For some reason, Polar requires that these units be sent back to replace the battery, which costs + shipping. On top of the annual cost of maintenance, this ship to replace policy leaves you without a heart monitor for about 2 weeks once a year.

The other issue I found is that the reception range is not very good, so the unit won’t work well mounted on a bicycle.

Finally, Polar has decided to arbitrarily remove the {60f78fc10f9d225dae0ba0255c415eaf093f5a3220b43cdf3df82aaf7b5f9e5d} fat burn function from some of its watches. This watch does not have it, so keep in mind you will not know what {60f78fc10f9d225dae0ba0255c415eaf093f5a3220b43cdf3df82aaf7b5f9e5d} of your calorie burn was fat.

So far, I’ve found the RS300X to be an accurate, easy-to-use HRM with a nice set of features. At the Amazon price, it’s a very good value.

By way of background, I’ve had several previous heart rate monitors. They include about 4 previous Polar monitors, as well as monitors by Garmin, Suunto, and Timex. Polar has always seemed the best at measuring heart rate during activity, especially if you use the Wearlink(fabric) transmitter belt. And since I often work out at gyms, the compatibility with most treadmills and other aerobic machines is an advantage. However, but all my previous Polar HRMs had unintuitive interfaces and poor instruction manuals. Timex was just about the opposite; they had the best receiver (watch) with large, clear displays and easily navigated menus. But I had to return both Timex HRMs that I ordered from Amazon because the heart rate function never worked. It seemed that the transmitter never made good enough contact with my skin, even when I used electrode gel.

My Suunto (model T3C) is a pretty good HRM and the receiver unit looks good, at least if you like the look of a conventional watch. The main display item (eg heart rate) is very easy to read, but the smaller lower display (time or whatever you choose to show) is tiny and hard to read when you’re running. If you ordinarily use reading glasses you’re out of luck. Also it doesn’t display much information, perhaps because the main display item has such large pixels.

The Garmin FR60 is an excellent and generally reliable HRM but the receiver is thick and unattractive. I just sent it in for the 2nd time because it stopped working. Garmin customer support, however, has been excellent. I got the model with the foot pod for measuring distances but I’ve never actually used the foot pod. Its interface is not entirely intuitive but it isn’t bad.

The RS300X is easily the best of these. I wasn’t looking for a lot of features, only basic heart rate measurement and convenient lap timing. I wore it on a long run today and it rapidly determined my heart rate and seemed to be completely accurate the whole time. Some reviewers have complained that the display is hard to read for older eyes; I didn’t find that a problem at all even with sunglasses. The menus are logical and there are hints to direct you to what to do next when you’re scrolling through options. One of the most attractive aspects of this model is that it’s so easy to do lap timing. So when you’re running a marathon, for example, it’s very easy to check your pace each mile while continuing to monitor your heart rate, and it is great for interval training. It shows the lap time, cumulative time, and heart rate on a single screen.

I’m also enjoying some of the features that I never thought I’d use. For example, the “Polar Index” is basically a measure of your resting heart rate that is supposed to correlate with MvO2. It isn’t hard to measure your resting heart rate, but this feature offers a convenient way to get an average heart rate over 5 minutes – not something you’d want to do by checking your pulse for that long. It does a really nice job of defining training zones automatically and reporting the time you spend in each zone.

Although I call it basic this HRM has all the features I need for training and racing long distances. Polar has always had good technology but in the past was weak at interface design. They’ve made great strides with this model.

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UPDATE: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 1:36PM

After a couple more workouts and a few hours of trying to figure out this product… well, their user documentation is horrible, which means you must spend hours discovering almost everything on your own.

I like the RS300X for its ability to track and store training data. (But, finding the data is a hassle thanks to poor documentation with no examples. Ultimately, I will have to spend time creating a navigation chart myself.)

I like the chest band with its detachable transmitter and easy-to-replace battery.

I don’t like the molded one-piece watch-band that forces you to wear the watch atop the wrist. I prefer to wear the watch on the side of my wrist where I can glance down to read, rather than having to raise my entire arm to read.

I still don’t like the display because of its obnoxious glare and requirement of perfect up-close vision to read it.

Based on my experience with the RS300X and other Polar products, I would now raise my 2-star rating to 4-stars (if I could). Without excellent and useful documentation – that SAVES MY TIME & FRUSTRATION – I can’t give it 5-stars.

All my other Polar products have been reliable and of high quality construction. I assume the RS300X will be the same or better.

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Sunday, September 6, 2009 11:25AM

I received my new Polar RS300X a couple days ago. I shoulda shopped around…

I’ve been using Polar Heart Rate monitors since 1986. and have been pleased with them all… Until now.

I bought this RS300X because I loathe the hassle of sending the equipment in for new batteries.

While the RS300X electronics seem to offer many features, the smaller display is utterly crappy – a significant obstruction to my workouts!

You must try to read the tiny display info through TWO glaring reflections off the clear plastic lens (glare NOT SHOWN in the photos). What good is the real-time feedback info if you can’t read it while running?!?!

I assumed I would love this new product.

Unfortunately, after only two uses, I hate this RS300X. If I change my mind after more usage, I’ll change this review.

Mike