Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased no less than five other activity trackers before I found this one: the Garmin Vivofit 2, the Garmin Vivosmart HR, Fitbit Charge HR, Fitbit Blaze, and the Mio Fuse. The Polar A300 was perfect for my lifestyle; I workout 6 days per week for at least an hour per day. My workouts include at least 3-5 days of heavy weight training, Hiit, bootcamp or circuit style workouts, yoga, and spin class. The Polar A300 provides an comprehensive tracking system. I'm no longer tracking my workouts with one app, then going to another to see my steps, sleep and daily activity. The Polar does it all! The Polar A300 is a very functional fitness tracker. It has all of the features of the Garmin and the Fitbit, but it simply works better. If your sole activity for exercise is running, then any of these will probably work for you. If you do any other type of exercise, the Polar is the way to go. During setup of the Polar, you can choose between three activity levels for your profile. Based on the level you choose, a daily goal is set for you. Unlike the Fitbit and Garmin, the activity goal can be reached in three ways (intense or moderate exercise, or steps). For example, on days I do a cardio based workout, I typically reach my activity goal by the end of the workout. On my rest day, I may have 12,000+ steps yet I still have not reached my activity goal. On a strength training day, I accomplish a large percentage of my activity goal, but I might need to take a walk around the block to meet the goal. With the Garmin and Fitbit, I would often begin my day with an intense 500+ calorie burn workout and still end the day without reaching my goal because I didn't get the purposed number of steps. The Polar A300 has a number of advantages over other fitness trackers. Here are some that stood out to me: * It's waterproof;although Garmin devices are also waterproof, Fitbit is not. * Battery life: I am going 2-3 WEEKS between charges even though I use the Polar connected to a heart rate monitor for at least an hour per day. The other activity trackers that I tried required charging every 3-5 days. * Heart Rate Monitoring: Wrist based heart rate monitoring is simply not as accurate or dependable as a chest strap. With both the Fitbit Charge HR and the Fitbit Blaze, a good sweat would prevent the device from detecting my heart rate. The heart rate on the Garmin Vivosmart HR was always lagging or just plain wrong (way off). Neither of these will pair with a chest strap. At first I thought it would be useful to know my resting heart rate; a head-up when I'm over training or getting sick, but with the way the Garmin averages the resting heart-rate, it doesn't work for this purpose. I also found that I am very aware of an increase in my resting heart rate and I don't need a device to show this. There was no real benefit to 24 hour heart rate monitoring. The Polar A300 does not do 24 hour heart rate monitoring or even wrist-based heart rate monitoring. It connects to the Polar H7 chest strap. Even better, I've been able to pair the Polar with my Scoshe Rythym + arm band Scosche RHYTHM+ Heart Rate Monitor with Armband, Black since I'm not crazy about wearing a chest strap. I can choose the type of activity that I am doing and set the watch to record. I can also pause the workout on the watch, view the current heart rate, heart rate zone, time, and calories burned. (Note that you do not get smart notifications if the watch is in workout mode, a feature I love). The Polar A300 does not calculate a resting heart rate, but it does do something better: the Polar OwnIndex Fitness Test (similar to a V02 max test) to measure cardiovascular fitness. To take this test, you simply put on the chest strap and lay still for a minute or two. The first time I took this test, my score was a 42 (which was great for a 36 year old female!). The app instructed my to take the test again in 6 weeks to see if I've improved. I'm looking forward to the next test; I like having a goal to work towards (beating my previous score). * Smart Notifications: the Polar A300 does vibrate when your phone is getting a notification, text, or call. You have the option to answer or decline a call, but you cannot respond to a text (none of the trackers I tried offered that option). You only get a line or two, so you can't always see the full message. The Fitbit Blaze was slightly better for receiving text messages because you could read the whole message. * Time to Move! One of the great features of the A300 is the "Time to Move!" notifications. Even after I reach my activity goal for the day, the watch will vibrate if I've been sitting for more than an hour. I found it so ironic that the Fitbits did not have this capability. * Display: The time and date are always displayed on the Polar A300; it does not require some elaborate wrist movement to may the display turn on (and yet the battery life is still so much better than the other activity trackers!). * Durability: This is a functional watch; it does not have a touch screen. I purposely chose the A300 over the A360 because I'm pretty rough on watches. I don't want to worry about scratching a delicate screen. I wanted something that worked well, not that just looked pretty and that's what I got. The Polar A300 has a comfortable band and seems to hold up to most anything. I read some reviews that the band was too long for some women, as it is unisex, but I have not found that to be the case. I have very small wrists and the strap does come all the way around my wrist, but it's held in place with the ring around the band. I chose the A300 over the M400 because I am not a runner and I don't need GPS. More than that, I read that the M400 does not have a vibration feature. I haven't tried the M400, so I can't say for sure, but this was important to me. Overall, this is a great device; it's perfect for my lifestyle. I highly recommend to anyone who wants a fitness tracker that can monitor workouts, daily activity, and sleep.