Activity Trackers: POLAR RS300X HEART RATE MONITOR WATCH REVIEW

Polar RS300 is for the people who want a user friendly, accurate and good looking watch with all modern functions at an economical price. It has a great display screen with good menu functions. You will easily find out your desired function in watch without any help guide.

Watch has a new feature of “Polar Index” to correlate your MVO2. Watch has a GPS linking facility within to calculate your running distances on more precise scale. As watch is especially designed for running, cycling purposes, it comes with a foot strap too.

Watch has a good chest belt with a transmitter which can be fixed with it. Transmitter sends cardiac data to wrist unit which displays it you. It measures your average heart rate, length of workout, etc. There is also a calorie meter in it which counts the number of calories you have burnt in Kcal. Foot strap comes with the complete watch package too.

Its basic functionality is to measure your average speed during running, cumulative time, etc. With the attached GPS technology, you can measure your running space in a single run. You can store up to 99 laps.

Various heart rate target zone can be created with the help of multi profile settings. So that you can do different sports exercises with one watch on hand. Also, smart alarm feature always warns you when you are out of your target heart rate zone. Watch can be easily synched up with all training machines at your gym or home. So you don’t need to watch your hand while exercising on fitness machine outfits.

FEATURES:

Polar RS300 comes with a water resistant display up to 50 meters of depth. Watch has a user replaceable battery with a good backlight. Display has a zoom option too. Special Event countdown timer always reminds you of the next coming event.

You just need to set it before your event date. Watch has stop watch and an alarm too. Alarm can be snoozed in times of need. Time has both available formats of 12 and 24 hours.

Watch has a G1 GPS sensor to integrate your running pace with the distance you covered. Foot strap is of the model S1. “Polar Own Cal” feature allows you to calculate your energy expenditure and accumulated burnt calories in a workout. To analyze your results, it tracks your latest 16 training sessions and last 16 weeks of workouts.

CONS:

Polar RS300 has sensitive buttons so you need to take care while operating it. Chest strap does not contain the same old cloth electrode portion. They now replaced it with the plastic one. So it might be problematic sometimes in holding moisture which in turn could affect your heart rate readings.

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Polar RS300X Heart Rate Monitor

Get all the essential heart rate features with this good-looking and simple-to-use training computer. RS300X is compatible with S1 foot pod and G1 GPS sensor, so you can combine heart rate with speed ...

Made by: Polar, Available: In stock

Buy on Amazon amazon.com

CUSTOMER REVIEWS

(4.5 / 5)

According my own experience with monitors, hats off to Polar RS300X. It is very accurate, intuitive, packed with features, and easy-to-use. The sport watch is also very affordable at Amazon.

My past experience with heart rate monitors includes four Polar HRMs and monitors by Suunto, Garmin, and Timex. Polar have so far proven to be my favourite brand in the market as far as pulse rate measurement is concerned. The results are even better when Wearlink fabric transmitter is used. Another cutting edge for Polar has been its HRM’s compatibility with most aerobic gym equipments, for instance Treadmills.

However, most of the ones I tried do not have detailed manuals and intuitive interface. This exactly the opposite of the Timex I used. The Timex had the best watch with easily navigated menu, and a large and clear display screen. But the Timex HRM was not working, and so I had to send it back to Amazon. I can’t tell whether it had to something to do with transmitter, but I also tried electrode gel to make it work in vein.

When I decided to go Suunto, I chose the T3C model and it was pretty cool, and looked like a conventional watch. Its HRM functioned well, but it also had the interface issue. The heart is displayed as the main object and is easy to read, but the same cannot be said of the smaller lower display, which includes time or your chosen subject. The reading is tiny and illegible when running. Another thing with this model is that it does not display adequate information on the primary display.

The Garmin I used was the Forerunner 410 and it proved to be a reliable HRM, but I never liked its thick and unattractive watch. When it stopped working, I sent for it for second time. In the process, I noted that the Garmin customer support exceptional. It came with the foot pod but I’ve never used the accessory for measuring distance. While its interface is intuitive, it has a few flaws.

And that now brings me to RS300X, which has easily beaten all the other HRMs I’ve ever used before. While buying it, I was only looking for a good heart rate monitor with convenient lap timing abilities. Today I went for my long runs and I had it all the way. It is the master of accuracy when it comes to heart rate measurement, and it rapidly did it in a twinkle of an eye. I’m surprised that there are some complaints about its display being unfriendly to older eyes. I use sunglasses, but still I’m able to read the display very well. The menus are easily accessible as they are logically organized. What’s more, there are hints when scrolling through the menu options.

One of RS300X best shots is its efficient lap timing abilities. It simultaneously displays the heart rate, lap time, and cumulative time. This makes it easier for long runners to check their pace each mile without interfering with heart rate monitor. This is one of the reasons why it is such a great training accessory, especially for interval laps.

(4 / 5)

The watch/HRM has a number of features. I have just started using the “Polar Index”, which measures the resting heart rate. It uses the rate to statistically calculate theMvO2. Though you can measure your resting heart rate manually, this feature measures it for over five minutes and obtains the average. It is tricky to check your pulse al those minutes. It equally does a good job in automatically defining training zones, and it monitors your stay in each zone during the workout.

Polar has long been known to produce good technology, but the past few models have had one flaw after another. This model, the Polar RS300 has great interface and is all rounded. Perhaps this is a promise of better products to come.

SPECS

• Heart rate displayed as percentage of maximum heart rate, BPM, and average heart rate of total exercise
• Tracks your latest 16 training sessions and your last 16 weeks of training
• Visual and audible alarm in target zones: Informs you every time your heart rate and/or speed/pace exceeds the upper limit or falls below the lower limit of your target zone during a training session.
• Polar OwnIndex Fitness Test calculates aerobic fitness (comparable to maximal oxygen uptake, VO2max) providing a reference to base training intensity and measure improvement.
• Polar OwnCal: Shows your energy expenditure during one exercise session as well as your accumulated kilocalories during several exercise sessions. Because the OwnCal tracks both the energy expenditure during one exercise session and the accumulated kilocalories during a longer time e.g. one week, it helps in achieving both short term and long term goals.
• Time in Target Zone feature calculates the amount of total training time spent in your personal target zone. You can use this feature together with the Total Exercise Time to determine the effectiveness of your training program.
• Number of laps – 99
• Watch features: alarm with snooze, dual time zone, stopwatch
• Compatible with Polar FlowLink (available separately)
• Water resistant to 50 meters
• Backlighting, display zoom
• Event Countdown Timer: Keeps your motivation high by showing how many days are left before your next running event (e.g., Berlin 23 days).

• Simple-to-use wrist heart rate monitor/training computer in black helps you to train at the right intensity
• Provides metrics for heart rate, speed, distance, pace, and calorie burn
• Tracks your latest 16 training sessions and your last 16 weeks of training
• OwnZone feature for individualized zone training by heart rate or pace, a fitness test, and auto lap splits
• Includes Polar WearLink+ 31 coded transmitter; compatible with S1 foot pod and G1 GPS Sensor

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Polar RS300X Heart Rate Monitor

Get all the essential heart rate features with this good-looking and simple-to-use training computer. RS300X is compatible with S1 foot pod and G1 GPS sensor, so you can combine heart rate with speed ...

Available: In stock

Buy on Amazon

amazon.com

For some reason, Polar requires that these units be sent back to replace the battery, which costs $25 + shipping. On top of the annual cost of maintenance, this ship to replace policy leaves you without a heart monitor for about 2 weeks once a year.The other issue I found is that the reception range is not very good, so the unit won't work well mounted on a bicycle.Finally, Polar has decided to arbitrarily remove the % fat burn function from some of its watches. This watch does not have it, so keep in mind you will not know what % of your calorie burn was fat.

August 28, 2009

So far, I've found the RS300X to be an accurate, easy-to-use HRM with a nice set of features. At the Amazon price, it's a very good value.By way of background, I've had several previous heart rate monitors. They include about 4 previous Polar monitors, as well as monitors by Garmin, Suunto, and Timex. Polar has always seemed the best at measuring heart rate during activity, especially if you use the Wearlink(fabric) transmitter belt. And since I often work out at gyms, the compatibility with most treadmills and other aerobic machines is an advantage. However, but all my previous Polar HRMs had unintuitive interfaces and poor instruction manuals. Timex was just about the opposite; they had the best receiver (watch) with large, clear displays and easily navigated menus. But I had to return both Timex HRMs that I ordered from Amazon because the heart rate function never worked. It seemed that the transmitter never made good enough contact with my skin, even when I used electrode gel.My Suunto (model T3C) is a pretty good HRM and the receiver unit looks good, at least if you like the look of a conventional watch. The main display item (eg heart rate) is very easy to read, but the smaller lower display (time or whatever you choose to show) is tiny and hard to read when you're running. If you ordinarily use reading glasses you're out of luck. Also it doesn't display much information, perhaps because the main display item has such large pixels.The Garmin FR60 is an excellent and generally reliable HRM but the receiver is thick and unattractive. I just sent it in for the 2nd time because it stopped working. Garmin customer support, however, has been excellent. I got the model with the foot pod for measuring distances but I've never actually used the foot pod.Read more ›

May 28, 2011

Nobody loves the Polar Brand more than I do. Actually since 1995 I haven't used any other brand. I have always used the basic model to get the largest screen and font. At the White Rock Expo 12/09 in Dallas I purchased the RS300x w/ the foot pod.Pros: + the foot pod is incredibly accurate, much better than any GPS technology that you can afford+ nice looking watch / monitor (although I don't use mine as a watch)+ chest strap will fit smaller chests ( my children can use the new chest strap)+ heart rate registers without recording so you can read your heart rate prior to or after your run but it doesn't skew your run data.Cons: -With 3 lines of text on each screen, You cant read the screen during a run. Particularly the tenths of miles. (This blows the whole deal, what's the point of info you can't read)-too many screens to go through, just overly complicated a good thing.What is the value of all that information that you can't read during a run. I get home from a run and realize the thing wasn't on.There should be a way to opt out of some of the bologna. 99% of athletes don't need that info and don't want it.I still love Polar and I'm still trying to love the RS300 but its not easy. I guess it like buying a book and when you get home you realize the font is too small to read.

February 4, 2010