Polar A300

dep2301

i wondered if anyone is using s Polar A300 and what your experiences are? After 2 failed Fitbit devices I have looked elsewhere and settled on Polar due to cost and Amazon reviews. Principally my fitness is walking about 5 miles a day and spinning 4 times a week whilst watching my calorie intake on MFP.
any feedback on the Polar A300 would be useful and how easy it is to link to MFP ?
How long is the battery life?
Accuracy of step count? HRM?

I have not seen the Polar software yet and am interested in users experience ?
Thank you
Simon.

ScubaSteve1962

Maybe this will help you, while I don't have the 300, I have V800, my battery last about a month. My step count gets off when I'm on the elliptical, but that's pretty much with any arm pedometer, other than that it's pretty accurate. The HRM is also very accurate. the software is pretty straight forward. Linking to MFP is where it gets tricky, I think it only work with apple software right now.

XavierNusum

I don't have experience with the A300, I have a Loop, buy I can confirm that MFP only links with Polar Flow on iOS, does not work at all on Android.

chelshull22

I have the polar m400 which I believe is the same as the a300 but has gps. It's great! I went through a Fitbit and a polar f4 and I'm much happier with the m400. I feel it is very accurate with heart rate, calls burned and the gps is great in the m400. I can't speak for the steps because I do not wear it all day. It is much too big for me to wear outside of fitness (unlike the Fitbit). That's really it's only downfall. The polar flow app is so great too, you can look at so many features of your workout: heart rate, calls burned, pace and altitude (prob only in gps version). Also you can monitor your progress and look at weekly stats etc. It also syncs easily and charges quickly with your computer. The battery lasts me about a week only because I work out quite often, about 2 hours a day on constant heart rate monitoring. I bet if you weren't using the HR monitor all the time and just used it as a tracker it would last much longer.

dep2301

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I'm waiting not too patiently for Amazon to deliver my A300 so I'll post feedback

XavierNusum

dep2301 wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I'm waiting not too patiently for Amazon to deliver my A300 so I'll post feedback

Please do, I'm thinking of upgrading to the A300 from my Loop. I think the A300 vibrates when it's time to move, which would be awesome and it's more "watch like" which would be helpful too.

CricketClover

XavierNusum wrote: »

dep2301 wrote: »

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I'm waiting not too patiently for Amazon to deliver my A300 so I'll post feedback

Please do, I'm thinking of upgrading to the A300 from my Loop. I think the A300 vibrates when it's time to move, which would be awesome and it's more "watch like" which would be helpful too.

I upgraded to the A300 from the Loop and I feel like I made the right choice. It vibrates and chirps when it is time to move (it is like a 4 or 5 minute warning before you get the one hour inactivity stamp). I also like that it is more watch like and you can see more data on the actual watch. I received mine on June 9th, and I have only had to charge it once so far, much better than the 3-5 days with the Loop. It is certainly more bulky than the Loop and when I first put it on I was scared I made the wrong choice but I am used to it now.

XavierNusum

mkwrose wrote: »

I upgraded to the A300 from the Loop and I feel like I made the right choice. It vibrates and chirps when it is time to move (it is like a 4 or 5 minute warning before you get the one hour inactivity stamp). I also like that it is more watch like and you can see more data on the actual watch. I received mine on June 9th, and I have only had to charge it once so far, much better than the 3-5 days with the Loop. It is certainly more bulky than the Loop and when I first put it on I was scared I made the wrong choice but I am used to it now.

Thanks for the info! That confirms everything I was thinking. Hey you should check out the polar group on MFP. Not much action, but it's a good resource for finding people to interact with on flow! Here I am,
https://flow.polar.com/training/profiles/9015587

ScubaSteve1962

I had mine on vibrate, used to irritate the heck out of me, 20000 steps and it's telling me I need to move (LOL)

XavierNusum

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

I had mine on vibrate, used to irritate the heck out of me, 20000 steps and it's telling me I need to move (LOL)

Wow, I'd be a little put off too! LOL

ScubaSteve1962

yea it would seem after 10000 maybe that would go away (LOL)

CricketClover

I thought that was funny too. It would tell me to get moving after I had been sitting for an hour, but after a hike where I climbed 3000+ ft with 21000+ steps and burned almost 3000 cals. Oh buzz off Polar, which I guess it technically did

Also, for that day I did 800% of my daily activity, I liked seeing that!

XavierNusum

mkwrose wrote: »

I thought that was funny too. It would tell me to get moving after I had been sitting for an hour, but after a hike where I climbed 3000+ ft with 21000+ steps and burned almost 3000 cals. Oh buzz off Polar, which I guess it technically did

Also, for that day I did 800% of my daily activity, I liked seeing that!

Holy crap! Wow!!

CricketClover

XavierNusum wrote: »

mkwrose wrote: »

I thought that was funny too. It would tell me to get moving after I had been sitting for an hour, but after a hike where I climbed 3000+ ft with 21000+ steps and burned almost 3000 cals. Oh buzz off Polar, which I guess it technically did

Also, for that day I did 800% of my daily activity, I liked seeing that!

Holy crap! Wow!!

It's because I was wearing my HRM too, I guess if it was just basing that on steps it wouldn't be so high.

ScubaSteve1962

mkwrose wrote: »

I thought that was funny too. It would tell me to get moving after I had been sitting for an hour, but after a hike where I climbed 3000+ ft with 21000+ steps and burned almost 3000 cals. Oh buzz off Polar, which I guess it technically did

Also, for that day I did 800% of my daily activity, I liked seeing that!

Wow, I've done 200%, was getting around 150% on a regular basis, did a Vo2 test and now it's down to 130%. My work out was getting me to 100, but now it's between 80 and 90.

XavierNusum

ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »

Wow, and I've done 200%, was getting around 150% on a regular basis, did a Vo2 test and now it's down to 130%. My work out was getting me to 100, but now it's between 80 and 90.

I need to do that, the Vo2 test or just up my activity level. Just for the challenge of really working hard for 100%.

ScubaSteve1962

I had the loop, and that was the only draw back to it. not being able to do the Vo2 test. I'm thinking bout going to get one done by a fitness health doctor just to see how accurate it is.

dep2301

PolarA300 1 week on.
Well it arrived and was reasonably easy to set up but you need a computer with a USB to "register" it . Bit of a problem as my main computer is an iPad. I pressed an old netbook into action but it was very slow - probably more my old netbook than Polaris site.m
Once done I have found it to be great for counting steps once it learns your stride . It does not count floors.
The Bluetooth HRM which came with my A300 is comfy to wear and syncs with the A300 and gym spin bikes seamlessly.
The polar app is easy to use but I am finding the sync with the polar flow site to be lumpy
I preferred the Fitbit app which gave was more straightforward and pictorially easier to read but that's just personal choice.
The polar app with the heart rate graph is good and it also captures average and maximum heart rate.
Syncing polar exercise with my fitness pal has been really quick and I like how there is no complicated algorithm - it just pulls across your polar exercise into mfp - the Fitbit used a complicated method which I did not understand.
Battery life for the A300 has been superb - I charged it on 8 July and today 14 July it is showing three quarters charge left.
Comfort wise the A300 is fine
So overall very pleased with my new gadget

XavierNusum

That's awesome to hear! I have a bday coming up and I'm tempted to beg for an A300 myself.

ScubaSteve1962

I've found that if you open the flow app first it's easier to sync.

dep2301

Hi thanks scuba Steve . Do you mean have it open as you are syncing to the app ?

ScubaSteve1962

yes I open the app first, when it start to sync with the web, then I can sync with out a problem. It takes a few minutes, but it seems to work better that way. I'm using an I-pod

tiggerlove

I have the A300 and I love it..sometimes i get so involved in what I'm doing and forget to get up and move around but it reminds me, I like the sleep tracker and the step count. I had the first loop that plar made and didn't like it so I went to the nike band but as soon as I saw the A300 I pre-ordered and I haven't looked back.

CricketClover

I'm still loving my A300, my only complaint, and this isn't with the watch itself, is I still can not sync to MFP using Android. Maybe someday in the future this will happen. Also, I read on the Polar updates site that they plan on pushing the smart watch type features to A300's and Android users in the next few months. That will be nice, if it ever happens!

XavierNusum

I'm still working on getting an A300. I was on the fence between M400 and A300, but now I've decided and the A300 is in my sights.

Glad to hear everyone is still enjoying theirs! @mkwrose I understand your frustration. I'm there too, I think I'm just going back to iPhone.

ScubaSteve1962

Amazon has the A300 for as low as $107 without sensor. I took my V800 down about 100' this past weekend, still had a heart rate signal

CricketClover

Old thread but the A300 now has an update that includes smart notifications! Mine is updating now, I was starting to think it wasn't going to happen for the A300.