Polar Comparison

Follow your heart rate around the clock with Polar’s continuous wrist-based heart rate solution.

Continuous heart rate complements Polar’s 24/7 activity tracking. The combination of continuous heart rate measurement and 24/7 activity tracking takes into account the intensity of your activity more comprehensively – even activities with very little arm movement (such as cycling or walking with grocery bags) can be counted towards your daily activity goal and calorie burn more accurately. The heart rate graph in the Polar Flow app and web service shows how your heart rate varies during the day, and you’ll also get to know your highest and lowest daytime heart rate and your lowest night-time heart rate.

Polar’s continuous heart rate solution is intelligent, dynamic and optimised to complement 24/7 activity tracking in the best possible way. Your wrist unit checks your heart rate at regular short intervals, and if it detects that your heart rate is elevated, it automatically starts to record it. When your heart rate goes down, the recording stops automatically. The automatic heart rate recording also begins when the accelerometer on your wrist unit detects a high activity level. This way, your Polar device makes sure you get credit for all those important active moments in your day.

Most adults need eight hours of sleep, but sleep needs vary from person to person. It is recommended that adults get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Your sleep needs are affected by several factors like individual characteristics, training load, mental stress, body’s condition and possible sleep debt.

Polar Sleep Plus automatically detects the timing, amount, and quality of your sleep based on your wrist movements.

• Sleep time shows the total time between when you fell asleep and when you wake up.
• Actual sleep shows how much of your sleep time was actually spent asleep.
• Interruptions show you how much time you spent awake during the night.
• Sleep continuity tells you how continuous your sleep was on a scale of 1-5, where 5 reflects uninterrupted sleep. The lower the value the more fragmented your sleep was.

You can set your preferred sleep time to define how long you aim to sleep every night. You can also rate your sleep. You'll receive feedback on how you slept based on your sleep data, your preferred sleep time and your sleep rating.

Monitor your long-term sleeping patterns in Polar Flow. By following your sleep patterns you can see if they’re affected by any changes in your daily life and find the right balance of rest, daily activity and training.

Train for a running event with a personalised and adaptable running plan in Polar Flow. Choose one of four events, 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon, and get a comprehensive training plan that fits you and your goals.

Depending on your choices and activity levels, you will receive a personal running program that can range from 9 to 15 weeks. Running Program also offers a base-building phase that can work for months before the start of the actual running plan.

Running Program gives you easy-to-follow instructions, motivational guidance and supportive exercises with video instructions that take the guesswork out of training.

During individual training sessions, compatible Polar products guide you in real-time. You can see your target heart rate zone and target duration and adjust your training for optimal results.

Measure your speed and distance from the movement of your wrist. Use running related sport profiles or walking and let the accelerometer track your distance and speed - indoors and out.

For accurate readings, remember to specify your handedness and other physical settings.

With Route import you can import new routes to Polar Flow web service from other services that support GPX or TCX files. Just export the files from the service and import them to Polar Flow. From Polar Flow you can sync the routes to compatible Polar devices.

GLONASS is a global satellite navigation system that provides speed, distance and route data for your outdoor activities. It works together with the built-in GPS to provide the best possible accuracy for your data.

In Polar wrist-based heart rate measurement heart rate monitoring is integrated into a device that can be worn on your wrist. It enables you to quickly and easily check your heart rate by entering training mode in your device. It measures your heart rate accurately and easily, and gives training guidance on how to train at the right intensity. The Polar wrist-based heart rate measurement is based on Polar proprietary optical heart rate module to give the best possible results, with an emphasis on both design and functionality.

One of the key factors in wrist-based heart rate measurement, in ensuring an accurate reading from a wrist-based device, is ensuring a proper fit. The watch should sit behind the wrist bone, with the back of the watch fitting snugly against your wrist, but obviously not so tight as to prevent blood circulation or feel uncomfortable.

Make your runs and rides more exciting with Strava Live Segments. Get alerts about nearby segments, see real-time performance data during a segment and check your results right after you finish. Available for Strava Premium members.

Estimates your aerobic fitness at rest without any exertion in just five minutes. The result, Polar OwnIndex, evaluates your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and tells on what aerobic fitness level you are compared with people of the same age and gender.

The test is based on resting heart rate, heart rate variability, gender, age, height, body weight and your self-assessment of the level of long-term physical activity. You can compare your value to the population norms, the average values of people of the same age and gender.

Polar Fitness Test can motivate you to start, maintain or increase physical exercise. With wrist-based heart rate, the test is easy to do anytime, anywhere.

To be able to follow the progress, the test should always be carried out under the same conditions, meaning at the same time of day, in a peaceful environment, and following a light training day or a day of rest.

Calculates the number of calories burned based on your individual data: your weight, height, age, gender, HRmax, HRrest, VO2max, and the intensity of your training/activity.

Heart rate-based calorie calculation is used when heart rate is measured, and it measures burned calories the most accurately also in conditions like cycling or lifting weights. Activity-based calorie calculation is used in training computers and activity trackers, when heart rate is not available.

You can see the cumulative energy expenditure (in kilocalories, kcal) during exercise and total kilocalories of the session after exercise. You can also follow your total daily calories.

Training Load shows you how strenuous your training session was and helps you compare the load of different workouts. For example, you can compare the load of a long low intensity cycling session to that of a short high intensity running session.

Training Load is based on the intensity and duration of a training session. The intensity of a session is measured mainly by using your heart rate. The calculation is further affected by your personal information, such as age, sex, weight, VO2max and training history.

Your aerobic and anaerobic threshold values are used in the calculation. In addition, the sport you are doing is taken into account via a sport specific factor, which improves the calculation accuracy.

Available in Polar Flow.

Allows you to identify your current altitude and to determine altitude-related conditions. Your current altitude is shown as meters/feet and ascended and descended meters/feet. Altitude is measured either with GPS or an atmospheric air pressure sensor.

Allows you to choose the sport relevant for your training from over a hundred Polar sports with sport-specific reports. You can get the most valuable information for you from your chosen sport.

All sport profiles are based on certain logic and the most common (endurance) sports are enhanced with Polar-specific multipliers affecting calorie and training load calculation.

You can choose and adjust your own favourite sports and define specific settings for each one in Polar Flow. In more advanced training computers you can get tailored views during your training and choose what data you want to follow during training, for instance heart rate or just speed and distance.

When you train outdoors and bring your phone with you, your speed, distance and route are tracked with your phone’s GPS. In order for this feature to work, make sure that your phone is getting a GPS signal and that the Bluetooth connection between your phone and wrist unit is working.

Allows you to save the battery life of your training computer during long training sessions by adjusting the GPS interval from 1 second to 30 or 60 seconds. A longer interval gives you more recording time, while a shorter interval allows you to record more detailed data.

You can create training targets in Polar Flow and save them to your training diary or as favourites for later use. Sync your targets to your training device. You can set phased targets with heart rate or speed/pace guidance to create an interval workout or add simple training targets, such as ‘burn 700 kcal cycling’ or ‘run 30 minutes’.

Your device will guide you throughout your training. You will get an alert on your device when you need to slow down or speed up to make sure your training goes as targeted.

After the training session you can analyse your result and compare it with your target in Polar Flow.

When you plan and schedule your workouts in Polar Flow or use Polar Running Program, your device shows your scheduled workouts for the next seven days. You’ll also see scheduled workouts that you didn’t do from the past seven days.

With the heart rate sensor mode you can use your wrist unit to track your heart rate and transfer live heart rate data to other Polar products, such as cycling computers, or to compatible gym equipment, apps and other devices via Bluetooth.

Measures your running cadence by counting how many steps you take in a minute. The sensor measures your current, average and maximum cadence values. You can see your cadence on your wrist unit during your run and in the Polar Flow app and web service afterwards.

Cadence can be calculated as the total number of steps you take or as the number of steps one foot takes in a minute. In Polar products, cadence is calculated as the number of times one foot hits the ground. If you want to know the total number of steps you take in a minute, multiply the cadence value from your Polar device by two.

Set up your device with your phone and the Polar Flow app.

Allows you to update the software to the latest version with a USB.

Your device receives firmware updates through the built-in wi-fi. If your wi-fi connection is not active, you’ll receive updates via Bluetooth.

See how your running performance is developing. Based on your long-term progress, Running Index analysis predicts your event finish times for 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon runs.

Allows you to choose the sport relevant for your training from over a hundred Polar sports with sport-specific reports. You can get the most valuable information for you from your chosen sport.

All sport profiles are based on certain logic and the most common (endurance) sports are enhanced with Polar-specific multipliers affecting calorie and training load calculation.

You can choose and adjust your own favourite sports and define specific settings for each one in Polar Flow. In more advanced training computers you can get tailored views during your training and choose what data you want to follow during training, for instance heart rate or just speed and distance.

Offers an easy way to connect your Polar training device with 3^rd party services.

Your training and daily activity details are automatically sent and available to be used in the services where you allow it. Now you can be connected for example with Strava, TrainingPeaks, Apple Health Kit, Google Fit, MyFitnessPal and MapMyFitness,

Polar is actively developing new 3^rd party compatible services and will update the information constantly.