Polar A370 review

Battery life and compatibility

• 2-day battery with everything switched on
• 3-day battery without phone notifications
• iOS and Android supported

Polar says the A370 will last four days of fitness tracking, “continuous heart rate and 1 h of training per day.” Our experience has been somewhat worse than this, though.

With notifications enabled, 24/7 heart rate sensing on, GPS tracking of two 20-minute exercise periods, non-GPS tracking of a 6km run and a half-hour of HR tracking some drumming practice, the Polar A370 only lasted two days.

Coming from reviewing the Garmin Vivosmart 3, which lasts five days of solid fitness tracking with notifications, this is rather disappointing.

You’ll be able to get better stamina by switching off some of the features - phone notifications being an obvious drain - but we expect better from a tracker without native GPS or an always-on screen.

Battery charging is rather slow too. You charge the battery using a micro USB port on the underside, hidden by a rubber flap when not in use (which we're big fans of - no need for a proprietary cable you might lose). 

Charging seems to take a good couple of hours. Given this is a premium band with just a 110mAh cell, couldn’t this be quicker? This could be caused by the choice of port though - as we've noticed that some of Polar's dedicated running watches, like the A430 for instance, charge incredibly quickly but have their own cable.

The Polar A370 gets along with iPhones running iOS 7 or above and Android with Android 4.3 or newer. It will also sync with PCs and Macs using the Polar FlowSync software.

Verdict

The Polar A370 is a fairly pricey fitness band that does a bit more than just counting your steps. 

It can GPS-map your runs, walks and cycling with the help of a phone and lets you break up different sorts of exercise into categories, so you don’t just see a blur of entries when you look back at your activity history in the app.

There are also phone notifications, making this a smarter band than many other trackers. However, it also lacks some of the fitness band staples like an always-on clock display and good battery life. 

With all the features switched on the Polar A370 barely lasts longer than a smartwatch.

Who’s this for?

The Polar A370 is for people who want to map their runs but can’t stand the bulk factor of a GPS runner’s watch, even a smaller one like a TomTom Runner 3 or Garmin Vivoactive HR.

It's also for those that like the idea of tracking their fitness throughout the day and want some good quality metrics that show them in a complete view how well they're exercising and sleeping over time.

Should you buy it?

Stuck between the worlds of smartwatches, basic fitness bands and GPS exercise trackers, the Polar A370 can dash between several roles. It’s fine in most, but the fairly poor battery life when it’s doing the lot makes it a little high maintenance.

The Polar A370 isn't everything it could have been. Fortunately there are lots of other options, such as the three below.

Garmin Vivosmart 3

This is one of the Polar A370’s big rivals, in that it’s a) a higher-price band and b) not a Fitbit. The Vivosmart 3 has better battery life than the A370 and is significantly smaller. It also has a proper rep counter feature, something the Polar lacks.

There’s also a stair-counting altimeter. It doesn’t have the phone-connected GPS feature of the A370, but we’d suggest if you’re that bothered about it, why not get a watch that has its own GPS?

• Read our full Garmin Vivosmart 3 review

TomTom Runner 3 / TomTom Spark 3

If GPS run tracking is your aim, why not buy a full runner’s watch? The TomTom Runner 3 and Spark 3 are more affordable sport watches with phone-free GPS for true running freedom.

They are larger than the A370 but work much better as actual watches thanks to their always-on screens and far superior battery life. You’ll get up to three weeks’ use as a watch, and 11 hours’ GPS.

• Read our full TomTom Spark 3 and TomTom Runner 3 review

Fitbit Alta HR

The popular Fitbit Alta HR is far more attractive and a lot slighter than the Polar A370. It also lasts just under a week rather than a few days.

What the Fitbit Alta HR lacks is the GPS phone connection you get here, instead using the accelerometer to measure distance itself. It also lacks full phone notifications.

• Read our full Fitbit Alta HR review

First reviewed: August 2017