Polar Verity 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 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.

Originally purchased this device to replace a BTLE chest strap after it broke. First of all it is much more comfortable than a chest strap and you can put it in different locations on your arm. Also it can transmit on both ANT+ (which is good for my bike computer) and BTLE which is great for my iPhone and iPad when used with training software. It also can be used for swimming although I have not tried this yet. The app is good and easy to use. The device can also be placed in recording mode to allow you do download a training session. I tried this recently on a 7 hour bike ride and it worked flawlessly with no dropouts or missing data. Generally it is a well thought out device. If you need a heart rate monitor for transmitting on BTLE and/or ANT+ then this is a great piece of kit.

I had a pacemaker fitted recently and discovered my trusty Garmin chest strap no longer worked. The Polar arm strap seemed to get good reviews for accuracy, but like all optical sensors, there is a slight lag so not perfect for short interval work. It is however far more reliable than the HR produced by the watch as it sits in a better place to get a good reading. Connection is via Bluetooth or ANT+ and it supports multiple connections (e.g. a treadmill and a watch at the same time). Once initially paired, it found the device every time provided it was switched on (something not usually required with a chest strap). It's comfortable to wear and doesn't seem to move, even when only moderately tight due to it being very light. Unlike most chest straps, this has to be manually turned on and off by pressing a small button. Unfortunately it is too easy to forget to turn it off so that next time you come to use it, it is completely dead. I've knocked off one star for that flaw. However charging is quite quick, but that is of little consolation if you only discover your error on the start line of a race. I've also found that the supplied charger is quite fussy about what USB ports it will recognise and I had to try several before I found one that worked. The strap itself is machine washable and replacements can be purchased, although it looks well made. There are other functions to attach the main unit to a swim cap to take readings from the temple and another that records the HR data for later download. So overall a great device that works well, provided you remember to turn it on and off for each use.

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.

3rd and hopefully final update after resolving a few issues. Use Case: Coach of Performance Swimmers looking for a product to view training heart rates: 1. in real-time during training, and 2. Review those records after training. Point #1 is a frustrating experience. I see people achieving this successfully on YouTube using iPads, but my phone fails to hold a reliable connection. It can report for anything from a couple of minutes upto half an hour, but not in a reliable way. Once connection is lost, I can't find any way of getting the data off the sensor at the end. So I've come to the conclusion that live, real-time data isn't going to work in a sensible way. As this was a key feature I was hoping to use, I've had to drop the rating to 3 stars. Point #2 works a treat. You can stick the sensor on an athlete and record their HR continuously through a 2hr session with no problems. Once synced with the app (automatically putting it on the Polar Flow website) you have a few tools to analyse it, but also the ability to download the raw data to analyse in a spreadsheet or other fitness app. From this perspective, it's an impressive piece of kit. A few issues that were resolved, but I'll put this here to help anyone suffering similar issues. 1. Unable to update firmware Tried for 2 weeks to update firmware via the android app before it eventually succeeded. That was a frustrating period. 2. Unable to change mode It was necessary to update the firmware before the mode would change, so it was largely useless for the 2 weeks where that wasn't happening. 3. Sync didn't work I was putting the sensor into "Recording" mode whenever I switched it on. Unfortunately, sync only seems to work in HR mode. 4. Android phone loses connection in water It's very hit and miss maintaining a connection from android phone to sensor while the athlete is swimming. Obviously Bluetooth signals and water don't mix well. This makes viewing real-time data a frustrating and distracting activity. I gave up trying to do that - no solution found as yet. 5. Swimming mode - what is it? The additional features "provided" by Swimming Mode aren't worth trying. It doesn't appear to work. I think Polar need to go back to the design team for that one.

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! :p Truthfully, 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.

The app is absolutely awful. It loses connection with the monitor frequently and just becomes a rubbish timer,with absolutely no heart rate information whatsoever. This requires constant resetting, deleting, turning on-and-off. A complete pain. I have a heart condition and was advised to use a monitor when visiting the gym. I went for Polar as they are reputed to be the best. I don’t see any evidence of this. It completely disrupts my workouts as I have to slow right down if I cannot see the heart rate. Updating the app is nigh-on impossible. The website tells you to do it on the App, but there is no designated menu for this. When you eventually find update info, it takes you back to the website… which tells you to update on the App. I’ve held-off writing a review, hoping that the app would improve, but enough is enough. Find a better product if your health/safety depends on it.

Very happy with the Polar heart rate sensor. Have owned their chest strap for several years but was starting to get fed up with the whole wetting process to get it working so tried the Verity Sense back to back with the chest strap. The verity seems to be just as accurate but lags behind by 10 - 15 seconds or so which is not a problem for me in the gym. Much easier to live with and more comfortable, also works well in the cold as doesn't need to be wet.