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* The Polar V800 has considerably better [[GPS Accuracy]] than any other GPS watch I've tested. It's better than some of the older devices that have surprisingly good GPS Accuracy, and it's far better than most of the newer devices that have mediocre to appalling accuracy.
* The V800 also has a more rapid initial satellite acquisition than earlier watches, though it's not as fast as the watches that use a satellite pre-cache download. Note that while the GPS accuracy is quite remarkable, it is still not good enough to give a reliable readout of your current pace.
* The Polar V800 has elegant styling and it's made from beautiful materials. It's so aesthetically pleasing that it makes me think it's an Apple product. The V800 is actually quite heavy, but this tends to convey a sense of quality rather than excess. The V800 hides its bulk quite effectively, as of the watch extends out into what appears to be the first part of the watch strap. * The elegant design continues into the user interface; the buttons, display, and the menu system combine aesthetics with usability. The V800 has five hard buttons, which I much prefer over a touchscreen interface, especially when wearing gloves or in the rain. In addition ** If you tap the V800 has screen, that acts like an extra button. You can set the tap to take a lap, turn on the backlight or a few other things. (This tap action that appears you does not seem to use the accelerometer rather than be a touchscreen, and I found this did not work terribly wellyou have to whack the V800 pretty hard, even on the lightest setting. I think Polar is using the internal accelerometer to detect the impact. )** If you're wearing the heart rate monitor strap, you can touch the V800 to the transmitter for an additional another action, such as activating the backlight. * The V800 provides more information when you pressed press the lap button than other watches, as well as far more useful data at the end of the run.
* Like the [[Suunto Ambit2 R]], the V800 can be configured via the website, which is easier than fiddling with the watch itself. Most of the options can be also set on the watch, which means you're not stuck if you're away from the Internet.
* The battery life is 13 hours with GPS recording set normally. If you change the recording interval to once per minute, the battery life extends to 50 hours, but there are no settings in between. For most runners 13 hours is adequate, but ultrarunners may need to use the extended mode. Recording GPS point once a minute can provide reasonable accuracy for straight, point-to-point courses, but could be very misleading in other situations.
* The V800 provides some interesting analysis of your training. This is similar to the [[Firstbeat| Firstbeat Training Effect]] used by Garmin and Suunto, which is a simple number between 1.0 and 5.0. The V800 provides more detailed analysis with a text description of its evaluation. It has 17 different classifications including things like "maximum training", "tempo training", or "steady-state training". Each classification has a little congratulatory message associated with it that explains the benefit of that particular type of training. This is a nice feature, though it can be a little simplistic and may not be accurate for you. If you're prepared to take it with a pinch of salt, it's a nice feature. (This requires the [[Heart Rate Monitor]].)
* The V800 also provides some guidance on your recovery. Again this is a little more sophisticated than the Garmin and Suunto approach which give the number of hours until you are recovered. ** The V800 will tell you how many hours of recovery are required for the latest workout, and if which gives a nice evaluation of that workout in isolation. ** The V800 will give you are not recovered, it your overall recovery/stress level as a bar graph.<br/>[[File:V800RecoveryBar.jpg|none|thumb|100px]]** The V800 will then tell you what time and day when you will reach specific the next recovery thresholdslevel. <br/>[[File:V800RecoveryTime.jpg|none|thumb|100px]]** I think this is rather more useful information, than the [[Firstbeat]] systems used by Garmin and the Suunto.** The V800 can include stress/recovery information from general daily activity as well as exercise sessions, which is nice. However, because the V800 is a poor activity monitor (see below), this value is a little limited.
* The V800 can display your [[Heart Rate Variability]] (HRV), something that is quite unusual. I really like having HRV displayed, as it gives another indication of how stressful my current training session is. The V800 can also record your HRV, but not during a normal training session.
* There are a number of tests built into the V800.
** The fitness test uses the [[Heart Rate Monitor]] to measure your [[Heart Rate Variability]] at rest to predict your [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] (a measure of fitness).
** The orthostatic test measures your [[Heart Rate]] and HRV lying down and when you stand up to evaluate your recovery status. This test takes six minutes and it needs to be done on a regular basis in order to detect patterns of change. Looking at the scientific research, the reliability of this test is unclear.
** There are jumping tests that use the Polar Stride Sensor to measure explosive strength.
* The V800 includes a barometric altimeter, which is helpful given that GPS is notoriously poor at estimating altitude.
* You can use the V800 as a simple activity monitor, but this uses something that's common to many new sports watches. However, when the V800 acts as an activity monitor it only has only an internal accelerometer, so its value is limited compared with devices like which provides poor accuracy. If you need an activity monitor, I'd recommend the [[Basis Activity Tracker]] that include which has sensors for heart rate and other information.* Unlike Ant+ based sensors that broadcast data to any device that's listening, Bluetooth sensors are currently limited to sending data to a single paired listening device. The V800 will rebroadcast the signals, but currently only the Polar App can receive them. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future, skin temperature and later revisions of the Bluetooth specification will allow for fore broadcasting of dataperspiration.
=Polar V800 Cons=
* One of the big downsides to the V800 is its cost, which is far more expensive than the watches that I highly recommend. Given the V800's functionality, it's too expensive to be "highly recommended" at this price point.
* The second problem with the V800 is its support for [[Cadence]]. Even though the V800 has an internal accelerometer, this is not used to display cadence. Cadence is only available with a Bluetooth Footpod, and the options here are currently quite limited(see below). Compounding the lack of Cadence support, the V800 has no way of displaying your current pace from the [[Footpod]] while using GPS for overall distance and course. If you select "speed from Footpod" the Footpod is used for distance as well. * The V800 uses Bluetooth sensors rather than the more common Ant+, which has some practical implications. ** For [[Heart Rate Monitor]], the Polar H7 works well.** The options for a [[Footpod]] are more limited. There is the [http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Stride-Sensor-Bluetooth-Smart/dp/B00CCASIMS Polar Stride Sensor] but this is enormous and heavy compared with the Garmin equivalent. It actually weighs about 1oz/30g, which I believe is unacceptable. There are other Bluetooth Footpods on the market, but none of these function fully with the V800.* Compounding * An Ant+ sensor will broadcast data to any device that's listening, so you could have two watches both receiving information. Bluetooth sensors are currently limited to sending data to a single paired listening device. So if you're wearing the lack of Cadence supportPolar H7 Heart Rate Monitor, the data can go either to the V800 has no way of displaying or to your current pace from iPhone, not both. (The V800 will rebroadcast the signals, but currently only the [[Footpod]] while using GPS for overall distance and coursePolar App can receive them. If you select "speed from Footpod" Later revisions of the Footpod is used Bluetooth specification will allow for distance as wellbroadcasting of data. )
* The V800 will only upload the data to the Polar website. Polar has introduced to the export of TCX format data, but this export is incomplete (no laps). You can work around this by using the open source projects [https://github.com/pcolby/bipolar Bipolar] and [https://github.com/profanum429/v800_downloader V800_downloader], but this is a far cry from the open approach that Garmin has taken.
* The V800 uses some visual tricks to appear smaller than it is. If you look at the picture below, the watch body appears to be the silvered area, which is quite small. However, the first bit of the watch strap is really part of the watch body, with the strap starting much further out. The only problem is the watch body is inflexible, so on small wrists like mine it does not sit well, and I suspect it will dig into those with particularly large wrists. <br/>[[File:V800 Size.jpg|none|thumb|300px]]* A minor niggle irritation with the otherwise excellent user interface is that the beeps and vibration are extremely weak and ineffectual.* Unlike the [[Suunto Ambit2 R]], [[TomTom Cardio Runner]], or [[Garmin Fenix 2]], the V800 does not show any graphs of pace, heart rate, or other data pointpoints. It's nice to see not only your current data value, but the graph of how it's changing during your run.
* There is no support for displaying a map or outline of the track you've covered for navigation. There is a rudimentary "back to start" functionality that gives you an arrow pointing back.
* The polar website has some basic functionality, but it has the feel of an unfinished beta release rather than a complete solution. This feeling of being unfinished extends to the watch itself, but at least Polar are giving a timeline for new functionality. * The V800 will predict your [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]], but unlike the Garmin devices that used [[Firstbeat]] technology and give a good result, the V800 is wildly wrong for me. Obviously this is a sample of one and Your Mileage May Vary.
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
