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TECH NEWS
Polar launches M400 combined GPS watch and activity tracker + video
It’s all about wearable tech these days, the market has exploded in recent years with the likes of the Garmin Vivofit, a simple activity tracker, and more feature-packed smartwatches like Samsung’s Gear 2 and Gear Fit and Apple’s new Watch. What they all have in common is the desire to track and monitor your activity levels. The latest to hit the market comes from Swedish firm Polar with their brand new M400 GPS watch.
The new M400 combines a GPS watch and the daily activity tracker featureset of the simplier activity trackers like Nike’s FuelBand or the aforementioned Vivofit. It looks similar to a Garmin Foreunner but aims to do more when you hang up the towel after a ride or run.
Inside the M400 is a GPS tracker and sensors for monitoring speed, altitude and distance. It can be paired via Bluetooth with Polar’s chest-mounted heart rate monitor for even more data gathering. With the GPS functionality you can record all the data you need on a run or ride, like speed, average speed, distance, altitude and more.
The M400 is more than that though. It’s designed to be worn all day and monitor your activity levels around the clock. So away from exercise, the M400 becomes an activity tracker and can monitor sleep patterns and calories burned, provide alerts when you’ve been sedentary for long periods of time and deliver a daily activity goal if you need it.
The M400 can then be synced with Polar’s own Flow service, either through their website or an app for Android and iOS, to help you make sense of all that accumulated data.
It’s a smart looking watch and is available in black or white, with a clear high resolution screen. It’s fully water-resistant to 30 metres and the high-contrast colour screen is said to be good outdoors in any weather condition. The M400 weighs a claimed 56.6g and is 11.5mm thick. The battery is claimed to last about 8-hours with GPS on, and up to 24 days in time mode.
The Polar M400 is available in October and will cost £134.50 or £169.50 for a version which includes a heart rate sensor.
More at www.polar.com
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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8 comments
Just bought a Suunto Ambit 2 as it has just about every feature you could possibly want. Covers swim, bike & run and includes advanced HR monitor, cadence (bike, swim or run), power/ANT, respiration etc... I think the Ambit 3 has integration with smartphones but starts getting pricey. I can highly recommend it for features, but might not look as slick as some of these activity trackers.
TomTom and Mio offer similar products, without the heart rate monitor strap. (optical measurement through the wrist) Also the TomTom product has optional cadence and speed sensor.
That makes more sense!
I like the look of it. But it's hardly an all day wearable if it needs recharging every 24 hours. And if you actually log an activity, it needs recharging more frequently than that. Needs some rethinking by Polar if it's to fulfil it's role properly.
That would be an error in the article. Battery life in watch mode is 24 DAYS, not hours.
ahem. yes, duly amended
It would be interesting if you could use the Bluetooth to pair it with a Bluetooth cadence sensor, like the Wahoo RPM sensor
I saw the review of this over at dcrainmaker a few days ago, and it looks like they have a very competitive watch against both the garmin 15 and the 220.
It's cycling support is fairly basic, as it doesn't support cadence or speed sensors, let alone power meters. It does allow you to record an activity as cycling though and can be paired with a bluetooth HRM. If you both run and cycle, it looks like a good compromise option.
The activity tracking is another interesting addition. The Garmin 15 is the only other watch that does this, but as something to wear all day the Polar is definitely a better looking device.
Shame about the video though. "I found the courage to push my boundaries", sigh, who writes this crap.