Polar A360 Heart, Sleep & Activity Monitor
Polar A360 is a fitness tracker made by Finnish exercise accessory manufacturer Polar. It comes with a wrist-based heart rate sensor and provides 24/7 activity tracking. Is the Polar A360 the right smartwatch for you? Here’s our review.
What is the Polar A360?
The Polar A360 is a fitness tracker that comes with a number of unique features – including waterproof design and a wrist-based heart rate monitor.
Made by Polar, the Polar A360 promises to be the best fitness tracker for fitness and cross training. So if you’re the type of person who goes for a swim one day and then goes for a run the next, then the Polar A360 may be the right choice for you.
The tracker is priced at $199.95 and was released in March, 2016. That $199.95 price tag puts it at the upper end of the price range for fitness monitors, but the lower end of the price range for smart watches.
So is the Polar A360 worth the high price tag? Let’s take a closer look at its features.
Polar A360 Features
-Design: Like most fitness trackers, you’ll notice the design of the Polar A360 before you notice its other features. That design retains the rugged, durable feel of a sports watch, but adds a touch screen for greater convenience. It’s sleek and thin – so if you want a fitness tracker that looks like a fitness tracker and not a watch, then the Polar A360 may be what you’re looking for. The tracker comes with a matte band that’s 23.5mm wide. If you want something more colorful then black, then you can choose from a number of other colors.
-UI: The Polar A360 is famous for its simplistic UI. You control the device almost entirely via the touchscreen. There’s just one single physical button on the left side, but you won’t use it very often. Pressing it once turns the screen on or off, while holding it down lets you pair it with the heart rate sensor chest strap.
-Display: If you’re looking for an ultra-sharp, high-resolution display, then the Polar A360 probably isn’t it. The tracker features a display with 80 x 160 screen resolution. The display is bright and vibrant and will stand out vividly in even bright outdoor conditions. You can’t adjust screen brightness, but most users will find this isn’t an issue. Many users are also impressed by the responsiveness of the screen, which works fine even when you have sweaty fingers.
-Heart Rate Sensor: The Polar A360 features a built-in heart rate sensor that uses Polar’s own proprietary technology. Like other heart rate sensors on fitness trackers, the Polar A360 flashes lights against your skin to detect changes in blood volume in order to determine your heart rate (which is the same way in which the Fitbit or Mio work).
-Trackers: The Polar A360 records steps, distance (only in steps), active time, burnt calories, and your sleep patterns. You can view all of this information under the Polar My Day section, which gathers all of your activity for the day and puts the information in one easy-to-understand place. One thing we see on the Polar A360 that we don’t see on other trackers is a separate breakdown between Resting, Sitting, Low, Medium, and High intensity activities. So it doesn’t exclusively break activity into “resting” and “walking/running” – something we see on other trackers.
-Mobile App: Your Polar A360 connects via Bluetooth to a mobile app on your smartphone. You’ll find yourself using this app quite frequently, as the Polar A360 dumps all its daily data at the end of each 24 hour period. So you’ll need to use the app to check your activity or exercise from the past few days.
-Waterproof: If you’re a swimmer, then you’ll be pleased to note that the Polar A360 is waterproof up to 30 meters, which means you can easily take it swimming (or even scuba diving, if you like). That’s something we don’t see on all fitness trackers.
-Battery Life: The Polar A360 contains a 100mAh battery. The manufacturer claims you can easily get 2 weeks of power from each charge – although this assumes you’re using it as an activity tracker with no notifications turned on. If you’re using the device with all its features, then you can expect it to last about 5 to 6 days – which is still pretty good.
Polar A360 Pricing
The Polar A360 is priced at around $200 USD. As we mentioned above, that puts it towards the upper end of activity trackers. Of course, other activity trackers aren’t waterproof.
About Polar
The Polar A360 is made by a Finnish company named Polar. That company manufactures a number of fitness trackers and exercise accessories, including heart rate monitors and performance sports watches.
The company is based in Finland but maintains offices in the United States. You can get in touch with Polar USA and other divisions of the company here: polar.com
Should the Polar A360 Be Your Next Fitness Tracker?
The Polar A360 is a premium waterproof fitness tracker suited for all different types of activities. The only real restriction with the Polar A360 is that it doesn’t include GPS for tracking pace and distance when running. So if you like to know exactly how far you ran – instead of just how much time you spent running – then the Polar A360 may not be the right choice.
Aside from the lack of GPS, the Polar A360 is a smart activity tracker that will happily measure your steps, distance (distance in steps, not in GPS), calories burned, and sleep patterns.
At this price range, you might expect to get a little better build quality for your $200. However, if you’re looking for a decent fitness tracker certified to be waterproof up to 30 meters underwater, then the Polar A360 may be the right choice for you.
