Polar M600 arvostelu

Look and feel

Polar M600 feels sporty and not as premium as Suunto Spartan series or Garmin Fenix series. The strap is rubbery and the watch unit itself is inside the rubber strap so you can remove it altogether if you want to change the strap. Under the watch unit there is optical HR-sensor and charing port for the magnetic charger cable. Strap and the watch are quite comfortable because the watch is not as wide as round smartwatches. The strap gets dirty quite easily. The screen of the watch is bright and high resolution when compared to other sport watches, this comes in expense of the battery life.

UI & Polar Flow

The UI of the watch is the star. Polar M600 uses android wear OS so you get all the smartwatch features that you would get with other android watches plus the Polars own sport watch features. The watch has bluetooth and wifi connectivity, so even if you lose BT-connetivity with the phone it still can sync through the wifi. There is also internal memory of 4GB and you can use it to store your music, so if you have pair of BT-headphones you can listen to your music without having your phone with you.

The M600 has more capabilities when using it with an android phone than using it with iPhone, because the better integration of the android ecosystem. With iPhone you get basic notifications and you can use the internal Polar features but thats about it. With android you can reply to notifications and launch applications on your phone with the watch.

Polar Flow-app looks and feels fresh, with quick glance you can see your activity and sleep metrics. With the app you can modify sport profiles, set goals for yourself and see your progression and detailed metrics of your workout.

Sports & Hiking

The optical HR-sensor is not as responsive as the Polar chest strap but you can also use just the optical sensor solely. The GPS-accuracy is as good as with Suunto Spartan and little bit better than Garmin Fenix 3. When running in dark the bright display and smart backlight that turns on when glancing the watch is really nice feature. The touch screen is responsive more responsive than the one on Suunto Spartan, but it does not work with gloves or when your hands are wet. The Polar app/UI on the watch is simple to use but not as advanced as on Suunto or Garmin.

The battery life is not as good as with traditional sport watches so I would not take the M600 on long hikes without a power bank and charging cable. On normal everyday use the battery lasts about one day with iPhone and two days when paired to an android phone.

Conclusions

Polar M600 is competitively priced and it is smarter than traditional sportwatches. With the decision to move to Android Wear the Polar made move interesting move and Im looking forward for the future Polar smartwatches.

I can recommend the M600 if you have android phone and don't mind the sporty and bulky look of the watch.

Pros

Bright and sharp display
Android wear (when paired with Android-phone)
Optical HR-sensor
Polar Flow-app

Cons

Not the best looks
Little bit bulky
Battery life (especially when using with iPhone)