New Polar Vantage firmware brings smartphone notifications & more
Polar has today bumped the software version of its Vantage V and M watches to 3.0.10. The update brings smartphone notifications, Back to Start, Route Guidance and a range of other tweaks and bug fixes.
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The wearables were announced in September last year. The duo features an improved heart rate monitor, advanced performance metrics and smart coaching. The more high-spec Vantage V is geared towards the serious fitness enthusiast, whereas the Vantage M is a slightly stripped back, budget friendly iteration.
This year’s first update brings a bunch of new features. The ones that come on both watches begin with notifications. The device on your wrist will now start to display alerts for calls, messages and apps. Everything that shows up on your iOS and Android locked phone screen will show on the Vantage display.
If you do not want to be disturbed, there is a new function which lets you silence all phone notifications. The Do not disturb will also switch off the automatic backlight gesture, sounds and vibration.
Another update that is common to both the Vantage M and V is a Sleep watch face. This shows your night’s sleep details and rates how well you slept. There’s also a new Quick menu feature which gives fast access to favorites, timers, routes and more.
To help you find your way around, the watches are getting a Back to start guide. This points your way back to the starting location of your session. Its a simple as making sure you follow the arrow on the watch display.
Waypoint Navigation for downloaded routes is only available for the Vantage V, though. This lets you discover new routes from other users in Polar Flow and third-party services, and sync them to your watch.
Polar has added that future updates will include Strava Live Segments, Fitness Test and more. All this is, of course subject to change. We have yet to hear on the timing of these updates.
Vantage V and M are not just iterative upgrades on Polar’s previous sports-watches. They come with a significant revamp in design and features you won’t find on the devices they replace, the V800 and M430 respectively. The company says the watches are the most advanced in its history.
You can update the firmware with your mobile device or tablet if you’re using Polar Flow mobile app. It should take about 20 minutes for everything to install. The other option is to connect to a computer and upgrade the software via FlowSync.
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