polar a370 display screens free sample

Wrist-based heart rate monitoring is one of the simplest ways to track your heart rate: all you need to do is tighten the wristband and you’re ready. The Polar A370 fitness tracker measures your heart rate from your wrist and displays it during your workouts, but did you know that you can also turn your Polar A370 into a heart rate sensor and broadcast your heart rate to other devices via Bluetooth?

If one of the many popular fitness apps (like Polar Beat, free training app available for both iOS and Android) has a special place in your heart, you can use Polar A370 to broadcast your heart rate to your phone and the app during your workouts. Many apps offer features that are based on heart rate measurement, so heart rate tracking with Polar A370 can help you make the most of your app.

By the way, did you know you can also link your Polar Flow account to some of the most popular fitness apps, such as MyFitnessPal, and get all your training and activity data directly to into the app?

Many of us prefer the freedom of riding a bike past the morning rush hour traffic jams. If you’re a keen cyclist and a happy owner of a Polar M460 GPS cycling computer, Polar A370 can make your commutes just a little simpler. You can use the heart rate sensor mode on Polar A370 to track your heart rate from your wrist and broadcast it to your Polar M460. This way, you can track your heart rate during your commute while optimizing the amount of gear you need for the day. With Polar A370, you get a heart rate sensor for the commute and an activity tracker, calorie counter, and an activity reminder for your day at the office.

If you have a bike mount for your phone instead of a bike computer, this solution also works with Polar Beat. Using an app to display your heart rate when you cycle can even promote safety: when you don’t need to check your heart rate from your wrist, you can keep your hands to the bars and your eyes to the front and focus on the commotion around you.

Many gyms have workout equipment that connect to Bluetooth devices. If your gym has a Bluetooth-compatible treadmill, for example, you can broadcast your heart rate to the treadmill from Polar A370.

For some, group fitness such as LES MILLS classes is the most motivating form of exercise. One of the best things about group fitness is the support you get from everyone around you, and we at Polar came up with a great way to share the fun: Polar Club. If your gym isn’t using Polar Club yet, here are the basics: Polar Club is a group fitness app that displays the names, heart rates, and calories burned for everyone in the class on a screen.

Fitness clubs lend heart rate sensors for Polar Club classes to those who don’t have one, but if you have a Polar A370, you can use it to broadcast your heart rate data to the screen. Read this to learn how it works.

You can find the detailed instructions here. Remember that if you broadcast your heart rate to another device, your Polar A370 can’t save the training session directly into Polar Flow.

Polar developed continuous heart rate to fill that critical gap. Now, we’re enabling users to take charge of their fitness with a 24/7 perspective on their heart rate profile, activity levels, and even rest and recovery. This is a game-changer for athletes of all levels from beginner to pro.Tom Fowler, President of Polar U.S.A

With Polar A370 you can track your daily activity and sleep as well as your training sessions to get a complete picture of your overall fitness based on the intersection of activity, rest, and recovery. It’s for anyone looking for a sleek, light-weight, and waterproof fitness tracker. To complement your style, this take-it-anywhere fitness tracker comes in six different colors.

Polar A370 adds continuous heart rate tracking and advanced Polar Sleep Plus analytics to the mix. Furthermore, GPS via mobile enables you to track distance, speed, and route when Polar A370 is connected to the Polar Flow app on your phone and you’re doing outdoor sports. You’ll also need to keep your phone with you while you train for the GPS via mobile to work.

Polar A370 can be used as a heart rate sensor with any other compatible Bluetooth device or mobile app. For example, you can use the Polar A370 as a heart rate sensor with a bike computer, such as the Polar M460.

The new features have been designed and optimized for the new Polar A370. Because of service and software restrictions, we’re unable to bring them to its predecessor: Polar A360.

One of the most exciting new features is the introduction of continuous heart rate tracking. Polar A370 measures your heart rate automatically throughout the day and night which gives you two main benefits:

Thanks to the introduction of continuous heart rate, activity tracking on Polar A370 is based both on your wrist movements as well as your heart rate. Polar A370 combines this data to provide immediate guidance toward reaching your activity goals. A more detailed daily overview and insightful fitness guidance are available in the Polar Flow app.

Another exciting evolution is Polar Sleep Plus™, an intelligent sleep system with a smart algorithm that tracks the timing, amount, and quality of your sleep with the 3D accelerometer within Polar A370.

Our proprietary Polar Sleep Plus algorithm uses polysomnography as a reference measurement, the golden standard to assess sleep in science and medicine. Designed to provide accuracy in sleep detection at the same level of the polysomnography standard, Polar A370 provides precise measurements that offer increased accuracy and guidance.

Based on these metrics, Polar Sleep Plus can provide you with a continuity score on a scale of 1–5 to show how continuous your sleep was. You can also rate your sleep the next morning. By following your sleep routines, amount and quality of sleep over time you can adjust your sleep schedule in order to reach your goals.

Please note that the information provided in the Polar Blog articles cannot replace individual advice from health professionals. Please consult your physician before starting a new fitness program.

Just over a week ago Polar announced their latest wearable – the Polar A370.  This new unit took the hardware of the Polar A360 that was released about 18 months ago and plopped in a few new features like continuous heart rate (the first Polar unit to offer such) and rebroadcasting over standard Bluetooth Smart HR protocols (also the first Polar unit to do so).  Not to mention more advanced sleep metrics.  Well, and that’s actually about it.  But those features are definitely notable, and ones I’ll dive into in more detail in this review.

While the unit just starts shipping this week, I’ve spent time with it and have gotten in a pile of workouts and a bunch of sleep and 24×7 data – including on the final firmware version.  Polar sent over a loaner A370 for me to test, and as always I’ll send it back to them once I wrap up this review.  If you found the review useful, you can hit up the links at the bottom of the post to help support the site.

Sometimes I get the box, and sometimes when things come in at the last moment, I’m box-less.  Which, would be the case with the A370.  I’ve got the box contents, but no actual box.  No worries, I’ll add one in down the road.  But in the meantime, here’s what’s actually in the box that you care about:

Then you’ve got the Polar A370 itself.  As you can probably tell, it’s identical from the exterior to the Polar A360 that was released last winter.  Like that one, you can swap out the pod and place it into different colored bands that Polar sells.

The Polar A370 is a pretty easy and straightforward device to use.  There aren’t really that many options to configure (in a good way), so you’re not likely to get lost in the menus.

The unit’s display is turned off unless you raise your wrist, or tap the button on the left side.  From there you’ll swipe and tap the screen to navigate things.  The default screen is the clock, which shows the current time as well as your progress towards your step goal (it’ll change the text color like filling up a bucket of water).

Within the My Day function you’ll see a timeline of your day, starting with your sleep from the night before.  This will show you what time you woke up, as well as the total sleep for the night.  Additionally, it’ll display how much of that sleep time you actually spent sleeping (versus being awake/interrupted), as well as a sleep quality score.

One area to discuss here that is of note is Polar’s new sleep tracking feature. This is something they’re rolling out starting on the A370, but will eventually expand to other new wearables of theirs.  This offers far more detail than past Polar devices, including expanding out details on your mobile app.

Finally, on the My Day journey, you’ve got continuous heart rate monitor stats.  This will show your resting heart rate for *both* night and day heart rate minimums.  This is great, as it completely sidesteps the endlessly silly arguments that some companies and organizations make about what a true ‘resting heart rate’ is.  Does it include sleeping or not?  Well, Polar’s now giving you both numbers – so you can decide which you prefer to track.  Nobody else does this.

This is a good time to note what’s obvious at this point: The Polar A370 is Polar’s first product to include continuous heart rate stats.  Later this year in Q3/2017, the also recently announced M430 watch will also get the same functionality.  With the A370, it samples your heart rate every 5 minutes.  It’ll increase that sampling rate if it believes you’re doing some sort of sporting activity.  During an actual workout though (where you press start), it’ll up that rate to once per second.

All of this data is then displayed within the smartphone app, allowing you to easily see your RHR values as well as max values by day or week or month.  You can simply slide your finger across the chart to check any points in time.

It all works really well, and I like that I can slide the graphs to the left and right and have it be a near continuous timeline (see my video up top for how that works).  Note that when you reach the critical low-battery warning, the 24×7 HR will turn off automatically to save battery and try to prolong life.  Also, when charging the sensor is turned off as well (since it’d be impossible to wear the unit while charging).  You can grab a HR reading at any time you’d like by launching the ‘My Heart Rate’ function from the A370’s dashboard:

Before we go onto workouts modes, note that like most activity trackers, it’ll sync your steps and daily activity to your mobile phone.  In this case to the Polar Flow mobile app on iOS or Android.  It’s here that you can dive into status around steps and distance walked.

Note though that the Polar A370 does not count flights of stairs, which is a bit of a gap compared to the rest of the market (most of which at this price point do).  Though for many people, that may not matter too much.

The only thing I dislike about the notifications on the A370 is the little icon that pops up with each one.  Aside from being somewhat hard to read because of how it splits the notifications, the little red ‘X’ icon drives me crazy.  Mentally I associate a red X with something bad.  Like ‘Your band has failed life, it’s now restarting’.  Not just ‘go away’.  I would think a simple black X wouldn’t be so alarming.  But that’s just a nitpicking thing (albeit something that happens a gazillion times a day).

On unrelated functions, note that you can create a single alarm for the device, though it’s configured on your Polar Flow phone app, and then pushed to the A370.  This is a vibrating alert, as the A370 has no audible features.

Next, let’s talk about the workout functionality.  The A370 offers a gazillion more sport types than any of their competitors do.  The list is pretty large on the unit itself, encompassing just about every sport I can think of.

What’s unique about the Polar A370 compared to the A360 (and many competitors) is that it’ll use the GPS signal from your phone to provide distance and track information afterwards.  Sure, with activities like walking or running, you can use the accelerometer to get pace or distance information, but when you cross-over to cycling – you’d be out of luck.  Plus, in most cases, GPS will give better accuracy on distance in walking/running activities than wrist-based accelerometer will.

Now as regular Polar folks might note above, you can’t actually do a whole lot when it comes to customizing the data fields of your Polar A370.  You get what you get.  About the only thing you can customize in this arena for the A370 is your heart rate zones and whether or not you want vibration feedback.  Burger King this is not.

Still, keep in mind that most other companies at this price point for a band-like device don’t allow much customization either.  Usually, it’s a minimal set of sports you can toggle on/off, and that’s about it.  So in a lot of ways Polar is a bit ahead here in terms of sports you can enable.

Speaking of sport features, the Polar A370 can connect to Bluetooth Smart heart rate straps (external ones), if you have one.  It cannot connect to either ANT+ or analog HR straps.  Of course, it also has that optical HR sensor on the back of it – which enables you to get your heart rate directly from the wrist during sport activities.

Another unique feature of the A370 over any of Polar’s other wearables is the ability to broadcast that wrist HR to other apps/devices.  Now you may be saying “Wait, Polar already had that on their V800?”.  Nope, they had the ability to relay your HR strap data to other Polar devices.  Meaning if your Polar V800 connected to a Bluetooth Smart strap, it could then relay that onto your Polar bike computer or Polar group/class system.  But the V800 didn’t have optical HR, and none of Polar’s other optical-enabled units actually broadcast the HR from your wrist.

Now with the A370 the unit broadcasts your wrist HR as a standard Bluetooth Smart signal.  For example, here it is within the Wahoo Fitness app, seen by the app using standard Bluetooth Smart.

Note that this isn’t compatible with any given sport mode though.  So it’s one or the other.  Thus that’s kinda a bummer for those hoping to perhaps use this to broadcast to something like the Polar M460 or V650 bike computers while at the same time recording your workout on the A370.  On the bright side – Polar does correctly recombine all the data from these devices back to your A370.

One last item to note before we get too far into things is that the Polar A370 allows you to execute custom structured workouts.  You can create these workouts on Polar Flow ahead of time, with things like heart rate targets:

Then, on the A370 itself, you’ll tap ‘Favorites’ and select from any of the custom workouts you’ve pre-created.  These can then be applied to any sport modes that we’ll talk about in two seconds.  Note that no other activity tracker band on the market from any major manufacturer has this functionality (I show this a bit in the video up above).

Next note that the display is turned off at all times unless you either press the button or raise your wrist.  This is similar to many other wearables with higher-quality displays (that in turn burn more battery).  I found that the wrist-raise detection is OK, but not great.  In general it works good during most workouts, but sometimes you need to slightly lower and then re-raise your wrist while running, to get it to trigger.  When it does trigger, there’s still about an extra second delay.  Some might find this annoying, I found it ‘annoying but not horribly annoying’.  If that makes sense.  In general the best wrist detection I see out there is on the Apple Watch (either generation), but of course that’s a heck of a lot more expensive.

So what about optical HR accuracy?  Well, there’s two pieces to that.  First is the 24×7 HR component.  How well does it record heart rate when not in a workout?  The first thing to understand is how frequent it does it.  In Polar’s case, it samples every 5 minutes.  That’s not horrible, but it’s not great either.  It does strike a reasonable balance though in that it will usually pick up your correct resting heart rate (which is largely the goal of 24×7 HR data capture).

The first we’ll look at is a relatively steady state (but higher intensity) run I did.  Nothing to long, but it wasn’t super warm this day – so it’s a good look at how the sensor responds to cooler temperatures (many optical HR sensors at the wrist have trouble in cold temperatures as the blood-flow isn’t as easy to read in your wrists as the temperature cools).  In this case I’ve got a Wahoo TICKR HR strap, a Fenix 5 optical HR sensor, and the Polar A370.  You can look at the actual data here in this link.  Here’s the high level overview.

There is however that one section for about 2 minutes where the A370 dropped over 20bpm lower for no logical reason.  It did it on and off in three brief sets, and then was happy again.

So starting off at the beginning both the A370 and TICKR-X are incorrect.  Despite wetting the TICKR-X strap prior to start, it struggles for the first 2-3 minutes.  It’s somewhat funny, but a lot of people have forgotten the not so recent past with chest straps and getting accurate data in the first few minutes on colder days.

In any event, the A370 missed the boat too – as it doesn’t take me 4-5 minutes to get up to my normal HR’s for that intensity.  So the Fenix 5 actually got this one correct.  Then from about the 4-5 minute marker they start to converge.  Some differences here and there, with the A370 a bit more offset than I’d prefer in some sections before the intervals.  Not horribly so, but a bit off.

It’s the third and fourth ones where we see the A370 start to lag a bit in terms of catching the interval.  Though these are only 90-second long intervals, so it doesn’t have very long to figure it out.  My guess is that in warmer weather it’d probably pick it up more quickly.  But in this case I was wearing a t-shirt in chilly weather with a high wind-chill factor.

Next, we’ll take a crack at a bike ride.  Now typically I find most wrist-based optical HR sensors have serious troubles with cycling, at least if there’s any variation in effort.  For longer steady-state efforts (as some triathletes might do), many sensors tend to track better.  Here’s the data link, which contains data from a Garmin Edge 520 and Polar M460 (paired to a Wahoo TICKR X), then a Fenix 5 (optical HR) on one wrist and the Polar A370 (optical) on the other wrist.

The TICKR-X on both the Edge 520 and Polar M460 match (as expected, overlapping each other as a purple/teal line.  But then we’ve got wildly different opinions on the matter from the Fenix 5 and Polar A370.

In this case I’d say in the beginning that the Fenix 5 was most sucky, and the Polar A370 much closer.  They then traded being less sucky for about 45 minutes, but I’d accept neither of these values.  The last 20 or so minutes they started to all agree though, and generally were pretty close. In some cases the Fenix 5 was closer in those last 20-30 minutes.  But again, I’d accept neither of them as a valid HR record.

Let’s take a look at another ride, just for craps and giggles.  This one uses the same set of device (Polar A370/Polar M460/Garmin Fenix5/Edge 520), and here’s the data link for those that want to dive into the data sets.

The beginning they start off kinda close, then the Garmin Fenix 5 and Polar A370 differ again briefly, before consolidating again.  Around the 35 minute marker though they actually agree fairly well for a little while.  You’ll notice that’s a point where my effort was very steady state – and thus it’s easier to track.

But as soon as my effort starts to become more variable, so does accuracy.  Towards the end of the ride (as seen two screenshots above), it becomes more variable again, and neither wrist-based sensor does that well until the last 10 minutes or so.  At that point it’s uphill and pretty steady – so again…happy times.

So as you can see, for running things are mostly good (which is the trend I see across the industry), however for cycling it’s pretty much useless.  Keep in mind that the A370 likely got the slightly shorter end of the stick because my training grounds the last 10 or so days have been in colder Newfoundland – which is known to impact optical HR sensor accuracy.  Sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles when it comes to testing.  Still though, as I pointed out in the Fenix 5 review (for comparison) – I wouldn’t much use the optical HR sensor in that for cycling either.

All that said – each of the dataset links above for HR accuracy also will show you GPS accuracy, so you’re welcome to dive into that and see how my iPhone 6 handles compared to the Polar M460, Garmin Fenix 5, and Edge 520.

You’ll find I’ve added the Polar A370 within the product comparison tool for activity trackers.  It’s not currently in the GPS-based product comparison portion, since it lacks a GPS chipset.  In any case, you can mix and match it against various activity trackers in the database.  For the purposes of comparison below, I’ve compared it against the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ (has GPS), Polar A360 (original) and the Fitbit Charge 2.  It’s an imperfect comparison – since each unit offers slightly different price/feature points.  But again, you can create your own comparison charts here.

At first glance, one might think that the A370 is just a modest update, potentially uncompetitive.  But in reality it’s actually more than might meet the eye.  By adding in the 24×7 HR tracking, the HR rebroadcasting, and connected GPS functionality, they both catch-up to competitors, but actually edge ahead of certain ones.  For example, none of Garmin’s non-GPS units allow you to connect to a phone for GPS.  And none of Fitbit’s allow you to rebroadcast your heart rate.  And nobody else offers both night and daytime resting HR values.  And all of that ignores the far greater sport workout support that Polar has on the A370.

Of course, there are downsides.  First is the size – larger than most of the other major competitors.  Next, we’ve got battery life – again limited at 3-4 days, compared to 1-2 weeks for most other competitors.  Of course, that’s because the Polar screen is more brilliant and clear (and bigger) than everyone else.  So there’s certainly trade-offs to be made.  Just depends on what you’re looking for.

Overall though I’m actually more impressed than I thought I would be.  At first glance, I was kinda like ‘shrug’, but the more I used the device the more I realized these 3-4 feature updates were really the gas that the A360 originally needed to make it very competitive.  Well done Polar, well done.

I’ve partnered with Clever Training to offer all DC Rainmaker readers an exclusive 10% discount across the board on all products (except clearance items).  You can pickup the Polar A370 (or any other Polar A370 bands) from Clever Training. Then receive 10% off of everything in your cart by adding code DCR10BTF at checkout.  By doing so, you not only support the site (and all the work I do here) – but you also get a sweet discount. And, since this item is more than $49, you get free US shipping as well.

The A370 boasts a color touchscreen display and vibrating notifications, but its heart-monitoring sensor is the real draw. It works in tandem with the A370’s “3D” accelerometer to detect pulse-pounding activities like walking and running. When you’re engaged in intense exercise, it captures heart rate at a higher resolution, and when you’re inactive, it ratchets down the heart-rate readings to save battery.

Polar Sleep Plus, Polar’s sleep-tracking solution, uses a smart algorithm and data from the A370’s 3D accelerometer to record the timing, amount, and quality of sleep based on your position and wrist movements. Polar Sleep Plus uses those and other metrics — including the total duration of sleep, actual sleep time, when you fall asleep and wake up, and any interruptions that occur during sleep — to generate a “continuity” score that shows how long you slept uninterrupted.

“We spend a third of our life sleeping, so if you’re trying to gain holistic insight into your fitness, it’s equally as important to monitor and understand our bodies at rest as it is to understand them during physical activity,” Marco Suvilaakso, chief strategy officer at Polar, said in a statement. “With Polar Sleep Plus and [the A370], your data is analyzed to provide guidance that helps you better understand your sleep habits and the impact they have on your fitness, health and quality of life […] Polar A370’s continuous heart rate monitoring, coupled with Polar Sleep Plus insights, provides a 24/7 approach to fitness with actionable steps, whether you’re running, lifting weights, or home relaxing.”

The Polar A370 does more than track sleep and heart rate. Its 3D accelerometer can estimate running speed and distance when you’re on a treadmill or track. And it pairs with other compatible Bluetooth devices to track pace, distance, and route.

The Polar A370 begins shipping in early June for $180, and is available for pre-order starting today. Interchangeable bands in black, white, red, petrol, blue, and orange are $25 each.

The Polar A370 has a simple interface you navigate using the touchscreen. Annoyingly, there’s no touchscreen gesture that can bring the band out of sleep mode and turn the screen on.

All of this matters because the Polar A370 does not have an always-on screen, so 98% of the time, the screen will be completely black, displaying nothing.

It also makes poor use of its watch faces. There are four customizable faces, including digital and analog views. However, they only display the time. Almost all fitness bands with a screen let you see your daily steps and the time on one screen for an easy update on how you"re doing fitness-wise.

The Polar A370 makes you flick down to the My Day option and tap on it to see how many steps you’ve taken. As small a gesture as this is, it’s something you’ll need to do several times a day if you actually want to actively use a fitness tracker. It gets old.

Flick up and down from the watch face and, other than the time, you’ll see screens for heart rate scanning, the Settings menu and Training. The latter is what you’ll pick whenever you want to track a specific activity.

The Polar A370 interface is simple and pretty clean, but the way it doesn’t give you a ‘home screen’ that tells you most of the information you need to see day-to-day is a big misstep.

The Polar A370 has a curious mix of fitness features, adding parts often not seen in basic fitness bands but leaving out a couple of core parts common to most.

However, while we’ve found the final readings to be reasonably accurate, the Polar A370 continually seems to send vibrate messages telling you it has lost and found GPS signal, or lost connection to your phone. This is without moving the phone, or with any obvious phone battery-saving measures to blame.

What depth there is here is all about GPS tracking via a phone. There’s no step-counting altimeter, for example. In this sense, the Polar A370 is oddly close to a GPS-free smartwatch, which can use apps to connect to your phone’s GPS.

The Polar A370 has phone notifications too, another taste of smartwatch functionality. You need to enable these in the band’s app, but you’ll then get virtually every heads-up your phone can provide including WhatsApp, and even when Spotify changes tracks.

Boot up the Polar app and you’ll see a big pie chart representing your day, split up into chunks of exercise, sleep and inactivity. Some might find it weird that there"s no step count and distance travelled right in front of you, but the overall effect is one to give you a more holistic view of your day rather than just some numbers.

There are ‘points of interest’ bubbles peppered throughout the day, which you can tap for more info. These might be for activities, show sleep stats or tell you your lowest resting heart rate reading of the day. The A370 monitors your heart at regular intervals all day long, which is helpful when trying to see if you"re getting fitter.

Despite all the Polar A370’s nagging about losing GPS signal or connection to the watch, the routes we’ve recorded have actually been reasonable aside from the odd cut corner, presumably caused during a GPS drop-out.

During a 6km run with a couple of interval-style rests to check if the Polar A370 would respond correctly by showing a decrease in exertion as soon as we dropped the pace, reliability was fairly good, barring one very brief unexpected drop in HR with no dip in exertion.

The Polar A370 is no replacement for a chest strap heart rate sensor, but Polar does seem to have significantly improved heart rate readings since the A360’s launch.

This isn’t necessarily a big problem, though, as the Polar A370 app also lets you connect to other services: Strava, MyFitnessPal, TrainingPeaks, Nike+ Run Club and Google Fit. You can also make it sync your activities to your Google Calendar.Polar A370: Price Comparison

Polar Flow is a sports, fitness, and activity analyzer to be used with Polar GPS sports watches, fitness trackers, and activity trackers.* Follow your training and activity and instantly see your achievements. You can see all of your training and activity data on your phone on the go, and sync them wirelessly to Polar Flow.

"I found Polar Flow to be a terrific complement to the Polar devices I tested, and it is completely in keeping with Polar"s detail-oriented, elite-athlete focus on heart rate training and recovery.

» Learn about your sleeping habits with Polar Sleep Plus™: the intelligent sleep measurement automatically detects the timing, amount, and quality of your sleep. You"ll also receive feedback on your sleep so that you can make changes towards better sleep***.

Polar has had some catching up to do in the smartwatch space as Fitbit, Garmin, and Apple continuously improve upon and release new products. Polar has always had solid wearable options for serious athletes, but now the new Ignite smartwatch wants to reach a wider group of users.

At $229, the Polar Ignite is more affordable than the Vantage M or V smartwatches, but it has more capabilities as a GPS watch than something like Polar"s A370 fitness band. It"s also more attractive and versatile thanks to a round, lightweight case and interchangeable bands. It seemingly provides a good balance of style and fitness prowess like Garmin"s Vivoactive 3 or Fitbit"s Versa does, but spending a week wearing the Ignite has proven that Polar should have paid more attention to small yet crucial details that can make or break a $229 smartwatch.

The Ignite has an inoffensive design overall, but problems come in when you start to use the touchscreen. First, the active part of the screen is smaller than the case itself—it has a thick black bezel around it and a small chin at the bottom where the Polar logo lives. Second and more importantly, the touchscreen isn"t as responsive as it should be. I often tapped the screen to wake it from its dark sleep mode only to have it ignore my actions. Swiping to different data screens from the main clock face can only be done by hitting the touchscreen at the proper spot—not too close to that bezel, otherwise your swipes will get you nowhere.

The screen also doesn"t have the most reliable raise-to-wake feature either. Since the screen is in sleep mode most of the time, which helps preserve battery power, you must raise your wrist to see the time. However, that only worked for me half of the time, and when it did work, it took a full second or two after I raised my wrist for the screen to wake. I asked Polar about this and my finicky touchscreen, and a representative only told me to make sure the watch had up-to-date firmware (it did) and to clean the display (I did, to no improvement). Advertisement

Polar also missed an opportunity to add onboard music storage to the Ignite. None of Polar"s wearables have this feature, but leaving it out of a wearable that costs more than $200 in 2019 seems odd. Apple, Garmin, and Fitbit have included onboard music storage and the ability for subscribers to download music from streaming services like Spotify onto their wrists for easier phone-free workouts—that"s the direction that the industry is moving right now, and Polar"s reluctance to following suit is confusing. When asked about this, a Polar representative told me that the company isn"t focusing on falling in line with its competitors but rather serving the "fitness and performance community" by developing new fitness technologies that other devices don"t have (we"ll discuss some of these in the forthcoming sections).

Polar has put more emphasis on sleep tracking as of late, and the Ignite shows off a few new metrics that help users understand the quality of the rest they get each night. Using its motion sensors and heart-rate monitor, the Ignite estimates how long you spend in light, deep, and REM sleep—like many newer wearables do—and gives you a sleep score each night based off that data. Polar"s "sleep charge" metric compares your current night"s sleep score to previous ones to let you know how "normal" your current night"s sleep is compared to how you usually sleep. Advertisement

But sleep charge, along with the autonomic nervous system (ANS) charge score, feeds into Polar"s "nightly recharge" score. Let"s define ANS charge first: it looks at your heart rate, heart-rate variability, and breathing rate during the first four hours of sleep, then judges how quickly your body calms down as you"re hitting the sack. If your body calms down quickly, your ANS charge will be high—but you"ll have a low ANS charge score if you"re tossing and turning or unable to shut your brain down when you"re trying to fall asleep.

The nightly recharge score considers both ANS charge and sleep charge for the previous night and gives you yet another score (although not in numbers but rather in phrases like "compromised"). This score lets you know how you should treat the current day in terms of training and strenuous activity. If you have a good nightly recharge score, Polar"s personalized recommendations will probably tell you that you can work out as you normally would with little to no concern about injury. But if your nightly recharge score is poor, you may want to take the day off or go easy on yourself when you train.

Many users can get informative insights from the nightly recharge feature. Unlike sleep charge, it"s a bit more complicated of a metric that analyzes more than just how you slept the night before. Combined with Polar"s personalized training and lifestyle suggestions, it could help users better tailor their workouts to what their bodies can handle on any given day.

When it comes to wrist-based heart rate monitors, you can choose from basic fitness activity trackers like the A300, GPS-based fitness trackers like the M430and M400 and 24/7 heart rate trackers like the Polar A370which features motivational feedback, calories burned, personalised daily activity goals and custom workouts.

With a device like the Polar A370, you can monitor your heart rate and also find out your maximum oxygen intake (VO2max) and maximum heart rate via "heart rate zones" so you know when to take it easy and when to push harder.

24 hours of continuous heart rate monitoring is pretty cool because it means the A370 optical sensor can record your heart rate without interruption via photoplethysmography technology using three leds (2 green leds and 1 photodiode led) which takes measurements of changes in your blood beneath the surface of your skin.

The Polar A370 internal optical sensor samples your heart rate every five minutes by default but it will automatically go to a higher recording heart rate during a workout which is pretty cool. You can also disable the heart rate sensor if need be.

The Polar A370 wristband is made of silicone, glass fiber and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), which is the same type of thermoplastic polyester used to insulate electronics. The wristband buckle clasp is made of stainless steel.

The medium/large A370 wristband fits wrists between 14 cm and 20 cm. The wristband width‎ and thickness is ‎2.35 cm and 1.35 cm respectively, while the weight of the A370 is 37 grams.

The Polar A370 body is also made of several thermoplastics, including glass fiber, PBT and ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) which is strong and durable at low and high temperatures.

The actual LCD display is made of glass with polycarbonate compound on top that makes the display virtually indestructible. In fact, polycarbonate is the same material used to make shatterproof windows.

Talking about the Polar A370"s screen which measures 1.3 cm wide by 2.7 cm long, the capacitive touchscreen TFT display has a wide viewing angle and a screen resolution of 80 pixels by 160 pixels.

The screen turns off itself automatically after four seconds to preserve battery but you can keep the screen display on by pressing and holding down the screen while in training mode. You can also disable the backlight altogether and change the display language text from 15 languages.

As far as screen functionality, the screen display is touch sensitive and works via up or down swipes to access the menus. When you find the menu you want, you just select it to access the submenus. To back out of a menu, you press the small button on the left side of the watch.

With the Polar A370, you are also able to rebroadcast your heart rate across standard Bluetooth Smart so other devices and apps can access the heart rate data. The rebroadcast feature works when your not in workout mode.

The sleep tracking feature on the Polar A370 is also pretty nifty as it integrates separate heart rate data while you are awake and while you are sleep so sleep data is more accurate.

The connected GPS feature via your phone means the Polar A370 can leverage off your smartphone GPS signal while outdoors to track more accurately speed and distance information

The waterproof micro USB connector on the back has a removable trapdoor flap that seals the micro USB connector from water. You can take the A370 swimming as it is water resistant at 30 meters.

When it comes to battery performance, the Polar A370 has built-in a 100mAh li-po battery that can last 3 to 4 days with continuous heart rate monitoring and one hour of training every day. Recharging the Polar A370 battery is relatively fast, taking between 90 minutes (via a 1 amp USB wall plug) or 2 hours when charging via the USB port of a computer (0.5 amps).

The Polar A370 is also able to receive vibration alert notifications from your smartphone such as incoming calls, messages and push notifications from social media apps. You can also turn off vibration alert notifications altogether.

Pairing the Polar A370 to a smartphone is easy. Pairing works the same as pairing any other Bluetooth device though with the A370 you get a pairing request.

The Polar Flow mobile app dashboard is intuitive, easy to use and easy to navigate. The desktop version of the Polar Flow application has also a nice, clear to understand interface.

This study aimed to examine the validity of HR data from 2 wrist-worn HR trackers, the Tempo HR, a low-cost device used for a national PA promotion campaign in Singapore, and the Polar A370, a consumer-based fitness and activity tracking device, in laboratory and free-living settings. Both these trackers have not been assessed previously.

During the first visit, we collected sociodemographic information and measured height and weight with a SECA stadiometer (SECA GmbH). Following this, participants were fitted with 3 HR monitoring devices. We used the chest-strapped Polar H10 HR monitor (Polar Electro Oy) as our criterion device. Concurrent validity of similar Polar devices against echocardiogram (ECG) is well established [

After completing the cycling protocol, participants were introduced to the procedures of the free-living phase. In addition to the devices used in the laboratory phase, we provided participants with an ActiGraph wGT3X+BT accelerometer (ActiGraph) to collect HR data from the Polar H10 chest strap via Bluetooth. The small tamper-proof device was attached with a belt to the right side of the hip. We also provided an instruction sheet detailing adequate wear.

The sampling frequencies of the Tempo HR, Polar A370, and Polar H10 chest strap were 0.1 Hz, 1 Hz, and 1 Hz, respectively. As such, HR data were collected every second by the Polar devices and every 10 seconds by the Tempo HR (a sample of the raw data is provided in

We calculated the intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) using mixed effects models to assess the absolute agreement between the criterion (Polar H10) and the other trackers (Tempo HR and Polar A370) in the laboratory phase and free-living phase. The strength of the ICC was interpreted as weak (<0.50), moderate (≥0.50 to 0.74), strong (≥0.75 to 0.89), and very strong (≥0.90) [

We then calculated mean absolute errors (MAEs) and mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE; absolute error/criterion×100) between the criterion (Polar H10) and, both, the Tempo HR and the Polar A370 trackers, to gauge overall measurement error. As highlighted in a recent study, there is no clear cutoff for what level of error would indicate adequate validity between measures [

Moreover, we ranked the 10-second HR time points derived from the Polar H10 and divided them into deciles. As such, decile 1 contained the lowest 10% of all HR and decile 10 contained the highest 10% of all HR. We then time matched these HR deciles with HR data from the Tempo HR and Polar A370. We constructed the box plots to compare the HR data from the Tempo HR and the Polar A370 with the Polar H10 measures across the deciles.

Finally, we constructed 2×2 tables to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of the 2 trackers for identifying the different HR zones based on the Polar H10 (<64% HRmax and ≥64% HRmax). The cutoff of 64% HRmax was chosen because it is the updated cutoff [max cutoff [

In the laboratory phase, the HR data from the Tempo HR showed a moderate ICC (0.51; 95% CI 0.38 to 0.60) with the data from Polar H10. With a MAE of 15.1 bpm (95% CI 14.6 to 15.5 bpm) and an MAPE of 13.0%, the measurement error was somewhat large. Polar A370 data also had a moderate but stronger ICC with the Polar H10 (0.73; 95% CI 0.66 to 0.78). Measurement errors were small with a MAE of 7.3 bpm (95% CI 7.0 to 7.7 bpm) and an MAPE of 6.4%. On average, both the devices underestimated HR: Tempo HR by 9.7 bpm (95% CI −10.2 to −9.2 bpm) and Polar A370 by 5.7 bpm (95% CI −6.1 to −5.3 bpm).

The ICC between the Polar H10 and the Tempo HR data was moderate in the free-living phase (0.71; 95% CI 0.70 to 0.71). Errors were smaller compared with the laboratory phase with a MAE of 8.7 bpm (95% CI 8.7 to 8.8 bpm) and an MAPE of 10.2%. For the Polar A370, the ICC between the Polar H10 and the Polar A370 tracker data was strong (0.83; 95% CI 0.79 to 0.87). Errors were similar compared with the ones in the laboratory phase with a MAE of 5.9 bpm (95% CI 5.8 to 5.9 bpm) and an MAPE of 7.1%. In contrast to the results from the laboratory phase, both the devices overestimated HR slightly (Tempo HR 0.4 bpm; 95% CI 0.3 to 0.5 bpm and Polar A370 3.4 bpm; 95% CI 3.3 to 3.4 bpm).

When analyzing how many MVPA time points were identified by the Tempo HR and the Polar A370, we set the MVPA cutoff at 64% HRmax. In the laboratory phase, of the total aggregate time points in the MVPA HR zone that were detected by the Polar H10, 62.13% (1872/3013) were also identified by the Tempo HR, whereas the Polar A370 identified 81.09% (2273/2803). The remaining time was spent below the MVPA HR zone, of which 91.52% (4267/4662) and 97.52% (4637/4755) were also registered by the Tempo HR and the Polar A370, respectively. Overall, the Tempo HR identified 79.99% (6139/7675) and the Polar A370 91.42% (6910/7558) of data points accurately.

In the free-living phase, we found that the Tempo HR identified 54.27% (5717/10,535) and the Polar A370 identified 83.55% (9323/11,158) of the MVPA time points that the Polar H10 registered. The Tempo HR picked up 97.22% (186,402/191,741) and the Polar A370 picked up 96.72% (183,625/189,861) of time points below the MVPA HR zone. Overall accuracy was above 90% for both the trackers (Tempo HR: 94.98%, 192,119/202,276; Polar A370: 95.98%, 192,948/201,019). An overview of the results is provided in

Number of 10-second matched time points spent in heart rate zones as detected by the Polar A370 and the Tempo HR in the laboratory phase and free-living phase.According to Polar H10≥64% HRmaxa, n (%)<64% HRmax, n (%)Laboratory phase

From the present 2-phased tracker validation study involving 55 participants with varying characteristics, a few key findings can be highlighted. First, HR data from the low-cost Tempo HR tracker showed moderate agreement with the data from the chest-strapped Polar H10 in both the laboratory phase and free-living phase. Although the measurement errors of the Tempo HR were above the 10% validity cutoff [

To establish the stability of the study results, we conducted sensitivity analyses. For this, we removed outliers and compared Polar H10 with the 2 other trackers using the remaining matched data points available. Outliers were defined as follows: a Pearson correlation coefficient of less than 0.3 between the Polar H10 and the test trackers in the laboratory setting. In secondary analyses, we only used data that were available from all 3 devices. Conducting these analyses did not change the results markedly (data not shown). As such, the reported results are not influenced by extreme cases or outliers.

When contextualizing our laboratory findings with those reported in the literature, the Polar A370 and the Tempo HR appear to have comparable or better accuracy with the market leader Fitbit, which has been studied extensively [

Comparing our results from the free-living phase with the results reported in other studies is problematic as, to our knowledge, there are only 2 studies that had a free-living element [max was used, whereas Gorny et al used the older 50% HRmax cutoff. One study by Nelson and Allen also provides some information on the accuracy of a Fitbit device in a free-living setting (Fitbit Charge 2). Over a 24-hour period, agreement measured by the concordance correlation coefficient was 0.91; this is close to what we found for the Polar A370 (although we used the ICC that provides similar estimates). MAE (4.9 bpm) and MAPEs (6.0%) for the Fitbit Charge 2 were also similar to that of the Polar A370 in our study (5.9 bpm, 7.1%). From these results, it appears that the Polar A370 is similarly accurate as the Fitbit Charge in free-living settings, whereas the Tempo HR appears to be less accurate.

This study aimed to examine the validity of HR data from 2 wrist-worn HR trackers, the Tempo HR, a low-cost device used for a national PA promotion campaign in Singapore, and the Polar A370, a consumer-based fitness and activity tracking device, in laboratory and free-living settings. Both these trackers have not been assessed previously.

The Polar A370 can last up to 4 days on average without needing to be charged. Battery life depends on how much you use the device, and how many alerts and notifications you get. Heavier use means lower runtimes. Under most normal conditions, the battery will last 4 days.

To make the device to connect with your Polar Flow App for your Android or iPhone, please follow these instructions:Make sure you have the Polar Flow app running.

The Polar A370 counts steps and calories burned. It will also compute a distance total as you go through your day, and let you know how many miles you"ve walked.

The current time is synced to your computers system clock, when you connect your Polar A370 to the Polar Flow Web Service. To sync with the Polar Flow Web Service, you"ll need to have a Polar account, and you"ll need to have the Flow App installed on your phone. Once those things are taken care of, you"ll need to follow these instructions: Sign into the Flow App, and press and hold the button on your A370.

In this Polar A370 review, you will learn all about this fitness tracker. The first thing we want to cover in this review is its display and what exactly you can use it for.

This fitness tracker has a very simple display as the majority of your data can be accessed through the fitness app. You can activate its simple display features by tilting your wrist while you wear the tracker to activate it.

Changing the watch face is simple and can be done by tapping and holding the display and swiping through the option.  Once you have found an appropriate watch face for you, simply tap on the screen to change it.

The Polar A370 is made out of an elastomer material. This material is great for fitness trackers as it won’t soak up sweat and dirt; however, there isn’t another material option for anyone who suffers from allergies to this material.

Navigating around the Polar A370 is relatively easy. The fitness tracker comes with an in-depth user manual that is easy to follow. Let’s take a brief look at its top functions and how to operate them:

Downloading the Polar Flow app is in your best interests as your fitness tracker automatically syncs to the app and downloads all of your data to your smartphone. This is done wirelessly and fuss-free. All you need to do is download the app on the App StoreSM or Google playTM.

You should charge your A370 fully before setting it up. Once it is fully charged, you should plug it into your computer or a compatible device using a USB cable and follow the instructions on the screen. You may set-up your Polar A370 using the mobile app; however, this takes longer than doing so on your computer.

The Polar A370 is one of the best activity trackers on the market with a high-quality color display and changeable wrist straps. This reviewof the Polar A370 has been written and prepared by TheBestInTech.

The Polar A370 is for anyone looking to improve their fitness with the help of a stylish, functional, and motivational activity tracker. It’s not an out and outperformance monitor as it doesn’t have an internal GPS (although it can piggyback share the GPS in your phone). If you want to do that take a look at the new Polar M430. The A370 supports Polar dozens of sports profiles so you can keep track of your exercise whether it’s cycling, running, rowing, weightlifting, etc.

The A370 has a sample rate of 5 minutes, however, when it recognizes that you are exercising it increases this to a higher resolution (similar to regular exercise mode e.g 1 second) to give better heart rate representation throughout unplanned training activities.

Heart Rate Broadcast – transmit your heart rate to any compatible device. For example, Polar M460, M450, iPhone or Android phone running Polar Flow, Strava, Endomondo, etc.

I will be adding my own photos of the Polar A370 once I have finished testing the watch. In the meantime, please accept these Polar marketing department photos. This one demonstrates the following:

In Exercise Mode you get to select the exercise that most closely reflects your workout. There are over 100 different sport profiles that can be loaded in the A370.

Recently Polar added dozens of Les Mills training profiles. If you’re not familiar with the world’s most popular online workout programs, please visit Polar Les Mills information page.

The A370 can share your smartphone’s GPS. This useful feature provides accurate speed and distance data to your exercise sessions without the need or cost of its own built-in GPS. As well as GPS sharing the A370 features an internal accelerometer providing reasonably accurate speed/distance data while running on a treadmill or outside without GPS sharing.

Polar has been involved in heart rate monitoring since 1976 … that’s something we shouldn’t forget about. They have decades of experience working with elite athletes analyzing their heart rate while they train and recover. The Polar A370 takes advantage of their experience utilizing Polar’s 5 x Heart Rate Zone system to help you understand the training intensity and its potential fitness benefit.

Polar’s Flow APP is one of the primary reasons why you might want to consider the A370. Doing the exercise is one thing, but understanding what benefit you can hope to receive from your training is another thing.That’s where the Polar Flow APP comes in. Polar’s unique Training Benefit feature provides plain English explanation of what you achieved in your training session.

Track your activity 24/7 and get practical support to help you achieve your individual daily activity goal. The daily goal is set based on one of 3 levels of activity you choose when setting up the A370 as shown below.

At anytime in the day you can see your progress to achieving the goal from the bar under the time of day view (default). If you would like more details you can enter the “My Day” view to see precisely what you’ve done (note, watch shown is the A360, but screens are very similar)

Yes! The Polar A370 is a very accurate fitness tracker that can be relied on to give whoever wears it a very accurate overview of their fitness level.

The Polar A370 uses the GPS from your phone to calculate data. In order for this feature to work, you will need to allow the Flow app access to your mobile phone’s location.

You can wear both A360 and A370 while swimming or taking a shower. This Polar fitness watch will still be able to function. It can still count steps, track how many calories you burned, and pinpoint your GPS (when tethered off your phone).

Computer:Otherwise, you can connect your A370 to your laptop with the USB cable when it tells you to update. FlowSync will sync all your data, then ask you if you want to update.

The next model down is the Polar Loop 2. Fairly similar tracking functions like steps, calories, and inactivity alert, but without the built-in HR sensor. The Loop 2 is an attractive and discrete band for those looking to increase everyday activity.

The Vivosmart HR & Charge 2 features a barometric pressure sensor that provides stairs climbed feedback not found on the A370. Both provide OFF the WRIST pulse monitoring and 24/7 tracking.

Update Oct 2017 > Garmin has just released their new Garmin Vivosport fitness tracker. Replacing the Vivosmart HR+, the Garmin Vivosport features built-in GPS, wrist-based pulse rate, dedicated running functions (auto-lap, pace alerts, etc) a full-color display, VO2 max, Stress tests, and much more. TheBestInTechhas been awarded the Garmin Vivosport Best on Test in the tracking category and expects it to be one of the best selling fitness trackers. Other solid options include:

If you’ve got this far then you’ll know by now that TheBestInTech analyzed this Polar A370 very highly. The only feature missing found on other similarly priced fitness trackers is STEPS CLIMBED. It’s not a feature I really find that useful, but some people may have a reason for wanting it. I certainly wouldn’t allow that one omission to put me off buying this 5/5 Star Review Polar A370.

We were disappointed to learn that the Polar A370 does not calculate swimming information although it is advertised to be able to do this as none of the data collection features work in the water.

Fitness trackers have become popular over the years and the latest is the new A370 from Polar, a company that once pioneered heart rate monitor watches in the cycle market many years ago.

The new A370 is a compact water-resistant tracker designed to be worn around the clock to not only measure your activity, but also track your recovery time and monitor sleep patterns.

All this heart rate data during periods of rest and exercise can be analysed on the Polar Flow App, where access to Polar’s Smart Coaching features can provide feedback and guidance to help you reach your goals faster.

A big appeal of fitness trackers is that because they are constantly monitoring your body, they can be used to track your sleep patterns. Polar has developed Sleep Plus, an intelligent sleep system that uses a 3D accelerometer to detect the quantity and quality of sleep.

It’s aimed at helping you to get the right balance between activity and rest, and by providing feedback the A370 can help you improve your sleep patterns to maximise your recovery after exercise.

“With Polar Sleep Plus and Polar Flow, your data is analysed to provide guidance that helps you better understand your sleep habits and the impact they have on your fitness, health and quality of life. Polar Sleep Plus is easy to use, easy to understand and motivates you to simply do better. Polar A370’s continuous HR monitoring, coupled with Polar Sleep Plus insights, provides a 24/7 approach to fitness with actionable steps, whether you’re running, lifting weights, or home relaxing.”  says Marco Suvilaakso, Chief Strategy Officer at Polar Global.

Other features include the ability to connect the A370 to a compatible smartphone to track distance and route using the GPS on the phone. The A370 can even be used as a heart rate sensor with other compatible Bluetooth devices or smartphone fitness apps.

The new Polar A370 is available in June and costs £169.50. Interchangeable wristbands come in black, white, ruby red, petrol, deep blue, and orange for £21.50.  More at www.polar.com/uk-en/products/sport/A370-fitness-tracker