Polar A360 reviewed: Another fitness tracker with smartwatch envy

At the end of last year, both Garmin and Polar introduced new fitness trackers that incorporate a few smartwatch features. Garmin's is the formidable Vívosmart HR and Polar's is the A360. Both combine heart rate monitors with daily activity tracking and smartphone notifications to make all-purpose devices that are meant to live on your wrist. Polar's $199 A360 is a little more customizable than the Garmin device, and it borrows features from Polar's other trackers that are ideal for anyone doing regular, serious training sessions.

Design: A little bulky, but it could be worse

The A360 is the slightly chunkier cousin of Polar's Loop 2, with its thumb-sized module and stretchy silicone band. Its 160×80-pixel color LCD touchscreen is bold and easy to use, while the button on the bottom left corner is awkward at first, particularly if you wear the A360 on your left wrist like I did. But you get used to it after a day or so. Like many other wristbands, the A360's display lights up to show the time when you flick your wrist.

On the bottom of the module is Polar's first wrist-based optical heart rate monitor. Like Garmin, Polar developed the heart rate monitor in-house rather than outsourcing to another company that already manufactures them. The A360 measures your heart rate during all recorded exercises as well as on the fly.

Charging the A360 is annoying. Its micro-USB charging port is hidden beneath this weird removable flap that uses a tiny loop to hook on to the module. Getting the flap back on properly can be as frustrating as threading a needle. And you better not drop the flap—it's so tiny I needed a flashlight to find it on my dark hardwood floors.

The A360 comes in small, medium, and large, and additional, different-colored bands are $24.95 each. The clasp is as comfortable and easy to adjust as a wristwatch. The A360 is flashier and more customizable than its main competitor, the $150 Garmin Vívosmart HR, which has a monochrome display and no way to change the band. Both devices track swimming, but the A360 is only water resistant to 30 meters, compared to the Vívosmart's 50.

Features: solid heart rate monitor and smartphone alerts

Like so many other all-purpose fitness trackers, the A360 emphasizes serious training. Tapping the "My Day" icon on the display brings up your activity progress, which includes step count, distance traveled, and calories burned, as well as how much more you have to do before you've completed your daily activity goal. A cute animation shows different ways to reach your goal. When I was at 94 percent, the A360 told me I could finish up by jogging for three minutes or walking for six. I love this feature because it put my remaining activity into perspective, and what was left was often less than I expected. The A360 also divides activities into categories like "low," "medium," "high," "sitting," and "resting," which encompasses both sleeping and lying down. If you take a morning run before sitting in your office for the rest of the day, your activities will be divided mostly into the "sitting" and "high" categories.

The "Training" icon lets you choose from a number of exercises and sports to track, including general options like "indoor sport" and "group exercise" for workouts that don't fit into tidy categories like "run" and "cycle." Starting the timer is as simple as tapping the exercise you want to track. The A360 automatically monitors your pulse changes and their corresponding heart rate zones. When your workout's finished, press and hold the side button to pause, then press and hold the stop button to end and save the routine.

The "My Heart Rate" icon allows you to find out your heart rate at any time. The A360 only takes about ten seconds to read your pulse and yields results similar to putting your fingers to your wrist. A small on-screen bubble appears before you start a training session to let you know the heart rate monitor is warming up.

Like Garmin's Vívosmart HR and any number of other smartwatches, the A360 can receive notifications from your smartphone. You cannot filter them, so if your phone gets alerts from a dozen apps, your wrist will too. Notifications cause the band to vibrate gently and the display to lights, but I wish you could swipe down or tap the display to read long texts and emails like you can on the Vívosmart HR, Android Wear, or Apple Watch.

The A360 works with Polar's H7 for those who prefer heart rate monitors on their chests instead of on their wrists. Garmin's Vívosmart HR is ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart compatible, so it should also work with Garmin's own chest strap monitors, but, unsurprisingly, you cannot mix brands and use the A360 with a Garmin chest strap or vice versa.