Polar Beat: Run & Fitness 4+

To be honest I’ve only used this app a handful of times, after a recent purchase of a Polar H10. I wanted an accurate heart rate tracker for walking. The reviews I could find online were all for the 7 model, but those were highly favorable for accuracy. Pairing the device to the app could be easier, I’ve been walking and discovered it wasn’t paired, my heart rate wasn’t being recorded. I have learned to make sure to pair it to the app and NOT to my iPhone X. Strange, but I can live with that. The first time I used it I selected walking for the workout. I started it prior to actually being ready to leave the house, putting on sneakers, running upstairs for a tissue, and the coach’s voice told me to slow down! The next time I forgot to select the walking routine. Unbeknownst to me at the default running workout, I was disappointed not to be advised to slow down, or to receive any encouragement at all, being a humid 90 degree day and my fat little legs pumping away. I’m learning! I think the app itself is great. I want to know that I’m getting the most out of my walks, health and fat wise. I can see where my heart rate is, if I need to work harder or can slow down a bit, track my route, time, elevation, pace and fat calories burned. This app has all the bells and whistles plus dozens of types routines from mountain climbing to wheelchair activities.

I love this polar bear sensor. It gives me accurate data (I’ve tested against other sensors) and it’s pretty easy to use. I am a competitive swimmer and I’ve started to use the goggle attachment. It’s somewhat irritating with a cap on, but I can deal with it. The issue I have is with recording workout data. I turn the device on, press the button twice (initiating the recording function) and I’m all set. When I finish my workout, I press and hold the button down until I know the device is turned off. At this point the data should be recorded on the device. Sometimes however, I will follow the above steps and when I turn the device on and open the app, there is no data from the workout - as in, the app and the device did not sync. I notice that the device syncs with the app fine most of the time, but I think the water exposure must mess with the button and cause it not to register when I do my final press of it. It is VERY frustrating because I look forward to analyzing my swim data afterwards, and when it’s not there, you can imagine that I feel like it was somewhat of a waste. Besides this problem which to me is major and to some may seem minor, I love the device very much!

I like this app and I use it for every workout. When you combine it with a Polar heart rate monitor, it's much better than with third-party heart rate monitors. One thing I really wish this app had was the ability to set timers for an entire workout. For example if I want to do nine rounds of three minutes with one minute of rest between each of the work rounds, with bells or buzzers or maybe configurable sounds at the start and end of each round, it would be great to be able to set that up and save it. If I could label each round with what I wanted to do in that round that would also be awesome because then I could manage and track my workouts all in one place. As it is right now I have to print out my workout and use a separate timer, and there's no record in my workout logs of exactly what I did each round. In short, I would give the app five stars if I could plan, execute, and track my workouts all in the same app on the same device.

Also, for some reason I don't understand, I can't sync directly from my iPad to Apple health, but I can sync to Apple health from my iPhone. On iPad you have to install Polar Flow. So far I have not figured out what Polar Flow is other than a way for me to sync to Apple health.