Anyone out there using polars v650 bike computer or 800 watch? Thoughts? Experiences good or bad?
I’m using both of them.
I use the v650 for all bike training since it’s alot easier to look at and follow your planed power values than checking the watch on your arm. Of course I could mount the watch on my bike and be happy.
In the V800 you can set your rolling average for power to one specific value and use that for your workout, but in the v650 I can set one value at 5s power average, one for 30s and one for lap average. Having both 5s and 30s makes power training easier.
The main reason I bought the v650 was the maps and now with the ability to upload tracks from other people I can ride new routes alot easier.
The main flaw with both, has nothing to do with them, it’s the flow website. There are a few bugs when you export your training to trainingpeaks. And they are pretty slow in correcting them.
The bugs/issue with syncing with TP is the one main reason I won’t look at Polar and will stick with Garmin.
I have the v650 and love it - no complaints (but nothing to compare to, Garmin wise).
I went with the v650 for a number of reasons :
• I have run with polar for a few years - Seamless integration of training.
• I like (and already had) the soft strap and H7.
• All the features (and more) that I wanted.
• Mega value for money.
Note that I only use polar software and therefore have no translation issues with third party software etc.
When / if I can ever afford a PM the power tap pedals are supported (means I won’t have to swap out my nice crank and I can easily swap pedals from bike to bike).
Tip (if you are in the UK) : Buy from Evans + Use their price match + double up your Tesco club card vouchers = Get your V650 for FREE !
WD 
Ok awesome input. I wont be using TP so I wont have that issue. What about with Strava transfer? Ever any issues there?
It does upload to strava automaticly and it seems to work very well.
At the moment you don’t get any notifications that you are on a strava segment, I belive that is a feature sme garmin devices have. At least I have seen requests to polar that this feature is wanted.
I talked to a buddy that has a Garmin that is supposed to do that. He says its really misleading. Says you have to go through a long list of steps to actually be able to have strave segments, including actually uploading the segments to your device.
I appreciate the input. I am really interested in getting both but wanting to hear from a reliable community.
In addition to my post above, I don’t know how the screens on the Garmin compare but I can say the polar screen is very nice with regards to both colour / clarity and sensitivity to touch (even with a screen protector).
Polar seem quite open to feedback too - I contacted them with a suggestion for a food / eating alarm and how I thought the logic should work, I got a personal responce back very quickly. We will see if it’s a future software implementation …
Oh yeah, the white / black / red colour scheme might match my stuff pretty well too … lol
WD
Glad you mentioned the screen protector. I was looking into that. No problems using it once you have one on? Even with sweaty fingers?
No problems to date
Until I got my up front mount sorted, I was putting it in my jersey pocket, screen again my back. You can imagine it was covered in sweat condensation when removed and it never faulted. (I was locking the screen when putting it in and then unlocking upon removal.
The screen savers weren’t the cheapest but they weren’t expensive either - they are are 3M material that I found from a German supplier on eBay. Much nicer quality to the generic Chinese type I put on my iPhone.
WD
Most of the comments here are bang on for feedback. In terms of functionality/display, the V650 does out perform the Garmin Edge. That being said, if you are an Ant+ user for other sensors, its problematic, or if you use a different online platform (eg TrainingPeaks), its a bit of hastle still but there are work around through Strava.
As for the V800, its probably my favorite device, with the same caveats above. The Fenix 3HR is growing on me as well, but mostly when I’m using ant+ sensors.
As it would only be fair to report the good and bad, I found a ‘small’ glitch with the v650 at weekend.
Background : You can load routes into the 650 and then follow them on the map, it doesn’t give you directions when to turn but colour codes the road you need so you can see it coming up on the map and then turn accordingly. When its locked onto a route, it counts down the remaining mileage when you are in the map screen.
I downloaded the full IMUK route into it to follow at weekend.
The IMUK route is a single leg from T1 to the start of the ‘loop’. The loop is approx 47 miles and then it finishes with a single leg to T2 (T1 and T2 are different locations).
From home, my journey to the start of the loop joins the first leg and then follows it to the start of the loop. After the loops, I ride the final leg past T2 and then continue home. Following that, it is just over 116 miles for me ‘door to door’.
I set the course as my route and then set off from home. When I joined the route, the 650 came up with a ‘route acquired’ (or similar) message and calculated the distance remaining to get me back to T2.
All was fine until I was on the 1st loop and then the glitch kicked in.
Sometimes the mileage would be correct (i.e. calculated as be being on the first loop) but other times it would jump to being on the second loop deducting a full loop distance off my distance remaining – vice versa on the second loop.
It’s quite encouraging when you are on the first loop and it knocks the mileage off but has the opposite effect on lap two when it adds a load of mileage back on … lol
It probably changed its mind about three times (on each loop) so it’s a small glitch, it’s not a big problem and very easy to live with, but a glitch nevertheless. Maybe I contributed to it with my slightly different start location ?
Note that it didn’t alter or corrupt any of the data it recorded and uploaded to polar flow. Or maybe it did, perhaps I can claim it added a bit of time on and deducted a few mph of my average speed … lol 
WD