Customer Reviews

Polar FT80G1 Black Heart Rate Monitor Watch with G1 GPS Sensor

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

First of all, I wish that I had seen a review like this before I bought mine, but as I am the first. I am so disappointed in this watch. What is wrong with it?

1. The display is so dim and it cannot be adjusted. I was certain that the watch was faulty, I contacted the vendor and they sent me a replacement, and that was the same. It is almost impossible to read the menu indoors, outdoors it is a lot better, but still very difficult. When I looked on the Polar website discussion area I noticed a lot of people saying the same thing. How I wish that I could have found this earlier.

2. The GPS seemed not to work, I had to spend hours trying to figure out why not and by chance I found that the GPS (G1) had to be set to mode 2; absolutely no mention of this anywhere. In fact for a high price and supposedly highly functional watch the manual is not worth the paper it comes on.

3. The GPS is very basic, I could not find this out before, but it only measures the speed (at the moment) and distance travelled. It has no waypoints, no coordinates, no software to display routes or maps, etc. OK, I know this is not supposed to be a navigation device, but this information could be obtained with a foot pod at far less expense and no need for a GPS. The Garmins and Timex all have this.

On the positive side, it is a good looking watch, but not much use if you cannot read the display.

I have returned mine now to Trinowfittness - who by the way are very good. I am looking at replacing with a Polar RS800CX or a Garmin of some description.

In summary, don't get this watch if you use it in a gym, don't get it with the GPS option if you only want to keep track on how far you have run. If they fix the display it might have some other useful features. The picture used on the Polar web site shows the display as much brighter than the actual watch itself.

Good luck.

My experience with the FT80 has been the same as Richards above. I have used Polar monitors for years and I can't tell you how disappointed I was when the first "improved" transmitter stopped working. It worked fine for about 10 weeks. Then I started getting readings of 208 before even warming up. I would mess around with the belt and transmitter over and over to make it work - and it would sometimes for about 5 minutes - then back to crazy readings. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, replaced a 10 week old battery - same results. So I bought another transmitter here on Amazon only to have it do exactly the same thing after only 2 weeks. The product is bad because of the transmitter and you cannot use the older models with it so I am back to using my Polar F6 which has been bulletproof (and costs 1/4th as much). Polar - you really need to fix the transmitter problem on the new watches and provide us an alternative to the one flawed transmitter you offer.

In late April 2009 I purchased a Polar FT80G1 (FT80 with the GPS sensor). At first I loved the unit and it worked fine (great looks, cool features). After about a month of use the monitor became inconsistent, e.g. halfway into a run the HRM just stopped showing HR only 00, other times the GPS would stop providing distance information, sometimes the GPS would work but the HR would stick at 00. The manuals state that the wrist unit and transmitter batteries should last 1yr+. I had the batteries changed on each unit yet the problem persists. Other times I would be running indoor on a treadmill (using a fat burn or heart rate program) and at times the treadmill would stop because my HR was too low - treadmills at my gym thought I was dead so they turnoff(my gym is less than six months old - LIFETIME FITNESS so the equipment is new and well maintained.
Prior to purchasing the FT80 I read reviews complaining about the display. I agree that the display is hard to read in low light, but super at the gym or in full sun. The face of the FT80 is easy to scratch and impossible to remove the scratches, which in a low level light situation makes reading the display a workout in and of its self. The FT80 looks great; the first month of use was wonderful. Thereafter it has been one big disappointment after another. I have been a Polar customer for about 10 years, and have always been impressed with the Polar products I have owned. I moved up to the FT80 from the F6 that I used for about four years and never had a problem with at all. This afternoon I FedEx'ed my F6 back to Polar to have the battery replaced. I emailed Polar to learn of the return policy for FT80 - having paid over $400 less than five months ago I hope they will do something.
I would absolutely not recommend this product to anyone.
Richard Miskewitz, Mountainside NJ

This is simple - the best looking HRM watch.

The display is easy to read like any other negative display. If you don't like negative displays, don't buy it. If you think they are cool, you will like it. It is ez to read in sunlight, in the gym - anywhere just like any other watch. I have used this for several months without any issues of reading the watch.

The GPS is basic but functional - great when you want to do outdoor runs.

The workout function is great - showing you how high your heart rate is and where to start your next set.

Basically, it looks great and has great functionality. It is thin too, I wear it to my office and to the gym. One watch does it all.

The watch is great - good looking, cool features, very good connection to polar website to track your training. Highly motivational overall.

What really sucks is the G1 - it is highly inaccurate (+- 50% on total distance is NOT acceptable), it cannot do anything else than measure distance (unreliable) or speed (which gives strange readings too). G1 is simply money wasted.

+ good looking, I wear it daily
+ love weekly goals and overall training intelligence
+ highly motivational
+ easy to learn navigation
+ very cool function to quickly show time when the watch "touches" the HRM belt
+ the HRM belt works with Nautilus cardio machines in my gym
+ [...] makes a good job of tracking your training and is full of usefull materials
- display has VERY low contrast ratio, nevertheless is readable both on direct sunlight and after sunset
- manual is rather short and does not explain lot of the features.
- strap looks sturdy but is not easy to close or open
- flowlink is hard to use while wearing the watch
- G1's GPS accuracy is awful when running in the woods (where my iPhone's GPS has no problems at all) and still inaccurate in open areas
- G1's reported speed is either delayed or somehow averaged - pretty much useless
- G1's data cannot be used to anything else
- Polar bike equipment cannot be used with FT80, you need to own two devices.

I honestly don't see a point in byuing the G1 - if you want to track your distance and average speed, you
can just fill it in manually on the website - it is much more reliable. If I buy a tracking GPS device, I want
to see my route plotted on the map and see both my speed and track height profile put together with my HR. Polar FT80+G1 does not deliver any of that.

I am so disappointed by FT80. The transmitter is unreliable, first battery lasted only few months. I had the first battery replaced and the second one lasted only a few weeks...

The HRM strap works off and on and can take a lot of fine tuning to get it to work. I tried all of the troubleshooting steps with very little to no results. The readouts can go to 00 and sometimes surge to over 200. I finally tried one of my older polar HRM bands and it has worked better than the one supplied with the watch. The GPS can be unreliable at times, there is no pace feature nor can you obtain splits. On the plus side, the star program is an excellent tool but the fact that the GPS in unreliable, and that you have no idea of your pace and splits makes me want to go back to my Garmin watch. You can obtain a better deal and features for less money. Update: returned the watch to the service center because the buttons would not work and the watch would malfunction a lot. A couple of months later we're back to the same problems. Watch is unreliable. I recommend another brand or model.

I can't believe how stupid i was to purchase the Polar FT80 without researching any reviews of this product. Now that i've learned my lesson thanks to Amazon, no more purchases without first checking Amazon reviews.

My previous Polar HR monitor was an Accurex. I had this for nearly 20 years and it was flawless, but is not Mac compatible and finally the serial port transmitter stopped working. Time for a new unit! The Polar marketing literature on the FT80 makes it look so cool and functional. But the FT80 is really another story.

The display is extremely difficult to read, and in fact impossible to read in many lighting conditions. It is a low contrast negative display and it does not have a "brightness" adjustment. Can you believe it!?! Who would design such a thing. So you are screwed if you want to brighten up the very dim dingy yellow green graphics (that's right, they are not white as every picture would indicate!!!) Every picture i have seen of the FT80 marketing literature, and from Polars web site, shows this unit as bright white numbers and graphics. Nothing could be further from the truth! The display can't be read UNLESS you are in a very well lit room or sunlight.

AND then in well lit rooms or sunlight, you have to contend with the immense glare from the face of the polished plate glass. Really, you are screwed in either direction.

When I called Polar to ask if there was a way to adjust the brightness, the rep was curt and said the information was on their web site. To her defense, she must be very tired of handling they myriad of calls each day of complaints about this product display.

Then a few calls later, i finally received the instructions to enter into the diagnostic mode. Believe me when i say the keypress sequence is so tricky, that you will literally have to try over and over for an hour to get the "timing" of it just right so that you can even enter into the diagnostic mode...but a little determination you will succeed. I digress!

In the diagnostic mode you can adjust the LCD contrast. All this does is change the BLACK background to less black. This does nothing for the already near impossible to read display and actually makes it more difficult to read. After talking to Polar again, i learn that the factory has optimized the display settings before they send it to you. The moral of this frustrating experience is "don't waste your time trying to adjust the contrast as it will only frustrate you more".

What Polar forgot to design in was a "brightness" control. What really pisses me off is Polar's marketing literature which has obviously "tweaked the product photos of the display" to indicate a beautiful bright white graphic display. Anybody ever hear of truth in advertising? BUYER BEWARE. Polar's direct sales are final sales and can not be returned. Although, I will try as the advertising pictures and literature is dishonest!

I rely on Polars superior product performance. Imagine your on a run and trying to stay within various HR limits, and then the HR data goes all screwy and chaotic - loosing transmission, then wrong HR, then settling down back to what you would expect. How could the transmitter be all screwed up in the FT80 - but apparently it is.

The G1 - can't begin to describe how disappointed I am in this performance or difficulty of use to get even a signal. It's not what you would expect in a GPS so please research the features carefully before you purchase the G1. It appears to my shock to only provide average speed and distance...huh? There does not appear to be any mapping, or terrain, or area covered with the details of routes and speed, no way points - nothing!

The "user" manual that comes with the FT80 is hardly "useful" and not worth the paper its printed on. It's very sparse on the exact steps and explanations of features. There are so many features of the FT80 and website interaction that are not documented, that it will leave you researching and making calls for days on end until you get it figured out.

I still believe in Polars superior products overall, but the FT80 is a waste of money and time.

Sadly, the unit is near un-useable due to the display alone, not to mention the erratic behavior and piss poor GPS integration -- anybody want to purchase my "new" FT80G1? Its your for a song!

i really like the watch. it has taken the guesswork out of my training.
my only issue is that the display could have been brighter. its a pain to read. what were they thinking?
everything else is great

I got this watch because i am all about fitness and it seemed to fit what I wanted pretty good. After using the watch for a week I feel in love with it, all the data I need to know about my workout on my wrist, at a buttons push and information online to help me make my next workout better. Who could ask for more?

Then the problems began the watch itself is great no issues the GPS unit is the issue here it takes forever to find signal and when it does it drops it all the time. It can be very disturbing to have run 8 miles and get home to see that the watch says you have run 1.6 miles. I did some research and found out the better GPS unit is the G3 W.I.N.D which is not compatible with this unit.

I would recommend the watch by itself but the G1 GPS unit is horrible so if you looking for a watch that will be great at the gym and working out at home then this is the one for you. If you are a runner looking for detailed run data about your run or even basic info like distance and time then I would look at a Garmin or Suunto