Bestseller Polar RS300X G1 Heart Rate Monitor – Review
- Automatic age-based target zone – bpm / %
- Average and maximum heart rate of each lap
- Polar Fitness Test
- Polar OwnCal® – calorie expenditure
- Polar OwnCode® (5kHz) – coded transmission
- Polar OwnZone® – personal heart rate zone
- Polar sport zones
- G1 GPS sensor for Distance and Speed measurements
- Training files (with summaries) – 16
- Graphical target zone indicator
- HeartTouch – button-free operation of wrist unit
- Interval trainer guided workouts – heart rate / pace / distance
- ZoneLock
- ZonePointer
- StopWatch
- Time of day (12/24h) with alarm and snooze
- Weight: 41g
Speed and distance is nothing without heart rate monitoring. The RS300x G1 helps you combine these three elements to properly make sense of your training and goals. G1 GPS sensor provides speed and distance in various outdoor sports, so you know it’s worth all the effort.
List Price: £187.50
Great Product!,
I have had an Polar RS300X G1 for 6 months now. The product not only has all the functions of a running computer that any other brand has but also has a lot more heart rate based functions to use. Comfortable belt, lightweight GPS sensor for my speed and distance which takes normal AA bats. I also bought a flowlink to download my files onto Polar Personal Trainer which is realy useful when training. I could not do with out my RS300X G1 now for me it beats anything else on the market at that price and it’s the market leading brand.
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|Heart Rate Great GPS hmmm,
Just thought i would share my experiences i have had with this watch and hopefully give others some advice to get the best from the GPS which is rather flakey.
First I do like the way the watch works in the menus it is better than the polar rs100 i used to use
When this watch works its brilliant (even the GPS the heart rate and calorie readings all work accurately as you would expect from polar but unfortunately when its not working its very frustrating and the GPS is much to be desired. The first 16-20 runs i didnt have any problems but now the GPS is dissapointing.I think at one point every third run was a failure with the GPS just not recording distance speed and pace until i do the points i listed below
Following points to help with GPS issues some i have found and some i am confirming what others have mentioned on this site.
1. Before you go for run place GPS on a table and sit by the watch to get a fix on the GPS signal this is the best and quickest way. once you have signal then put watch and GPS on.This can take a few minures the newer the battery the quicker it seems to pick up a signal
2. Use a fresh rechargeable batteries for the GPS so the recharged battery is stronger and the GPS performs better
3.Charging and changing the GPS battery on every run seems to reset the GPS and therefor has less chance of it failing you on a run.
4.My Recommendation would be not to change the watch displays when running unless you want to lock up your watch and loose current GPS details.This only happens sometimes but enough to put you off changing any views until your run has finished. Once GPS is lost it doesnt find its self again without resetting
I know i have given the watch a 4 star and thats because it is a great watch and i would have given it a five star if i didnt have to mess around so much with the GPS.
When i do all the above points it works a dream and i get accurate GPS results but what a performance to get there.
Further points the watch does not give you a percentage of fat burned like the other cheaper polar watches do.
When it records distance it seems to only update every 0.25 miles, so sometimes its a bit annoying when you want to judge distance to a landmark and it can nearly be a quarter a mile out in distance although it is accurate to 0.15 miles on most occasions and seems to give the finished run distance very accurately
There are no issues i have found with the heart rate monitor and its readings.
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I would probably lower the star rating from a 4 to a 1 star now if i was allowed too.
As good as this watch is and with its GPS faults it is a good watch but i should make you aware of a manufacturing fault
The strap will crack after about a year and as the strap is integrated this makes the watch useless if it does break.
I have seen lots of reviews mentioning how the strap cracks (check polar forums and other reviews) well after 1 year and 3 months mine has cracked now as well.
I dont have big wrists- and although the watch is waterproof i dont trust its water resistance so it never goes near water even when washing hands.
I do take good care of this watch to a very high standard so i feel if mine has gone then i think others will as well especially if you use it.Where watch straps get a kink when worn this is wear this stiff plastic strap will crack right across its width.I didnt even see mine going until i went to take the watch off.
I wish i had bought a Garmin Now the 610 forerunner would be my preference – expensive but streets ahead of polar.
If you think you will change the watch after a year anyway, then this for the price,is the best watch to get, but for me i expect a lot more longevity
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|Great HRM, Ok GPS,
I purchased this watch with this flowlink a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have used on 7 running sessions. I had a polar HRM only before and this watch doesn’t disapoint in terms of heart rate measurement and functionality. It seems accurate, and the zoning has helped me to avoid anaerobic running – which has helped recovery noticably.
On the GPS side though, its a little disapointing. The Polar specs state that the pace is +/- 2kmh, which I believe is due to inherent GPS limitations. This is more noticable at low speeds (i.e. jogging) – I have had pace vary from <3min/km to >7min/km while I think I am reaonably constant…. Ok, so pace fluctuation is inherant in the technology by distance shouldn’t be… I have run the same fairly straight sub-urban route three times and have had the distance recorded as 4.9, 5.1 and 5.5 Km – thats more variation than I would have expected.
As well as HRM and GPS functionality my other reason for purchase was to use the recorded data. To get your data up to the polarpersonaltrainer.com website you need the separate flow link. It takes a little perseverence/time to get it to recognise the watch but works well enough. The web site is fairly basic but does provide a reasonable level of analysis of the basics of your activity. One thing that seems notably missing is any abillity to do anything with the GPS data. I don’t see any way to view your routes or compare between sessions around the same course.
In summary, I’d say this is a capable HRM product with basic pace and distance capability as an add on. I would recommend it, but with the limitations mentioned.
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