Gadgetory

what's up YouTube fam welcome back to another review many of you been asking for this on social media and I'm finally uploading this video polar has made some great activity bans but one of the biggest setbacks for mainstream consumers is the need to wear a chest strap for heartrate data now I personally like chest straps whether it's garments or Polar's because they provide time and time again very accurate and very consistent data yet I very much understand this may be uncomfortable for some well polar for the first time is offering risk-based heart rate tracking with their new polar a 360 it's priced at two hundred dollars retail as of this video and I'll place a link in the video description below so you can check for the most updated prices today so without further adieu I'm Jimmy with jims review room and my channel is here to help you make a purchase decision welcome everyone to another video going over the physical features the a360 comes with a supersoft silicone band it's very easy to wear in general and not gargantuan looking when wearing with casual clothing I do wish they went with a more watch style buckles give peace of mind of course however the button press method and this works perfectly fine and it does stay secure during my runs and other tests that I performed the display in the brains of the a 360 is detachable as you can interchange the strap for different colors to fit your preference but regarding that main display this is a touchscreen and the only physical button here is located on the side use this to turn on the display hold it down to sync your band through your phone and to stop a workout session which I'll demonstrate shortly now rotating to the back at which more bands would include this polar does graciously offer a micro USB port for charging eliminating the need for a proprietary cable and giving further use to my phone in car charger regarding better life polar claims up to two weeks of use which is very impressive as the average activity tracker that uses rechargeable batteries they last anywhere from five to seven days from my use I'm averaging one week and four days with occasional workouts in between of course and averaging a little over seven days of use when I'm more active that particular week now moving on to the display this has to be one of the best so far haven't gone into content just yet but I'm just speaking about the display alone this is far different than most at this price range this works fine in bright light sunny situations in one of the few dedicated activity trackers to offer a color touchscreen now what you also see in the video the a360 displays does turn off automatically to conserve battery sometimes it does turn off a little fast for my taste before I can finish analyzing my own data but the screen does turn off regardless if you're wearing this throughout the day or during a recorded run I know server asked me that from time to time there's not an option to keep this on during your workouts as I'm sure it's for battery reasons you can always press the bun on the side or use this feature you find mostly on smartwatches today turning your arms similar to looking at the time on a normal watch the a 360 display turns on automatically from my testing this works for the most part better than most other Auto and displays with smaller slight movements activating the screen as shown in video only on a few occasions that I'm sure some will experience to where you might have to turn your wrist one more time to get the right angle for this to work again it is very minimal and within reason to be honest with you less regarding the display if you are intending on wearing this to sleep for sleep tracking I know some have complained the screen lights up while moving around in bed but as of this video there has been a new firmware update there is a Do Not Disturb feature which basically eliminates this issue the main display can be changed by holding down the screen and selecting a total of four different styles with three out of the four in an easier to read vertical configuration swiping left to right has no options but swiping up offers your day which includes a listing of today's activities and its general data there's a progress bar of your daily goal steps taken distance with calories burn next and below or any inactive moments that you've had now one of the neat features and more bands are including if you have been sitting for too long the band does vibrate and give you an alert to get up and move with polar every time the band does alert you you receive an inactivity count for the day tapping on the screen at this moment does offer specific activity suggestions and how many minutes you need to reach your daily numbers it's a perfect way at the end of the day to find and realize maybe a quick 15 minute run or so can have you reach your daily goal now backing out there is training where you initiate your exercise once in this menu give this about 10 or 15 seconds and the a360 will find your heartbeat from the factory running cycling other outdoor other indoor mountain biking walking weightlifting group exercise and swimming are available to be reported now keep in mind you can always change what kind of exercise you performed via the app or your polar account online and there is a ton out there offering other options that you can label and save as you're not limited to the ones I just mentioned going back is the fitness test which uses your heart rate rating to perform an analysis which oddly enough after the last firmware update this can't find my pulse any longer however my heartbeat can be found easily when I do start a workout and add phenomena at the moment though and last on the screen you have an option to find what your heart rate is right at this moment moving on let's take a look at what a workout looks like in real time here as soon as the starts you have your heartbeats being displayed timer down below swiping up reveals the time and calories burned and last are your heart rate zones as you go through different levels the colors change and as you're in a certain heart rate zone for longer periods of time the other bars adjust in size for those who do value heart rate zone training which I fully recommend to anyone this is hands-down the best display it's colorful very easy to read and the information provided is very useful but polar on their website does market this as a fitness and cross-training band so we don't see estimated distance steps or pace during a recorded run if you are a more serious Runner stepping up to the M 400 from polar is worth the consideration for that kind of data now last fitness bands are slowly making their way offering some smart features and with the a 360 snippets of incoming text messages Google Hangouts email and social media notifications will pop right on the band for both iOS and Android devices as of this video Android users will need at least version 5.0 for this to work now the only thing that I wish was available since I just reviewed the government vivosmart HR I wish there was a way to read the entire message an entire text message that is or open an email to read it in its entirety versus just reading the first line or two but again polar is more of an activity band rather than the SmartWatch so let's take a look at the app now see how all this data is shown and I'll go into detail on how accurate my heart rate tracking is here's the polar flow app available for both Apple and Android devices polar has really taken the approach if it's not broken don't fix it they've been using this app for some time but I gotta admit it does work pretty well on the main page there's an activity wheel showing literally your entire 24-hour day at a glance everything is color-coded on the wheel but for more precision the merits are provided down below and yes polar does an amazing job here at automatically differentiating the moments you're sleeping sitting just standing around walking and running moving down your daily status bar appears once again with suggestions below of activities that you can perform to reach your goal and some of these suggestions are pretty funny if you look at the screen and what is available next is calories burned active minutes steps and your night's sleep in which if you tap any of these red triangles distance can be displayed or your nights sleeping performance can be shown the one thing that I wish polar would work on over time is if they're sleeping data was a bit more robust considering other bands are now offering very detailed charts with REM sleep number of toss and turns in an easier chart to view versus the activity will now going back out the number of inactivity stamps received when you were inactive for an hour during your day and on the bottom is your weight which you can personally enter and track on a daily basis polar does provide a weekly and monthly comparison chart to which is always nice to compare and contrast your overall performance the very last feature I'm sure that you're waiting out here is the heart rate tracking whenever you record an activity on the band look down the activity wheel and you will see a heart icon tap on that and you can see a breakdown of your workout performance you can see all the information recorded on the screen here with an explanation on how this workout affected your body which surprisingly many other manufacturers don't even offer at times but down below is the heart rate chart with heart rate zones and I want to take a moment to discuss my findings and how accurate the heart rate readings are now everyone's experience will be slightly different as there are a number of variables that could affect the results that could be hairy arms tightness of the band or the lack of a clean and clear optical sensor in the back and as you can see in the video I barely have if any hair on the arms here and I did ensure the optical sensors were wiped down each time I also test this on both arms and for sure warned this prior to the wrist bone as advised by all activity trackers at the market not to mention wearing this on the top and underside of my forearm as well regardless this did take me several attempts to find my most optimal location now looking at some of my charts as proof of its performance against their own tried and true h7 chest strap that data deviates very much and it's honestly not accurate enough for me to have confidence in the overall readings for those who haven't found me for some time you guys know I have always been upfront and honest about these things and I do pride myself on my integrity after numerous tests I did everything I mean everything that I could yet every time I initiate an activity rather be running weightlifting etc the a360 would be lower than what the chest strap would display now if you move to the 15-minute mark here on the chart this is where the deviation eventually minimizes but during my interval test there's still decent differences despite performing better in the last half of my 30-minute runs I would say this is not accurate enough for someone to rely on a huge disappointment considering personally I am a big fan of polar products now backing out of this and looking at the top left menu button there's your feed which lists all of your activities recorded and the training diary gives you your weekly analysis of those activities performed once again and that's basically about it those are the main essentials of the physical band itself and the app so from by testing and experiences probably provide some very original features like the color touch screen the amazing heart rate zone display more information the app that educates the consumer more so than any other activity band that have experience and the automatic readings are playing down sitting versus standing etc all those features I just mentioned are done the best here on the a 360 and it does shine above the competition but on the apps attend the device with a retail price of $200 that has been accurate heart rate readings any lack of distance or pace during my run the essentials I believe are really missing for me to justify its price and they may be in for the time being its purchase and yes I'm aware color didn't market this as a runner's watch like the M 400 but the competition even the cheaper bands out there are offering heart rate tracking on the wrist that is much more accurate and yes it does include distance information while running who knows an update a firmware update that is may fix all this down the road so that's it for my review if you haven't done so already be sure to LIKE and subscribe and follow me on Facebook Twitter or Instagram I hope this review did help you in some way and it did help you make a purchase decision you guys take care and I'll see you the next one