Polar Ignite's new colors are the missing link for this popular cheap running watch

Polar Ignite
(Image credit: Polar)

The Polar Ignite is one of the Finnish brand's most popular running watches despite being unveiled only two months ago - and new colors unveiled at IFA 2019 will attract even more users to the platform.

Now available in rose gold / pink and black / copper, the new colors for the Polar Ignite add more of a design flourish to a range that was already pretty feature packed.

In a world dominated by the likes of the Apple Watch and Garmin’s Forerunner range, Polar’s been working hard to bring features users would actually want, and with the Ignite range it’s done just that.

Polar Ignite

The rose gold and pink variant of the Polar Ignite (Image credit: Polar)

The sleek running watch retails for just under £180 / $230 / AU$280, and offers a range of options - including GPS running tracking, a built-in heart rate monitor, training plans that adapt to the user, and a large color screen.

The watch offers up to five days of battery life in standard mode, although it’s not clear whether that includes being connected to the smartphone and allowing for notifications.

The key thing that fitness watches are struggling against at the moment is the might of the Apple Watch, which is combining smart notifications and wellness features with fitness tracking.

Packing in the features

To combat this, Polar has added in Nightly Recharge, Sleep Plus Stages and FitSpark to offer users something a little different in a more fitness-focused device. 

The Nightly Recharge monitors your nervous system through the heart-rate monitor to assess the quality of your sleep, where Sleep Plus Stages works to create a more rounded picture of your sleep quality.

This all sounds fairly typical these days in a wearable, but FitSpark is designed to create a tailored system that gives you cardio and strength training options that are altered based on your Nightly Recharge levels - something users are crying out for from a wearable, a device that tells you what to do based on personal levels of energy.

Polar Ignite

The Ignite looks refined in black and copper (Image credit: Polar)

It’s also combined with Polar Flow analytics app, which has historically been one of TechRadar’s favorite ways of tracking our health data throughout the day when used on previous devices - and stay tuned for our imminent Polar Ignite review.

Also capable of tracking indoor and outdoor swimming and stroke style, the Polar Ignite’s new colors are available now and cost £199 (around $230 / AU$280) - so if you like the sound of the advanced features but weren’t sold on boring black or silver, it might be worth taking another look.

  • IFA 2019 is Europe's biggest tech show. The TechRadar team is in Berlin to bring you all the breaking news and hands-on first impressions of new TVs, watches and other tech as they're announced.
Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.

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