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Heart Rate Monitors Reviews
Updated October 2007
We found that a combination of professional and owner reviews gave us the most reliable picture of heart rate monitors. There has not been a large critical review of heart rate monitors since the 2003 Consumer Reports' testing of nine manufacturers' models by five men and four women. Instead, single editors from publications such as Runner's World, Outside magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week review heart rate monitors without specifying their criteria for product selection or review. Because of this, we cross-referenced the professional reviews with consumer reviews of heart rate monitors to provide supporting or detracting evidence. In the end, the heart rate monitors that received the most consistently positive reviews were chosen as the best in their respective categories. As for owner feedback, Amazon.com played a significant role in our assessment of the best heart rate monitors. Amazon's editorial reviews give detailed product descriptions and technical specifications for each product, including pros and cons for many of them. It is also a good source of the most recent product reviews, and the source of more user reviews than any other site. For some of the heart rate monitors there are hundreds of reviews at Amazon, as opposed to two or three found on the same product at Epinions. Additionally, nonprofessionally prepared heart rate monitor reviews go into great detail about likes and dislikes because many of the users are amateur athletes who know and care a great deal about product features and performance. Other sources of information that contributed to this report were manufacturer's press releases that announced industry awards won by their models. Suunto's t4 (*est. $200) and Polar's RS800sd (*est. $470) won prestigious awards in 2007. These awards contributed to their mention in this report; however, additional factors such as consumer reviews, price and utility precluded them from being rated as the best in any category. Suunto t4 owner reviews were just okay, with relatively consistent complaints of some design flaws and a difficult user interface. Though the Suunto t4 heart rate monitor was chosen from among 17 other heart rate monitors as the accessory of the year by Runner's World/ispo (a leader in international trade fairs for sports equipment and fashion throughout Europe and Asia), no details were given as to the judging criteria or selection process, and which monitors the Suunto t4 competed against. The Polar RS800sd, another
expensive pro-level heart rate monitor, received a mixed bag of user reviews,
with about half of them praising it as the ultimate runner's tool and the
other half lamenting that it is overpriced and inconsistent. Some report problems
with durability. Meant specifically for runners, the Polar
RS800sd works in conjunction with Adidas adistar apparel and shoes. While
it is interesting, most agree that the Polar RS800sd heart rate monitor is
overkill for anyone but competitive runners with deep pockets. Most heart rate monitors use a chest strap to monitor your pulse
rate, along with a wristwatch display. There are other models, like the
Mio Shape
(*est. $115)
, which use a fingertip sensor on the watch to measure heartbeat.
This means there's no chest strap, but reviewers say it's difficult to place
your fingers on the sensors while working out. Overall, reviews for these
types of fingertip sensor heart rate monitors indicate that they are ultimately
limited in their usefulness and not the best choice.
... Continued
Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
Suunto heart rate monitors have quickly emerged as viable competition to Polar's domination of this product market. Though they each only have one product among ConsumerSearch Fast Answers, they had other models that clearly held their own in other categories, with the Suunto t4 strongly challenging the Polar F11's position as best overall monitor. We included the Omron HR-100C in Fast Answers as a budget pick because of an overwhelming number of high ratings from owners posting comments to Amazon.com. The Polar F11 is included in Fast Answers as a more advanced alternative to the very basic Omron HR-100C and Oregon Scientific SE102 monitors. We found more popular support for the Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS heart rate monitor than any other. Even though the Suunto t6 is recommended in a few professional publications, its support among owners is not as firm, and it's far more expensive. However, it's compatible with running, biking and GPS pods, which give it some extra flexibility. Advertisement
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Heart Rate Monitors Reviews |
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© 2008 ConsumerSearch, Inc. A service from 
, a part of The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
ConsumerSearch and ConsumerSearch.com are registered trademarks of ConsumerSearch, Inc. Other trademarks or service marks on this site are the property of their respective owners. ConsumerSearch is not sponsored by any source reviewed, and we accept no consideration or payment for including, excluding, or ranking any reviews, products or services in our reports.
* Pricing information is approximate as of the time this report was written and is based on observed market selling prices and/or list prices. Actual selling prices may differ.
