Being a bit of a fitness geek, I was looking for an all-in-one fitness watch to keep me on track all day, and I think I found just the perfect solution. It's called Polar A300 and it's a fitness activity tracker and workout watch that can be used as a daily watch too! The Polar A300 comes with a heart rate (HR) sensor, heart rate strap, micro USB cord and accompanying app. There is also the A370 with continuous heart rate tracking.
The A300 silicone band is flexible, soft and comfortable to wear and the buckle lock keeps the band securely on your wrist. The Polar A300 is water resistant, which is great if you want to take it into the shower or go for a swim with it. The interchangeable band gives you the ability to switch it with different color bands or replace it should the band get damaged. Detaching and reattaching the A300 to the band is easy and the standard USB connection is also easily accessible for data syncing and charging purposes.
Polar A300 Buttons
The Polar A300 has a total of five buttons: top left button (star), bottom left button (square), top right button (triangle), middle red button (red circle) and bottom right button (upside down triangle). The buttons with the triangle symbols are the up and down navigational buttons to scroll through the menu; while the button with the square symbol serves as the Back button as well as Pause/Record button.
The red button in the middle is to execute actions and view options. The top left button is the backlight button, which lights the screen in dark environments. The screen also has a good visibility even under a bright light, which is nice. You can pause and stop a workout recording by pressing the bottom left button (to pause) or holding it to stop the workout recording.
Getting Started
Before downloading the Flow App, connect the A300 device to your Windows PC or MAC and Android (4.3 and later) or Apple (iOS7 and later) device and visit https://flow.polar.com/start to download the Polar FlowSync to sync your A300 with the Polar Flow web service.
Once the application is installed, you will be prompted to create an account. After the account is created, you can then download the Flow App from the App Store or from Google Play. Once Flow App is installed on your mobile device, you will be prompted to login/ or create an account. Since you have already created an account before, you can simply login with those details.
Once logged in you can then pair your A300 with the Flow App. Once it's paired, you have to manually sync all daily activity on your A300 to the Flow App to view the stats. This is done by holding the bottom left button to sync the A300 to update the app stats.
Polar A300 Main Features
The main screen menu of the Polar A300 shows time and date with an activity bar below indicating the daily progress for that particular day. From this screen, you can press the bottom right button again to see a history of all the recorded activities with their corresponding data (duration, calories burnt and heart rate). Press again this button to show the Settings page where you can customize your own profile like height, weight and age, as well as change imperial units to metrics and set a vibrating and audible beep alarm.
Press again this button to show the Fitness Test page to take a test to measure your cardiovascular fitness at rest and when exercising. After the test is completed, you will given a rating. Essentially, the Fitness Test measures how well your body transport and consumes oxygen and will give an estimated VO2 max result. A good VO2 max will depend on factors such as how many red blood cells you have, muscle endurance, and how much blood your heart can pump.
If you press the red button from the main screen you will be presented with another page showing the active time, calories burnt, steps taken, distance traveled and real time suggestions on what you need to do to reach your daily goals. When you are about to perform a workout you press the red button and cycle through the different workout profiles which include running, cycling, other outdoor activities, other indoor activities, mountain biking, walking strength training, group exercises and swimming. You can add more workout profiles through the Polar website.
Every time you record an activity it's saved and labeled as that specific activity with its relevant information. Let's say you want to start swimming, you select the profile and press the red button to start recording. While recording a workout activity you can press the bottom right button to view four pages of information. Press once to see your heart rate in real time with a timer below. Press a second time to view the heart rate pointer which provides information regarding burning fat and improving cardiovascular health.
The number you see on the horizontal line is determined by readings of your heart rate and other information that you already put into your profile. When the heart symbol is on the left side of the line you're burning fat. Anything above that or to the right of the line means you're improving your cardiovascular health. Press a third time to view the amount of time you've been in the current fat burning zone versus fitness zone. And lastly, press a fourth time to view the last page which displays the time of day and the calories burnt.

Polar A300 Flow App
The main page of the Flow App shows an activity wheel with corresponding colors, which indicate your type of activity. The periods where you are inactive are shown with orange icons, while the heart symbols indicate each time you recorded a workout. Below the activity wheel you will see the tabs sleeping, sitting, standing, walking and running with their corresponding times. Click on the next pages to see the daily activity goal, showing ways to reach your daily goals as well as additional information on calories, steps, time active and sleep quality based on your percentage. You can also do daily, weekly and monthly comparisons of your habits and results.

The Verdict
The Polar A300 and heart rate sensor strap are a great combination for keeping track of burning fat, heart rate tracking and improving cardio. The Polar A300 also comes with a comprehensive app, which is useful and accurately differentiates very well sitting from sleeping, standing, running and walking. Battery life lasts up to four weeks on a single charge and you can easily and conveniently recharge the A300 via your laptop as it has no special proprietary USB cable. The A300 is detachable from the band and it offers swimming capabilities. Check out Polar A300 Fitness And Activity Tracker