Polar FT7 Review

If you are in the market for a smart-affordable heart rate monitor that can provide not only calories burned, but also tell you weather you are burning fat or increasing your overall fitness, then the Polar FT7 may be for you. The FT7 is new to the Polar line of training watches and costs a mere $119. The FT7 can store up to 16 weeks of training and up to 99 separate training files; which is an amazing amount of storage packed into an attractive watch. Our testers liked that the watch is smaller than previous Polar models and found themselves wearing it as an everyday watch because it can blend with casual and sporty clothing. The FT7 is incredibly user friendly and takes only 5 minutes to input your data, such as date of birth, height, weight, and heart rate goals. If you have a tough time getting started with the watch, the user guide is available online (also in print) and there are forums to bounce ideas off other users and the pros from Polar.

When the watch is in training mode, the user can toggle between displays using the up/down buttons on the side to see the duration of their activity, actual time of day, heart rate range, current heart rate in a larger easy to see font, and calories burned. The FT7 is equipped with Polar’s EnergyPointer program, which calculates and displays whether the user is within the fitness improvement zone or fat burning zone, based on your heart rate. This tool makes it easier to achieve one’s fitness goals. We liked the addition of a pause button and its location on the left side, making it harder to hit by accident during your activity. To stop the training session, one simply has to press and hold the pause button and a workout summary is displayed and stored within the watch. If you are a real numbers’ cruncher, then you may also like Polar’s FlowLink, which allows you to seamlessly import workout data to your computer via a USB port.

New additions that our testers also liked about the FT7 included the increased flexibility of the transmitter. Our testers wore the transmitter swimming and reported that they quickly forgot that they were wearing the strap. The transmitter also seems to stay put better than previous models and transmitted HR data even in a heavily chlorinated pool. And last but not least, each transmitter is coded to the watch, which will prevent you from picking up others’ heart rate transmitters; which can be a problem while racing. Overall, the Polar FT7 is a great timepiece for those seeking a little help reaching their fitness goals. For more information, please visit PolarUSA.com

Included features:

• Average and maximum heart rate of training

• Heart rate

• HR-based target zones with visual and audible alarm

• Manual target zone

• Polar EnergyPointer

• Polar OwnCal® – calorie expenditure

• Polar OwnCode® (5kHz) – coded transmission

• Totals

• Training files (with summaries) – 99

• Weekly history

• Graphical target zone indicator

• HeartTouch – button-free operation of wrist unit

• Backlight

• Date and weekday indicator

• Display text in English, German, Finnish, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian

• Dual time zone

• KeyLock

• Low battery indicator

• StopWatch

• Time of day (12/24h) with alarm and snooze

• User replaceable battery

• Water resistant – 50m