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Polar Loop: One Minute Review
The Polar Loop is, apparently, what many people want. It's a lifestyle wearable like the popular Whoop MG, but it doesn't come with a mandatory monthly subscription.
It has no screen, a lightweight body and a fabric strap for maximum comfort. Polar has kept the Loop simple, offering a limited set of features rather than trying to include many extras. It tracks your sleep, your steps and has the ability to recognize and record activity sessions: runs, walks, etc. This part is spotty, but the Polar Loop was never going to be a big hit as one of the best fitness trackers among hardcore exercisers anyway.
The Polar Loop's problems are largely software based. You have to stick with the Polar app to make Loop fun to use, and its interface and data presentation could really be rethought. This is planned for the future, but for now, this isn't the Whoops killer you might be expecting. It shows up on that front with the cheaper Amazfit Helio strap.
As it is, what you get is a decent screenless tracker, but one that may be better later in its life, at least after a software update.
Polar loop: specifications
|
Component |
polar loop |
|
Price |
$199 / £149.50 / AU$299 |
|
Dimensions |
42x27x9mm |
|
Weight |
29g with band |
|
Case/bezel |
Stainless steel/Plastic |
|
Show |
N/A |
|
GPS |
N/A |
|
Battery life |
Up to 8 days |
|
Connection |
bluetooth |
|
Water resistant |
Yes, 3 ATMs. |
Polar Loop: price and availability
- $199 in the US
- £149.50 in the UK
- 299 Australian dollars in Australia
Polar Loop launched in early September 2025 as a subscription-free alternative to the Whoop band. It's been just over a year since the launch of the Polar 360, a business-oriented wearable wellness device that's ultimately quite similar to this consumer version. It costs $199 in the US, £149.50 in the UK, and $299 in Australia.
While there are no explicit ongoing costs, there is a completely optional subscription called the Polar Fitness Program, which builds an adaptive training plan for you. It costs 9.99 euros per month after a free trial. This is a much better value than Whoop, which doesn't sell you the device at all, just an expensive subscription. But for a fitness tracker that doesn't actually do a lot, it's still quite expensive.
Polar loop: design
- No screen
- Steel details
- Comfortable elastic bands
The Polar Loop is so similar to the Whoop band that Whoop is suing Polar, claiming the company stole its design. However, this really comes down to a couple of conventions already seen in the screenless portable device landscape.
Polar uses a fabric strap that interlocks, in the form of a buckle, over the main unit of the wearable device. It covers where the screen would be on a normal watch. The Loop uses a Velcro closure and is clearly designed to resemble a lifestyle that can be worn on top of an intense fitness device. While much of the core of the brick is plastic, the top and exterior are brushed bronze-tone steel. It is there to provide a touch of class.
These screenless portable devices are intended to be the type of device that you set it and forget it, at least until the battery runs out. The Polar Loop weighs 29g, strap included, light enough that you don't take any real momentum when moving your arms, unlike a watch like the Apple Watch Ultra, which weighs around 60g. But you'll still see those familiar marks on your skin when you occasionally take off the watch and press its contours to your wrist.
Is it comfortable? Sure, these slightly stretchy fabric bands are great for comfort. But I've found that the Amazfit Helio Band is a little easier to forget I'm wearing, no doubt because it's even lighter: just 20g.
The Polar Loop has no buttons or LED status indicator. You can't interact with it if you try. There's not even a vibration motor – it's as simple as Polar could make it. Water resistance is rated at WR30, which on other wearables is often considered insufficient for safe swimming, while Polar says the Loop is fine for “bathing and swimming” according to the ISO22810 standard, but not for diving or snorkeling.
Polar loop: features
- No subscription
- Very little interaction
- 2018 Precision Prime Heart Rate Sensor
One of the main attractions of Polar Loop is, of course, that there is no mandatory subscription. However, there is a paid part of the app.
It's called Polar Fitness Program and costs around $11 per month (€9.99). Launched in April 2025, it offers personalized training plans. It would work much better paired with Polar's more conventional sports watches, like the Polar Grit X2, than with a Loop.
The Polar Loop's feature set is very simple. For example, you can't have the watch transmit its heart rate data to be used by another device. There is no altimeter, so the count of steps climbed is not recorded. You can't use the Polar Loop as an alarm because it doesn't have a vibration motor. When the Polar Loop is running low on battery, you'll simply receive an incessant reminder to charge your phone. Do you know what's funny? In fact, Polar launched a tracker called Loop 2 in 2015 that had vibration and a half-hidden display made up of 85 LEDs.
Neither that band nor the Polar Loop also records blood oxygenation data, even though the heart rate set uses green, red, and orange LEDs. Polar calls this their Precision Prime battery and it has been around for many, many years. A similar design was found in the Polar Vantage V from 2018. That was a long time ago in technological terms, but the basics still work well.
Polar loop: performance
- 8 days of battery life
- Some activity tracking bugs
- HR data tests similar to the Garmin Elevate V5 sensor
Despite the lack of a screen, Polar says the Loop lasts eight days, which is actually a little less than some of its watches with a screen. This is basically due to money. You can expect it to last about a week. Without GPS or a screen, there should be little variation in duration depending on your activity level.
Like any wearable device, the Polar Loop relies heavily on its heart rate sensor for data beyond your steps. This portable device has a pretty good one, despite using older hardware. While this is not a replacement for a full runner's watch due to its lack of GPS, its HR data during runs is quite similar to that of a Garmin Forerunner 970 (one of the best Garmin watches) and its Elevate V5 sensor, used simultaneously during most of my tests.
The Polar Loop doesn't tend to mess up the start of your workouts or show unexpected major heart rate spikes during the workday when you're doing little more than entertaining yourself. There was an unexpected spike during a tracked run, but overall the results are solid here.
By default, Polar Loop will record basic stats 24/7, and then automatically record any slightly extended stretches it thinks you're doing. Go for a 12 minute walk? You can expect to see that popup in the Polar app. However, it is not entirely perfect; During one race, the Loop only recorded half of the hour-and-change workout, apparently stopping for a short break, only to not record the second half. The duration of some sessions is also disabled, although you can always take a more active approach to tracking: in the Polar phone app, you can manually start a tracked session, select the loop and use it as a HR data source.
Apart from that, Polar Loop has a good opportunity to record your daily steps. And of course, it also tracks sleep, estimating the time you spend in light, deep, and REM sleep zones, and recording interruptions. The Polar Loop is more sensitive to these than another wearable's full wake detection, so you may see your sleep logs peppered with these little breakpoints.
The main stats Polar wants you to focus on are sleep duration, sleep solidity, and regeneration; basically, how much sleep gets your body back to where it needs to be. However, there is also an ANS Loading (autonomic nervous system loading) section where you can check your respiratory and heart rate variability.
All the basic data is here and it's pretty solid. The biggest problem with Polar Loop is that the phone app isn't all that pleasant to use, can feel dated to some, and doesn't really direct the user all that well on what they should focus on.
The app's home screen is the Diary, which acts as a feed of your day, showing recent auto-tracked exercises, your step count, etc., in semi-chronological order. This isn't as effective as Amazfit's rival Helio Strap app software, which is more intuitive and has a handy traffic light-style system to alert you to any stats that might be out of the ordinary.
Screenless wearables rely heavily on their apps for the overall quality of the experience. And Polar could use some work. It's just not a space that invites you to hang out. Polar plans to completely revamp the app in the future, but for now we can only work with what we have.
Polar loop: control panel
|
Category |
Comment |
Score |
|
Worth |
The lack of a forced subscription is nice, but this isn't the most aggressively priced tracker out there. |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
It's comfortable, decent looking and has some higher quality steel elements, plus you can choose between colours. |
4/5 |
|
Characteristics |
A watch like this doesn't need many features, but it misses out on some elements that could be useful. |
2.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Heart rate accuracy is decent, but you may not want to rely on automatic exercise recognition for accurate session recording. |
3/5 |
Polar Loop: Should I buy it?
Buy it if…
Don't buy it if…
Also consider
First review: December 2025
