Polar Ignite 3 Review

The first ever watch from Polar to boast an AMOLED screen is the Ignite 3 and it certainly gives it a glow, as opposed to the monochrome screens that have come before. The watch also has a lightweight body and a good set of fitness features that will draw your attention.

Design and build

The simple design of the Polar Ignite 3 is a big appeal, as it has a circular touchscreen with a single button on the left edge for pausing and ending workouts and opening and closing menus. Purple, sand, black and brown copper are the color choices available, each of which come with different casing finishes. These are smooth, lattice, grooves and scored, respectively. The straps are silicone, boasting a traditional buckle.

The size is 20mm and the Ignite 3 weighs just 35g, which makes it extremely light. This is despite the built-in GPS and heart rate sensor. Since it is the thinnest watch that boasts GPS, it is incredibly comfortable and you often forget you are wearing it. The watch has a 1.2 inch display, which may seem small, but is big enough for you to check the time and read stats.

Performance and software

Even though it boasts an AMOLED screen, the Ignite 3 does not have a lot of buttons and its software lags a bit, due to which interacting with it can be a bit frustrating. Using touch to go through the menus is a bit frustrating because it is a bit slow. There is just 5MB of RAM and a 192MHz CPU, which is a good combo for screens with a low resolution, but it cannot keep up with the AMOLED screen in the Ignite 3.

Luckily, you can scroll through the right and left clock face smoothly, so you can check weather, activity, sleep and other functions easily. The watch will also ping when you get notifications on your smartphone, but you cannot interact with them. Audio controls open up when you are listening to a podcast, or music. However, it only functions as a remote and cannot be used for loading tracks.

Health and fitness tracking

The Ignite 3 is designed to be a fitness tracker and not a smartwatch, so it comes with GPS tracking and a bunch of wellness features. You can use it to track walking, running, indoor cycling, swimming, HIIT sessions, hiking, strength training, mountain biking, cycling and treadmill running and also for general indoor and outdoor activity.

The watch does a pretty good job where tracking is concerned, but the GPS is not as accurate as the Apple Watch SE, or Polar Pace. You can use the Polar Flow app for syncing it with your iOS or Android device, but there will be a learning curve here because the app is not very intuitive. There are also basic training programs available without subscription and this is a plus. There is also voice guidance available and some good apps like Serene.