Product Review: Polar M430

I’m no stranger to Polar products.

The very first Polar watch I bought was the Polar FT7, which by the way you can still buy.

This was before I got interested in running.

The Polar FT7, helped me to get fitter and stronger.  If I didn’t get into running, I would still be using this watch today (or an upgraded version of it).

But of course, I found running and I fell in love with it.

After having 2 Garmin break down on me I decided to switch back to Polar when I discovered the M400 watch.

When Polar announced in April 2017 that they were releasing a new watch, I was a tad bit jealous.  It looked sweet!

Content with my watch I didn’t see the point of upgrading.

So when Polar contacted me asking if I wanted to review their product, who was I to say no?

Already familiar with the interface, I was interested to see what new features the M430 had to offer.

Polar M430 Features

Optical HR sensor

No need to wear a strap anymore, with a 6-LED sensor, your heart rate is measured from your wrist, easily, accurately and reliably.

As a female, you have no idea how awesome this is.  No more bra and chest strap chafing. Woohoo!

Vibration Capability

Replacing audio alerts, vibration alerts are a new feature.

During my runs, I like to listen to music, podcasts or audiobooks.  This means that on occasion I don’t hear audio alerts.  With this feature, I can now feel my kilometres.

Increased Battery

This is obviously to help maintain the battery life with the optical HR sensor.

Low-Power GPS modes

This feature enables the unit to get up to 30 hours of GPS on battery time.

Three options are available;

• High Accuracy Mode
• Medium Accuracy Mode
• Low Power Mode

New Wrist Strap design

Clearly designed to help improve the optical HR accuracy.  It’s actually a better fit, especially if you have skinny/small wrists like me.

Stopwatch Function

Such a simple feature that was never featured in the M400, glad this one was added.

My Thoughts on the M430

On set up, it automatically syncs across the various sports profiles that I had set up via Polar Flow.

I like to have different features for different activities.  I have currently 4 sports profiles set up; Running, Trail Running, Circut Training & Hiking (on Medium Power Mode).

With the new low-power GPS modes, I can now wear my watch on hikes and trail runs longer than 5 hours, and not stress about the battery going flat.

It comes in orange.

If you didn’t already know, I love the colour orange.  It does come in two other colours, black & white, but hey, I like my colour, so I’m excited that orange was an option.

I love the vibration alerts.  I can listen to my music and still know the distance I have run by the vibration.

The other feature (that I’m yet to use), is creating structured workouts.  This is done via the polar flow site and is shown under Favourites.

Another handy aspect of the watch that I find surprisingly handy is that it warns you when you only have 1 hour of battery left while in an activity.

Overall, I love the new features.

Thank you polar for giving me the opportunity to review this product.