Polar FA20M Black Activity Watch

Price £73.94

Editors review

The Polar FA20 heart rate monitor is one of the coolest and most stylish heart rate monitors available today, though not a heart rate monitor as such! Designed in black or white, this stunning activity monitor tracks the daily movements you make and shows you how they can have beneficial effects on your health. With the innovative and easy-to-use Polar FA20 heart rate monitor, you can see proof that your physical activity is having an impact on your overall fitness. ItâTMs this level of simplicity that will help guide you towards a more fit and active lifestyle, putting training in to the real world.

Customer Reviews

not a heart rate monitor!

i recieved this product and it is not a heart rate monitor like it says it is on the website description!

C. hayes

Good incentive to exercise - but inaccurate readings

Ive used a Polar FA20 for about 4 months. I find it a great stimulus to walk every day for at least a minimum distance. I know I wouldnt do this otherwise. But the readings are very inaccurate.

Pros

It doesnt start measuring until youve been walking for about 10 - 15 seconds - so moving about round the house or office is not counted, which is a good thing. (It also carries on working for about that time after you stop walking.)

You can leave it on all day and it will give you the total distance you have walked and the total time spent walking, not counting periods of sitting or pottering around. Alternatively, you can measure the distance for each walk or run individually.

I originally assumed it had to be on your wrist or on a moving limb to work - but this isnt the case. Mine works if its in my shirt pocket as I walk. One day I had to carry a large potted plant for about 300 yards, which required me to have both arms clasped round the pot - so no arm swinging - but the FA20 still measured the distance.

It stores 2 months worth of daily readings.

Cons

Its inaccurate. I note the reading over a fixed part of my daily walk and it regularly varies between 0.9 miles, 1 mile and 1.1 miles, which is more variation than Id like to see. More seriously, the actual distance of this part of the walk measured using two different online maps is 1.35 miles. This means that it is underestimating the actual distance walked by between 19% and 50% - a huge discrepancy.

Polar sell a separate device (Flowlink) for keeping track of your results online but the software is not presently Mac compatible.

The FA20 allows you to view a series of screens (current time, current activity state, calories, distance, time active, active steps taken) but doesnt give you the option of suppressing those that you dont want to see. So you may have to push the button repeatedly to find the screen that you do want.

It measures forward motion, punctuated by steps. It wont register other kinds of exercise such as running on the spot. Reviews elsewhere say it doesnt measure cycling or weight lifting.

Conclusion

It is still useful as a stimulus to exercise, but you have to accept that its measuring your distance in `Polar miles no real miles. I try and walk a minimum of 2 `Polar miles a day, accepting that the actual distance walked will be between 2.4 and 3 miles. At least its not overestimating my distance. But I expect greater accuracy than this for the price.