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Product Description
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The FT80's intelligent training computer also helps you work toward achieving your exercise goals in other ways. For example, the watch offers a Polar Star personalized training program that adapts to your workout habits. By giving you weekly training targets and providing constant feedback, the watch guides you without being too strict, helping you reach your goals more efficiently. The watch also displays heart rate info in several ways, including as a percentage of your maximum heart rate, as beats per minute, and within a graphical target zone indicator. And should your heart rate exceed or dip below your target zone, the FT80 will sound an alarm that helps you return to form.
Users will also love the variety of proprietary Polar functions, including ZonePointer, Polar Strength Training, and Polar OwnCal modes. The ZonePointer is an audible and visual feature on the display of your FT80 that shows you where your current heart rate sits within your target heart rate zone. The Polar Strength Training mode, meanwhile, helps you optimize your strength training by reading your heart rate and informing you when your body is ready for the next set--an ideal way to optimize your weight training. Finally, the Polar OwnCal mode shows your energy expenditure during one exercise session, as well as your accumulated kilocalories during several exercise sessions. You can also set daily and weekly exercise goals in terms of calorie expenditure, helping you achieve both short-term and long-term goals.
Other watch features include a built-in fitness test that measures your aerobic fitness at rest in just five minutes; a ZoneLock mode that lets you activate a target zone in the midst of training with the press of a button; a Polar OwnZone mode that provides a customized target zone for individual exercise sessions; an OwnCode mode that prevents crosstalk from other heart rate monitors nearby; a recording mode that tracks your average and maximum heart rate, calorie expenditure, distance, and total exercise time, and then puts it in an exercise file (with 100 total files); water resistance to 50 meters; a 12/24-hour clock with a day/week indicator; a built-in backlight; an alarm with a snooze; a low battery indicator; and a Polar FlowLink connection for transferring data between the FT80 and a computer. Sporting an attractive black housing, the watch carries a two-year warranty.
Manufacturer's Warranty
The original purchaser of this heart rate monitor is backed by a limited warranty that states that this product that the product will be free from defects in material or workmanship for two years from the date of purchase.
About Polar
The first EKG accurate wireless heart rate monitor was invented by Polar back in 1977 as a training tool for the Finnish National Cross Country Ski Team. The concept of "intensity training" by heart rate swept the athletic world in the eighties. By the 1990s, individuals were looking to heart rate monitors not only for performance training needs, but also for achieving everyday fitness goals. Today, the same concept of heart rate training is being used by world-class athletes as well as everyday people trying to lose weight. Polar is the leading brand among consumers, coaches, and personal trainers worldwide and the company is committed to not only producing the best products, but also being the leading educator on the benefits of heart rate based exercise.
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Customer Reviews
Overall I think the FT80 is worth the price, and is a fantastic tool that has completely transformed my life and motivated me to workout more. I will outline the the pros/cons below and hopefully I can shed some light on some other reviews as well from having the product for so long now.
What I love : The star training program and fitness test have worked as my complete motivator and those two features combined have helped me get back in shape after a longish layoff. The star program helped me not overtrain and burn myself out in the begining which was very important and the improvements shown in ownindex kept me motivated along with the trophies.
The design is great and I get complimented on it all the time. I have never had an issue with the display, yes it is reverse black/white but once I got use to it I actually prefer this now.
It was dimmer, but now the contrast is even brighter.(more on this later)
The transmitter is very comfortable. VERY. I have used every transmitter on the market, this is the most comfortable. I also have a Numetrex Tshirt with the strap built in I wear all the time. This GETS RID OF THE STRAP COMPLETELY for you users who are new to HR transmitters and feel you won't like it.
Polar's customer service here in the states is phenomenal. Unfortunately I had to talk to them though:(. I was one of the first people in the US to buy the Ft80, I worked in electronics for a long time, and I knew the risks of buying a 1st release. Software always has issues, in fact every OS I have had since the inception of computers have had problems that updates have fixed -- this computer was no different. After 6 weeks of using the star program the software in the watch froze up and gave me some crazy numbers and wouldn't let me download. Next morning I called Polar and got right through , spoke to a guy who was super nice and confirmed the problem to be a bug in the software that required a firmware update - no problem that is what I figured. But wait - I can't just update it from my computer? They have to do it?? Ugh..
So the nice cs guy walked me through a repair ticket thingy on their website and off it went back to Polar.. I was slightly annoyed I had to send it back because I have grown so fond of using it every day. So I went to the post office, sent it back(polar gave me a free label) and off it went this was a Monday. I get an auto email next day from Polar telling me they got the package, great.. That night I got home to find another email- this time a funny one telling me its on its way back and I don't have an excuse for not exercising now..lol. I laugh because they were right, I wouldn't workout without it hehe. I got the package back Thursday afternoon with everything fixed. DISPLAY brighter and a hand written thank you and I'm sorry card with little Polar hearts on it..
Afterwards I spoke with a rep at a local marathon - and he confirmed that the first version of FT80 had a bug and he guaranteed everything was fixed entirely and some even brought back from stores for the firmware to be updated.
So in all, I have used it about 5 months since the update and it has become an essential part of my training.
The product would have got 5 stars from me if:::
1)The Firmware at that point and in the future could be updated by me, automatically from my flowlink when I download.
2) The strength training was more versatile. And I could save my own workouts instead of using the preset ones.
3) If the Website could have an upload feature so I can share my workouts of Facebook.
I sincerely hope this helps peoples buying decisions.
1) The screen is so poorly contrasted it's nearly impossible to read except in the best of light and the backlight only makes it tolerable -- and only for 5 seconds in a row.
2) I've unfortunately fallen victim to a problem that has affected hundreds of people as represented on the Polar forums -- the inability (over time, randomly) to synch to the web service. This bug is a software/synch. issue between the watch, windows software and the web service. It prevents the upload of your training results and if you're using the STAR program means you don't get the adaptive training routine downloaded to your watch. Further, it means you don't have access to the snazzy zone/interval graphs.
3) The feature set is misleading as it comes to being able to use certain functions; the realtime graph and rest interval display is really only available in the strength training routines and not for general aerobic activity as defined by the training program you choose on the web service.
4) There's no basic interval timer.
5) The buttons are difficult to operate and the bottom button requires more force than the top to push.
If you're a runner or cyclist, this is probably a fine watch, but the FT60 looks like a much better unit that you can actually *see*
Some of these might seem like minor issues, but I am basically left with a watch that does less than my $80 Mio Drive watch that doesn't require a chest strap for the pulse reading.
I'm very disappointed with this purchase.
Be very, very sure what sort of activity you wish to monitor for this price...and the screen absolutely sucks.
I can't see how this would be released as a saleable product. That picture to the right is NOT an accurate representation of the display...
I thought this might be an isolated incident until I checked the Polar forums for the FT80. The posts are full of people complaining about this same issue, along with a host of other issues. There has been no official response from Polar, which is extremely poor. I contacted Polar technical support and have not heard back yet.
I strongly suggest anyone considering this model checks the Polar forums here:
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I use it with FlowLink for easy sync. I like the dark face over the white background. Read more
Many complain about the inverted screen but you get used to it and adjust your eyes better to see the watch. Read more
I do recommend it for anyone who is searching a good monitor watch
