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Add to SafariWhen comparing Polar M400 vs Polar M430, the Slant community recommends Polar M400 for most people. In the question“What are the best smartwatches for fitness and health?” Polar M400 is ranked 1st while Polar M430 is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Polar M400 is:
The "Sport Profile" feature allows you to customize what stats you want to see for each type of exercise. For example, you may want the GPS on for running but not for a circuit workout. These preset profiles save you from having to set up the device each time you exercise.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Gives you a lot of options for customizing different types of workouts
The "Sport Profile" feature allows you to customize what stats you want to see for each type of exercise. For example, you may want the GPS on for running but not for a circuit workout. These preset profiles save you from having to set up the device each time you exercise.
Pro Gives you custom activity goals suitable for your level
The daily activity goal is a good way to find out how active you really are in your everyday life. Here you can choose your typical activity level from three options and see how active you need to be to reach your daily activity goal.
The time you need to complete your daily activity goal depends on the level you have chosen and the intensity of your activities. Age and gender also affect the intensity you need to reach your daily activity goal.
Pro Detailed reports
The fitness tracker offers excellent reporting including distance, speed, cadence, heart rate (if paired with monitor), ascent, decent, calories, recovery status, and more.
Pro Ability to add training notes
The app allows you to add additional notes to your workouts for better tracking.
Pro It doubles as a great general-use fitness tracker
Not only is this watch useful for running, you can leave it on for the whole day and it will monitor your sleep, give recommendations on training intensity as well as recovery, and keep your heart rate in check. With GPS off, it can work for 20 days, so you'll only have to take it off twice a month or so to recharge.
Pro The price is very competitve
This watch offers great value for the money - usually, you have to be ready to pay $300 and more for a decent sports watch, but M430 does the same job and costs around $200.
Pro It can track a variety of activities
Although this watch is targeted primarily at runners, you can also use it for biking, swimming, strength training, and many other indoor and outdoor activities that you can choose in the Polar app.
Pro It has one of the most precise on-wrist heart rate monitors
Even to date, the majority of sports watches don't offer particularly good hear rate tracking capabilities. You either have to buy an additional chest strap or rely on built-in sensors that are often imprecise. The M430 offers the best of the two worlds - you can get data nearly as precise as from a chest strap without having to buy and wear one.
Cons
Con Sleep tracking lacks detail and accuracy
If you are awake for an extended period of time in the middle of the night and then fall back asleep, the fitness tracker may not see the additional hours as part of your sleep.
Con Unattractive and bulky design
The tracker is quite wide and hard to miss, it's not something that can blend in with what you're wearing outside of sport/exercise type settings.
Con Short battery life when using the GPS
With the GPS turned on, battery life goes from around 24 days to 9 hours.
This is likely fine for people who will always have opportunities to charge it after their run. However for anyone hoping to use the GPS for longer activities, such as hiking, that may not be long enough to be useful.
Con No music playback
This watch can neither store any music or control the playback from your phone.
Con The software is somewhat limited
You are basically stuck with only three watch faces, which limits your ability to customize the watch for your particular needs and preferences.
Con You'll have to rely solely on GPS for tracking
Overall, the tracking works well, but it would be much more reliable if the watch also had Glonass capabilities, in case you lose GPS signal.
