Polar FT4: a product review

My Polar FT4 arrived in a nice black box. The kind that once opened, you can never put together again without a map. But that's alright, because it was the watch and heart monitor I was interested in.

Three parts

The Polar FT4 consists of three parts: a watch, a belt you wear around your chest and a transmitter. The chestband and the transmitter are called the WearLink. The chestband is made of a cottonlike material, which is one of the reasons I chose the Polar FT4. No sweaty plastic bands around the chest for me. In the box that was nog longer a box, I also found a manual.

The dreaded manual

Now what I usually do with manuals, is leaf through them, and then throw them into a corner. But that's a mistake I decided to skip this time! So I poured myself a nice hot cup of tea, and nestled on the couch with my manual. And I read the whole thing, which actually took surprisingly little time.

The Polar FT4 watch

The Polar FT4 offers five buttons, which I found a bit scary. But to my relief, it really is an easy watch to use. You can scroll through the menu with two of them, say 'okay' with a third, the fourth is to go back in the menu, and the fifth is to put on a light. I can actually manage this watch!

What's it do?

The Polar FT4 tells you:

1. your current heart rate
2. whether you're in 'the zone'
3. how many calories you've burned (love this!)
4. how many minutes you've been burning calories
5. your average heart rate during your whole run

Can it be improved?

The only thing worthy of improvement, is the little beep that tells you, you're going too fast or too slow, and your heart rate is not in the optimal training zone. It's so soft, I have to strain to hear it.

To sum up

I'm a real dummie when it comes to gadgets, but the Polar FT4 I can handle! And it makes good on its promises: it tells me whether I'm 'in the zone', thereby helping me burn the midnight fat!

Practical info