I’ve been using the latest Garmin Forerunner 945 for a while and I must say that even though it has all the latest and greatest, still fails to amaze me. Don’t take me wrong, it’s a solid device, works fine … has decent GPS tracks, a lot of features, metrics and all. I’m still looking for reasons to buy a Polar Vantage V Titan, because I like the looks and I really appreciate the web Flow platform and the Recovery Pro. I would have considered a Suunto 9 as well, but not having a web platform and structured workouts is a strong deterrent.
Even so, if that will happen (and it will), it won’t be a smooth transition, because there are some elements which I’ll miss … and I’m talking about Garmin Pay or music, as I don’t use those … maybe maps to some extent.
Basic list of features:
- multiple alarms (it’s not that difficult and I kind of take this for granted, when Polar and Suunto are ignoring this aspect)
- footpod calibration (I know it should come in October, but it still worths mention it)
- gear management – actually tracking the use of various shoes, bikes – it’s simple and effective
- search options in Flow activities – filtering them by distance (range), date or eventually a word in the notes is something I really appreciate – for example, how would you know how I performed in my marathons or longer than 30km runs if you can’t select only those in the list ?
- altitude calibration (for Vantage) – the others have it, even Polar on V800
Nice to have features
- pause and resume later activity (I enjoy this feature on Garmin, it’s not available on Polar .. don’t know about Suunto)
- Sunrise/Sunset moments depending on your position on the globe – it’s a nice to have I appreciate with Garmin .. Suunto has it .. Polar most probably won’t have it (at least soon)
- save location and display current position (altitude included) – I know this is more outdoor/hiking oriented, but since the watch has this information, it would be nice to use it
Complex but important
- Ability to import workouts from other sources (platforms) – the fact that Polar Flow doesn’t allow importing workouts (only routes) it’s an important barrier for people who would like to migrate to Polar … they lose all their training history and sometimes that build reluctance in switching
- Training synchronisation with external services – like Training Peaks, Final Surge, etc – it’s not that simple, but allows you to use efficiently the watch with other platforms – Garmin does it really nice with their Training API and the integration with Training Peaks is really something.
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