Review, features, design, availability, price

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After a nice but slightly disappointing Polar Loop 2, Polar recently introduced its new Polar A360 activity tracker. The bracelet is based on a simple but effective design and a battery of functionality that brings it closer to smart health connected watches. Still, once in hand, the disappointment is bitter, almost cruel. We even have the feeling that we are making fun of ourselves. Explanations.

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Mark : Polar

Category : smart health connected bracelet

Price : 199 euros

Availability : available

Unboxing Polar A360

We start with this which will undoubtedly be the only part of this Review to the advantage of the Polar A360: its packaging. Quite correctly, we find inside the bracelet, but also a micro-USB cable for reloading, but also instructions for use in just about every language. And you know how much we like the notices in this essay. Well, for the rest, nothing revolutionary, but nothing really criticize.

Polar A360 Design & Ergonomics

Design side, unlike its counterpart, the Polar Loop 2, this A360 is the choice of an integrated screen, it should allow a better visibility of activity monitoring. Indeed, the trackers without screens have the default of having to be constantly accompanied by a telephone and what is more, to leave it to consult the statistics. We'll talk about it a little later, but it's far from being a party.

The Polar A360 is also an opportunity for the brand to further color its products. Where the Loop 2 was only white, black and pink, this bracelet adds green and blue to the three previous colors. And besides this famous bracelet is silicone, again and again. The competition is doing it too, so we can not blame him too much. While the target is sporty, but still. Should all athletes wear an ugly wristband that they run or swim? No. And we do not speak only of this bracelet in particular, it is a problem that one often meets on the sports bracelets. The overall appearance is therefore rather disappointing. And if we received the bracelet in black edition, the other colors proposed by the brand do not excite us.

And even if the appreciation of the design is subjective, the fastening system, in addition to being complicated enough to install, holds quite poorly. It is not uncommon for him to go out, especially during the night. In addition, the single button of use of this bracelet (which will allow you to go back and synchronize your data) is hidden by this silicone strap too thick, not allowing you to feel if this button is engaged or not. Annoying when you know that you will have to use it regularly. To put it simply, one has the impression of being in front of a prototype. Silicone wristbands are extremely bad at what could be called the "CPU", which tends to make it fall. A defect that may come from too much elasticity of the bracelet. This CPU in itself lacks finishing. Just look at the back, the sensor is not even slightly hidden, so you have the impression of having a circuit board in contact with your wrist.

Polar A360 app

Polar Flow is always at work. The general look of the app is not ugly, it would be lying, but not sexy either. One could criticize having too much information displayed, but at least it is centralized and easy to access.

One of the big negatives is all about synchronization in general. Already in the beginning, you will have to make an update that will last at least 15 minutes. Then, it will be necessary to synchronize manually your data. So, some will be done more or less automatically, but not in real time. Basically, you have to do it yourself. And we are talking about a bracelet at 200 euros, in 2015. Almost 1 year after the Fitbit Charge. Well, let's move on, strictly speaking. If only, the synchronization was doing well. Truthful, wearing the bracelet all night (we'll see how horrible it is a little later), until 14 hours, the Polar A360 did not indicate sleep time, but simply a period of inactivity 7 hours. So much so that one would almost suspect him of misunderstanding: "What if he slept in fact?"

And then there is this good idea to post activity times of different actions to achieve our goals of the day. And this sentence is not ironic. Nevertheless, who cares to know that you have to do 6 hours of dishes, or 5 hours of standing guitar to achieve this goal ? Give us achievable things! The first sports mentioned had a real meaning, why not be more complete on this side! It's just a flop of content. And in addition, this part even allows to have small bugs:

You should know that this is not the only bug listed so far, the application has brutally indicated 4 steps in the day when I was actually at 4000.

Use / Getting Started Polar A360

Notifications

On the same principle as the Apple Watch, the Polar A360 will warn the user when it has been inactive for too long. A feature that seduces more and more manufacturers. Here too, inaccuracies: the 7 hours of inactivity he thought to measure while I slept did not make him get excited more than that (actually not at all). SMS notifications … we've never seen the color. Even searching through the application settings … hard to find. It's probably in one of the hidden menus (where the airplane mode is among others), but given the bracelet thickness to reach the pressure sensor, you will not arrive in this part.

Screen

As long as we are there, we will talk about the ergonomics of the screen. So, yes, the resolution is blah, the colors are pale, but, the Polar A360 is in line with the competition for this price range. Do not expect 1080p. But even trying to be conciliatory is not that at all. The different "dials" are all as ugly as each other. The display of the activity is this time much too centralized. You have to glue the eye to be able to distinguish everything that is written on the tiny screen, in length necessarily, with huge edges.

A bracelet for sportsmen

The device is primarily directed towards athletes, although it is quite possible to wear it every day (to see simply if you assume the design …). A heart rate sensor is obviously part of. A sensor that can also work under water. Indeed, this Polar A360 is waterproof. We will not criticize the tightness since we could not go to a pool, however … attention. Beware of the general performance. On the copy received, the cache to reach the charging port tended to fall.

For sports activities, classic. Are registered: cycling, walking, running, swimming bodybuilding and … "other sports". Rather than studying and creating algorithms for other practices, Polar puts a catch-all. A nice logic. Note, however, the presence of "Group Exercise" that you will interpret as you wish.

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You can safely imagine that at this point, we expect more from the smart health connected bracelet of Polar. But it is one of those objects that always find a way to surprise you. Evidenced by the heart rate sensor that makes it pass to the row of the cult objects. Indeed, tired by the whole spate of hate that we have done since the beginning of this article, it was put on a computer with the heart rate sensor engaged. What a surprise to discover that the Macbook Pro that allows you to write this Review has a heart rate of 82 beats per minute ! An incredible score. Nevertheless it is the ASUS computer that wins the palm with 87 BPM.

And as we are in good faith, we thought that it was surely that the sensor light was reflected in a certain way, disturbing the bracelet. So we tried with the Huawei Watch, which works on the same principle of flashing green light. On the other hand, she caught the subterfuge and told us that it should be installed on the wrist. We will have tried …

Sleep monitoring

A function "sleep monitoring" is also at the rendezvous. The bracelet will capture more or less (see the application part) automatically when you fall asleep and everything will be recorded in the dedicated application. Of course, the goal is to get the best teaching possible. We will not go back on the time it captures you sleep, but we will stop on a night's sleep with the Polar A360. He does not realize by himself a decrease in brightness. Coupled with the automatic ignition, very practical, but by day, you will often tend to illuminate the room at best, at worst your eyes. Not very nice. So yes, it will disable all that before sleeping, but do not be fooled. This is significant of the non-completion of this product. We were talking about the bracelet just now coming off, it's all the more true at night. We had to put it back twice in one night. In short, it is not the integrated sleep monitor that catches up.

Nutrition

Did you think it was possible to enter food to calculate your daily calories? It's not planned. That's what the competition does. It will be necessary to be satisfied with the program "Smart Calories" which will calculate the exact number of calories spent according to your activity, weight, sex and heart rate. By the way, I wonder how many calories my computer spends with 80 beats per minute during the 4 hours of writing this paper.

Autonomy

We still found a positive point, the autonomy of the product that is estimated at about 4 days. It's not bad, especially with an integrated screen.

Polar A360: Polar Club Compatibility

An interesting feature however, compatibility with the Polar Club. These are sports courses set up by Polar where cardio is at the heart of the process. Normally, an H7 bracelet that measured the heart rate was mandatory. From now on, a Polar A360 is enough. You will be able to find the data of your courses, but also have a remote follow-up by your coach. Clearly, more than a bracelet, Polar offers a real ecosystem around sport and fitness. To note all the same, HealthKit as well as Google Fit and MyFitnessPal are supported.

Polar A360 recap

• Waterproof (WR30)

• TFT color display

• Resolution: 80 x 160 pixels

• Screen size: 13 x 27 mm

• Battery: 100 mAh

• Compatibility: iOS or earlier, Android 4.3 or earlier, MacOS X 10.6 or later, Windows XP, 7, 8, 10

• Heart rate sensor

• Available colors: pink, black, green, blue, white

• Bluetooth Smart

Against competition

It will be short: the competition is better and often cheaper. Difficult to give advantages to the Polar A360. To contextualize our criticism, let's stop for a few moments on one of the best-rated bracelets on the site, the Fitbit Charge HR. Admittedly, it does not have an LCD screen, is not necessarily the most beautiful bracelet but yet, it is an excellent product. Because Fitbit understood that a screen, as beautiful as it is not an advantage if it does not have any particular utility. On the Polar A360, the screen does not add much to the experience if it is not inflate the price. Jawbone, with its UP3, clearly lacks a screen but catches up with an ultra-complete application. In summary, a big data sheet is useless if the product is not optimized.

The most of the Polar A360

> Compatibility Polar Club> Autonomy

The least of the Polar A360

> Design> Many bugs> Prohibitive price> Disappointing features> Heart rate sensor

Conclusion

Huge misunderstanding. This is what we feel at the end of this Review. Without saying that we expected a lot, we thought that Polar would still offer a good product. Here, this is not the case. The design is not good, the application is crumbling under the defects, the heart rate sensor is random, functions lack fluidity, the screen is just passable and the price is much too high. Misunderstanding certainly, but also anger. How a brand like Polar can sell a product of such mediocrity to 200 euros? You know what you should not buy at Christmas.

Design & finishing – 2

Application – 2.5

Features – 2.5

Use – 2

Value for money – 0.5

1.9

Design & finish : Even if we can not really be objective on the general aspect. There is still a real lack of finish. The product holds badly in its case and above all, it is not good to wear.Application : If the application suffers from synchronization problems and recurring bugs, all is not to throw. The bugs are also probably related to the bracelet itself.features : Already on paper, the Polar A360 lacks a screen quality and nutritional functions. But in addition, what is really usable, turns out to be pretty basic things. Not enough to exceed the average. Use : You will understand, many defects in use. The CPU that breaks the figure, the bracelet that comes off, the light in the eye at night, the manual synchronization, the wrong placement of the back button, a screen frankly not exceptional. No need to continue, the defects are as long as the arm.Value for money: at 200 euros, the Polar A360 performs less well than a competitor 100 euros. A consequent update is necessary but in the state, out of question to recommend it.

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