Polar A300 Review – Burn Fat? or Improve Fitness?

AT A GLANCE: QUICK RATINGS

Where To Get It

A Deep Dive Into Polar A300

We have now finished a long term test of this great new Polar activity tracking fitness monitor and have pleasure in adding our findings below. The Polar A300 heart rate monitor watch has been reviewed by Tristan Haskins aka CardioCritic

Burn Fat? or Improve Fitness?

If you don’t want / need to accurately monitor running / cycling speed or distance and just want to focus on keeping active to improve your fitness then the A300 is perfect for you. A key feature of the A300 is it’s clear definition between time spent BURING FAT and exercise time spent IMPROVING CARDIO fitness.

Main Features and Functions

Super Clear Display

It’s very nicely made with an EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read display that has clear and sharp contrast from all angles in all but the lowest light conditions. The back-light is perfect, illuminating the digits to a bright blue hue (see pics below) It’s very well constructed with an EXCEPTIONALLY easy to read display that has clear and sharp contrast from all angles and in all but the lowest light conditions. And, very importantly, it’s very easy to navigate and pair with a smartphone.

Other Features

The subtle “Time to Move” vibration on your wrist is a great motivator and really did prompt me to get up and take a quick walk around the office or even a short sprint around the block. Achieving your daily activity goal will soon become part of your daily routine

• Clear definition of FAT BURN and FITNESS IMPROVING exercise intensity
• Fitness Test giving an estimated VO2 Max score
• Provides everyday feedback to guide you towards a more active lifestyle
• Tracks daily activity, calories, steps and distance covered
• Vibrating inactivity alerts help you keep moving throughout the day
• Syncs with free Polar Flow app and web service for additional workout planning, motivation and guidance
• H7 Bluetooth Smart heart rate sensor included for continuous, accurate heart rate
• Powerful, rechargeable battery lasts up to four weeks
• Easily charges with simple plug and play USB
• Automatically tracks your sleep time and quality,
• Get a better understanding of your sleep patterns and how they affect your activity levels
• Changeable wristband
• Six additional vibrantly colored wristbands are sold separately
• Fully waterproof for swimming

Want more Tech?

You will find a full breakdown of the Polar A300 Technical Specification here.

Top Alternatives

REVIEW SUMMARY

Tricky one this as the A300 has been very well thought out product. It’s a really nice upgrade from a traditional bracelet style activity monitor like the FitBit, Jawbone, Polar Loop and Pulsense PS100. Is there anything we’d like Polar to have done differently? Not really, as with the M400, V800 and Loop it would be great to be able to set a DIFFERENT activity goal for the weekends…. something we’ll be asking Polar about. All it needs is the additional ability to add a different level for each day of the week. There must be MANY PEOPLE out there just like me that are at least TWICE as active at the weekend than on work days.

In other words…. it’s pretty perfect as it is. If you want a traditional styled wrist unit, as opposed to the bracelet style of the Loop and you do NOT need the internal GPS for running, cycling etc, then the A300 will tick all the right boxes.

Lastly, check out the higher-end model Polar A370 too: cardiocritic.com/fitness-watches/polar/a370-review/