Latest Reviews
 |  | | Posted: 07/03/06 | | 'GOOD VALUE, NICE FEATURES' | | Strengths:
- the interval function is excellent : set the time or distance you want to run, the speed or HR you want to run at, select up to 3 zones and as many intervals as you want, and go! The watch will beep at you to go slower or faster if you are outside your target zone, and beep again to warn you it is about to enter another part of the exercise
- the Polar fitness test is a neat way to track your fitness improvements : lie down for a few minutes with the HRM, and it will track your heart rate and its variations, and give you a score which you can look up on a table
- you can choose to track speed or pace, in kmph or mph
- the average/highest heart rate by exercise
- the Wearlink transmitter is really comfortable, I have worn it on 3-hour-plus runs and totally forgot about it within 10 seconds of putting it on
- the footpod is light and doesn't seem to alter running style at all
- finally the autolap function is very good, automatically taking laps at given distances or times. You can then sit down at home and analyse your racing performance to your heart's content!
- upload of exercise data to Polar Running Coach, and personalised training programs | | Weaknesses:
- the attempts by the HRM to determine HRmax are not any more reliable than the 220-age method or any other method not based on an effort test
- training zones are calculated as % of HRmax. It would be nice to have the option to switch them to a % of working HR without doing the calculations manually
- the light on the footpod changes to red when the battery gets low, but an audible alarm on the watch would be useful for those of us who don't run watching our shoes
- the Start button feels a bit flimsy | | Overall:
This product gets the basics right :
- HRM is accurate and reliable
- SDM does seem to be accurate within 3% before calibration, and the within 1% once calibrated, which should keep most runners happy. While pace and slope gradient do seem to skew the results slightly, over the length of a run these seem to smooth out nicely.
A few nice touches with the additional functions and online running log make it a very good choice and certainly top of the non-GPS pile. |
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| | | | Performance | | 80% | | Ease of use | | 80% | | Value | | 80% |
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