Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is an indepth review of the A370 with tips & tricks for those that own it or are about to own it: 9/11/17 Update I purchased this on July 17th and used it for about a month with no issues. After that I noticed that when in workout mode and paired with my H10 HRM, I would get an error saying "something went wrong, please reset the device" and lose all my training data for the workout in progress. Talk about frustrating. I reached out to Polar and they had me do a factory reset through Polar Flow, after doing that and resyncing my personal data (took roughly 1 hour because I had some issues resyncing and had to contact Polar again) I was back in business. But after a few weeks it happened again, then suddenly shut off while I was wearing it and would not turn back on. I reached out to Polar. After plugging it in with a couple different USB chargers in various ports on my computer, it finally reset itself. Then after resyncing my personal data, I am, once again, back in business. Hats off to Polar for their excellent and responsive customer service. If having to reset the device on occasion ends up being necessary, I think I'm okay with that. If I consider other pieces of technology I own - PlayStation, Roku, Computers, iPhones/iPads, etc. They all need a reboot every once in a while. I really like this device. It's accurate and really meets all my needs. I use it daily. If every few weeks it needs a 'spa treatment' to be at it's best, I cannot fault it. Original Review: I've owned a Polar FT4 for the last 8+ years and the device started losing my heart rate during workouts so I was looking for an upgrade. My primary uses for the device are tracking the intensity of my weight lifting & cardio/bootcamp style workouts. I do occasionally run when my body tells me I have to, but it's a secondary (or later, much later) workout for me. I looked closely at this device, the A360, and the M400/430/600's when making my purchase decision. YouTube, Amazon Reviews & the Polar website were what led me to the decision of the A370. Here's why... 1. Heart Rate Accuracy - I did purchase the H10 chest strap to go along with this since my H1 chest strap that came with my FT4 wasn't compatible. But I'm almost finding that it wasn't a necessary purchase. I tested the heart rate wrist sensor on the A370 with my FT4/H1 chest strap during a workout. They were virtually neck and neck with one exception. The A370 has just a bit of a lag in sensing quick heart rate increases. So there were times when I hit my max zone but it didn't register. At the end of the day, they were within 10-20 calories burned of each other, which tells me that it's about as accurate as you could hope for in a wrist sensor! I'm pretty darn impressed and having a wee bit of buyers remorse for the H10 chest strap since it's $90. 2. Activity tracker - I appreciate that on rest days or even just during my work day (sedentary desk job) it keeps me moving. It gives me a daily goal (which is adjustable) and if I'm inactive for too long, it gives me a little buzz telling me to get moving. It's a cool little bit of accountability that I didn't have before. I'm a pretty active person all things considered, but I'm also competitive and like to ensure that I meet that goal day in and day out. 3. GPS compatible with phone - if in the rare event I do choose to torture myself with a run, I can hook this up to my phone's GPS to track my runs. That being said - this will tell you the distance you ran and the average distance/mile, etc. without the GPS. It won't give you your split times and all that. You'll get more if you hook it up, but honestly - it gives me what I need without it. If you're hard core into running, you'll want the M600 series that has the built in GPS. But for me, the non-runner runner, this is great. 4. Sleep tracking - it does track your sleep, which I think is cool BUT...I find my sleep is pretty consistent and wearing this to bed is, well, not the most comfortable thing on the planet. But it's pretty neat. It's not the most in depth sleep analysis, but overall it's decent. 5 - Compatible with MyFitnessPal and other fitness apps/sites - Through my work we subscribe to Power of Vitality, which is a workplace incentive program to stay active. With this device, it automatically logs my workouts in that website so I'm getting max credit. Love that! It also automatically updates MFP with my workouts. Some have said that it doesn't automatically sync with Polar Flow, but it has for me, every time. If I'm impatient and don't want to wait for the sync, I can force it, but it will eventually sync automatically (within 5-10 minutes, which is real-enough time for me). 6. - Fitness Test - with the purchase of the H7 or H10 you can perform a fitness test to get a sense of your overall fitness level. You can perform it regularly to see your progress. It will also then update your Min/Max heart rate zones for your workouts. It makes the device very customizable to your body and not just use the cookie cutter heart rate zones based on age/sex/weight, etc. A few tips - - you can sync with your H7/H10 heart rate monitor by pressing & holding the button (the only button). Note - you may need to disable bluetooth on your phone for this to happen. The Polar website also states that if you start a workout & touch the A370 to the chest strap it will pick it up. I've tried it, but it doesn't tell me for certain that it did or did not sync. But I know it's working if it's logging my heart rate and the green wrist sensors are not lit. - Sync at any time to the Polar Flow app by ensuring the app is open or open in the background and pressing & holding the button. - If you want the screen to stay on during a workout - touch your finger to the screen when it is illuminated in workout mode - it will stay on. That will drain your battery quicker. But I know sometimes I like seeing at a glance where I'm at without pressing the button. - I get about 2-3, maybe 4 at best days of battery life. I think that's a bit on the low end of what they tout as I read 4 days in some reviews. I just plug it in either right away in the morning on that 3rd/4th day or plug it in at night or during periods of inactivity. - You can customize the workout programs that the device has - just go to the Polar Flow app (download it to your device), update the app with the workouts that you do regularly (I added yoga, strength training and circuit training and removed a few of the others), then sync the device with the app. - Go to Polar's website to print off the size chart for the A360. I'm a petite woman at 5'3", 138 lbs and small wrists. I figured I'd need the small, but based on the chart, it is super small. I went with the M/L and am very happy with that. The device fits my wrist well though it is much bigger than my FT4, I'm okay with that, it looks nice. I leave it comfortable, yet secure during non-workout times, and tighten it a bit during workout times. You want to ensure that the sensor is just below your wrist bone and slightly tighter during workouts for better accuracy. Another reason I went with the 370 over the 360 because 1 - latest & greatest and surprisingly same price at the time of my purchase (what?!?! Polar - why is the newer one the same price?!?!), and 2 - the band reviews on the 360 were not so good, the 370 is a standard watch strap, so very secure). The device is supposed to 'wake up' when you turn your wrist. I find it works about 2/3 of the time. Which honestly is a tiny bit annoying. There is also a slight delay in it waking up, I have to hold my wrist there for a second before the screen illuminates. Ahh, we are an instant gratification society. SMH. Guys, this is a legit fitness device. It's accurate, compatible with several apps/devices/websites, and gives you a lot of data. It's super easy to learn/use, especially if you've used Polar devices before. But even if you haven't, it's a breeze to use. I didn't wear the FT4 all the time, but I find that I do wear this all the time because it's a cool device. It does have continuous heart rate sensors, but lets face it - what is the point of that? I haven't figured out why a person would need to continuously monitor their heart rate, but it's there should you wish to use it! At the end of the day, what seals the deal for me is the heart rate accuracy and compatibility/automatic syncing with the apps/devices that I use. The technology works for me, and I love that.