Polar M600
$400 It’s hard to say whether this is more of a smart watch or GPS sport watch, but the bottom line is that the M600 offers the best of both worlds in a stylish package. The watch utilizes the Android Wear operating system, so it displays alerts from your phone, providing all kinds of data and information. It has a gorgeous colour touch display that’s really easy to navigate and very easy to see. (What’s especially nice is the backlight comes on intuitively as you move your wrist, a feature we really liked. The reminders to get up and move when the M600 decides you’ve been sitting around too long are pretty cool, too.) The watch even has built in storage for music, too, which can be listened to through a Bluetooth connection to headphones or speakers.
In terms of activity tracking, the M600 does a great job of monitoring pretty much everything you do – from counting your steps to measuring your sleep duration and quality. When it comes to training, like the Garmin 735 XT, the M600 has an optical wrist-based heart rate monitor and, like the Garmin, it works really well – as long as you have the strap done up tight enough. Polar’s elabourate software system provides various training programs based on your age, fitness level and goals, which can all be accessed on the M600. It figures out all kinds of data based on your workouts, too – your heart rate zones, your training load, your recovery status and how many calories you’ve burned.
The GPS monitor picks up satellites very quickly and offers accurate distance and speed data, along with altitude and ascent/descent information. There are over 100 sport profiles that you can access, but of course the important ones for a triathlete – swim, bike, run and multisport are easily accessed with a few swipes on the touch screen. You can adjust the display, too, so the display shows the info your most interested in. The watch can even pick up running cadence from your wrist, so you don’t have to attach any other devices to get that data.
Once you’re done your workouts you can easily upload all your training info to Strava, Trainingpeaks or other fitness apps through a simple Bluetooth connection, so you don’t even need to worry about using a cable to sync things once you’re done. You can even set the watch to create automatic laps through the Polar Flow app to gauge specific parts of each workout.
We found Polar’s V800 to be one of the more stylish and comfortable sports watches we’ve worn and the M600 is possibly even more so. If you’ve been coveting a smart watch as much as you’ve been thinking about a sports watch, this is definitely the product for you. If you’re looking for a bit more of a serious training tool that will provide more in depth cycling data, you’ll want to have a look at Polar’s V800 or one of the other watches in our review.