current pace, they will not be ready before the next generation must be completed.
ppt stopped being updated when the Flow arrived, so none of these are today as sophisticated as ProTrainer5 but it lacks GPS functions and is therefore too old.
So for me the Polar dying and I’m totally indifferent.
Good luck Garmin and Sunnto
Sad but true. PPT5 was (10 years ago) in many aspects better than Polar Flow. Why not (at last) enable quick and correct multiple export of files from Flow to polar personal trainer?…
Still no plan to add training sharing to social media.
Which is weird. I wouldn’t use it as I’m social media unsocial ;) but basically they’re killing one of the biggest marketing channels for themselves…
You can share any of the training on social media – both an in-depth file or what we call Relive. You can adjust your privacy settings and share only what you want to be shared. For example: Here is Nick Arciniaga’s 10th place NYC Marathon finish he shared on social media: link to flow.polar.com
@Chris, I’m talking about quality here. Other sites show some details like distance and time, sometimes a nice logo/icon, sometimes a little map. Polar shows either simple text for relive or garbage for workout link. This is a question of putting share button on the page and a few opengraph tags in the workout page source so it’s not much (I’m talking manual sharing here). Again, I’m almost sure I’ll never use it. Just surprised you wouldn’t take advantage of all those people wanting to share with others how hard they work out with their new Polar toys ;)
Polar mentioned in a Facebook comment reply a few days ago that social media sharing was “coming.”
Thanks for the update, Ray. I have tried to use the v800 together with a Viiiiva and a power2max-Powermeter. It does not really work and results in unrealistic power data. I have already asked the Polar-Service if there is anything I could do about this. I have only got a meaningless answer. Do you know if the upcoming update you have mentioned might help?
Thanks,
Holger
Ray, do you know when the additional smart training features such as training load, recovery status etc. will be available for purchase with the M400 and is there any indication of pricing?
We’re certainly considering this – but nothing we can share on timeline or commit to at this time ;0)
Please add these features!!! HRV and Orthostatic testing too.
hi Ray,
Do you know if there is anyway to change the sensitivity of the step counter on the m400? Seems to be overly high everyday. Also, sleep tracking doesn’t seem to work if you sleep during the day which I do as a shift worker, anyway to fix this?
Thanks for the great reviews!
Make sure that you have the watch on your non-dominant hand, having it on your dominant hand will lead to a higher reading.
You can toggle which hand you wear on to ‘factor it in’ too
Does anyone knows something about enabling BLTE on pool swimm mode. I’ve asked polar support this three weeks ago but…you already know the answer… there was no answer.
so has anyone had any luck uploading a Polarflow TCX to Garmin Connect ?
I do that via Rungap app ( iOS) works just fine.
Thanks for the update, Ray. I’m really waiting for the export function from Polar Personal Trainer to Polar Flow.
How about auto-sync with Strava and MapMyRide/MapMyFitness ? I can’t believe they don’t have that.
I have the M400 and my data syncs automatically from Polar Flow to MapMyFitness. I never saw any announcement about this and was manually uploading my data, but one day I noticed that there were duplicate workouts in MapMyFitness.
Yeah, the MMF item has been kinda lurking around for a while – they don’t really advertise it.
For the others, Polar has announced they are working on various big name partnerships. I’ve seen the names, and they’ll no doubt make folks happy. But they aren’t yet ready to announce names/dates for those.
Yes, this seems to work OK once the accounts are linked but only for summary data.
Thanks Ray, but I can’t find anywhere from Polar Flow setting that I can connect to MMR/MMF . From the MMR/MMF , when i try to connect to Polar , it always showed user login error. Please help. Thanks
I just got an M400. I also cannot connect with MMR. I have the same issue as ‘A’ – it always shows a user login error. Thoughts?
I also can’t seem to connect either mapmyfitness with polar flow or the M400 directly to MMF. On the website of MMF they say you can connect to PolarPersonalTrainer, but then again my M400 can’t sync with PolarPersonalTrainer. Any ideas on how to get my M400 workouts into either mapmyfitness or myfitnesspal automatically?
I’m really enjoying my V800. When notifications arrive, it will ge great to keep up to date with the football scores on a saturday afternoon run. The one thing I’m really looking for though is strava integration and route creation (This could be a deal breaker for me with regards the V650).
Actually talking of the V650, is it more like the garmin 500/510 or 810 with mapping?
Rungap app for IOS was just updated, so that you now Can import from Flow- and Then export to Strava, Runkeeper, garmin Connect, polar personal trainer etc.
This is so great, that we now Can do it alle from the phone and with only a few clicks :-)
Just hope it all works :-)
Why does it take so long for Polar to catch up with the competitors!?! Is it the cold weather in Finland?!! I feel like I own an unfinished product… That’s really frustrating for a high-end, high priced watch. And it really lacks important features: compatibility with Stage or other Powermeters, Running Dynamic functions, automatic synchronization with TrainingPeaks or so, open-water swim metrics still ongoing… Will definitively buy the Fenix 3 as soon it is available, especially after I’ve tested the 920XT… They should wait before selling half finished products!!!
Hi
So the Kickr should be one of the Power Meters that work with the V650 some time in Q1 ? Right ?
This might have been mentioned before, but do you know if Polar has any plans at all for easy sync with other sites, such as Strava, Training Peaks etc?
they opened their api for easier data transfer between portals.
I´ve read that there are negiotiations between strava/polar for data export. just a matter of time!
Some portals already use this possibility, for example sportlyzer automatically gets my data of flow.
The deal killer for me on the M400 was no direct strava connectivity – I had this confirmed from Polar Finland directly – I was this close to buying it! too bad – ordered a vivoactive instead; now just waiting for delivery!
When they are going to fix the bug in Polar Flow which causes it enter insane number of steps to Apple’s Health.app? Compared to steps on Polar Flow, the step number it puts to Health goes through the roof. Each and everyone of these ghost steps is entered by Polar Flow. This bug was reported to Polar on December 2014.
Currently can’t sync from Polar Flow to Health at all. Been manually copying numbers over now.
Just finished pool swim and it seems like all the data has been collected but flow no longer shows any of the lap data (ie graph). I can still see this info from my swim 2 days ago but today there is nothing :| Has anyone else seen this?
waited another 15 minutes or so and now it is there. odd. if anyone from polar is reading this, I ocassionally have a lap here and there that is not counted. please make a way for us to edit this in polar flow. i will consistently have 25yd laps in the mid 20s and then one for 52 secs… or improve the way it counts laps. so far i really like the swim functionality!
Thanks for this update – much appreciated!
Would there be any functionality planned for importing e.g. tcx files into polar flow? That way a training plan developed elsewhere could be imported into Flow all at once. Certainly useful until Polar rolls out their own training plans.. (personally I would be particularly interested in being able to import from Endomondo, so auto syncing with them would be fine as well, but that’s in the pipeline perhaps? (at least with strava etc?) )
In any event, creating goals one by one with various intervals in Polar Flow is really cumbersome.. And I imagine that for some people it would be great to be able to import training sessions not recorded with a Polar device, if they use flow as their main logging tool.
Thanks Ray!
I have been reading your reviews with great joy but I am missing a very important part. The development of Flow to a dynamic analyser of obvious data. Many comments has been of importing PPT5 etc to Flow and I just don´t understand why. You can´t do much in Flow? Is this because people don´t use Flow. There are number of report possibilities we had in PPT 5 and few that could be done easily in Flow but we are kept to count number of training session per week. All the data is there and making dynamic reports must be piece of cake for a junior programmer. So way do you constantly jump over this part in the reviews.
kind regards
per
I have pointed out in all of my reviews that Flow is behind most 3rd party options, as well as behind a handful of other 1st party options by competitors. They are making good progress though.
As for PPT5, many forget just how old that software is – and how many things it just doesn’t do (i.e. it won’t pull in activity tracking data, nor sleep data, nor be backed up automatically in the cloud, nor easy sharing, nor maps, etc…).
You are absolutely right, Flow is the only way forward for POLAR. I just miss your view of how it could be when it´s number one. Mostly we talk about existing functions like tracking something. Sooner or later we need to deal with circumstances like MaxHR and how is the following up effected by wrong number of MaxHR. There must be a possibility to get feedback on possible MaxHR from the watch. With some feedback and existing HR curves we should be able to get some insight from Flow. at least much better than all strange formulas like 220-age etc.. Maybe that´s another part than review of the tools still we need to go further in the pulsebased training knowledge.
Ray, first of all – great site and great reviews. Thanks.
About PPT5 vs Flow – yes PPT5 is old, but there are many great small options in PPT5 that we are missing in Flow. For example – Manually add exercise (and approximate training load) – it’s better than nothing, Or correct HR spikes when you know that your HR was not 187 at begining of light exercise…:). I don’t want to have maximum HR of 197 in february because this is not true.
PPT5 (and earlier versions) was even few years ago very intuitive program. Polar flow is still not so great…
(I’m still polar customer, love my v800 despite some weird things…. Just to mention lack off BLTE signal during pool swim mode).
Ray,
I agree with Ivan that the lack of error correction is a major omission which affects usability. It is a real pain that spikes or drop outs which affect workout values can’t be edited.
In your ‘Behind the Scenes’ post from last September you mentioned that the ability to fix errors/values/delete sections of activities on Flow was planned for Q4 2014. It doesn’t appear in the timeline. Has this been dropped from the release plan? It would be really helpful if you could clarify with Polar.
I’ll look to get some clarity there.
Do keep in mind however that no other 1st party sites have that functionality (i.e. Garmin, Suunto, etc..). So I suspect that Polar would be aware of that and focused on functionality where they lack compared to the competition, first.
Ray , that is only partially true.
For example you can export gamin file from connect (including swim files), correct file (heart rate, swim distance…) and put it back on connect.
You can not do that in flow! That’s frustrating.
That’s sorta pushing it a little bit. Other sites don’t (yet anyway) offer edit capabilities. What you’re saying, while interesting, isn’t really the same.
Plus, they’ve said they’re going to shortly release import capability – so using that scenario it’ll happen shortly. ;)
You’re right. It’s not the same but is usefull upgrade (i’m hoping that will happen shortly). Thanks.
One more question – can you please ask for possibility to enable BLTE signal at V800 pool swim mode, I’m desperately searchig for this answer.
Any insights about enabling bluetooth signal in/during pool swim mode…? Thanks.
Today I stumbled upon a way to IMPORT .gpx files into Polar Flow – and thus to the V650!
In Polar Flow, hit the ‘favorites’ star-shaped icon next to your name. Right underneath is an option ‘Import Route’. Click it and you’ll be able to import any .gpx to Polar Flow. Next, just synchronize the V650 with your computer to get the route onto your V650 where you can select it.
Strava sync.
That’s all.
They need to sort out how their activities are time labelled first Eric. Manual Strava uploads are currently out of sync compared with other manufacturers products (and reality), so a Strava auto upload feature won’t be any use until they get that aspect sorted.
I get the impression however that they are happy to plough their own furrow with Polar Flow and don’t really care that their activities won’t play well with others.
Sad but based on that I’ll be purchasing fitness products from elsewhere in future.
Will the internal detection of cadence/speed/pace be based on the internal accelerometer of the watch itself or do they plan a new strap like the “garmin run” (as far as I know the H7 strap doesn’t include one). Will it also be able to measure stride length to completely avoid the use of their footpod?
Based on the watch itself (like other companies). I don’t know about stride length and would have to defer to Chris or Mike from Polar.
Hi Ray,
There are still some basics missing in my mind that you don’t have listed. Any updates on any of these?
1) R-R Analysis for training sessions.
2) Training Targets
a) Combining of training target with session data.
b) Phase details shown in session data.
3) Better TimeZone support, currently very badly handled.
4) Improved reports in “Progress”.
a) Weight, running index, orthostatic test results etc. over time. (with abilitly to graph multiple indicators on same graph)
b) Av/Max HR/Speed over time for favorite routes.
c) etc.
Currently “progress” is really no more than “totals”, not as useful as it could be for measuring progress.
I am with Daniel. I would really love to have a more useful ‘Progress’ section. I would absolutely love to be able to do something with my favorite routes. I can’t even compare multiple sessions during the same route right now. A bit frustrating.
There is no date for the feature “Smartphone notifications for V800/M400 on iOS” ?
What does it mean “On Schedule” ?
The date is right next to those words: End of February.
Great! Only 2 days to wait!
Yea, they are really coming down to the wire. There was a ‘notification’ on my polar flow page that read as follows:
Team Polar Hi there! Just letting you know that there might be short breaks in the Flow service March 1st between 02:00 – 04:00 AM UTC. We’re sorry for any trouble this may cause you. –Team Polar
02/27/2015, 12:06 PM
I’m guessing this is for their release.
I wish you were right about the release, but I’m afraid this has probably nothing to do with the smartphone notifications… Polar seem to be behind the schedule as usual :-(
The V650 is now available in a few European markets. I received an email from Polar yesterday (27/2) with the following:
“Starting today, the V650 will be available in the official Polar webstore in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. We’ll keep you posted once it’s more widely available.”
Hi!
Perhaps anyone knows if this feature rescheduled?
SMARTPHONE NOTIFICATIONS FOR V800/M400 ON IOS – End of February
Polar commented the following on Facebook a few days ago in response to a similar question: “V800 in coming weeks, M400 flowws a bit later.”
Something has happenend…suddenly my cycling activities from strava appear in my polar flow. Data seems to be off…anybody else soticed the same?
Hi Ray,
we’re getting news about iOs-Flow features and push-notifications etc. But for basic web-Flow hasnt gone anywhere in months. Still Beta, still no possibility to name exercises and all those wished things from ppt. We’re getting promises, then delays. But the truth: Flow is still almost what it was when it came for Loop and iOs-beat-users two years ago. I did use beat for a while, good app but data also synced to ppt.
Do You know what are they plans with web-Flow? Will it never be a proper place to store data or should we all Polar users look for better home for our trainings and in future NOT be tied to Polar-world?
I whole heartedly agree with this. I’m not a fan of polar flow. It has some nice features (such as recovery graphs), but I too would like to name activities and list them (dare I say like Garmin connect handles it). I find it very useful to compare activities that I have complete on the same route. With flow at the minute, there is no easy way to do this.
I currently export eveything to strava which I think is ok. Would it be wrong to actually import it into Garmin connect…(I’m assuming I could do this).
I have been a long time Garmin user and but recently moved to a polar v800. I think for my useage Polar has some nice hardware, but is let down a bit with the web interface which seems more designed for more casual use rather than training.
My V650 arrived in the post today
Mine too. Disappointed by the complete lack of GPS features, like tracks.
Are phone notifications on the v650 planned?
How does the V650 seem so far?
Hi,
I’ve been using it for one week, outdoor road cycling with H7 belt, speed and cadence Polar sensors. I also use a Panobike combo sensor on another bike.
So far, the good:
– Screen is very easy to read, even on the sun with polarized glasses, better than Garmin 800 and Mio 505.
– User interface is super easy (but given the few options to configure…) and intuitive
– pairing works like a breeze, no disconnections, no interferences (like I experienced with the v800 and Ambit 3)
– finds the GPS satellites pretty fast (at least faster than the v800)
The cons:
– no possibility to follow a track or route, zero GPS features (except an obscure “go home” function)
– there is an apparently nice information displaying the vertical climbing speed, excepts that it displays the average speed per lap our tour, thus one has to start a lap at the beginning of each climb. I’d rather have the instantaneous vertical climbing speed
– the slope is given in degrees, not in percent and it is not possible to change that
– there is no synchronization whatsoever with polar daily tracking, which means one has to use the Polar Loop to track the activity as well. Thus there is no recovery information available either.
In a nutshell:
It is a great product, I’m curious to see how the glass will lasts (scratches). But Polar definitely needs to work more on the software side. The hardware seems pretty good but, it would be nice to be able to:
– add and follow tracks/routes
– have the same recovery info from the v800 on the v650 or at least that this recovery info is computed in PolarFlow. Currently, the “recovery status” in polar flow only reads from the v800, without taking into account what is recorded in the diary.
– lower the price. That is not worth over 250$.
Did your V650 come with a H6 or H7 ?
It came with a H7.
Strange. Mine came with H6 – the same did my friends when he got one. Where did you get yours?
From a webshop in Italia. But the box has been opened and I suspect they’ve been adding/changing the belt (don’t ask me why..). Maybe a mistake on the webshop part. I won’t complain ^_^.
Hi Myriam, nice post. I also have been using V650 for 1 week.
Overall I think it’s a very good product. Pairing sensors is easy (I’ve got a H6 and a non Polar dual speed/cadence sensor). However there are several things to improve: sync with polar flow mobile app (syncing with other fitness apps like strava), possibility to change bike names as well as total kilometers, temperature is listed as a feature but no information is showed (update: now temperature feature is not listed in V650 microsite), inclination should have one decimal digit (I can set it in percentage), route guidance, zoom function in map view.
Hi Juantxo,
Thanks for the post! I finally was able to set the inclination in percent.
I totally agree with you about the points to be improved. I think it could be a serious challenger for Garmin (more in the 500 range so far) once Polar improves the web part. The hardware is very good; clear readability, better use with gloves than my Garmin 800 and none of the distance bugs I experienced with the Cyclo 505 and combo BT sensors.
It’s odd about the temperature. Does anyone know if it’s a software or hardware limitation?
I am very happy with mine. So far only used it a couple of times on some indoor traning on the Kickr.
Only thing missing for me is is the possibility of connecting to the Kickr.
Love the interfase of the V650
Love all the ways to set up the views
Really nice color screen
Battery last a long time – 2 hours on the Kickr used about 5% (without GPS of course)
I like the flow webservice (but still room for improvemet)
Uses micro usb = easy charging
Just ask away if you need to know anything
How has the software been so far as the data goes? I tried a Magellan/Mio 505 and it had software issues with the data it was recording. Are you able to export to Map My Ride, Strava, etc. How would you compare it to Garmin Edge units if you have used any?
No software issues at all. The screen respons is very good.
I have exported from Flow to Strava with no problems (but only with HR data and cadence as I have only been training indoors)
I have never tried Garmin so I cant compare.
Is the screen a resistive touch screen or a capacative touch screen (like a smart phone)? Have you tried using it with gloves on?
I’m located in Australia and this is going to be released soon and the weather is going to get cold, necessitating the wearing of gloves, hence why I’m interested. My Galaxy S4 doesn’t work so well if I use gloves.
Yes, it works with gloves.
Having just got my V650 yesterday, it depends what gloves you use. It doesn’t work with my Louis Garneau Gel EX gloves but does with my Louis Garneau Windtex Eco Flex II gloves. For me it means when it’s on the colder side, I won’t be changing screens mid ride and will have to take a glove off to stop recording.
Ray, do you have any information about Training peaks metrics (IF/NP/TSS) on v800 and later even on v650 (I’m aware that there is no raw power at the moment there). Any realistic chance?
I’m polar fan and want to buy keo power pedals (or essentials) despite higher price than g-vector, but this metrics are essential for me.
Thanks.
Is something illegal within this question?
No, simply that with 200-400 comments a day, I’m not quite able to answer them all. And, in cases where I don’t have answers, I’ll see if someone else might have the answer. This being one of those cases.
I understand. Thanks. Didn’t mean to be rude…
Thanks again for great reviews and whole blogspace.
No worries.
I’m seriously considering buying a M400. However, I believe that not having the Vibrate feature is a big issue. I would like to know if it is possible to route the sound alerts to my iPhone while running, so i really get the alerts. The visual alert is pretty useless if you dont know an alert is coming. I always run with my iPhone to listen to music, so having the sound from the watch played on my phone would totally solve the issue. Is that possible?
It is not possible to route sound alerts to, e.g. an iPhone at present. I’ve found that I more or less have an close idea of when, e.g. an interval is coming up so the faint bip I hear through headphones & music is ok for me as long as I concentrate on listening, not perfect, but not a major issue either (for me)
Anyone have any idea when footpod support is going to be rolled out for the m400 they said late february but that has come and gone
Sorry to bring it again, but does anyone (Polar representative?) know when this update will actually take place?
SMARTPHONE NOTIFICATIONS FOR V800/M400 ON IOS
According to the latest updates on polar site it should be anytime now:
link to updates.polar.com
According to the upper table, it should have happened during February.
I’ve been told it’s been pushed till later this month.
That’s a shame. Each delay is helping push sales of Garmin units, especially the Vivoactive, and knowing what I know now, I would have waited and stumped up the extra $$s for that watch instead.
Yeah, the lack of music controls and notifications and inability to integrate with runkeeper/strava easily is making me think of selling the M400 and moving to the Vivoactive. Should have hung onto the Pebble with noticiations and music controls and step tracking app a bit longer…
Does anyone know what’s going on with music control for the v800? Polar announced it at CES, as mentioned in this column by Rainmaker and on the Polar website, but Polar customer support denies that it’s on the road map. I don’t see much out there about this.
I’m not a hard core athlete, but I’ve been trying to improve my fitness with a Polar FT60 and absolutely love the “Star training program” where instead of just seeing what you did in the past, this watch gives you concrete heart rate zone and calorie targets for a week and lets you see exactly how much you’ve worked towards those goals during the week. Why oh why doesn’t the M400 have this feature?!?!? Is there a Polar Flow feature like this or is there hopefully a future update from Polar to include this in their Polar M400?
Is there a chance to get a feature which allows to make a custom route, and upload to the M400 and then use it to give directions? BTW, a watch face with seconds and without my name would be nice too.
open-water swim metrics? Any news from polar – it’s the end of march…
Hi Ray
I saw on another post that Polar A300 should have a smartphone notifications firmware around mid-2015:
link to dcrainmaker.com
Do you know perhaps if this firmware include android?
Thanks!
Yes, though you won’t see it until Android smartphone notification is enabled for the other units.
Is there a way to see tenths of a second for recorded lap times? Laps include tenths of a second on the watch, but on Polar Flow (both browser or app) lap times only have the whole second. This is a problem when doing any sort of speed work. Am I missing something or is there a setting I can enable? Having 400 meter repeats to the whole second does is not very useful.
I also have tried to export the training data, both as a TCX file and a CSV file, but the data still only shows whole seconds and not fractions of a second.
Also, is there any way to modify or add laps within the software? Everyone once in a while I either hit a button for an extra lap or want to add a particular lap after the fact, but it doesn’t seem like there is any way to do this.
All in all, a big step backwards from Polar Protrainer 5.
with every update – even though frustratingly slow in coming i think it makes my v800 more and more competitive both as a daily smartwatch and also as a training device. it seems that they are trying to get to most of everything that would be what should have been obvious when the watch came out. and starting to justify the price.
Good update yesterday but I can’t seem to sync A-GPS data. Does this need to be done via USB cable and FlowSync or can it be done when syncing with the Polar Flow App?
Looks like only FlowSync thus far. Please make sure you send them a feature request to also do it via Flow app. I have done so as well, and if enough people do it they may listen.
Hi there Ray!
First I want to mention: your reviews are great!! Thanks!
Still… I’m a little in doubt weather to buy the M400, V800 or Garmin Vivoactive… Also due to these updates that might be coming out (and/but prices vary quite a bit…).
I’m a professional dancer and next to spending a lot of hours inside the studio (ballet, yoga, bodypump, fitness, steps etc.) I love riding my bike and go for runs. The thing is I want my heart rate and all the other data to be precise outdoors & indoors even when I’m hardly moving but sweating lot’s… Which watch do you recommend? Dankjewel! Greetings from NL.
Based on what you’re saying, I’d say the V800 isn’t too relevent.
So I’d focus on the M400 or Vivoactive. I think given how much your focus is on indoor training, I’d lean more towards the M400.
Perfect, thank you! Enjoy sunny Paris!
Any update on the “Training Program/Plans” info:
“Training Programs/Plans: This functionality will allow people to create/download training plans onto their devices – such as a series of different workouts against a given goal (i.e. a monthly training plan). This functionality has slid to now be in the Q2 timeframe, so sometime by June 2015”
Is this on track for June? Any insight into what will be offered? Thank you!
Hi,
Are there any plans whatsoever to integrate polar flow with strava?
I know its possible (SYNCMYTRACKS works)
also has anyone had any battery or charging issues?
I’ve had to send my watch back twice…
Hi Conor!
Yes, I just bought mine a month ago and I have issues with the cable all the time… (I think it’s the cable as the watch works perfectly until I attach it to the cable).
Is says: ‘lost connection’ or ‘connect your product’ when I actually already did that.
I have to push, reinsert, turn & twist the cable to find that lucky moment that it connects and syncs my data. Annoying. Sometimes it even shuts down my watch completely.
I did not send it back yet. Using it every day and don’t want to ‘loose’ it for now.
So just dealing with it for the moment.
Hi Karin,
I’ve had that problem too and it doesn’t seem to be the cable as ive tried different USB cables.
The first time i sent it back was because the watch stopped recording on the 39th kilometer of my first marathon in Rotterdam (Even though the watch was fully charged before the race).
Polar couldn’t explain the issue and blamed it on firmware so i said i would try it out for another month.
The watch now fails to sync and wont even charge…
I love the M400 but sometimes i really wish i just bought a Garmin 220 :(
– any idea or news:
V800 – Swimming Metrics: Outdoor openwater swims – Planned End of March 2015?
Was looking for the same answer and found a Polar official response:
“Outdoor swimming metrics coming as a firmware update by end of June.”
and second question: Polar Flow: Ability to manually add training session to log (i.e. no device used):)
Ability to manually add training sessions has been added!
link to updates.polar.com
and now an option to upload .tcx files with training targets :) (from endomondo or strava premium)
or speed up that strava sync so I can integrate strava training plans :)
Any news about the ability to make training programs (for running)
Endomondo premium has it, now Strava premium will have it and I want to import the training sessions into Flow or make training programs in Flow.
Making every interval session manually is way too time consuming…
Running with a smartphone around my arm is a step back! (and these things keep getting bigger and bigger)
Hi!
Thanks for a highly valuable site and good information!
I did a lot of reading online, as well as in stores, and ended up chosing between the V800, M400, upcoming Garmin FR225 and Tomtom Runner Cardio.
Based on good reviews and as a earlier Polar RS200 owner I decided to go with Polar V800.
The build quality, size and basic functions of this Watch are awesome!
But I actually feel a bit disapointed of the lacking of some functions because I totally missed that V800 lacks training programs (e.g. intervalls)!
It’s not that big deal that I’m thinking of return, but enough to disturb my otherwise “Good-Buy-Feeling” :)
So I’m also interested in the progress of Training Programs as well as the internal Accelerometer for threadmill use.
I’ve checked various Polar sites (Global, Support, Flow, Facebook etc) finding no specific information regarding this, nore a release plan similar to the one on top of this page.
Are there any known updates regarding this? :)
Thanks for a nice site!
“But I actually feel a bit disapointed of the lacking of some functions because I totally missed that V800 lacks training programs (e.g. intervalls)!”
Actually the v800 has a very good interval timer to be used for intervals on any sports profile. Press upper left button.
It can be set to time or distance or distance + time, e.g. 4 mins recovery and then 400m run or whatever.
It will also auto set a ‘lap’ for each of these intervals so you can see your effort in each of the recovery or work parts of the interval session.
Its all in the manual.
Hi, thanks, missed that one! Sure is a good feature and I’ll propably will use it!
However I was more thinking of complete trainingprograms like 10min warming up, 10 x intervals, 10min cooling down and saving them for recurring use. I found that through Polar Flow as I wrote earlier, but a bit hidden :)
The “Good-Buy-Feeling” is there again! :)
After posting the above, I stumbled on a video from Polar (link to polar.com) that clearly explained how to create and use Training Programs! I’m so happy, that really made my day! :)
That said, I’m still intrested in the Threadmill capabilities of the V800 without the seperate sensor…
I just upgraded the firmware on my m400 and the phone notifications are working well. I do wish there was a way to receive notifications like texts and emails during a training session. When I’m not training, I can always I can always check my phone, it’s when I’m on a run that I want to be able to check a text (“pick up some milk on your way back”) without fishing out my phone. Are there any plans for Polar to enable this functionality? I see the v800 has the same problem, does that mean it’s not technically possible?
Any updates on export from polarpersonaltrainer -> polar flow? Seems still not be implemented.
On their website updates.polar.com they mentioned that it was pushed back to sometime in Q3 2015. Which probably means last day of September…
I just ran Grandma’s Marathon with an M400 I got last week after my Garmin Forerunner 305 decided to suddenly die. Overall I liked the M400 for the race, but the GPS accuracy seemed pretty far off. it said I went 26.67 miles. I’m pretty sure I took the shortest line through most of the corners, and I could tell the mileage was off every time I hit a mile marker, so it appears the accuracy was off by about 1.8%. That meant that the finish time predictor (which is otherwise a really nice feature) was off by about 3.5 minutes. The Forerunner 305 was consistently off by about 1%, so I’m used to making mental calculations to adjust pace and distance, but why don’t the manufacturers give us the option to adjust this in the software (without having to purchase a foot pod)? If I’m consistently seeing the GPS-measured distance be higher than the actual distance, why can’t I just have an option to calibrate it with a software adjustment? It doesn’t seem it would be a difficult feature to add.
In the future I can adjust the race time predictor to compensate and get a more accurate finish prediction (e.g., using 1.8%, use a custom distance of 6.3 miles for a 10k, 26.7 for a marathon), but that still won’t fix the inaccurate pace measurement (a 7:30 measured pace would be closer to 7:38).
Given the comments so far, I thought I’d chip in here. I am into fitness, not training. This involves a daily run with a small ocean swim. Fitbit Flex: Software was pretty good but replaced three times in a year because of terrible charging connector. New Fitbit Charge and Surge: NOT WATERPROOF!!?? What? Stupid. They lost me.
Next, a Polar M400: A great watch, great software but M400 slow to get GPS (minutes waiting in cold are not pleasant) and also failed to charge after 4 months due to what I presume a terrible micro usb connection that is not waterproof.
Next, a Garmin VivoActive – very nice watch to use, seriously good waterproofing (inc charging!) but not as flexible in some ways as the M400 with data screens, great GPS, but STUPIDLY complex software. I mean, you have Garmin Connect for IOS/Android, Garmin Express to connect via usb, Garmin Connect on the web. and of course, the watch interface itself which also has a bunch of settings. What does what? Garmin needs to simplify this. The reports from Garmin Connect are not as good as Polar Flow.
To those who mentioned RunGap for IOS: A true perfection of an app!
Thanks for an informative review and more. Do you have any scoop as to when Android Polar Flow and MyFitnessPal integration is going to be available? Thanks again for this service to us.
“Training Load/Recovery: Combining data from V800, V650, Polar Beat”: Does that mean that training load is calculated for training sessions with Polar Beat app and M400 as well? I do own a V800 but training load is only calculated for worksuts with he V800, no other device seems to be supported which is very annoying!
Peter, did you manage to resolve this issue?
I have crossfit training several times a week and prefer to use Bear app for them (to avoid damage of V800).
I agree it’s very annoying to see “undertrained” after training sessions! )
Would love to the ability to change ones own stride length, i dont fancy using another bluetooth device just to override the internal workings of my v800 when i know what my stride length is based on measuring it manually.
and the ability to see ongoing calories burned during exercise not once it’s finished and you’ve pressed stop.
the FT series had that option i fail to see why it was removed for the V series.
DC Rainmaker, do you have any information about “ROUTING: ABILITY TO DEFINE ROUTE ON FLOW TO FOLLOW BREADCRUMB TRAIL”?
According to Polar Germany over Facebook, the feature is planned for fall 2015.
Hello, I was curious, so I thought that I would go and check on when smart notifications where supposed to come to the M400 for Android users. According to this, it was scheduled for the end of June, and says “on schedule.”
Obviously, this time frame is blown, the question is when is it going to happen?
Hi,
Any idea when all those “On planning” stuff will be released? We’re now in augustus and I see a lot of things scheduled in june that are not live yet…
V800 User…
When do you think Polar will come out with an optical monitor? The market is hot on them now. One would hope that their years of expertise would help them here. Or perhaps a wrist based EKG sensor. Couldn’t there be two wrist sensors somehow connected by bluetooth and be as accurate as a chestpiece?
As you probably noticed by now, Polar doesnt implement features on their watches that are not 100% proven to work accurately…thus the reason their watches dont use internal accelerometer for pace/distance indoors… or other gadgets and features garmin provide but doesnt work too good.
Heart rate monitor on the wrist will be focus for fitness level and sport lovers…for elite athletes chest strap will be always the way..If you cycle and have your watch mounted on the bike how do you expect to have a HR read?
Also you probably would need to have the watch quite tight to the wrist and if you live in a cold country it probably, Optical HR sensor doesnt fly too well unless u like to run in t-shirt when its -15c degrees outside lol
Hi, I have a Mio Fuse whch is a wrist based optical HRM. One of the challenges I have is that it has to be strapped quite tight to your arm, slightly above where a normal watch lies. This is fine untl you hit some bumpy roads. Over a long road it can mean that the watch comes under the force of gravity and slips down your arm and loosens/loses connection.
At least with a chest strap, that is less likely to happen.
Also, I am a bit underwhelmed by the addition of maps to teh V650 in isolation to anything else. Ok, it tells me where I am, but am I really going to be peering at a map to see where I am while spinning along at 28kph? Turn by turn of a preloaded route is more important to me.
Also, what is really disappointing is that there is no clear timeline for third party power meter support e.g. Powertap P1, training loads/recovery, whereas this is available on the V800
> Polar doesnt implement features on their watches that are not 100% proven to work accurately…
unless it’s swimming HR registration that does not work because of belt slipping down and optical HRM would be much better
or other swimming metrics registered correctly by garmin and not by Polar….
V650 map update is there !
You can download the maps and see your route on the map. Other functions will come later on. Looks nice, detail is good at first sight, zooming and scrolling is responsive on the V650. I think this will work for me !
Sorry if I missed this in an earlier post/thread – But does the M400 support / pair with a Stages PM? And, totally new topic, are there any third party bike mounts for the Polar M450 or V650? Like K-Edge or Bar Fly?
Ive been chasing various avenues with polar this week about the proposed update posted in January getting very grey answers back which makes me doubt this is ever going to get finalised…
Until then im going to use an app called RUNZI to record my cadence as the stride sensor looks pretty big and pretty expensive…
”We know you’ve been eager to hear information about M400 and the stride sensor support. The wait is over, and boy do we have some good news to share with you! Polar will bring the Stride sensor Bluetooth Smart support for Polar M400 by the end of Q1. But there’s more – at the same time we’re developing an intelligent way to measure distance, speed and cadence utilizing the accelerometer for both M400 and V800. We’ll let you know the schedule for this later during the spring, so stay tuned!
Happy training!
–Team Polar”
Polar V800 users, hold on to your socks since you’re next in line to get the Android notifications streaming on your wrist during the upcoming weeks! Polar M400 owners; rest assured we haven’t forgotten about you either! These are under works for you too and will reach the other Smart Notification supported devices during the upcoming months.
lol was meant to be this month, now its weeks and months..ok Polar
First it was supposed to be June 2015, then in August “the wait is almost over” for a September release where “we’ll continue to gradually update the other supported devices in the upcoming three to four months following the first release.” except it was never communicated what was to be the order of the polar devices to get android smart notifications. Yesterday we find out that the polar loop 2 is first, followed by the m800 and finally by the m400 which will get android Smart Notification “during the upcoming months.”
Polar build up expectation in their vague blog posts and then on the release date tell the m400 users we have another few months to wait. One disappointment after another from polar, who make no apologies for their poor release communication and delays and to make matters worse these are passed off in a jovial manner as if it completely acceptable to us their customers .
Its been 9 months since they were working on cadence and pace distance via the internal accelerometer…yeah right, i dont think its coming at all, better buy a egg size foodpod..
My main issue with the egg sized footpod is how you cannot easily move it between shoes, unlike Garmin’s offering. You have to undo most of the laces.
This wouldn’t be too bad If you could buy spare cradles anywhere.
FYI spare cradles are for sale for about $10/€10.
I use one old type (hard plastic) that can be changed very quick between shoes without undo-ing any laces (but less secure contact) and 2 new types (soft rubber) which cannot be changed very easy but give a much secure contact.
these updates get better and better you just couldn’t make it up!!! its almost like polar enjoy toying around with their customers…………….
Hello Ray,
Congratulations for the amazing blog!
I wonder if you’d have any update on Polar updates release schedule, more specifically for the internal/ accelerometer detection of cadence/pace/speed for M400 (treadmill focused). I’ve tried to contact them through their website but the contact form is broken and I can’t submit the inquiry.
Polar are going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment check out there facebook page!!
I was assured that the wrist based metrics is been worked on…I’ll believe it when I see it!!
Dear Ricardo,
Thank you for contacting Polar Customer Care.
If all goes as planned, we expect to be able to gradually bring wrist based running metrics to selected Polar products during Q4.
Best Regards,
Global Customer Care/ Mika
Polar Electro Oy
Finland
Hi,
I’ve had similar correspondence but no mention of a timeline looking at the recent performance on timelines and deadlines id take Q4 with a pinch of salt…
Any updated due date for indoor running cadence using the internal accelerometer in the V800? The chart says they expected it to be out in June of this year and says it is on schedule. It’s October now, so unless it was added in the last update but not noted as being in it, I assume that they are actually late. Any word?
Yes, agree.
I would like to know that too. Couple of key things still missing after many months of waiting:
1. Cadence w/o pod (i.e. based on accelerometer)
2. Ability to CREATE routes on Flow and then to transfer to V800 (and other products)
3. More power data fields with different levels of smoothing (e.g. no smoothing, 1 sec, 3 secs, 5 secs, 10 secs, 30 secs, 1 min)
4. Complete compatibility with third party BLE power meters (e.g. Powertap P1)
Polar (or Ray), let us know with a firm timeline for these!
Polar promised automatic Strava syncing by end of Oct 2015: link to updates.polar.com
Anyone know if this is still on track?
They’ve just announced that it has been delayed again until late December:
link to updates.polar.com
Yup. And no news about internal cadence :-(
Any update on “INTERNAL/ACCELEROMETER DETECTION OF CADENCE/PACE/SPEED FOR V800/M400 (TREADMILL FOCUSED)”
Would be great if these watches allowed the weight value to be read from the Apple HealthKit, that way we wouldn’t have to manually add it each day.
Polar has -finally- added wrist based running cadence.
You still need GPS or the external running sensor to get pace / distance.
Christian
So Polar is getting worst by the day. What they do (very late) with one hand undo with the other (very quickly). On the las V650 firmware update they render useless my Stages power meter. There response…. you have to wait for the next firmware release to get this fixed!!!
I basically paid $250 + $75 in accessories for a Cycling computer that messed up my Power Meter… Thank you very much Polar!!!
I understand your frustration with Polar V650. I too have Stages power meter and while the unit paired successfully,after downloading data from a number of rides I began to have doubts about the power measurements it was displaying. The wattages seemed WAY too high. In light of this I then paired the same power meter to a Garmin Edge 500 on the same bike and went on an identical route. The wattages recorded were much lower than the Polar and in my opinion far more realistic,eg on a particular 5 mile stretch the Polar recorded an average 546w compared to 270w for the Garmin. In both instances calibration of power meter was performed prior to ride to ensure consistency. I don’t understand why there is such a huge discrepancy between the power readings of the Garmin and Polar V650 using the same power meter. Any ideas would be most appreciated.
You have gotta love polar. They introduce a new feature…the ability to follow a route on the map. Except…it has to be a route someone else has done, or a route that you have previously done yourself.
Brilliant! I really look forward to using my map route to repeat getting lost again.
Any idea when we’ll see a unified product from Polar including ability to create a route and mobile sync? Really regretting my loyalty to Polar.
@Alfredo, Thanks for the heads up too, I was just about to press “buy” on a stages powermeter
Hi,
I’ve encountered the following problem: I’ve prepared some interval training sessions and stored them as favorites; warm-up, work-rest (x times), cooling-down. Pretty straight forward. All starts well, but the problem is in the cooling-down bit. The watch doesn’t log what I have entered as cooling-down distance or time, but takes the last ‘work’ distance or time and uses that as my cooling-down part. How weird is that. I’ve double checked what I have entered as my training, and that is correct.
For example: I just ran 2.5 km warm-up, 10 x (2min work, 1min rest), 2.5km cooling-down. After the last work-rest session (and I assure you, I can count) the M400 tells me to ‘work’ for 2 minutes, instead of 2.5 km cooling down.
I gets even more weird: when downloading the info to flow on my computer (did I already mention, the M400 doesn’t sync via Bluetooth to my iPhone 6?) the last phase is shown as ‘cooling-down’ (while the watch told me to ‘work’), but with the duration 2 minutes, instead of a distance of 2.5km.
Am I totally missing something, or is something really wrong with my M400?
Apologies for this long story, I hope it makes sence.
Kind regards.
Hi Jasper,
I faced the same issue for the second time in the row. Have you raised the issue with Polar team? Did they say anything?
I shared your post on their FB page, waiting for their feedback.
Hope it will be tackled soon, it ruins my runs :(
Take care,
Marek
Hi, Marek,
Got same issue on my M400. Actually, Polar has forum and people discuss the bug almost 2 months. The bug was confirmed by support, but we don’t have firmware update yet.
link to forum.polar.fi
Thanks Alex,
didn’t know. I will follow it from now on.
Marek
Any news about 1.training plans and 2. Creating routes on flow (i know about syncmytracks and strava)?
Hello
I went and bought the stride sensor yesterday to use with my V800. Much to my irritation, when I got back, I was notified that there was a new update for my V800 that measures cadence. Other than the jump tests and the stride distance, is there any point to keeping the stride sensor or should I return it?
Thanks
The stride sensor can also be used to measure pace and distance, useful for treadmills. The pace is probably a little more accurate and doesn’t fluctuate as much as gps when calibrated. To be honest though I own a stride sensor and never used it really because it was awkward to swap between shoes. I would see even less reason to get one now.
Thank you Steven. My concern is that Polar will come out with another update that somehow calculates the pace and distance on the V800 when on a treadmill. Based on Rainmakers’s road map above, it seems like it is going that direction – “INTERNAL/ACCELEROMETER DETECTION OF CADENCE/PACE/SPEED FOR V800/M400 (TREADMILL FOCUSED)”.
I just wish that there was some clear information about where they plan to take the V800. It is a premier product so one wouldn’t waste good money on redundant products. I would be keen to get the scale, but it doesn’t seem to be available in South Africa.
You may already have an answare, if not I think you will need the stride sensor to track distance when running on a treadmill. The cadence sensor through the update only measures the cadence but does not estimate distance. Hope this helps.
Given the issues with the M400 USB connector, why can’t Polar updates be undertaken from a phone via BT rather than FlowSync? Garmin seems to be able to achieve it no problem, as displayed by my wife’s successful VivoActive update this morning…
Is there any plan to add lengths to this device like the v800?
I have a garmin swim but id prefer to do have all my data straight
To polar flow.
Something I wouldnt mind purchasing!
Thanks Chris
Will Polar make it possible to transfer polar flow data to polarpersonal trainer website? I like the fact that when I bought the M400 for cycling and training that all my PPT data transfers to Polar Flow. But what about some of the analyzing Funtions of the ppt website and addition data that I want to continue using?
Hej Ray,
Any update on when I might be able to define a route in flow. I’m super happy with my V800 especially after the updates. I’m looking for a new bike computer and it makes sense to stay in the “polar family” however being able to follow a breadcrumb trail as a minimum is a bit of a deal breaker. The table above claims June 2015 but this did not happen. Is it time to give up waiting and move to garmin?
I World like to know this to. ;o)
Please ask around… Please… Routing for V650 would be great.
Route import to Flow and devices:
link to support.polar.com
I just bought an m400. it has a very early firmware version on it I believe. It’s 1.2.4 and Flowsync will not update it, although my browser and flowsync app are current. Can anyone help? Thanks
Hi there,
Ray or anyone, have you heard anything on POLAR FLOW DATA IMPORT, TO SEND FILES FROM 3RD PARTY APPS AND SERVICES?
They’ve promised to do it one day?
Has there been any updates to this list for 20167/2017?
If it’s M400 or a Garmin and you only want running then it’s the fr15 or the new Vivo active I’d be looking at. Good to see what is planned and that for the most part, Polar has met their published timelines. some kind of update would be nice. I’m even thinking about buying one for my mom for her birthday next month, as she’s started to work on living a healthier life.
Personally for me the timing works out nicely. I am working in shanghai till the end of June, so my training options are very limited, so nice to know the watch will be up to speed and the V650 should be out and tested by then, just in time for the UK summer months when I am home ?