Long on Features, Short on Battery Life
Written: Aug 19 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: All the features one could ever want
Cons: Poor battery life and slow service
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| hungryhippo75's Full Review: Polar Accurex Plus |
Polar's XTrainer Plus finally put together all the features that athletes have been waiting around for since the advent of heart rate monitors and cyclecomputers. It does a great job of combining everything in one attractive package. For those who don't know, it includes a full-function cycle computer complete with a cadence option (sensor sold separately) as well as a bulletproof heart rate monitor function. The good people over at Polar even designed a handsome mount for your handlebars when you want to take the watch/monitor on your ride.
I can't list all the salient features here - I don't know them and you can get them just as easily from the manufacturer's web site. But I do know that as a full-time endurance athlete, the Polar has more than filled my needs. The added download function (that I never used) is hugely important for some people, and the XTrainer has this as well. Polar's sampling options (:60, :15 or :5 intervals) allow for recording and graphing of HR, speed, cadence, distance, etc. Truly this one covers all the bases.
My main complaints with the XTrainer Plus have to do with extraneous circumstances. The battery life is terrible. It lasts about a year under normal use, which is not good at all. Then, when you want to replace the battery, you must send it back to the Polar people (in New York not Finland thank goodness) or risk voiding the warranty. Unfortunately, getting it fixed by the Polar people costs money and, most of all, time. I have waited as long as two months for some of my monitors to come back.
In conclusion, anyone buying an XTrainer plus should be prepared to fall in love with it for a year, then suffer serious withdrawals somewhere in the next eighteen months as the battery goes. Following this is the inevitable separation as you send it off to the Polar people and the happy reunion when it is returned to you, good as new.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hungryhippo75
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Member: Julius
Location: New England, USA
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 2 members
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