Polar F4 Product and Price Review

January 27 2010

Polar F4 Product Review

The Polar F4 model is a petite feminine heart rate monitor ideal for fitness enthusiasts who want to optimize their training sessions. It is the smaller feminine counterpart of the Polar F4M monitor. The big display allows reading the data at a glance while the small strap size keeps the product easily in place even during strenuous exercise.

The product can be used to continuously monitor heart rate and calorie expenditure. It also has full watch functions, including a stopwatch to keep track of exercise duration. A fitness bullet appears each time the user stays within his/her training zone for 10 minutes.

Product Specifications:

• Automatic age-based target zone (% / bpm) - %/bpm
• Backlight - w/o backlight in the North and South America
• Graphical target zone indicator
• Heart rate (displayed as % of maximum heart rate)
• Heart rate (displayed as bpm)
• Visual and audible alarm in target zones
• Average heart rate of total exercise
• Exercise Date
• Fitness Bullets (10 minutes in target zone)
• HR-based target zones with audible alarm
• HR-based target zones with visual alarm
• Exercise Time (total) - total
• Maximum heart rate
• Number of exercise files (with summaries) - 1
• Date and weekday indicator
• Low battery indicator
• Time of day (12/24h) with alarm

Pros of Polar F4:

• Easy to use
• Small and has thinner straps to fit women users
• Has a feminine design
• Relatively big display
• Has an audible alarm if the user is out of the target heart rate zone

Cons of Polar F4:

• Too small for most men
• Has no backlight

Polar F4 Pricing:

Newsfitness.com has scoured the web to find you the best pricing for the Polar F4. Below are a sample of the best priced Polar F4 available.

Customer Reviews

Good basic model.

Reviewed by Jaime Serrada, 2010-01-10

This is a good choice for a woman that want to measure her basic exercise improvement. Good relation money - value.

was a gift

Reviewed by Janet E. Ulrich, 2010-01-09

this purchase was a gift for my daughter and she is extremely pleased with it.

Perfect first time HRM 5/5

Reviewed by ric03, 2009-12-15

This was the first HRM I owned, and it is perfect for beginners. Everything is very simple to understand, and set up. The unit is attractive looking, and highly accurate (you can see your HR rise the moment you start moving), with enough real features to keep you motivated, and actually put it to good use either in the gym or on the road.

One thing I've since discovered, is that Polar HRM's are much easier to use than some other models (check a few manuals online to see for yourself). The F4 is very simple: simply enter some initial data (age, sex, weight), and then put the strap on (wet the reverse with some tap water) and you're ready. Click the start button. The unit has useful exercise views (duration, time in zone, calories, avg heart rate, max heart rate) which you can cycle through with a button press as you work out. Once finished, you view an exercise summary screen, which displays all this information. The data is then added to a totals file (which can be reset at will -- ie: at the end of the week).

All in all, this is perfect for a beginner. It does enough for it to be useful for a couple of years, before you will want to move onto something more complicated. Don't spend £150+ on a HRM first time; try something like this and make sure you need extra features. This worked like a dream for me, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a simple (but effective) heart rate monitor.

great product!

Reviewed by T. Olmedo, 2009-12-10

works just like it should. accurate. easy to read. i love it!

Good HRM - But make sure you read the directions.

Reviewed by Michael P Mccullough, 2009-12-04

Read the manual. One reviewer complained that it beeps constantly - she should have reset her target zone. I lamented that it kept reading too high, or became stuck on one heart rate even if I sprinted or stopped, or it displayed just zero zero. I discovered (by reading the directions)that I needed to turn my Blackberry off. It works fine if my phone is off!

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