Monday, September 21, 2009

Polar CS300 Great HRM for Cycling and Exercising

I feel I really have to write a review... after all, I felt I took a bit of a gamble on this product given some of the negative previous reviews. Yet this HRM had all the features I wanted - an HRM that can be used to keep track of cycling exercises and could also be used independently of the bike at the gym or when running.

I've used this product for about 3 months now. I've biked close to 400 miles and have completed over 40 exercises with it (both biking, gym, and running). I am very happy to say that it has functioned flawlessly in all conditions... it has been used:

- in the rain
- in freezing conditions
- in the city
- in the gym

The watch has not frozen or restarted. I was very afraid of this from a previous review.

I have confirmed the distances it has calculated by GPS - and have used it on 2 of my bikes. Each time after setup it worked well.

I have also used this HRM with the optional cadence sensor which has worked fine as well.

So the roundup:

*** PROS
- Has worked flawlessly in all conditions and during all workouts
- Provides all features as documented
- Intuitive and easy to use interface
- Free Polar web software to track exercises and stats

*** CONS (all minor)
- Wireless data transfer can takes time to setup - It took me a while to get it to work with my laptop. I think I spent about an hour futzing with it, but once I got my setup it works every time.
- Polar website is slow and doesn't export data to CSV or Excel.
- The buttons feel a little cheap (but hey, they work fine).

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