Customer Reviews

Polar RS800sd Heart Rate Monitor Watch with Free IRDA - USB 2.0 Interface

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Everything from measuring your basic heart rate to minuts per mile and most important for me stride length, elevation and so much more.

Super monitor, very accurate as you would expect from Polar (this is my fourth Polar), brilliant data capture and I've got to say, super program.

Make sure you get the Infra Red adaptor as most computers today are bluetooth and not infrared.

Also they have teamed with Adidas for insert into the sole of the shoe, I run in Asics and the attachement to the shoe is very good on the laces. One other great thing, you can get a second shoe piece if you use two pairs of shoes regularly.

I purchased this to improve my running performance, and it has. I am able to see my pace, cadence, heart rate, and distance (among other things) on the wrist unit. The immediate feedback keeps me from going out too fast and running out of steam at the end of my run. The cadence has been the most helpful feedback, and to me it was worth the investment.

It took me about 6 months of reviewing, reading and researching a whole bunch of running watches before I landed up with this one. I've been using this watch for about a year now, so hopefully this review will be helpful to those who want to know about its durability, performance over time, battery life etc.

1. Build - This watch is not as solidly built as I had expected. If i did triathlons, I would certainly not want to swim with it on, or risk having it break apart if I fell off the bike. The face will scratch if it strikes asphalt. The strap is also pretty cheap. My first thought as I took it out of the box was "This looks like a cheap toy".

But... I didnt buy it for its looks...

2. Battery Life - Excellent. I ran 2 half marathons in 2007 and trained quite a bit with this watch, and extracted about 1 years worth of battery life. Good thing they are user replaceable CR 2032s.

3. Watch Features - It is a mammoth! It does everything but tell you you're sexy every morning. It records pretty much every single detail about your run. The cadence feature is my favorite, because it helps you with leg turnover. It records your weight, height, VO2 levels etc... really good stuff. The UI is pretty slick for a watch, and the fact that the controls are pretty limited, but im happy with it.

4. Footpod - 30 hours of running or so and my batteries died out. Thats about 15 half marathons... so not too shabby. I would recommend you calibrate it before running. Its pretty decent right out of the box, but it doesnt hurt to calibrate it. Run on a flat running track for about a mile and that should do the trick.

5. Heart Rate Strap/Monitor - Great. Pretty accurate I think, and washable.

6. Look and Feel - Its a large unit but it doesnt stick out like the Garmin Forerunners. You could wear it everyday, but its large and I dont really like wearing it with formal outfits to work. I do hope Polar provides some other color options... the gray is a lot lighter than it appears.

Overall:
Pros - Great functionality, good battery life, user friendly and not too large
Customizable display (including the icon on the home screen).
Pro Trainer 5 is a decent tool, but nothing to write home about.

Cons - For its price point, poor build.

There you go. I've had mine over a year, and I love it, because its helped me analyze my running better. I like training with goals in mind, and this watch has tools to help with that. It is a monster running lab!

I have used Polar Heart rate monitors for years and, having become interested in tracking heart rate variability choose to purchase the RS800 so that I could do the analysis.

I'd note that I had the same problem as the other reviewer with Watchsavings, who did not include the IR interface (they claim that Amazon mis-listed the product).

While the watch has excellent features and an easy interface, there's a major problem: the infrared transmission system (used to transfer the data into the computer software) crapped out after 3 weeks and completely stopped working.

Looking over the web, this is not an isolated incident. People are reporting that they get data off the watch for a day or two, a week or two, one friend I have who bought one never go a single piece of data off his watch. I contacted a local running store and their employee told me that she had an identical problem, the watch stopped transferring data after 2 weeks. Polar kept telling her that the problem was on her end until she returned it for a refund.

Polar refuses to address this, they ignore it in their forums and will not answer emails.

This is unacceptable, the features of the watch (namely the heart rate variability) are contingent on getting the data transferred to the computer. That Polar refuses to admit or deal with the problem only makes it worse.

Given that other products can readily make a physical USB interface work, there's no reason for Polar to have gone this route and used a technology that is clearly faulty. This is one top of the fact that Polar decided to use a non-standard USB driver for Windows.

I have since replaced the Polar with the SuuntoT6 which went with a physical (clip) USB interface. While their software is not as good as Polar's at least I can get the data off of the watch.

I will NEVER purchase another Polar product.

Lyle

The big idea for this product is to transfer exercises to a pc and then analyze the data. The IR communication didn't work. The watch reacts on the IR transmission from the USB stick, but it doesn't send anything back to the computer.
So I guess I have to return it and that irritates me A LOT!!

Bought this watch a few weeks ago. At first was very frustrated, the watch would not sync to the heart monitor, but it found the foot pod. The heart monitor arrived with a dead battery, once I purchased a new battery it has performed perfectly. Packed with features and ways to customize the watch to make it easier to use. I personally have not had a problem with the watch syncing to the computer. Finds the watch an downloads data easily. Well worth the cash.

This is a very useful product even w/ out the IR interface (more on that later). As a speed, distance, and hrm, this product functions extremely well and is an invaluable training tool.

I took off 1/2 a star for the time spent trying to make the IR work...

The IR interface is a bit tricky to get the gist of ... for me, I find that the following steps have resulted in reliable interface between the watch and my pc:

1) load the IR driver software (small disk) and polar training software (normal-sized cd) to your pc.

2)put the watch into interface mode

3) position the watch face down so that the watch's IR sensor aligns w/ the USB IR sensor

4) prompt the polar training software to import training data

When the interface works it should transfer, say a 1 hr. training session, in less than one minute.

Good luck!

RS 800 is really a complete device offering all the important information during and after training. It is really better than I expect. It is possible to have information of pace, distance, calories, etc. You can keep data on memory and can go back and verify how was your training in the previous day or week.

I really enjoyed the product.

I have this product for three weeks now and I am still using mostly the heart rate monitor function alone. Last week only I synced it with my laptop and transfered all the workout information. It took me a while to connect to laptop but the transfer was seemless. I would recommend this product if you are seriously planning to work on a training schedule otherwise this is way expensive for any other purpose.

Polar heart rate monitors have helped keep me in shape (and get me back in shape when I fall behind). I like the data this product collects, but the battery dies too quickly and the IRDA/Vista problem is just too much to rate this product highly. IRDA works fine with XP, but once I went to Vista, I found myself fighting with the watch to transfer the data. It never seemed to transfer on the first try (shutting down the program, restarting - even restarting the machine was required). I have a great computer (so that's not the problem) - just Vista...

Also, whenever I left data in the watch too long, the battery died. Also, the Stride Sensor (W.I.N.D.) also had battery problems -- it should last much longer than it does.

So, I will have to get back in the market for another product (I just wish that, for the price, I had purchased a HRM that would last longer for me).