I walked 6,000 steps with Apple Watch 10 vs Polar Vantage M3 – here’s the winner

Advantage M3 is the latest version of the mid-range smartwatch from Finnish wellness brand Polar. At $499, this sporty and well-built device is a direct competitor to the recent Apple Watch series 10which also starts at $499 and is one of the best smart watch available models.

It’s worth noting that Polar is a dedicated training and adventure watch, with no third-party apps and limited smart features. Apple Watch 10 is a fully featured wearable device with a huge library of apps.

Beyond this difference, both of these models offer similar fitness and health monitoring capabilities, such as continuous heart rate tracking, ECG and skin temperature sensors, sleep and workout recovery data, a built-in barometer to measure altitude changes, and built-in GPS. Polar has a more advanced dual-band antenna and can measure SpO2… sorry, Apple!

You also get the best battery life with Polar, which can last up to seven days in watch mode and 30 hours in GPS tracking mode. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch 10 lasts just 24 hours in low-power mode and seven hours with GPS tracking.

When it comes to tracking individual exercises like walks, runs, bike rides and hikes, both devices provide detailed post-workout reports with comparable data on total distance, altitude reached, maximum and average heart rate, pace, calories burned and more . The question is, which one is more accurate?

To find out, I strapped an Apple Watch 10 and Polar M3 to either wrist and went for a satisfying hour-long walk around cool Seattle, Washington, on an overcast day. Read on to find out the results.

Apple Watch 10 vs Polar Vantage M3: walking test

Because neither Polar nor Apple provide total step counts for individual walks, hikes, or runs, which is something I keep finding. incredibly unpleasant — I started the test sitting at my desk with both watches charged to 100% to also check the battery drain.

With the Apple Watch strapped to my left wrist and the Polar watch on my right, my journey began. As always, I manually counted every step I took throughout the walk, using an old-school counter to mark every hundred steps. I also tracked my walk using Strava app on my iPhone 12 Mini for more data.

After 6,000 steps and nearly an hour to the point, I returned to my doorstep and checked each watch’s results, making sure not to take any additional steps, before recording my day’s total in the Polar Flow and Apple Fitness apps.

Apple Watch 10 vs Polar Vantage M3: walking test results

Swipe the screen to scroll horizontally

Header Cell – Column 0	Apple Watch 10	Polar Advantage M3	Control
Total number of steps	5967 steps	6015 steps	6000 steps (manual counting); 6078 (Strava)
Total distance	3.1 miles	3.07 miles	5.27 miles (Strava)
General altitude gain	541 feet	520 feet	519 feet (Strava)
Average pace	19 minutes 32 seconds per mile	20 minutes 10 seconds per mile	17 minutes 49 seconds per mile
Average heart rate	144 beats/min	117 beats per minute	n/a
Maximum heart rate	179 beats per minute	144 beats/min	n/a
Calories burned	538 calories	562 calories	n/a
Battery usage percentage	7%	6%	n/a

Both devices were within 50 steps of my hand-calculated total, which is quite impressive, but the Polar Vantage M3 was closer, topping by just 15 steps, compared to the Apple Watch’s 33 steps under.

The distance data is virtually identical, and Apple and Polar also recorded similar average paces. However, both are noticeably slower than Strava’s average pace. This is likely because Strava aggressively pauses workout tracking when you physically stop moving, even for a few seconds, to wait for a passing car or crosswalk to change traffic lights.

The Apple Watch measured an additional 20 feet of elevation gain over Polar and Strava, suggesting it may have overestimated my elevation a bit. Interestingly, in my latest walking test with Apple Watch 10 vs Pixel Watch 3it was the Apple Watch that had almost the same overall height gain as Strava and its competitor, which seem to have miscalculated.

Meanwhile, heart rate data differs noticeably between Apple Watch and Polar. The Apple Watch calculated that my average heart rate for the walk was 144 beats per minute, but the Polar watch showed that the same number corresponded to my maximum heart rate. So what’s the matter?

Based on numerous previous walking tests, I’m guessing the Apple Watch data is mostly correct and the Polar watch significantly underestimated my heart rate. During this walk, I moved quite vigorously in the second half, and since I had a steep three-block hill to climb right at the finish line, by the time I got home I was definitely breathing deeply and sweating profusely, which suggests a fairly increased frequency heartbeats. .

Looking again at my previous walking test, in which I didn’t push myself too hard, the Apple Watch measured my average heart rate at 133 beats per minute, and Pixel clock 3 measured it at 129 bpm. Assuming these numbers are close to correct, 144 bpm seems like a reasonable average for this outing. By the way, my maximum heart rate for the previous walk was 172 bpm (Apple) and 167 bpm (Google), which corresponds to the Apple Watch’s maximum reading of 179 bpm for this walk.

Both devices counted about the same number of calories burned during my walk, around 550. And despite vastly different battery life claims regarding the use of GPS tracking, the Apple Watch only used 1% more battery than the Polar.

Apple Watch 10 vs Polar Vantage M3: and the winner is…

Close-up of the Polar Vantage M3 smartwatch next to the Apple Watch 10 on the user's wrist against a colorful background.

(Image credit: Dan Bracaglia/Tom’s Guide)

Since total steps is the main metric we use to determine the winner, the Polar Vantage M3 wins this competition, beating the Apple Watch Series 10 by just 18 steps. However, there is one important caveat. While most metrics match well between the two devices, the Polar M3 seemed to noticeably underestimate my heart rate.

Further investigation is needed to determine whether these seemingly erroneous heart rate data are a one-off or something more indicative. In any case, more testing of the Polar Vantage M3 is planned, including a full review. So, stay tuned!

Which smartwatch models would you like me to test next? Let me know in the comments below.