With today’s technology, it has never been easier to combine fitness with fun and a little bit of fashion. One of the more convenient products on the market is a sports watch.
Within the fitness world, watches do more than just tell time. They can now do everything from track your heart rate to transfer GPS data plus much more.
Today we will share the differences and similarities of two popular watches - Polar A300 vs M400.
Polar Watches will help you live a healthier lifestyle by helping you set goals for yourself and helps you reach them on a daily basis. These watches and app also help you understand the benefits of a regular fitness routine.
Polar A300 vs M400 – Detailing the Similarities:
The Polar A300 and M400 are both excellent choices for tracking your fitness progress. Whether you are just starting out or are a fitness pro, these watches will help you reach your fitness goals.
- 1They are both user friendly and come with the ability to send data to an app that synchs your watch with your phone and home computer. The watches will analyze and upload your fitness data to the app and provide several different easy to understand graphs and summaries.
- 2Both watches are water and sweat resistant, have built in Bluetooth and collect data on several different points of health like heart rate and calories burned throughout the day.
- 3They both also track your sleeping patterns. Polar products use a technology called Polar Flow and there is the Polar Flow app that you can download on your mobile phone. This technology helps you determine your current fitness level, set your training and fitness goals, track your progress and helps you manage or maintain your weight. It can also connect you to other users of Polar products.
Polar A300 - Review
The Polar A 300 comes with standard features and settings like a rechargeable battery – with USB cable, which can last up to four weeks, as well as a Bluetooth connection. It's a step up from the FT4 & FT7.
The Bluetooth connection allows incoming calls and texts as well as social media notifications to be displayed on the screen of your watch.
You have the option to turn off these audio and vibration notifications.
There is an alarm clock, a button lock, a back light, the date and time and the watch comes in black, yellow, pink, white, blue and gray. The Polar A300 watch is also water resistant.
- ACTIVITY TRACKER: Waterproof fitness monitor motivates you to reach your daily goal by tracking your steps, distance, and calories burned 24/7
- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: Vibrating inactivity alerts help you keep moving throughout the day
- SLEEP TRACKER: Automatically tracks your sleep time, quality of sleep, and sleep patterns
- COMPATIBLE: Compatible with H7 Heart Rate sensor for continuous, accurate heart rate
- CUSTOMIZE: Design your A300 fitness tracker to fit your style with interchangeable wrist bands in different colors
The Polar A 300 will track your daily activity, heart rate and the number of calories you have burned. The watch will then store it and send it to your fitness app.
It measures this by using a heart rate sensor to string together the frequency, the intensity and the regularity of your daily activity combined with your physical information.
You can also set a daily activity goal which the watch tracks with an activity bar that fills up throughout the day.
The watch will even remind you when you have been inactive for too long. The watch will also track your sleep patterns and can help you develop better sleep habits.
At the end of the day the app will also provide an activity summary.
The watch comes with different training and sports settings as well as a running program and a fitness test.
The running program has four different modes to choose from, 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon or you can set up your own running program that run-in length from 9 to fifteen weeks.
Polar A300 has over 100 sports settings to choose from which you can then personalize. You can also personalize different training targets. The watch and app will help you reach these targets and goals.
The new A370 is latest of the versions of the lifestyle fitness trackers.
Polar M400 - Review
The Polar M 400 tracks all your activity - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It combines your heart rate, daily calories burned and daily activity then stores the data on the app.
The watch and app also encourage you to set up activity goals for optimal health benefits. The watch can alert you when you have been inactive for too long.
The watch will track your daily activity with a bar on the side of the screen – the bar grows until you’ve reached your goal. It will also track and record your sleep patterns as well as well as your restful sleep vs. restless sleep.
The Polar M 400 also includes the total amount of your time spent actively on your feet. The watch and app will provide a daily activity summary with all of your active movements throughout the day.
It's the next step up from the A360.
The M400 is water resistant and comes in white, black, blue and pink. It has an alarm clock, backlight, and a rechargeable battery with a micro USB cable.
It has built in GPS and Bluetooth which allows social media updates as well as calls and texts and comes in 15 different languages.
The Polar M 400 also comes with built in GPS and Bluetooth.
- GPS WATCH: Built-in GPS technology keeps track of your pace, distance and altitude
- FITNESS TRACKER: Tracks your workouts, steps, distance, calories burned, sleep quality, and activity 24/13
- WATERPROOF FITNESS TRAINER: Use the fitness tracking watch to keep an eye on your running cadence to improve your running efficiency and avoid injuries in all weather conditions
- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: Compatible with H7 Heart Rate sensor to train at the right intensity with target heart rate zones
- SOCIAL SMARTWATCH: Plan, sync and share your training using the Polar Flow app and web service
The M400 also comes with several training programs for different levels. There is a running program to help you train for a 5k, 10k, half marathon and a marathon.
You can also build you own program that will help you train anywhere from a 9-week program to a 15-week program. Your running index will also be computed after every run.
This watch will also provide your cadence rhythm as well as your heart rate, speed and pace.
The M400 has a zone lock and a zone pointer feature that help you reach a certain intensity zone and then stay there. It also comes with a polar fitness test that will compare your fitness level to the average of your age and gender group.
In addition to the different training programs, the M400 tracks your training load and compares the intensity of your different workouts. It also features a recovery mode that tells you if you are undertrained, balanced, strained or very strained.
An interesting feature of the M400 is the Back to Start function which uses the built in GPS to guide you to your starting point via the shortest distance as well as an end time estimator. It can also provide your current altitude as well how much you ascend and descend.
This watch uses it’s GPS to map your running route and sends an actual map of your run to the fitness app.
There are over 100 sports profiles to choose from which helps you reach your specific goal with in the sport of your choosing.
The app will also provide a progress follow up with easy to read graphs and reports of how far you have come in your fitness and health journey.
The new M430 is the latest of the line of sport fitness trackers. You can read all about the new features.
Conclusion: Polar A300 vs M400 – The Main Differences
Polar A300 Quick Review
- Constant fitness tracking 24/7
- Tracks sleeping patterns
- Tracks heart rate (has to be paired with Polar H7 heart rate sensor)
- Changeable wrist bands (black, grey, yellow, pink, blue and white)
- Calorie count
- Fitness test
- Vibrating activity reminder (alerts you when you’ve been inactive for 55 minutes - similar to the Polar Loop)
- Water resistant
- Bluetooth
- Rechargeable battery
Polar M400 Quick Review
- GPS
- Bluetooth
- Social Media and incoming call/text alerts
- Appointment reminders
- Fitness Test
- Calorie count
- Activity guide and benefits
- Recovery status
- Running programs
- Heart rate training
- Set individual targets and goals
- Finish time predictions
- Changeable band (white, black, blue, pink)
- Water resistant
- 4MB of memory
- Rechargeable battery
- Comes in multiple languages
Although the Polar A300 and the Polar M400 are both user friendly sports watches there are some differences that may make you favor one over the other.
One if the biggest differences is that the M400 offers a built in GPS which inevitably allows for some better and more personal fitness tracking, especially for someone who runs. It has the option to track your run and send the map to your app.
The M400 also has more training features that help you stay on target and give you a more detailed and in-depth training explanations. It also is more detailed when it comes to tracking your sleep patterns.
Depending on how in depth you need your training the Polar M400 is a great option.
Last update on 2023-05-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API