Polar Loop Activity Tracker Band and H7 Heart Rate Sensor Review
Saturday, December 21, 2013 at 9:25PM
Michael Kaye in Conditioning, Crossfit, Polar H7, Polar Loop, Product Review, YouTube Video

So What are these devices?

The Polar loop is an Activity tracker. The Polar Loop tracks motion using an internal gyroscope and figures out how many steps you take and also knows the type of other activities you are doing like: sleeping, sitting, standing around, walking, running. The Polar Loop then converts that info into a calorie output guesstimation.

H7 is a Bluetooth Heart Rate Sensor. The H7 is a sensor that you wear around your chest to read your hearts beats per minute, it can pair to the Polar Loop, adding heart rate information allowing the Polar Loop along with its polar Flow software to know in detail how many calories you are burning (bases this on your age, weight, height and gender). I'm not going to talk a lot about the H7 during this review other than how it integrates with the Polar Loop.

Why get one of these gadgets?

If you're tracking your calorie intake but not your calorie output then how do you know where you stand? You can guess but you really don't know for sure, having this information takes the guesswork away. The more accurate the data the better you can adjust your calorie intake to meet your goals. (Lose weight, Gain weight, Maintain weight).

As an athlete you may want to know exactly what your heart rate is throughout a workout, so you can make small tweaks and improvements to your future workouts. Having a smart Wristband is kind of cool too!

How does the Polar Loop compare to other wrist band activity trackers?

This is not a comparison review, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here but the Polar Loop in my opinion and for my personal needs seems to be the best option, why is this? It gives me the most accurate caloric intake and takes all the guess work away. It shows me a lot about how my workouts are effecting me in terms of actual expenditure on my part, my heart rate does not lie!

Some other features I like about the Polar Loop that set it apart:

A couple of things that the Polar Loop does not have or do that some other fitness bands have:

Lets talk about the Polar loop in detail now, again this is not a full comparison review but I will be comparing my Fitbit Force to the Polar Loop at times since they are very similar devices and will be of interest to the same type of consumers. (Make sure to watch my Fitbit Force videos)

Price Point:

Build Quality:

Esthetics:

Battery: 

Pairing / Syncing:

Paring to my H7 Heart Rate Sensor is fairly simple, the first time you pair the Polar Loop to a compatible heart rate sensor you will want to do this at your home or somewhere secluded. Mainly so you don't confuse the setup with other Bluetooth heart rate sensors that may be close by (in a gym, getting ready to run a marathon…) Just place your compatible heart rate sensor near the Polar Loop and basically put it on, the two will pair automatically and from that point on will be linked to each another. To use the H7, simply put the heart rate sense on when you start your workout and take it off when you're done. You can see your heart rate on the Polar Loop while a heart rate sensor is paired. Your Polar Loop will then transfer that heart rate data to your Polar Flow App software which then sends it to your cloud based Polar account.

Ease of Use:

Polar Flow iPhone App Software:

 

POLAR FLOWbeta Wbe Based Online Software:

Pros:

Cons: 

Conclusion:

For me the choice comes down to the following Fitness Bands: My Fitbit Force that I have been using for several months and been very happy with to date, or my new Polar Loop combined with the H7 Heart Rate Sensor. Although both of these fitness bands do a very good job tracking fitness, when it comes down to it, I prefer the Polar Loop for my needs and this is why. It simply does a better job of accurately figuring out what I am doing and converting that info into real world calorie output, and this is without the H7 Heart Rate Sensor. The Polar Loop does not just make everything an equal step, it looks at all types of activity and takes everything into consideration before converting the info into calories. Combine that with a heart rate sensor during workouts and you have a system that is incredibly accurate at figuring out how many calories are being burnt in a given day.

Sure the Fitbit Force can track flights of stairs, has better battery life, will vibrate for set alarms and is hooked into a bit more complete system for the addition of additional devices like the Aria body weight and fat percentage fitness scale. But at the end of the day, I want a wrist band activity tracker to do one thing really really well, and that's track my calories as accurately as possible, the Polar Loop is king in this area especially if you add a heart rate sensor like the H7 to the equation. I will miss my Fitbit Force but it's time for my Force to step aside and make way for the Polar Loop, well at least for now until an even better band comes out ;)

 

Article originally appeared on Get Fit Over 40 (http://www.getfitover40.com/).
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