After trailing its first screenless wearable earlier in the summer, Polar has officially launched the Polar Loop band, which goes on sale today ahead of shipping on September 10th.
Polar has set the price of its new activity and sleep tracker to undercut the Whoop 5.0, the most popular screen-free tracker. Not only is the Polar Loop subscription-free so you have no ongoing fees, it costs the same as just one year of Whoop membership — it will set you back $199 / £149, whereas the cheapest Whoop subscription is $199 / £169 a year.
A subtle, screenless design
The Polar Loop launches in three colors — Greige Sand, Night Black, Brown Copper — and a range of interchangeable bands will be available, costing $29 / £15 apiece.
It’s fair to say the design is reminiscent of the Whoop band, featuring a simple strap with a buckle and sensors on the underside. Those sensors track your activity throughout the day and your sleep at night.
All of this data syncs to the Polar Flow app so you can check it at your leisure, without feeling the pressure of looking at another screen throughout the day.
“There’s growing demand for more discreet, screenless experiences that fit seamlessly into everyday life,” says Sander Werring, CEO at Polar. “With Polar Loop, we’re tapping into that movement and redefining what it means to stay connected without the constant pull of a screen.”
Polar says the Loop band will last eight days on a charge, and it can store data offline for four weeks, so you don’t have to sync it to the Polar app each day if you’re off the grid.
Activity and sleep tracking
Polar makes some of the best sports watches available and has offered excellent workout, activity and sleep tracking on those devices for many years. Porting that to a screenless wearable should be simple enough.
Throughout the day, the Polar Loop will monitor your active moments and steps. There's also automatic workout detection for when you do something more vigorous, recording your training without needing to press any buttons.
This automatic recording will be fairly basic, I imagine, but you can get more detail on your workouts by starting a session in the Polar Flow app, including route recording.
The sleep tracking available on Polar’s watches is extensive and insightful, and in my experience, offers more depth than rival sports watch brands. That's a star attraction of the Polar Loop band.
Polar doesn’t yet offer the ‘readiness’ stat you get from Whoop and Garmin, but features like Nightly Recharge provide similar guidance on the state of your body and how ready you are to train each day.
The Polar Loop band follows hot on the heels of the Garmin Sleep Index, another screenless tracker that’s only designed to monitor your sleep. It seems that traditional sports watch brands are keen to make their mark in an area where Whoop has been the dominant force until now.
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