Polar FT80 Heart Rate Monitor

The Polar FT80 is a great tool for serious athletes. Using this heart rate monitor will mean that you get to reach optimum efficiency for your workouts. The monitor starts off by checking your condition for the day, and then shows you the ideal intensity for your training based on your fitness level and age. It allows you to strive to reach that target, which keeps you from exercising mindlessly and sometimes, in vain. Its plastic housing and rubber strap makes it as comfortable to wear as any sports watch, giving you more incentive to keep it strapped on while exercising.

The monitor also provides you with a personalized training program from Polar Star, which you can adjust according to your personal preferences in terms of working out. The watch gives you weekly goals for your training along with constant feedback, giving you the encouragement you need to exercise properly. It features an alarm that warns you when your heart rate goes beyond or slips down below the target zone. It also shows you your heart rate in several modes, such as beats per minute or a percentage of the maximum heart rate as well as in a graph showing your target zone.

Polar FT80 Review:

The over fifty buyers of this heart rate monitor gave it an average rating of 3.2 stars. They liked how it was a great companion for working out, as it helped the user figure out how to exercise smartly. One reviewer described as doing what it was supposed to do despite the negative points brought up.

The main issues brought up for this monitor watch was that its screen was a little low on contrast, making it almost impossible to read unless the lighting conditions were perfect. One user also reported trouble connecting to the Polar website; he described it as a software bug between the watch and the web service, which kept users from uploading training results. It also kept users from having access to the cool-looking and helpful zone/interval graphs. He also noted that the buttons were a little difficult to use, with the bottom button calling for more force to push compared to the top buttons. He conceded that it might make for a good watch for runners or cyclists, although he personally preferred another model which was easier to read. Another user started off being happy with the watch despite the very dim screen and what he called as an “anemic” alarm, but wound up having the watch corrupted. When he checked the Polar forums, he saw that there were many others who encountered this problem, and that there was currently no response from the company about how to deal with it. Others complained of units that just would not work.

However, since the negative reviews seemed to be minor issues, we would confident recommending this heart rate monitor but would also prefer to suggest looking for other models to be sure.