Customer Reviews

Sportline Solo 960 Heart Rate Monitor Watch

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I am a feminine, older, and slim woman coming out of surgery where I need to get a certain amount of quality exercise. One has to read the instructions carefully, but I find no difficulty using this watch. I wear it daily as my regular watch - just in case I can get in exercise during lunch, etc. It is advertised as a man's watch - but I find it looks just fine for a woman. I like very much the large read out, the calorie counter and the fact that it measures distances. I like to know the distance walked in the neighborhood. As it relates to the heart monitor - no problem ever. The instructions state that you might need to moisten your finger to get a reading. I seldom have to do that. It is a neat, sturdy, multitasking watch - not too difficult for anyone to learn to use, and not too ugly for a woman. One note - the pedometer works very well for a particular activity and span of time; however, it seems to shut down during the course of a day;especially if you are doing sedentary activities, and does not restart itself. But still a fine watch. I wear a separate pedometer if I really want to see how close I come to getting the desired 10,000 steps a day.

Great product, easy to set up. If you don't agree with the max heart rate the watch assigns to your sex, age, etc., simply adjust by changing your age. For example, if the watch assigns you a max heart rate of 140, but it is really 190, just reduce the age input down until you get to 190. Controls are very easy to use, big watch face so easy to read while exercising. Accurate readings, and convenient whether you are running, walking, or sitting. Highly recommend this as a good value - listed retail at company website is ~$100, I got it here for about $65.

Have used for heart rate a few times. Very accurate. Pedometer seems accurate if sensitivity properly set. Only complaint - Numbers do not stand out visibly enough against background. Need lighter background. Can adjust contrast though.

This is decent fitness tool as it measures Exercise Time, Distance, Steps, Speed and calculates calories burned. Overall a decent tool for runners and walkers but not for weightlifters or other effort-based exercise. It has variable settings for counting your steps/strides.
The calories are calculated based on distance, time and your weight plus age. It does not record your heart rate only giving you a single reading as you press the single sensor.

Good tool for walkers and runners but not good for weight training where you would want a heart rate-based calorie calculation.

The SportsLine solo 960 perform performs all its functions as advertised. I purchased this product for its ability to generate a pulse rate reading without a external strap. The watch generates a pulse rate while I'm either exercising on a bicycle, treadmill all walking. I'm extremely happy with the product and would recommend it to others.

Very complicated to setup the programs. Display is very good-even in full sunlight. Retrieving exercise data is complex - Takes a lot of training to figure out how to use this watch.

I stand corrected. Warm or cold weather it only reports heart rate about 50% of the time. It also reports a disproportionately large number of even BPM's. When comparing the stopwatch to others it shows as much as 15 second variance (0.83%). This may be a result of the number of heart rate hits/miss. You can usually tell within the first few minutes of exercise if it will be a good sampling day or not. I suspect that there is some sort of relationship between how long you wear the watch before exercise and the way it works when you exercise. Given only the clock and the pedometer seem to work, I have to lower my rating.

I have owned this watch for nearly a year. When I started using it during the height of the Midwestern summer it worked very well. Giving results every time I asked for a heart rate.

I calculated that a sample a minute would provide sufficient data to accurately reflect the median heart rate (to take into account the documented 15% error bar for the heart rate detector). As the sweaty summer gave way to the comfortable fall, I discovered that the heart rate monitor was not responding every time. After many experiments it became clear that sweat figured prominently in proper operation. Through the winter this proved the optimal solution. As winter gave way to spring sweating in winter-wear was less acceptable and only about one in three attempts to read heart rate were successful. It now seems to require a sample every 15 seconds so that I will get a result a minute. Often one in four results would be clearly wrong (e.g. below resting heart rate like 50 BPM or murderously high 180 BPM).

So if you live in the deep humid south this is a year round watch. All others will find it a frustrating experience during one or more seasons.

I initially had issues with the pedometer. After statistical analysis of the pedometer results against vehicle odometer I was able to get the results to be accurate to within 2%. I would expect no further refinement, as this is pretty good accuracy.

I give it two stars as it mostly works as you would expect. It can be VERY frustrating in the spring and fall when you try to collect adequate sample to get a statistically meaningful result for the hear rate.

I bought a Sportline heart rate monitor for my husband and it didn't work the first time I received it through Amazon. I called Sportline customer service and their rep was snippy and told me that I should replace the battery. I replaced the battery for $15 [unbelievable because the watch itself was $85 at the time!]. It worked for four weeks and then the heart rate monitor stopped working again. My husband replaced the battery himself and it still didn't work. I called customer service and they told me that if we replaced the battery ourselves we had voided their warranty. What is that about?!? You can't even replace your own battery? I didn't want to spend $15 every four weeks to replace the battery.I'm very disappointed that I can't return it anymore. This product should work for more than 4 weeks. The customer should be able to replace the battery themselves to save money. It's a very expensive gadget and should work better than it does. I recommend that you buy another product.

All features of this watch are fine except for the heart rate monitory. Nine times out of 10 you will not receive any type of reading when pressing the button. I have tried with my index finger, thumb, directly after cleaning the button with antiseptic wipes and the watch will only give a reading 9 out of 10 times. If you are looking for a watch that monitors excercise such as a pedometer there are better products, if you are serious about monitoring you heart rate do not waste the money on this product!!!!!!!!!!!

I purchased this watch from another vendor. First of all, it's difficult to figure out how to program the settings in the beginning. You have to spend an evening trying to figure everything out using the manual. Secondly, the pedometer is quite sensitive so you have to make certain adjustments. If you're AR about it, you can go on GMaps Pedometer to calibrate the watch's pedometer and also you have to change the length of your walk/run on the watch accordingly. I read somewhere that if your watch's pedometer underestimates the actual distance, you have to increase the length of your stride on the pedometer. I haven't had a chance to do this because I'm busy calling customer service to help me out because my watch doesn't beep when my heart rate goes above or below my programmed heart rate zone. Needless to say, this watch is an expensive Pain In the Royal Rear! I'm thinking of getting a heart monitor watch with the chest strap instead. I don't like running and stopping to put a sweaty finger on the sensor button that picks up my heart rate less than 25% of the time.