Polar RS800SD Heart Rate Monitor One Color, One Size

This pack comes with all you need: Waist pulse-sensor, shoe sensor, IR connectivity plug for data transfer, the watch itself and a software package. It packs a wide range of functionality (such as cadence measuring and monitoring) and the shoe sensor makes it ideal for in-door running (as apposed to a GPS).

I’ve owned this product for about a year (using it about 5 times a week). Features are great, and it provides very accurate measurement of heart rate, speed, altitude. I’ve cross checked it against GPS’, other heart rate monitors, altimeters etc and its accuracy keeps impressing.

Nevertheless, there are a significant amount of improvement areas Polar should consider:

– Build quality is mediocre and humidity penetrates the watch. The display fogs up when left in the sun for more than 30 minutes. Operating the buttons gives a “squeaky plastic feeling”

– The shoe sensor and the pulse sensor do not occasionally work (each stopped working for a few days, then miraculously started working again. Battery replacement had no impact)

– The shoe sensor and the pulse sensor both require different sizes of batteries (not practical when procuring or keeping spares)

– The IRdA connectivity could favorably be exchanged for a standard USB cable connection (easier to operate and replace)

– The accompanying software has huge improvement potential in its interface. Also the electronic manual could need a good workover. I have still not been able to figure out how to set speed speed on the graphs to km/hour (I know it can be done however).

Had there been a watch out there with better build quality, more conservative design, offering the same extensive bundle of great features, I would have have picked it over this one. Sadly, I have not been able to find one.
Rated: 4 / 5 Stars