Gadgets & Wearables News

Polar M200 – New Running Watch Announced

Polar M200Polar have a new entry-level watch for runners.

One of the great things is that now ‘entry level’ watches need to have optical HR and GPS. Polar meets this criteria.

But look at the price: $150/€150/£120. Nice.

The battery level is stated as 6 hours of training time with GPS on. That’s just about OK for most runners when you bear in mind that you will degrade the battery life as you use it through the day. So there should hopefully be enough for your up-to-90 minute evening run. At this price point I’ll say that’s Ok – ti’s pretty similar to the Apple watch…at THAT price point I expect MUCH MORE…c’mon Apple, keep up.

Obviously it’s also an activity and sleep tracker and connects to your smartphone for ‘advanced’ call notifications that include social media notifications rather than ‘just’ SMS and call notifications.

It’s nice-enough looking and the straps can be changed. The actual screen itself is not too high resolution but, as always, Polar seem to design around that and make it look much better with a good watch ‘shell’.

Polar’s app and online FLOW service are VERY GOOD.

Until we get some hands-on time with this nice-looking baby then the jury will be OUT as far as GPS accuracy and  OPTICAL HR accuracy goes. Also, as with most sports watches, smartphone compatibility may or may not be right for your smartphone. Still, Polar have been working HARD on all these areas with the newish additions to their range: A360 and M600. So they will be acutely aware of the issues. Let’s hope they get it right first time.

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17 thoughts on “Polar M200 – New Running Watch Announced”

  1. I hope this one is NOT the kona ironman v800 successor 😀
    i´m looking forward on 8th october wehn kona kicks in, rumors say a v800 successor will be announced, any news on that?

    1. as vaclev says, I think this is the kona announcement 🙁 no fcc. strange tho. why the kona twitter campaign and why the h7i? strange. maybe they’ve seen the difficulties of some other releases and held back. maybe they know when the f4 is coming out…who knows? not me !!

      1. oh my god….
        i really was looking forward to the kona suprise since my m400 should be replaced…
        i hope they got something more interesting in the pipeline than that

      2. me too. I’m not surprised tho as there was no FCC registration. I guess the only HOPE is that they announce something now(ish) for next year and then file this/next month for the fcc

      3. Kona is two days away? Hope something slips out even if it’s not going to be available for a month or two

      4. There are lots of issues with H7 and underwater HR measurement. As Polar say, openwater HR measurement will interfere with GPS so you shouldn’t use both. For me HR hardly works in openwater trainings. So I guess H7i is primarily meant to address these issues. If there were no Garmin’s new TRI/Swim sensors, I guess they probably wouldn’t have bothered.

    2. I don’t think there’ll be a V800 replacement soon. They seem to have switched to first-timers market long ago. They don’t seem to have the resources, especially software-wise, to make something really outperforming V800 as they’d probably need a different hardware platform to do it. What I expect them to do at most is announce a new unit in January (CES) but in reality it won’t be shipping until the end of September.

      1. yep quite possible – the low/mid end market is MUCH bigger (albeit more competitive). although if they have the resources for next January why not the same resources for 6 months earlier.

  2. I think that M200 is the Kona announcement, since there is no hint of any other watch by Polar on FCC. However, new H7i HR strap is promising.

    2. yes all the strap simply has to do is sort out the ANT+ to BTLE conversion and do it REALLY REALLY WELL for footpods and for cycling dynamics. THEN Polar will see more sales.

  3. Come on Polar, yes I’ll probably buy this as my m400 is looking worn, but where is the show stopper?, As much as I love my v800 the time is right for its replacement??? Suunto’s spartan is actually tempting me like none of their previous products

  4. Just seen their marketing tweets, “new runners” so not a direct m400 replacement? M600 priced somewhere between the aging m400/v800 please don’t get as confusing as Garmin’s offerings

    1. no it’s low end gps+ohr…a good ploy for them. I don’t think it’s for you. did yo uever get the m600..i am still waiting. prob a couple of weeks at least

      1. No I didn’t, having succumbed to iPhone ownership in April, I fear I’d soon cycle the battery to death. 24hrs on iOS, throw in 5 runs a week I’d be charging it twice a day. Had I stayed with a android phone and got 48hrs less running activities I’d probably have one on my wrist now. Still would be good to read your full review soon

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