Originally Posted by
sierrabob
FWIW, choosing the M450 will enter you into the Polar ecosystem via the Polar Flow app and website. That may not be a bad thing as the Training and Recovery stuff sounds interesting. Garmin Connect and Garmin Express act mainly as a ride forwarding system for me and other Garmin users. Looks like Polar Flow uploads to Strava, but how about RidewithGPS?
I don't mind being part of the Polar ecosystem. Polar flow does upload to Strava and there is another 3rd party tool that'll do it for you too. If you want to use RidewithGPS you'd probably have to manually export it and then import it. I don't use RidewithGPS, though I haven't tried it, so I don't really care about that.
There are a lot of things that the Garmin can do that I can't do with the Polar, but the reverse is also true. I can get the Polar M450 w/ a Bluetooth strap for around $250 which gives me the flexibility to use the bluetooth strap off the bike too if I choose to do so. To get something similar from Garmin, the Edge 25, it would cost me around $325, and that would only come with an Ant+ compatible heart rate monitor strap. It would cost me $350 to get it with an Ant+/Bluetooth strap. Plus it the screen isn't nearly as configurable (or large) as the Polar. I would be willing to pay $350-$400 for the Edge 520 w/ an ANT+ only strap, but it isn't worth it to me