Gadgetory

everyone this is Jimmy with Jim's review room so the other week I finished reviewing the polar m400 it's a fantastic watch for runners with very good set of features but today polar sent me their a 300 a budget-friendly fitness and Activity Monitor coming in at a hundred and fifty nine dollars without the heart rate monitor and it's a hundred and ninety nine dollars with one the polar h7 chest strap as of this video now if you were to buy that same chest strap separately the h7 is priced at $80 MSRP so you get a bit of a savings if you buy the two and one of course click on the link below in the video description for updated pricing on amazon.com or if you're interested in buying you can buy there as well now I'm here to help you make a purchase decision welcome everyone to jim's review room now I know this thing looks almost identical to the M 400 at first glance but it's very much different the silicone band is very comfortable to wear it's soft it stretches it's very much flexible now putting the band on and off isn't as much of an issue as compared to the M 400 and of course with this buckle type lock here this thing stays on very securely now as for a fashion statement it's a subtle watch style that isn't as big as the Fitbit surge and I believe is of a very reasonable size and for those wearing long sleeve shirts to the office this doesn't snag the cuff too bad but one thing I did notice when wearing long sleeves this does collect a bit of dust and whatnot over time now of course a quick rinse under the faucet does get it all off though but since we're on a topic of water here you can say this tracker is water resistant up to 30 meters or 98 feet when converted now this will have no problems if you're swimming or sweating like crazy now one last thing here about the general physical build unlike the M 400 the actual face or display is removable offering the ability of switching to different colored bands or replacing the band if it ever is damaged and although it's detachable the device does sit very well into the band itself with nothing loose to speak of and once I take this out here it's quite unique as one end offers a full-size USB connection for physically syncing your data and for charging purposes as well no special proprietary cords now speaking of charging in battery life Poehler offers an astonishing claim up to four weeks a better life before needing a charge now other more mainstream bands Fitbit Garmin etc in this price range on average lasts about five days now from my testing of the a 300 wearing this for two weeks straight now with several runs recorded my battery level indicates 50% is remaining testing this further I would be confident that this would last a full four weeks or give it take a day or two overall the better life is much better than most bands on the market but let's look at the display here and what everything else does now the main screen shows the time and date with an activity bar below indicating your progress for that particular day the screen is very visible in bright light situations and even in dark environments with the help of a back light and although the USB port is used to sync your information holding the bottom-left button does sync your a 300 to your chosen device now this does work for both Apple and Android devices and unfortunately not for window mobile users and I forgot to mention earlier this does work on windows and Macs as well now the upper right and bottom-right our navigation buttons to scroll through the menu and the center button here is to execute actions and to view options so let's say here for example I'm about to perform a workout I press the Enter button and as you can see this will track running cycling other outdoor activities other indoor mountain biking walking strength training group exercises and very last here which a lot of people ask for while very few offers is swimming now any time you record an activity it saved and labeled as that specific activity with it's pertinent information now let's say I'll start running as it's the most popular choice here press that sensor button once and a timer starts press down and you'll see your heart rate in real-time with the timer below now next page includes again real-time HR information with what polar calls the HR pointer the number on the horizontal line is determined by polar based on the readings of your heart rates and other information that you've already put into your profile now when your heart rate is on the left side of the line here it's burning fat anything above that or to the right of that it's improving your cardiovascular health now that when training right on that middle line there you can imagine you're optimizing your efforts of burning fats a very useful feature to have here another following screens here shows the amount of time you've been in your current fat-burning zone versus a fitness zone and you can see that small arrow top pointing to that left side and the very last screen here is the time of day and the calories burned now if you don't have the heart rate chest strap on you'll see your duration time of day and calories burned only that's practically it obviously no HR information would be shown but finishing up the band here before going into the app from the main menu pressing down once will offer a percentage of that activity bar shown earlier now this is where a lot of your information is stored press enter one more time and more information we'll see on the app shortly are displayed here active time calories burned steps taken so far distance traveled and what's very unique real-time information on what you can do to reach your daily goals now I can walk for the duration that's suggested on the screen or if I don't have much time or feel like pushing a little bit harder a screen suggests that I jog for the time shown again to reach my activity goal for that particular day now back into the main menu again here pressing down once more offers a history of all the recorded sports and activities with its corresponding data like duration calories burn and HR information now next up our settings in which you can customize your own profile like height weight and age to changing imperial units to measuring in metrics instead now one more display can be selected which isn't too much of a difference the one that you've already seen so far includes the activity bar while the other one just plain doesn't now the one last setting here is being able to set up a vibrating and audible alarm right on your wrist select your time and have it go off either once every day or just Monday through Friday individual days were not able to be selected and it's a nice alarm generating vibrations and setting off a small audio beep to get me up in the morning now last item here in the menu is a fitness test which i think is great to include now this will measure your cardiovascular fitness at rest polar measures everything you've entered into the system age height weight Plus heart rate variability and with this test it measures how well your body works at transporting oxygen throughout your body it in turn gives you a vo2 max level which indicates either its low moderate very good or even at an elite level but besides all that jargon there it's just a great way to see on a monthly basis how your internal health is doing of course you can do a google search on what vo2 levels are for more information so that's everything that I want to discuss about the band for now and what we're gonna do is take a look at the app and see how good it is on the main page polar provides a huge activity wheel with corresponding colors indicating your type of activity now this is where the polar products including this band really stands out it has the ability to differentiate you laying down and/or sleeping to sitting standing walking and running and it's all done automatically now below the wheel you'll see its corresponding colors and the amount of time you spent in doing each one and you can see my days are spent unfortunately in front of a computer here editing video and uploading to YouTube now on the wheel itself the orange icons indicating moments that you have been inactive for too long similar to what we discussed earlier and these heart icons here shows the times that I've recorded a workout now down below is your activity bar once again and if you click on the I to the right here polar provides information on how much more activity is needed by intensity in time to reach your daily goals but backing out here a small box here shows other alternatives basically that you can take to reach your goals once again and by tapping it offers even more options now closer to the bottom calories steps moments active and how much sleep obtained are all shown and tapping on any information with these red tags here reveals additional information such as my sleep quality based on my percentage now the last two here are the inactivity moments once again and last is my daily weight I would manually enter to keep track of the last important bit of information is on the top right offering weekly and monthly comparisons that way I can compare my habits and results over time and I'm not sure why it's not showing activity for March 16th through the 22nd considering there's like tip is shown on the daily side of things but regarding accuracy the polar a 300 has been very favorable it measures very accurately and differentiates me sitting and standing well even my sleep is pretty much spot-on with when I fell asleep and for sure when I got up overall the a300 offers a good set of features as well that does reflect its price point now the only big issue that I found was oddly the HR training zone setup was only done through the polar app website and not done on the rest like the m400 now despite that polar in general still offers what a lot of other bands don't that's differentiation of activity sitting sleeping walking and running all automatically that is swimming capabilities crazy good battery life and not to mention on the best heartrate trackers on the market offering accuracy and comfort for a chest strap now if you value heart rate tracking I'll be honest this is the way to go if you want more features pace distance GPS additional training tools look into the m400 as well I'm over all this very pleased with this product so hope this review helped you in some way be sure to watch the polar m4 100 video so you can compare and contrast and if you like my work be sure to add me gems review room to either Facebook Twitter or Instagram for some good info behind the scenes again this is Jimmy with Jim's review room you guys take care and I'll see you on the next one bye you