Gadgetory

hey everyone and welcome to another review by Jim's review room today we will be looking at the polar loop and this model is priced at $99 at the time of this review and for those who don't know polar has been around for some time and specializes in heart rate monitors for the fitness community and we joined their products have been a watch style device but the loop in this case works as a band in connection with your smartphone providing visual data and record-keeping so without further ado we'll get started the band itself is a silicone rubber like material with chrome accents and featuring a metal buckle type fastener as well there is a simple LED display that lights up with indications on your progress such as calories burned steps taken the time any bar that fills up throughout your day indicating on how much more activity to reach your goals now after the bar is displayed the polar loop tells you how many minutes of jogging or how many minutes of walking that you need to do to reach your goal which I thought was really handy because at the end of the day just knowing a few more minutes of jogging or walking can get me to where I need to be and the inner part of the band there is a data port for syncing the loop to your computer and it's also used for charging and polar does provide its proprietary cable for connecting which is magnetized to stay together with the band but be rest assured although this connection is exposed though polar states this band is waterproof meaning you can shower with this and even wear this while swimming now keep in mind the polar loop does have bluetooth technology so you can wirelessly sync your data with your phone or device then one of the big benefits unlike some of the other popular bands out there this works on both Apple and Android powered devices now in regards to battery life polar claims up to five days of news and for my tests that's accurate looking at my progress casually throughout the day and taking my data every other day early on about day five the polar loop indicated that the band needed to be recharged with about 10 percent of juice remaining and lastly polar states this will hold 12 days worth of data so if you forget the sinker information for a few days it's no problem at all now the band has been very comfortable to wear as it's very lightweight the band only comes in one size though and you do have to trim the band at home to fit your wrists it's a pretty straightforward process but I don't work with watches too often so taking the pins in and out was a slight nuisance though and of course be sure to cut a little bit at a time if you're unsure now I do wear this all day and even to sleep and it really feels like a light watch almost at times forgetting that it's there the only issues I ran across were not big that would basically deter me from purchasing this again but it's worth mentioning though the metal buckle does hold the band very secure though however it does scratch over time causing some blemishes it's only a cosmetic issue though the inner band I noticed because it's dimpled does collect some soap scum than others other nasty gunk more easier than some of the other bands out there in the market and lastly the button information at first was very stiff a firm press is needed to display the information tapping and tapping hard does not work but a press doesn't work for you one way I worked around this was sliding my finger over the button instead of pressing which yielded better results and I noticed over time the button did become a bit more reasonable to sensitivity so issues stated again they are there but not a huge downfall in my opinion but something I believe that's as important or maybe even more important are the features and it's software that the product possesses now what's unique about the polar loop it records automatically for you on screen is the main page you'll see on your smartphone or tablet and the hand clock shown has a ring that fills throughout the day with different color bands as you can see towards the bottom of the screen indicates what each color-coded band represents and the amount of time spent doing so now why is for sleep or resting while sitting down is great and the band can differentiate from light standing work walking to full-on running and intense activities now scrolling down here a little bit further shows the percentage of how close you are to your goal and suggestions on what you can do to reach that goal for that day and the very last segment here shows how many calories burned steps taken how long you were considered as active and how much sleep you obtained and regarding sleep monitoring I was not too impressed because the sleep monitoring records only for that day it starts at 12 o'clock midnight regardless if you slept at 11 p.m. the night before so if you're in early sleeper and want to view your data there's no information and the entire night's sleep as a whole since it's not there you have to scroll back a day and piece the data together yourself and real quick here if you've been inactive basically not moving for a certain period of time this will show how many times you're inactive throughout the day in over the course of time your goals will change based on your profile height and age will be inputted once you download the app but your weight also changes ever so often here and this will of course change this set goes automatically to keep you continually becoming fit so going back onto the main page here the will is a different style to the other bands I've reviewed it works in ways that you can see your entire day at a quick glance and where and how active you've been I really like the fact that it can differentiate me from being casually active to moderately active just a bit more precision in my day in speaking of precision though like many other bands when you're weightlifting or let's say if you're into yoga those movements are not as physical where your wrist is flying everywhere like a lot of the current bands out right now they're great for being active and moving around like joggers walkers playing basketball or tennis etc but relying is to count how many calories burned when you're lifting dumbbells and one set consists of only eight to ten movements that's probably not the best but that's where polar as a company comes in as I stated earlier polar is known for the heart monitors and I had the loop for several days first and really didn't find too much benefit compared to the other activity bands out there and I quickly found out it didn't have a built-in heart rate monitor either the loop works in conjunction with one though so how to purchase the polar loop h7 heart monitor for $80 at the logo and I know it's another expense but after playing around with this if you're buying a polar you have to have a heart monitor as well just to get the best data and the results back and considering the competition the new Garmin vivofit is $120 without the heart rate monitor and 170 dollars with 1and basis has a built-in heart rate monitor as well right on the wrist strap and that's priced at 200 so this polar combination is right in the middle in regards to price and from what I can tell a chest strap is possibly the best and most accurate way to have your pulse read in real time now getting back on track here about reading accuracy and precision before I had the heart rate monitor the chart would show I am just low to moderate ly active when I'm lifting weights my heart is actually much more active than that though although it's not cardio my heart rate is on average about 130 beats per minute the loop alone can't tell that and when I'm lifting it only counts the movements on my wrist which is minimal the loop again working connection with the heart rate monitor records myself now as being an intense activity now after each set I would look down and press the ban and this will indicate my beats per minute in real-time when I performed em one hundreds cardio basically my beats per minute averaged around a little over a hundred and fifty now it's calculating more accurately and how many calories I burned and a true visual representation on how active I was better than other bands out there now going back here the top right features a calendar where you can compare yourself in a broader sense to see if some weeks or months are better than others and how you can recover if you had some bad weeks or so now to the left is the options menu to change settings and your profile with the activity tab being your main page where we were just on now the training summer is only shown or available if you do have the heart rate monitor and I've just purchased a monitor recently so I don't have too much data but you can see this measures for the week but once you click on the individual training session there's a lot of information to make you self reflect to maintain or do better next time and I'm the average guy so my numbers are not stellar but you can see over my workout time how much I was pushing myself in the top and bottom areas of the line chart indicates where I'm just FAT to areas where I'm actually getting fit as well now scroll down to the end and there's numeric information being present any small paragraph and how Paulo things that you're doing now backing up from here and then tapping on the info tab reviews how they'd use the loop which is pretty straightforward and lastly on the options menu is settings to change your profile as needed in regards to weight height and if you're male or female at the time so the loop by itself is okay too decent for the price that you pay but you read the true benefits you have to buy that heart rate monitor once bought this combination is ideal if you're in the market for an activity band and you also do workouts that maybe doesn't involve too much wrist movement so I hope you enjoy this review of the polar loop and the heart rate monitor h7 if you have not please take your time to visit my Facebook and Google+ pages for behind the scenes information and of course do subscribe to my youtube channel for more reviews this is Jimmy from Jim's review room take care everyone bye