PolarVerity Sense - Optical Heart Rate Monitor Armband for Sport - ANTPlus and Dual Bluetooth HRM - Waterproof HR Sensor with only One Button (Verity Sense, M-XXL,Grey)

I bought this to use with my treadmill. I had a stroke and the NHS are not very helpful. Been told it's a definate do not use to others saying it's the best thing to get fit. So I've got this as a heart monitor. It connects to the treadmill using Bluetooth and also the phone app at the same time. The monitor works really well, BPM, calories and duration in app but also readout on the treadmill. The readout on the app is colour coded. I put in my age and it works out the recommended heart rate needed while using the treadmill. This is 60% to 80% of the maximum heart rate for my age. Again, no help from the NHS. As I am warming up, the app colour readout is in a grey panel. When I get between 60% to 70% it turns blue. 70% to 80% it turns Green for optimal calorie burn within target range. Higher and it turns orange then red. The BPM is really stable, not rapidly bouncing up and down, and allows me to feel safe using the treadmill for about half an hour at a time. Nice quality and simple to use. Recommended.

I moved away from Wahoo Tickr chest straps as they just stopped working this year and late last year. It is my opinion of owning two (more so for running), but there have been a lot of complaints about accuracy online. I can no longer rely on them personally but I have been more than happy with other Wahoo products. Also the chest straps can get loose and slip and cause chaffing in warm weather. Wrist based optical monitors have rarely worked for me being equally inaccurate or worse. So I bought the Verity Sense based on recommendations and I can say for sure, wearing this on my bicep, I have not seen one single blip. It is very accurate and dependable. If you just want to broadcast your HR to your wrist based device (overriding the built in sensor) or bike head unit, then I can't think of an alternative as good as this. If you want all the bells and whistles built into the device, maybe look elsewhere.Pros:Doesn't slip and stays put.Cannot feel it once fitted.Gets out of the way and just works.Optical HR sensor works 100% for me (6 months plus) with no wobbles.Easy to adjust arm strap and you can buy replacements.Easy to connect app so setup was a breeze.Good for HR training because of the accuracy.Very quick to charge.I don't really need to wash the strap after every use (if at all to be honest) because it doesn't really develop an odour (unlike my previous chest straps).Cons:Lack of add-on features that some other advanced devices promote.Polar app is not pretty and software could be improved.Would like to see battery status on opening the app without starting a session.Start recording on app did not like to run in the background on my mobile device when I tried it, but I might try again so I can't say for sure if it is a persistent problem.Quite pricey.

I started off a bit skepticism but having taken the plunge, I won’t except use without it now - maybe I need to get a life! :pTruthfully, it’s been a revelation when it comes to swimming as I often lose count of my lengths and it had recorded my distance for me! It isn’t at all intrusive against the goggles and within a minute, you forget it’s even there.For cycling it’s been superb, integrating with Wahoo and Strava apps perfectly. It wasn’t intuitive to integrate but a bit of following support page instructions later and it worked.For running it’s also been great as it’s very light on your arm (I point it at a vein in my biceps) and again, using Strava it’s been flawless.My minor criticisms are:1. I expected the Polar app itself to tell me HR without having to start an activity. Being frank, the Polar flow app is very out of touch with users and its trying too hard to be useful where it makes itself irrelevant to your life! Just becomes annoying!2. The app doesn’t tell you the battery level and no other way to know until it gets low. Not a problem if you only do 1-3 hour activities but if you’re going out for a long ride (5-6 hours) you may wish to charge it up first to be certain you don’t run out. I haven’t ran the battery down yet, so can’t speak for the actual total battery life though.3. Being light based (as opposed to ECG) it isn’t quite as quick to pickup rapid changes in HR but for what I do with it and given its benefits, this becomes somewhat irrelevant.