Side by Side Comparison of: Polar vs Fitbit

I love Polar products. My fitbit flex died last week and I decided to look for another brand of tracker. Not that I disliked the Fitbit but the Fitbit is a good start but it is really not a great product. You can't get it wet, after a year or so it started getting finnicky, battery was lasting only two days towards the end, just high maintenance thing. I looked at a bunch of activity trackers and decided to go with this one. Polar is a company that has a rep with me of building quality products. I am a longtime user of their Heart Rate Monitors (25 years or so I think).I am happy I choose this product. The process of cutting the bracelet to fit is not easy but it is not hard either, you just have to be careful and cut less then they recommend and then cut a little more til you have a fit. When you do have it cut you have a much better bracelet than all the other trackers out there because if it opens it probably will not fall off your wrist and a truly appreciate that. The company went with better, not easier The thing with the fitbit is that I had to find it a couple of times because the clasp would open on it's own and it would fall off and I would then have to backtrack to find it. This happenned about 3 times and was very annoying.I love the screen this product has. Very bright. And playful. Kind of a neat thing and I think what they show is just right. I am still getting used to Polar's web software. Looks interesting but I haven't synced yet. I would love to have someone who would look at my data and work with me on fitness. I wonder if they offer this?Setup so far was seamless keeping to the tone of Polar products being well built and having the features that are important and not too many features.I am going to use this product without taking it off...pool, shower...lets see....I have not set it up with my phone yet but am using the computer and the cable.I liked Fitbit's autosync feature and this product will not yet do this with a computer but that is OK, not a huge deal.If I do travel I will have to hook it up to my phone....but was going to avoid that for now.If this product holds up I will then buy the much more expensive polar fitness watches....let's seeLooks good and promising so far...

Been a Polar customer for a couple of years now, (had the FT7), and when it comes to activity and fitness tracking I wouldn't consider any other brand. Polar is the Mercedes Benz of activity and fitness trackers. They've been doing this since the late 80's, I believe, and it's the brand athletes and trainers use. It does exactly what it promises.IMPORTANT: This device is waterproof, not just water resistant as other devices are, meaning you can swim with it, shower with it, and all other activities that may involve water.Also, this device doesn't need to be told when you go to sleep. It just knows. Huge advantage over the others out there.You can sync it with two apps on your phone: Polar Flow for daily activity tracking and summary, with charts and all, and Polar Beat to track your training and work out, along with the heart rate monitor.But you don't need to plug it to your phone to view your stats. It will display them right on the bracelet: calories, steps, activity, and what you need to do to meet the daily goal, and of course, the time of the day. And yes, it's Bluetooth.When cutting it to size, they've already taken into account the slack for your wrist. There are other great reviews here that cover that aspect in detail and they were very helpful. I'd advise you read those. Plus there is a You Tube video. I used the video and it worked perfectly.The "time to get up and move" reminder is great. The one thing I wish it did have was a vibrate feature because it only displays, and if you're busy and not looking at it, you'll miss it. But aside from that, it's a great product and great value for your money.As far as the battery charge, I wear it 24/7 and I have to charge it every 3-4 days. But it charges very quickly, usually in less than 15 minutes. I'm sure as the battery gets older it'll need to charge more often and it may take a little longer, but so far, I've had it for 8 months and it's been working as promised.Important to note:If you're looking to track your every move via GPS 24/7, this is not for you. It'll track your GPS movements when you connect it to your phone app Polar Beat when you work out. After all, that's all I need GPS for. Why would I need 24/7 GPS tracking, I'm not so sure.If you're looking to track your heart rate 24/7, this may be inconvenient because it'll need the heart rate monitor strap and device along. But does one really need to do that 24/7? I only track my heart rate when working out. And I wear the strap and device then, along with the Polar Beat app. It captures my every move and heart rate during the work out time.So, the GPS and heart beat tracking are great to track workouts. And it performs excellently on those two fronts. If I did that 24/7, it'll wear on the battery and I wouldn't want 24/7 Bluetooth on around me. From the holistic point of view, it may not be good for the body's own electromagnetic activity, in the long run. But that's just my opinion.The rest of the day it just tracks my steps, calories and movement, as well as sleep patterns, even if I take a nap or fall sleep.Love this device. Will buy another one when this one goes. Polar is the way to go when it comes to these devices. I wouldn't consider any other brand, so far.

Love, love, love this watch. I used to own the polar FT7, but alway curious about everyday calories or steps done in a day. Thought about switching to Fitbit until I discovered the Polar Loop, and I was instantly sold. I didn't care that the HR monitor was sold separately. I do circuit training workout too, so having a HR monitor for accurate fat and burn reading is a must. I had a hard time adjusting the complexity of the Loop at first, but once I got it, it was really easy. I also use the app on my phone, I try to sync it the least possible because I think it drains both my phone and watch. It looks cool too. On my hand it looks like an oversize bracelet.

I work in Physical Therapy, therefore I can ask several people what they recommend.When I asked, fitbit, and jawbone were at the top of the list.I read lots of reviews and decided on the polar loop even though no one had mentioned it.Things I knew were cons when I bought it:1) Did not have a nap 'alarm' that woke you up at the most beneficial place in your sleep2) You had to cut the band to use itLet me just say, I LOVE THIS BAND!I've seen complaints about the cutting (I didn't mind), I saw complaints about the battery (It lasted 5 days on its first run, and I'll change this review if it stops workings well), but I LOVE that it can connect to a Heart Rate monitor (it's a extra you have to buy).The only thing I find weird is that is says I need to reach 9.5 hours to reach my goal for the day, but I almost never reach it. I am on my feet for 8 hours a day for work, and that doesn't include things at work. But I think it's because I'm holding things in my hands all day.This band tracks sleep, sitting, walking, jogging, and running. It tells you how well you slept (restless versus restful). It tells you things you can do to reach your goal! It keeps me motivated and I can track how well I'm training with the additional heart rate monitor! If you are looking for a easy to use waterproof watch, that tracks your activity, can track your heart rate, and has an application it syncs with an iPhone this is the one for you!

First, don't buy this unless you're getting the H6 (for iPhone) or H7 chest strap. This review is based on using the Loop and chest strap. Currently the price for both can be had for about $150 on Amazon if you hold out for a sale. Considering the price of the Nike Fuelband at $150 and the Fitbit Force at $130, the chest strap for the Loop is a no-brainer and must have all at once.Why? because the Fitbit Force and Nike Fuel Band units will never use heart rate data, a deal-breaker for a legit exercise tracker. A $130-150 pedometer like the Fitbit and Fuel band are simply too expensive in my opinion if they exclude heart rate tracking. At $150 and higher you're well into heart rate monitor pricing and well past e-pedometers.Let's talk about sleep. Some have opined that the Fitbits are better for this. Total nonsense. If you're using the chest strap, the Loop provides *minute by minute* tracking of your sleep. You can even see if you experience PAC and PVC's during deep sleep on your chart using the Polar Flow website. Do Fitbit Force users know what PAC/PVC is? Of course not because their devices don't use heart rate at all. Basically when you awake you remove the chest strap, synch the Loop to your laptop (very fast compared to Nike) and you'll have a graph showing you (A) how long it took for you to get into deep sleep, (B) how many calories were burned during sleep,(C) what your resting heart rate is during deep sleep and (D) what the heart rate is during light sleep, (E)how many minutes or hours are spent deep sleep,(F) if you are restless sleeper as it shows when your breathing pattern was interrupted and (G) how many PAC or PVC's you experience in a night. If you think that wrist movement alone like on the Fitbit during sleep is all you need to analyze your sleep then have been misled by Fitbit reviewers. This aspect of the Polar loop and chest strap alone makes it worth buying. You would have to check into a Hospital Sleep Center to have this kind of data analysis at your finger tips. For which they would bill your insurance thousands of dollars.Some have complained that they don't know how to mark the begining or end of a workout when viewing the data on the Polar Flow website or App. Simple: get dressed for your workout and make sure the very last thing you do before you begin is to put on the chest strap (and hold the Loop up to it for it to connect). Dab a little water under the chest strap's blue tooth transmiter, it speeds up the linking. When you are done with the workout and have recovered for a few minutes remove the chest strap. This stops the data recording of heart rate. The Loop will continue to record your foot steps however. That workout is now a "feed". When I log on to Polar Flow I typically have two feeds a day. One is 7-8 hours for sleep. The other is 1.5-2.0 hours for workouts. In essence putting on and removing the chest strap acts as a stop watch. After your workout its good to leave it on until you've recovered your heart rate back towards the resting heart rate zone, or where you were when you began workout. Analyzing this data is important as it shows how quickly you can recover from exertion. As you workout more, this recovery time should begin to shrink. For example a very out of shape person climbing stairs will often be panting for a while afterwards. Since buying the Loop I wear the chest strap frequently to gauge how many calories are burned and the level of heart activity for common activities like walking in the mall or the supermarket. For example a long five hour shopping trip resulted in typical heart rate of 80 bmps and 1,300 calories burned (my resting heart rate for sleep is 55-60 bpms). This shopping trip was enough to meet my minimum activity goal for the day. On the Polar Flow website under "Diary" it showed 130% of the daily goal achieved and it also displayed the average for that week of 120%, thereby demonstrating short-term consistency towards a long-term goal. There were also hyperlinks for each calendar day that took you to the graph for that day's workout when the chest strap was used.Important: by using heart rate tracking you can see how hard those 10 miles you just hiked actually were. The Fitbit and Nike will only show the steps hiked but what if those 10 miles were a mix of hard uphill steps where you had to expend much more energy? Well without heart rate tracking it registers them all as the same. What if you walked those miles at a brisk pace? Only the Loop and chest strap combination records that data, and it does so with the most accurate alogrithm for calories burned in the exercise industry.I'm Android user, no there's no app yet. No big deal I can use use the Polar Flow website from my PC or Laptop to get at the data for exercise or sleep sessions until then. The Android app will come at some point so no point throwing out the baby with the bath water because of impatience. The issue is that Android devices have not all gotten on the same page about bluetooth stack so the app developers are left waiting for the phone makers to get it together. It's not Polar's fault. Either way its not huge deal because I will spend more time analyzing the Loop's data from the comfort of larger PC or laptop screen than a 4-5" phone display. Also, while I'm viewing this data the Loop is charging since its connected via the USB cable. It charges very quickly and its a good idea to charge it every three days. If the charge goes too low I find that the sensor is less responsive.Let me address the device itself. Some say cutting the band is negative. That's a matter of opinion and I could not disagree with that view more. The Loop uses a dual-deployant clasp, something you only see on high end sports watches like Tag Heuer. Once you're sized up the fit is SECURE, it will not come loose like some have complained on other wrist trackers. And getting it on takes 1/10 of a second because it's using a much better engineered spring-loaded clasp. I give this five stars on product design. Well done. Nothing fits better than a custom fit, you get that here. If you're worried about cutting it,take it to a high end watch store in the mall, they have experience with this. But if you do it yourself it will take about 10 minutes use a new pair of $2 scissors and cut in between the holes. Hint, use your finger nail to squeeze the push pins back into the bracelet once you're don cutting. But use the special tool included to remove the push pins. If you lose the tool just use a safety pin.As for the button that some people complain doesn't work. First of all it's NOT a button. It's a sensor. You have to hold your finger over it long enough for the device to sense the input. Much like the heart rate sensors on the handles of an elliptical machine at the gym. Once the device is awakened for the first time that day, the second touch will work quickly. This keeps the Loop from turning on inadvertently too many times which will drain the battery. The fact that the Loop is fully waterproof well past 10 feet must also add to that barrier as well. Once I wake the device for the day, like when on my bike ride, I will rub the sensor against my chin to light up the screen. This keeps at least one hand on the handlebars with my eyes on the road ahead. When I'm running it's easier for me to check the screen this way as well. It will display the last category you looked at previously. I keep mine set at "heart rate" when using the chest strap during exercise or on "time of day" for the rest of the day when I'm not wearing the chest strap. A second swipe of the sensor against my chin brings up the next window which can be "steps walked" (10K steps is about 5 miles), a third swipe brings up "calories burned", a fourth "activity". Now let's discuss "activity", the Polar Flow algorithm computes based on your height, weight and age the necessary number of steps you need to walk each day to arrive at your ideal level of activity. As you walk more the meter, which is just a red LED rectangle, fills up like a tall glass of water. When using the chest strap during exercise this fills up faster as it knows you are working harder. When the rectangle fills up to 50% I step on the pace so that later on, when I'm viewing this on my laptop on the Polar Flow website, I will see a higher level of work: more calories burned more work done. This is hugely motivating.I'm a cyclist and have been using Polar since 1992 to guide my exercise (using the Polar Favor). For the beginners, when you're doing exercise you can multiply your maximum heart rate (subract your age from 220) and multiply your maximum by 0.65 (or 65%). This the minimum heart rate during exercise that you need to stay at in order to begin burning fat. You will burn more fat all the way up to your maximum. Some stay within 65-80% to keep from bonking out too soon. When you remain above 80% your body needs help from more than just your existing fat stores. But the plus side for lurching above 80% is that you burn more fat in total and increase your endurance. The best workouts by far are high intensity interval training (HIIT) where you're basically play a cat and mouse game of moving your heart rate to the upper end (moving above 80%), slowing down for your heart rate to recover below the fat burning zone for a minute or two and then racing back up to the top. One method is to increase the amount of time you spend above 80% and then reverse the trend for the remaining sets. There's plenty on YouTube about this type of training if you wish to expolore it further. In the end high intensity invertal training will give you the hugely beneficial after-burn effect: although you have stopped exercising your body continues to burn off fat. Now explain to me how you are going to do any of this with a Fitbit Force or Fuelband if they leave out heart rate monitoring? How will you know when you're back below 65% for the required recovery or when you've gone over 80%? You're not. You're guessing. Too bad you spent $150 on those other devices when you could've had this.Also, the Loop with the chest strap is versatile as you can use it to track exercise where you're not really moving your upper body like when biking or skiing. Or perhaps during circuit training with weights where you are intentionally trying to move your arms and legs slowly but your heart rate is well into the aerobic zone. The Fitbit Force and Fuelband will not accurately record this type of activity while the Loop will show you every calorie burned and earned. If you were slacking during that work out it will show you that ugly truth as well.Yes there is no nutrition component yet, but if you have a smart phone there are a ton of Android and iOS apps that will do that for you. And yes the Loop does not have a GPS tracker like some higher end Polar or Garmin monitors costing hundreds more but again your smartphone can take care of that as well if you download apps like Endomondo. That particular app will stop when you rest to check a text or something or are a traffic light crossing and will automatically continue when you are moving again. Afterwards you can see how fast your ran or biked and as well as the route you used on Google Maps. So for the casual but committed athlete there's no sense is buying a second GPS unit for your biking and running when it's already in your pocket with the power of a dual or quad core processor. Which means its really just the swimmers that need a waterproof GPS device. For the non-swimmers perhaps Polar could integrate your phone's GPS into the Polar Flow app as well. There's a great deal of improvement ahead no need to wait for it to be all perfect and ideal before jumping onboard with a great device.Apple have apparently filed a patent to start incorporating heart rate into future iPhones. I doubt the data will be as good as Polar's whove been at this for 30+ years. And Apple's first attempt will not be their best, just looke at the Apple Maps debacle. And half the phone market belongs to Android which means an Apple activity tracking device will be of no use to 50% of us. (Hint Polar/Google collaboration). Point is Polar is a proven global brand in heart rate tracking and Fibit and Nike have some trouble ahead if their devices are to compete with Apple without using heart rate tracking. They could all be obsolete within 2 years.Polar Loop gets my vote for fitness tracker of 2013.

Purchased this to replace a Fitbit Flex.Beats the Flex handsdown!! Why.....- A better clasp and band. My Flex came loose one too many times and ended up lost for the last time.- Gives real time data at the tap of a button. Flex can't.- Also gives the time. Flex doesn't. If I am going to wear a band on my wrist, it only seems natural that I be able to look at the wrist for the time.Several friends who have seen the Loop on my wrist ask what that cool thing is. When I tell them and show them what it does several have purchsed it and are just as happy with it.My only complaint that the Loop software was not set up to display miles based upon the steps and your stride. I would think that Polar could do this with a download to the software that could do this during the sync.

I had a Fitbit Flex for ~18 months until it fell off my wrist one day when I was out walking, and was never seen again.The bracelet was definitely the weakest link in that design, since they wore out frequently and had a tendency to snap open and fall off. After existing for a few months without a Fitbit, I realized that I had lost my motivation to get out and walk and get my 10,000+ steps in, so I decided that the Fitbit Charge HR Wristband was a better solution for me. The watch-style strap ensures that it will never fall off. It's a bit clunky looking on my small wrist, but I don't really mind, since so many people wear them these days, and everyone knows what it is. I also no longer have to wear a separate watch.

I find the Heart Rate counter to be quite accurate after comparing it several times to a manual count. The step counter, however, is not quite as accurate. I count out 100 steps while walking and the Fitbit usually records about 95 steps. 5% accuracy rate isn't going to bother me that much, as I will just have to walk 5% more to get credit for the 10,000 steps ! I also like the stair counter, and it seems to be fairly accurate. It also keeps my honest because I really thought I was going up and down the stairs in my house more often during a day -- now sometimes I just charge up and down a few times just to get the counter to register a higher number.

The sleep tracker isn't particularly accurate for me, because I read my Kindle in bed for 15-30 minutes each night and sometimes in the morning too; it tends to regard this as sleep or restless time since so little motion is required to turn the pages on the Kindle.

I enjoy the social / challenge aspects of the Fitbit App and Dashboard. I like seeing how many steps my daughters are completing each day, as well as some of my friends.

Setup was fairly easy, though there seemed to be no way to do it on the PC, since I had to deactivate the old Fitbit and link to the new one. It was much easier to do it on the Android App, though the Fitbit arrived with no charge on the battery and I had to recharge before I could do anything.

I miss my Fitbit. It took me a while to realize that I had made a mistake by switching from my Fitbit Charge HR to a Moto 360 smartwatch. I have been apart of Fitbit for several years, ever since I received a Fitbit flex for my birthday two years ago I have loved Fitbit, and I've upgraded twice since. The wristband is comfortable to wear and the tracking information is the most accurate I have seen. What really won me over as a fan was the customer service and the Fitbit app. If I ever had a problem or question with my Fitbit I felt comfortable enough to send a message to customer services and received help back very quickly. They were helpful, respectful, and accommodating. The app is incredible and I have continued to use it even after I switched to the Moto 360 . The app is one of the best apps that I've seen in tracking calories, weight, water, and exercise. So, if I loved Fitbit so much, then why did I switch? I fear that I may have gotten caught up in the smartwatch whirl wind and looked for a watch that would be better with phone notifications. Phone notifications was my one complaint with the Fitbit Charge HR. It was said to notify you when a phone call was coming in, but often this feature was delayed so that I wouldn't be notified until after the call came in. I switched to the Moto 360 because I thought I would be able to get the best of both worlds (notifications and steps tracked). I never imagined that I would miss my Fitbit for the accuracy, sleep tracking, battery life, and excellent service. I will not make that mistake again. I may even look into getting an upgrade. Trust me, there is no better company out there than Fitbit.

Standard for all my reviews: When reviewing products, I always remain objective and honest about the product or service. I always review with information that I feel others would like to know about the product as I always assume what I'm writing will influence for or against the purchase. I always try to go above and beyond surface characteristics and input into quality, value and application. Most importantly, I will always end the review with an answer as to whether I'd purchase the product again which I believe is the most critical question pertaining to the item. To manufacturers: Want me to review your items, just let me know!

I love my Fitbits and so does my family. I won't bother with other knockoffs or brands. My daughter was the recipient for this one and she loves the color and functionality. Fitbit makes a great quality device and while some are calling these an exercise fad, I don't see it. I also used the Nike Fuel band and the tracking, challenges, etc. make for a more immersive experience that makes you want to move to get your goal in. We like to track our steps and the activities that we're doing when we get our goal. There's been multiple occasions where instead of plopping down into bed that I've been doing jumping jacks in front of it instead to get my goal before going to sleep. Movement is movement. Life is about movement and anything that can help motivate you to move is a good thing. Fitibit has a great product, is a great company and I look forward to more features and benefits as the products mature.

I love my fitbit. I had previously owned a polar heart rate monitor with a chest strap. I never just wore it around the house and It didn't tell me how many steps I had gone or really anything but time, calories burned and heart rate. I paid just as much for that as I did this. I wish this was out a few years ago when I made the purchase.
The heart rate monitor is pretty accurate. And more comfortable. I run 3-4 miles 4 days a week and the first time I used the fitbit I also used my chest monitor to see how similar they would read. The fitbit seems to take a bit longer to register but ultimately they seem about the same. So really no point in wearing the chest strap now. I use to hate wearing watches too. The fitbit I wear all the time. It's not too bulky it doesn't pinch and it motivates me to do more! I love doing the challenges with friends too!!

Full disclosure, I ordered the Fitbit Charge HR only after I gave up on Jawbone fulfilling my preorder for the Up3 and once I realized the Fitbit Surge was like having a VCR strapped to your wrist. Further complicating my decision was the reviews that were all over the place on Amazon. Either people loved it or they thought it was the biggest piece of crap ever. I am writing this review to try and offer a realistic perspective for those looking to buy the Fitbit Charge HR.
First, disregard the reviews from all the "personal trainers" and "hardcore" gym goers out there. It's amazing how everyone becomes a trainer or gym rat when reviewing a piece of workout equipment. Wrist based heart rate monitoring is still in its infancy and if, and I stress if, you are so hardcore that a possible 5-10 beat variation is so critical then you need to stay with chest based HR monitoring for awhile. The Charge HR isn't for that. Not to mention, I haven't seen that it is off like others have said. I was skeptical and I have a Garmin Running GPS watch with a chest HR strap and I see the two being pretty consistent.
Second, I cannot stress enough the quality of the Fitbit app and web based dashboard. They are motivational and intuitive and they give you goals to shoot for. I have yet to see any sync issues or any of the other nonsense I have seen in other reviews.
Finally, $150 is a lot of money but it less than other comparable products out there. To me this is the perfect entry level device. If you like the concept and are disciplined, then you can upgrade to another device. if you are trying to get a snapshot of what you are doing on a daily basis and how you can make some life and fitness improvements, this device is a perfect way in. If you are a "personal trainer" or just "crushing it" beyond what the Charge can handle, you should probably do another set of burpees, stick with chest strap HR monitors and save your "insightful" reviews for Flex magazine.
Bottom line; the Charge HR is well worth the money. No product is perfect but this one does perform as promised. Amazon has the best customer relations of any company out there so if you don't like it you can send it back anyway. I hope this review helps. I know when I was looking, these reviews can be ridiculous, contradict and misleading. Give it a shot! You won't be sorry!

Loved this activity tracker for its merits but not the seller, unfortunately. When I received my Polar Loop, I could see that the package had been previously opened. Everything was intact but not everything was in its original state. Parts were loose and caught between pieces of packaging, outside of the plastic bag where they should've been. It would have been easy to assume that these loose parts had not been included (several of the pins and the tool for affixing them to the buckle and band) but I did find them, eventually. Unfortunately, when I synced the Polar Loop, I received a battery LOW message in Polar Flow despite it simultaneously charging to 100% capacity via USB. A light bulb went on and I realized that this was not brand new, and had most likely been sitting around as overstock somewhere after being returned, with all parts hastily and carelessly, thrown back into the packaging/box by a previous buyer. I have now returned this activity tracker for a full refund. Four stars for the tracker, marked down from five due to the seller. :/ I bought another Polar Loop directly from Polar's website to insure that what I am getting is a brand new Polar Loop with a fresh battery. Correction: Polar is no longer selling the Polar Loop, in lieu of the Polar 2. Good luck with whatever you, the potential buyer, decide. Just remember that a good price is not necessarily a good buy. :-)

I purchased the polar loop because I wanted a device that wasn't quite as expensive as the FitBit, but still served the purpose of counting steps, ect. Overall, I really do love my polar loop - it counts my calories, activity and steps and displays the information in real time on the screen. It's a really great tool for motivation, as you can "see" your progress throughout the day and it actually tells you what activities you need to do to reach your goal - ex: jog 5 minutes, walk 10 minutes. While I like my device, the app (I have an Android) needs A LOT of work and is actually quite frustrating because it refuses to work properly. Secondly, you have to actually cut your loop with scissors to fit the size of your wrist. The process was time consuming a slightly confusing. Lastly, I purchased the black bracelet that has LED letters on the scrolling screen. It's okay, but to me, it's sort of masculine. Instead, I wish I would have purchased the dark purple color (it is very dark and can pass as black) with the light LED coloring. In all, the polar loop is a great way to track your activity throughout the day, but the technology is lacking.

As a wrist-worn tracker, it's fun, comfortable, and looks pretty good . However, the Android app from Polar is famously and effectively broken, as the band will not sync with the app after about 10am every day. So in that regard, it's a flawed product and I would look at other brands, at least until this app problem is resolved. If that's not important to you, then it might be worth looking at.I dislike having to physically cut the band to make it fit my wrist. Once it's cut, you can't go back and make it larger. So the band fits my wrist only, and my wife or son can't really wear it unless I cut it down more.Battery life is fine, I go about 3 or 4 days on a charge. Recharging is extremely quick, less than an hour to 100%.***UPDATE***The app sync issue seems to have been fixed.

I've had this for about 3 weeks now, so I feel like I can accurately write a decent review.First of all, this is the first tracker I've seen that's more than a glorified pedometer. As someone who lifts weights for fitness and doesn't do cardio, those other trackers that focus more on steps than anything else are useless. The fact that this comes with a HRM helps a ton! Squatting doesn't take "steps", but maxing out on squats gets your heart rate up pretty high. For that reason I invested in this guy.The design is decent - it's no larger or smaller than the average band. It's slightly bigger than the FitBit and doesn't have the option to change out the design. Be careful with sizing it - it's one of those things where you cut the band to make it fit. Once you cut there's no turning back!It's also ACTUALLY waterproof. I've swam with it, I've showered with it, etc. with absolutely NO issue to the design or integrity of the device. That's really helpful for swimmers or people who forget to take it off when they shower (me).A design con, however, is how responsive the touch screen is. The "button" you press isn't so much a button as it's a very sensitive touch screen. I've had trouble shifting around in moving theaters and setting off the bright screen and making people around me look. In the future having an ACTUAL button might be useful to prevent these issues.It pairs seamlessly with the HRM, which I love. Make sure when you put the monitor on you press the button through to make sure it's joined to the device. I've exercised once or twice and apparently the HRM didn't sync with it :( Oh well!Overall I'm very happy with this product, and it's an amazing step forward for these types of devices.I hope in the future they offer what others fitness devices offer - a chance to synch it to your MyFitnessPal/LoseIt/etc. so you can track ins and outs. That's not currently an option.

Great product, easy to use and easy to wear. The toughest part of the set-up is sizing the band. I made it a little bigger than the measurement and then trimmed it down one link at a time until it fit right. A little time consuming but worth the effort. The software works on Android without issue and the bluetooth sync is easy enough.There is a major Achilles heal on this product, which is why I can't give it 5 stars. The charging cable is proprietary and if you lose it, you're done. I've read other reviews mentioning this but thought I'd take a chance since there's no way I would ever lose the cable, right? RIGHT...it fell out of my briefcase somewhere and I had no idea until I got the message that the battery was low. (side note - the battery stays charged for about 3 days on average rather than 5) I thought it would be easy enough to just go to the Polar website and purchase a new one. It's not that easy - they're out of stock and no one else carries them. I've been out to the site several times after purchasing my Loop thinking I'd buy a second cable to plug in at the office - once less cord I'd have to carry around - but they were always out of stock. I never thought much about it...until now.Now, I'm stuck with a product that I can't use and have no idea when I'll ever be able to use it again.UPDATE December 2014 -After a wait to get the charging cable and an email into customer service at Polar, Polar did let me know as soon as new cords were available. Shipping was far faster than expected and my Loop is right back in service.I'm adding one more star since Polar customer service is pretty darned good and exceeded my expectations.Overall, I'd recommend this band over others. Since purchasing my Loop, my wife purchased a VivoFit and my son purchased a FitBit. When comparing the 3, we all agree I got the better deal. It doesn't monitor heart rate but the new products that Polar has released do and Polar seems to be the best out there at heart rate monitors. Maybe I'll upgrade in the future but for now, I'm happy with this product.Recommendation - buy a second charging cable before you think you'll need it!

Wish I could give 4.5, it's really quite good, it does what it's intended to do and is waterproof unlike many similar products. Keep in mind the intent of an activity monitor like this is meant to give you an estimate of general activity level and calories burned (not a highly accurate measurement) and make it possible to compare the relative amounts of activity and sleep duration and quality across some time period.The only reasons I don't give 5 stars are:1) won't sync with iphone app after around 7pm CST until early morning hours. Repeated attempts to sync sometimes work after restarting the phone etc, but it's annoying. Bluetooth icon on the phone flashes but the app never shows new data. You could still sync to a PC but it would be nice if after getting in bed each night it would sync so data could be viewed at the end of the day without hassle. This is probably really just a software issue in the app, perhaps it will be fixed one day.2) No android app yet, come on!3) No API so no My Fitness Pal integration or working with the data except using Polar's app and website tools.4) Band could be more comfortable. It's not that it's truly uncomfortable, but that I tend to still notice that I'm wearing it especially at night even after several weeks of nearly continuous use. I have metal banded watches that are less noticeable on the wrist, I think maybe it's because the sides of the band are fairly square and also it doesn't twist/flex as easily as a multi-linked metal watch band. I've even considered figuring out how to fit a different band to it, but it would require destructive modifications that would ruin the existing band if they didn't work out.5) Display difficult to read in full sun. This is a trade off since it seems the LEDs may likely draw more current than the entire rest of the device so brighter display would mean worst battery life. I feel they designers overall struck a good compromise between brightness and battery usage but for those who care about such things, keep in mind it will be nearly impossible to read in direct sun unless you shade it with your hand which is awkward and goofy to do while running. Perhaps a higher-end future model could use an OLED or e-ink display. I'd pay more for it.More positives:1) battery life is good, you can get a solid 3 days if you don't use the heartrate monitor strap with it2) was a good value compared to a basic polar watch that syncs with the H6 but lacks activity monitor featuresUpdate - I forgot to mention the button/sensor, the only means you have of interacting with the device other than over the PC. I find the touch-sensitive sensor works just fine and it responds 19 times out of 20 on the first press. In the event it doesn't register the touch of your finger, the solution is to release and touch again gently, almost like a tap seems to work best. Pushing harder won't help since it's a sensor not a button with a switch.

I originally purchased this to try to help me track my cycles and get pregnant sooner. I've read that your resting heart rate fluctuates during the month depending on whether you're ovulating, on your period, and can even tell you if you're pregnant since the heart rate will continue rising after conception. I've had it for about two weeks, and has already been much more useful than I expected! So far, the heart rate/cycle thing really seems to be accurate, which is super encouraging! But I'm also learning a LOT about my sleep patterns, which has always been a huge struggle for me. Turns out I wake up/am restless throughout the whole night, and it takes me much longer to fall asleep than I thought! I also love the vibrating alarm, since I used to turn off my phone alarms when I was half-awake. Somehow the vibrating alarm works better! And I absolutely love the vibrating call notification. I'm a freelance photographer, and can't risk missing a call from a possible client if my phone is in a bag or in the next room. I charge it every day while in the shower, and wear it constantly the rest of the time.

The heart rate seems very accurate, just compared to the good old fashioned finger-to-the-wrist-and-a-stopwatch method. The step counter seems like it's a little generous? Sometimes I'll have already "walked" a hundred or so steps when I first wake up in the morning! I guess it just counts from midnight, and maybe from tossing and turning in bed. I don't use it for the step counter at all, so that doesn't matter to me, but something to keep in mind!

I have the small "tangerine" model. It's definitely for people with tiny wrists (like me), maybe even children or teens. And it's definitely more red than orange, if that's important to you. I just didn't want to spend extra for the black or gray. (What a ripoff!)

I would recommend this for anyone using it for their heart rate, maybe not the step counter. I'll have to see if the device falls apart after a few months, like some have experienced, but I'm not especially active so maybe it will last longer.

It's a fun toy and a reasonably good motivational tool to get out and put in a little extra work. Finding out that my pulse dipped to strangely low numbers while I slept was interesting. But despite using it regularly, upping my activity to include a daily 1-hour walk in addition to 5-days-a-week gym time, and some dietary adjustments...

...several months after picking this up, I'm still virtually the same (over)weight that I started out.

That's not the device's fault, of course. But when I bought it I thought, "Hey, so this will help motivate me to add some extra exercise and quantify it, and that will help me get in shape." And it did (and does, I'm wearing it right now because I do like it) the first three of those things. But tracking your activity isn't magic; if you're not going to make significant lifestyle changes (apparently more significant than adding 2 hours a week of gym time to the existing 3, and a daily walk), this isn't going to make things all better.

Nitpicks:

It does seem to have issues with higher heart rates; wearing it a notch tighter than would seem natural and a little higher up on the wrist helps keep it from losing track above 130 BPM, but either I'm in bizarre shape for a heavyset middle-aged guy or it just refuses to track above 155 BPM except very infrequently.

It also counts brushing your teeth, washing dishes, etc., as steps sometimes. (And if you want a quick way to 30,000 steps a day, just mow the lawn with an old, vibratey lawnmower!) And if your arms aren't moving (e.g., holding the handrail on a treadmill or the static handbars on an elliptical), it's not counting steps. And (though the sleep tracker is awesome and very informative), sometimes when you sit still for an hour watching TV it thinks you're asleep.

I have no way to know if the calorie count estimates are right, but while the device's manual food tracking tool is neat, proper use of the out-via-tracker versus-in-via-manual-tracking should add up to weight loss for any reasonable human being (5000 calorie days should lose you about a pound when you eat 1500 calories that day). But it doesn't. Which means that either (again) I'm the weirdest human being ever and absolutely immune to exercise, or the calorie estimator is just a TOUCH optimistic.

What it does right:

* Very accurate step counting, when you're actually walking/running.
* Very accurate heartrate monitoring below 155 BPM
* Reasonably accurate sleep monitoring
* Detects running and elliptical activity; doesn't know what to do with stuff like basketball or yardwork, but that's expecting a lot.

Overall, having the data IS fun and I'd recommend purchasing this... just don't expect miracles.

Update December 2016. Sadly, my mother passed on at the end of September, so I'm no longer trying to manage 2 Fitbit HR's in the same house. After all the hubbub with her funeral and so forth and giving her Fitbit to a friend, I was no longer exhausting myself taking care of her, I decided it was time to take better care of myself, and got into walking every day, and this thing works great as a motivator and also helps me track my calories burned, which is VERY useful when you're modifying your diet and trying to figure out what works well, and what's not so much. It does act erratically on rare occasions, like the time it just decided one night to stop recording steps. I was at 6,990 steps, so I just walked up and down the hall to bounce it over 7,000, but it just wouldn't budge. Or the night it decided (even though I wasn't wearing it) that I was burning calories like crazy. I wrote tech support, and they were absolutely fabulous, responding back MUCH faster than I expected given it's a few days before Christmas, with a wonderful and gracious email with explanatory background on how the fitbit works, and links to try resetting it and so forth. After another exchange, they noted it was still under warranty (I hadn't even thought about that) and offered to replace my current model, or 30% off an upgrade to the Charge 2. I'd had my eye on the Charge 2 (you should definitely check it out), but I finally decided I would only actually use a few of the new features, so I stayed with the older model for free.

If there were separate ratings for customer service, they'd get 5 stars for that.

Physically, I'm feeling a lot better for getting more movement into my day, and I strongly recommend this gadget to any seniors who are "feeling their age". Just be prepared to spend some time figuring out the software. And like any new technology, there are a few bugs to work out.

Original post from June of 2016
I HATE HATE HATE the software for this thing. I used to write software, and believe me, software that didn't include an option to back out of a process or to correct a user error (such as forgetting to move your elderly mother's Fitbit to another room while you sync'd yours) or thought about options for tracking two Fitbits on the same device (because your mother's device is not compatible) just would not even have made it out the door. It's really quite disgraceful. The concept is a great idea, my sister and I initially bought one for my mother because we're having a lot of difficulty motivating her to move more than she does. I initially liked the concept so much I bought one for myself, but now I really regret having bought either one. I finally got mine talking to my computer after several botched attempts at both, and while trying to resync my Mom's, it unsync'd mine. I have yet to get them both communicating with their respective devices, and I resent the lengths I've had to go to get each one it's own device. I'm also irritated that it's so confusing to find the setting you want within the software. This is a truly disgraceful implementation of a rather clever concept.

My husband and I love our Fitbit Charge HRs. We originally purchased Garmin Vivosmarts. We loved the notification features on the Garmin and the fact that they were waterproof, but the Garmin app is not user friendly at all. I had previously had a Fitbit One and have also used a Jawbone UP24; the Fitbit app is by far my favorite app for fitness tracking. Competing with our friends within the Fitbit app has definitely pushed us to be more active and its helping us to better reach our goals.
When it came down to it, we thought, does the band really need to be worn in the shower and do we really need to have our emails and texts on our wrist? The answer for us was no, if we wanted these features, we would have been shopping for a smart watch not a fitness band or we would have pushed through our frustrations with the Garmin app. For us, the most important features were steps, altitude (flights of stairs), HR, activities, and sleep. The Fitbit Charge HR has all of the features we were looking for. The HR tracker on the Fitbit Charge HRs is a great feature to have to make sure you are exercising with enough intensity to reach your goals. The HR monitor does tend to dig in to our wrists some if the band is worn too tight or we end up lying on our arms, but this is not a big issue for us as it can be easily remedied by repositioning.

Like many reviewers, I eagerly anticipated the release of the Fitbit Charge HR. Having recently purchased a Fitbit Charge, I felt like the missing heart rate component was necessary to give me a full picture of my activity, for it captures a component of energy expenditure that direct body motion itself cannot. With all of the above being said, I received the Fitbit Charge HR yesterday and charged it to full capacity before its first use. Having now used it for almost a full day (22 hours), it definitely keeps an accurate resting heart rate for myself when tested against my Polar strap and the heart rate monitor app on my iPhone. In fact, each only differs by roughly a few beats per minute. The heart rate tracking for more intense exercise, however, does seem more erratic at first, but it appears to normalize after a few minutes....perhaps due to my heart finding a steady, comfortable pace during my exercise that the Charge HR can both recognize and average out?

I am thrilled with the prospect of all-day tracking, but I am disappointed that the battery life seems rather lackluster. Despite having charged the device fully yesterday and setting the heart rate tracking to "auto" (which supposedly saves power), my device is now at 1/2 a charge only 22 hours into use. I can surmise that I might be able to get another 22 hours out of this based upon my present state of use. Essentially, we are looking at 2 days of battery life when the expectation is 4-5 days. I suppose I could turn off the the HR tracking altogether, but that defeats the purpose of all-day HR tracking, without which I would have simply remained with the basic Fitbit Charge.

Another small quibble is that I actually prefer the aesthetics of the basic Fitbit Charge. The texture of the material and the diagonal groove did not attract lint or dirt, and, aesthetically, it seems slightly more sublime, which is what I want in any fitness tracker. The Charge HR has a small diamond pattern that accumulates lint more readily and, perhaps unlike most people, I preferred the clasp structure on the Charge versus the watch-type band on the Charge HR.

Bottom-line:
---It works for resting HR, but HR accuracy may be lacking initially for intense workouts.
---Battery life is sacrificed for HR monitoring (expect roughly 2 days on a full charge)
---Band material and pattern accumulates lint more readily

Fitbit makes some great products, and the Fitbit Charge HR is no exception. I would have ideally preferred the style and battery life of the basic Fitbit Charge with simply addition of the HR component.

I was looking for a fitness tracker that I could wear while swimming. This one was inexpensive and waterproof, so it's the one I chose. I don't know that it's particularly accurate, but I do like that it keeps track of how much (it thinks) I sleep and ho much activity I've had. The wristband is annoying, though; it is not adjustable, so you have to be very careful to measure & cut it properly. It also occasionally shines in the middle of the night, which I don't like. I did find that I started to get a rash from wearing it all the time, but I finally realized that I can open the latch & push it a bit further up my arm when I sleep, so it will still keep track of my sleep but it won't rub on my skin.Unlike the name-brand Fitbit, it only synchs through the computer; you can look at your current progress while you're wearing it, but to get any details, you need to plug it in. But, for a low-end fitness tracker, it is quite sufficient.

This was the first fitness tracker I purchased myself. I did research and this seemed like it would meet my needs for my fitness routine and goals. I enjoyed the "calories burned" feature, which I thought to be pretty accurate. It is lightweight and the design looked classier and more tasteful than other trackers I've seen. When you first get the loop, you trim it to the size of your wrist with a scissors and then assemble it, which I think is a pretty decent way to get the best custom fit. I downloaded the polar loop app on my iPhone and it is very cool. It has a lot of graphic content and has a fun interface - one of my favorite things about using the loop. It can sync daily info to your device via bluetooth. The updates do not work this way, though. I have received a message on my phone before telling me that I have to "connect your Polar Loop to your computer for updates and syncing". That was inconvenient because I was away from home and was unable to do that.I had some issues with this product that have made it really annoying to use. The battery life seems short to me, and the memory seems to fill up fast. It takes a little bit longer than I would like to sync it to my computer than I would like, which caused a barrier for me to have the memory freed up and the device available for continued use and tracking. There seemed to be too many updates that needed to happen each time I connected the Loop to my computer.My current Polar Loop 2 has been doing strange things lately, like showing me erratic heart rate rhythms that are around the 200's when I'm at resting heart rate. Sometimes I take the chest strap off and the loop continues say that "HR is 198", which doesn't make sense because there is nothing conducting heart rate signals to the device. So I ended up trying to reset it and it didn't work,and now it won't turn on unless it is plugged in. Very lame. I do like the design of the device, and it did work well for a while, but I expected to get use out of it for much longer.

PRO’s : very stylish and comfortable to wear | clasp is strong and has never come undone | device is 100% waterproof and can be worn in shower and swimming which is great | display in band is east to activate and read and I have had no issue with the button as some have | display shows the basic info I want to see which is calories burned, activity level, and steps | It holds a charge for 4-5 days and charges in 30 minutes | The device sync’s effortlessly with the web, my android phone and the H7 chest worn heart rate monitor, and the android software is very clean | Initial setup of the device was very easy. | The Loop is designed to be worn 24/7 and tracks calorie burn well from non-vigorous activity and excels when the optional heart rate monitor is worn during vigorous activity. | Customer support from Polar is hit or miss | it does show sleep status on the phone applicationCON : Unlike other devices, the Polar Loop does not let you set your own goals, it determines your activity level based on questions you answer and the activity level displayed on the device is set for you | The Polar loop ships with a one size fits all band that you must cut for your specific wrist size. This is a bit unnerving because a mistake will ruin the device | If you want to sell it later , it has to be to someone with a wrist the same or smaller than yours. | The Polar logo on the bottom of the clasp started to wear off within weeks of use and scratches easily | Heart rate monitor not build in though the H7 works great | does not receive messages from the phone like many other devices | difficult to tell how many calories you burn in a specific workout.MY FITNESS PAL (MFP) : My biggest complaint is the integration or lack there of with the my fitness pal on the android platform as IOS is supported. Before I purchased this device, I called Polar and they said MFP integration on Android and IOS would be in late February to early March in 2015. In February of 2015 the integration between MFP and Polar was enabled for IOS users and as of May 1, 2015, Polar continues to promise Android integration but fails to deliver and cannot tell me when, My other gripe on this is that Fitbit and Bodybugg IOS / Android apps pull data from MFP into their applications. With Polar, IOS users launch MFP and calories burned are pulled from polar into MFP.Conclusion : One can get similar functionality in devices that sell for much less or an integrated heart rate monitor and MFP integration for a bit less. This device is for a very niche market of users. If polar was to integrate MFP data into their Polar software this would be a huge win and when they do get MFP integration going that will also be a great win. If you don’t care about MFP, are a swimmer – this is great.

Unfortunately, I can't review this with 5 stars. I have yet to find an activity tracker that will truly do all I want and sadly, the Polar Loop is yet another that leaves me wanting on multiple levels. After using the Loop for a week, here's the good, the bad, and the ugly.The Good:Will *not* fall off (huge issue with many other devices I've tried)Super reliable Heart Rate Monitoring when paired with chest strap sensorClear easy to read monitor display - even without glasses!Very accurate pedometer featureSleek designTracks during aquatics activity including the Polar Heart Rate Sensors (chest strap) - This is mission critical for me!!!!Loop doesn't wake you up - I have a *very* erratic schedule. Loop doesn't drive me batty trying to wake me up when I went to bed 3 hours ago.The Bad:I'm not going to ding the Loop for features it doesn't claim to have. Not fair. Go read what it's capable of if you want the information.Once you get the FABULOUS custom fit on your wristband, you can't return/resell it. Kind of a bummer *but* to me it's worth it for the custom fit.Showers activate the display which is kind of fun to watch the "alien purple" light but freaked out my toddler because the aliens were landing in the bathroom.No "sleep" function to turn off the display so the aliens also invade my bedroom...System does *not* adapt to your ability level at ALL. Don't expect a fitness tracker that will meet you where you are. Expect a tracker that will report on where you are - that's it.The inside of the clasp is about 1" x 3" of metal. If you have metal allergies, this *could* be an issue although so far so good for me. This made me VERY nervous straight out of the box but I'm guessing it's nickel free because I haven't had a problem yet after 1 week of continuous wear.The Ugly:Synching is a royal pain. The system is constantly having issues and having to completely remove the product every 24-48 hours to sync and charge is not conducive to modern schedules. People using apps report similar issues although I sync to my computer because my phone doesn't have the app available.Apparently according to Polar, I don't sleep. Well, I sleep about 3 hours a night. I have a toddler who hops in with me and picking him up and adjusting him constantly means the Loop thinks I'm a very lazy insomniac.Apps and software leave a LOT to be desired. Praying for upgrades that actually fix some of the issues soon.OVERALL:It's a good tracker and does some of what I need. Seriously considering pairing this with a Fitbit Flex and only using the Polar Loop as a more comfortable option for a heart rate monitor. The bulky watches often left much to be desired.As a full time fitness tracker, there are many better ones on the market *if* you don't need heart rate monitoring. If you do, get this or a Polar watch and make it work. You cannot beat Polar when it comes to the heart rate monitoring devices.I'm going to keep it - not that I have a choice after having to cut the band. In the future I would *love* to see some of the Bad and 100% of the Ugly fixed. Polar has a *great* product here....but they definitely need some R&D to get it to its full potential.

I have a FitBit One, but I wanted to try an activity tracker that is wrist-based so I don't have to keep accounting for it. I wanted a wear it and forget it device. I reviewed all of them in depth (wirecutter.com has great reviews) and came to the conclusion this is the one for me although not perfect. You can read all the reasons why it is good or bad, but the bottom line is this is for athletes. If you are doing intense exercise (not just cardio - I do CrossFit style workouts) this is worth your time. It is the best on the market for this category. The website gives very detailed HR and exercise-based information. Key is obviously having a heart rate monitor. I already had the Polar H7 bluetooth so it was an easy decision for me. If you are not doing intense specific exercise (more than just walking), you can probably use any activity tracker and be happy. If you are into more than physical activity tracking, this is the best option now.Few notes:- It is very comfortable and easy to size.- Battery life is 2-4 days (not good but not horrible)- Web site has very good info, very useful if you are geeked out on exercise specifics- Backlight is hard to read in direct sunlight. You have to cup you hand over it to shade it and even then it is hard to read. Annoying.- Syncing with Android is OK. It isn't a quick as FitBit, but it works.- Sleep tracking is generally accurate, no more than 20-30 min from reality using a regular clock.- Showing the time is good because it allowed me to replace my watch.- Definitely shower proof (haven't taken into a pool but I haven't taken it off to shower yet and it's fine)- Clasp stays on fine, even during the most intense exercise (weights, pull-ups, running, etc.)- Bluetooth connection is far superior to other options for HR monitors. You can use the Polar bluetooth HR monitor with your phone or other devices more than ANT+ (like Garmin uses).What would make it better?- Backlight- Better battery life (one week minimum)- Chronograph (sometimes I like to time things and taking off the watch lost this for me)Only other one I would consider right now (June 2014) would be Garmin Vivofit. I already had the Polar HR monitor so I chose this. I expect this category to explode with devices with these improvements in the next year.UPDATED 5 October 2014:Since this review the device became problematic. Mostly, it because almost completely unresponsive to the touch. The button died or something after a few months, but there would be times I would spend minutes trying to get the screen to change. The other annoying thing was the daily steps tracking compared very differently to my FitBit pedometer. I was getting thousands more per day with the wrist-mounted pedometer vs the FitBit. While neither is probably accurate the Fitbit has proven much closer to actual steps counts when I tested it myself by actually counting a few hundred steps. I had days when the Polar Loop said 15000 and the Fitbit said 9000. It makes sense to me the hand-mounted one would vary, but it became too much. Finally, I got sick of wearing something other than a watch on my wrist. There are a few new products out right now that finally give sleep tracking, step tracking, and are a usable watch with a chronograph. The Loop did well for a first-ish gen product, but it is no longer something I wear. The frequent recharging also became VERY annoying.I just got a Magellan Echo Fit and am looking at the Polar M400 also maybe. Both fit the bill advertised above. Watch that is an activity tracker, less than 200 dollars. I am trying to combine devices. The Echo Fit has a regular watch battery that lasts 6-9 months, so it is a little limited as compared to others but it is very much a regular watch. Not perfect yet, but inexpensive and makes my life easier (less devices, no more things to recharge). I am comparing the watch's pedometer to the FitBit to see how it varies also. Hope it's not unreasonably different.

I wanted to love the Polar Loop more than any other fitness band I've tried so far. I really tried to love it. However, the software and data availability of this device has crippled an otherwise fantastic fitness band. The Loop in itself is a great design. It fits comfortably, is discreet, shower/hand-washing proof, and is generally well designed. The screen (LED dot matrix) on it is fantastic. It isn't a crisp, high resolution readout, but when not looking at data on the Loop, the fitness band looks like a bracelet. The design of a "hidden" interface type is very cool - it has gotten me many compliments when going through information on the Loop.** You can look at the bottom for a list of pros and cons **Important things to note as far as design of the band itself:1) YOU HAVE TO CUT THIS THING TO SIZE. The Loop goes on the wrist like a nice watch - you cut the ends of the wrist band and reinstall the clasp. Polar includes the tools necessary to do this (except scissors). If you want to try the Loop but aren't sure if you want to keep it, you can cut a paperclip and bend it almost like a bobby-pin (a very tall "U" shape). Just make sure the paperclip is short enough not to poke through the other side. Then, using the holes on the SIDES of the wrist band, you can hold them together by inserting the paper-clip in each end...or use rubber bands, etc. The necessity of this depends on the return policy.2) The button is capacitive. FURTHERMORE, there must be skin contact with the back of the loop (specifically, with the charging port) in order for the button to work. This likely explains any "button" issues reported by other users. The capacitive button may activate and scroll through menus while in the shower, but this wasn't a big deal for me.The major, MAJOR downfall of this device is the software and Polar website. I have an Android, and as of this time there is no Android app. I'm ignoring this fact for the sake of the review, as I tried the app on my girlfriend's iPhone. Data is primarily reported using a dial design (basically, it's an analog 24 hour clock). As you move throughout the day, different colors appear around the clock for different activity levels. This feature is pretty cool, however it is the ONLY way to view your data. There is NO graph or other breakdown of your data. You cannot see your step count at certain points of the day. You cannot see calories burned at certain points of the day. You cannot see movement during sleep (aside from a very, very rough estimate by looking at the dial graph).The website's front page is a map of Europe with a list of people who are running. There are four tabs at the top (this view counts as one). The 2nd tab, "Feed", is another list of people running. The 3rd tab actually shows you data, and the 4th tab is only relevant if you have the heart-rate monitor. Thus, by buying the Loop without a HRM, you are automatically limited to 1/4 of the website. The "Diary" page is a calendar of the month with how far to goal you were each day. Clicking on a specific day brings you to an exhaustive, hour-by-hour planner type view which essentially shows you nothing. Scrolling all the way down to the bottom shows total calories, steps, sleep, etc. Note it shows TOTALS, and not actual graphed data. Next to it is the familiar Dial from the app, as well as a breakdown (breakdown meaning how much total time was spent) of activity throughout the day (time sitting, resting, strolling, running sort of thing).That's about it for the website. Without the heart rate monitor, you really, REALLY can't see much. If all you care about is the end result (total steps, etc.), this may suffice. If you are training for an Iron Man and have the heart-rate monitor, this could probably serve decently well to track your workouts (if you have a ton of them). I feel the site is better suited for VERY active people who need to track large amounts of workouts.Pros: - Great design, comfortable fit - Dot-matrix readout is very slick and earns many compliments - When not looking at data on the watch, there's no display so the Loop is very discreet - Mostly accurate step count (within 10% of other trackers) - Relatively accurate calorie count (I have a very, very exhaustive study on this) - Automatically detects when you are sleeping. This feature is amazing! NO "enabling sleep mode" for this watch - Shower friendly (the display may go through menus, but it's not a big deal) - Very nice charger (it magnetically "snaps" into place on the back of the band) - Dial readout of data is pretty cool, as is the tracking of time spent at different activity levels - Shows the time, so it can double as a "normal" watch - Compatible with a heart-rate monitor. This is huge for workouts. This is one of very few fitness bands that have this ability.Cons - The website. Seriously, almost all of it. It's 50% social, 25% useless without the heart rate monitor, and has virtually no way to see your data in any detail aside from a total amount. Look at screenshots on Google images to see what I mean. - Battery life. I've had to recharge mine every 3 days or so, although I've admittedly been scrolling through the menus a lot since it just looks so cool. - The app does not show any more data than the website does. Syncing was fairly painless. While there is currently no Android app, I'm not listing that as a separate con since it is due out soon. - No silent alarm. This is a vibration feature on the FitBit which can wake you at a certain time. This is more a "missing feature I wish it had" than a con of the existing device. - The website again.

I messed around with several other fitness trackers before finally going to FitBit. It is by far the best in terms of accuracy and the app. No tracker is perfect, and the Charge HR is no exception. I've noticed minor things like steps being counted while I'm sitting folding laundry, or being unable to see my heart rate during a workout. Those are no big deal to me, really. My biggest complaint with this product is that it just seems to simply be a poor design. I first purchased this item at the end of Feb. 2016. Within a few months, I noticed the rubber was pulling away from the display on both edges. I contacted FitBit, and they responded promptly to help me get a replacement. Then a few months later, same issue occurred with my replacement. Contacted FitBit again, got a replacement again. Now, a little more than a year after my initial purchase, I am waiting on a FOURTH replacement to be delivered because the bottom plastic piece of the display (the part that goes against my wrist) broke off, taking with it the button on the side to press to start a workout, check time, or silence an alarm.

I have asked the past two times if FitBit would allow me to upgrade to the Blaze and just pay the difference in cost, but they have said no. Their customer service has otherwise been fast and overall very good, but it's extremely frustrating to have to request a replacement every few months. Since this is the only FitBit product I've owned, I do not know if this is just a problem with this unit in particular, or FitBit in general. Unfortunately for me, I'm now addicted to gathering the data that FitBit gives me, and I do still plan to get the Blaze. I'm hoping it's just the Charge HR, or even better, just extremely bad luck on my part.

Pros:
*The Fitbit HR works well for step-tracking and heart rate monitoring for day-to-day activities.
*Comfortable

Cons:
*The band has started to warp and peel off the main body of the unit. This started happening in less than 2 months and is now ready to fall apart after 4 months. Every single person I know with an HR has had this happen with some people on their third device in less than a year.
*Bluetooth connectivity is extremely poor and requires constant resetting of both device and phone.
*Charging cable is short and pops out of the socket easily, making it hard to fully seat and charge.

Further thoughts:
It is honestly shocking how bad the band and bluetooth are on this device. I like the HR when it works and isn't actively falling apart in my hands, but the fact that a major flagship product for Fitbit would have these kinds of widespread issues is a terrible sign for the overall quality of the company's products.

They clearly know too, since it is super easy to get a replacement unit. Note, that it is a replacement UNIT. They can't give you a new band, they have to replace the entire thing. Very clearly some critical design flaws that are inherent to the device itself.

Bottom line:
If you get it, expect to have to replace it every few months. I am not a heavy usage kind of guy - I wear it daily but am not particularly active and it still utterly fell apart for me. If you ever wondered why a fitbit costs as much as it does, it is because you're not paying for one device - you're paying for 3-6 devices over the lifetime of the warranty.

EDIT 12/30/16--I hope this is my last edit! To address the treadmill accuracy I wrote about below: I have managed to get this tracker attached to my ankle, and get very accurate results this way. I have no idea if the heart monitor works on my ankle, but I'm guessing it probably does to some degree? I think you can take your pulse on your ankle, but I'm not sure. It is a tight fit and is not always comfortable, but it is how I am making this tracker work in the parameters that I need it to. They need a medium size option for this issue, or an adapter that works on your ankle! A large would be ridiculous on my wrist.

EDIT 12/4/16: I became suspicious about the accuracy of the treadmill steps I was periodically taking over the course of a day to get to my 10,000 steps since the weather is disagreeable outside. At the rate I was walking, I should have gotten about 120 steps per minute. After a 10 minute walk, the FitBit only counted 500 steps and it should have been about 1200 give or take. I didn't quite believe it, so I started testing it with exact steps. When I was walking 200 steps, it varied from counting 130 to 150. I completed this experiment about 6 times. Then I went to Google to see what was going on and found out that I'm not the only one. I tried 3 different suggestions--1) restarting the tracker 2)putting the tracker on my inner wrist 3) attaching the tracker to my shoelaces. None of the 3 made it accurate, but attaching it to my shoe got it closer--170 steps were tracked out of the 200. Mind you, I paid extra for the heart rate monitor--which is not tracked attached to my shoe.

DO NOT BUY THIS TRACKER IF YOU WANT TO USE A TREADMILL. Some people on the FitBit forums say they don't have an issue with treadmills. For $150 (what I paid) it isn't worth the risk. I am not happy about this. At least I'm not crazy--I couldn't figure out how I was still so low on my steps after doing a 26 minute 5K trainer and then walking on the treadmill for an additional 30 minutes, 3 different times for 10 minutes a piece in addition to my normal walking around the house and cleaning.
*******end of 12/4/16 edit*******
This has been a motivating purchase, which is exactly what I had hoped when I purchased it. I chose the Charge HR over the FitBit without the heart rate monitor mainly because I liked how it fastened. I also had high hopes that the heart rate monitor could give me an accurate idea of how many calories I'm burning in a day, and possibly negate the need for my Polar heart rate monitor with a chest strap. I need to do a comparison while wearing both for a workout and see. If I remember, I'll post an update on here after.

Some observations, good and bad, now that I've had it for about 5 months:

The size small is still big on my wrist. I can fit my pinkie in the space that doesn't wrap around my wrist with no problem. The top of the device (the display part) is 2.5" of flat, inflexible material which goes into the flexible wrist band. The thickest part of the display sits up "proud" off the wrist 3/8". In other words, this thing is not inconspicuous. I have worked around this a little by leaving my sweater sleeves over it and then wearing a different bracelet lower on my wrist on days I don't want to have my FitBit the center of my accessories.

It does not do a good job of tracking your steps when you are pushing a grocery cart, which is a huge bummer. I walk a lot at those massive grocery stores, I don't like grocery shopping anyway, and now I have to either push one-handed or walk in front of the cart while pulling it. Because if I have to grocery shop, then my steps are going to count <bleep> it.

**UPDATE!! I paid closer attention to this the last few grocery trips and it appears to be counting the steps, so I was wrong about this initially.

It does count a lot of steps when you are folding laundry. I can't quite decide if this is good or not--I don't feel like folding laundry is the equivalent of taking steps. A friend pointed out that you are exerting yourself, but is it apples-to-apples? I'm thinking not. I do two loads a day every day, so it might be throwing off my steps in a significant way if it is overshooting my steps. Maybe I shouldn't worry about the grocery cart and call it good ...

The first couple of days are uncomfortable until your arm gets used to the spot where this hits. I'm guessing it is the heart rate monitor part of the device, but it sticks out a little and dents your arm. I am not wearing it too tight. I attempted to move it to my dominate arm once, and decided it wasn't worth it since my other arm was already desensitized.

This will tell you that you are burning way more calories than you actually are. Period. Please do not attempt to use this in order to figure out how much food you can eat to lose weight. I highly recommend that you look up meal planning on muscleforlife.com instead (I am not affiliated with this site at all--just a fan) and use this device in order to motivate yourself to move more.

You will be shocked at how little you actually move in a day. It becomes easier to hit 10,000 after awhile. You will not longer get irritated when there are no close parking spots. You WILL be irritated when you forget to put your FitBit on in the morning and there are no close parking spots. Just remind yourself that your steps still count even if your FitBit isn't actually counting them.

Do not walk around at a fairground antique event holding something in the crook of your FitBit arm. After walking around for 6 hours you will be pretty peeved about the number of steps recorded. Ask my mom.

The FitBit app is awesome. I love to see the data and the trends. I haven't participated in a contest yet, but I recently friended someone and it is motivating to know someone can see your steps. You don't want to get beat by your mom, I mean friend, daily.

I had to turn off the option for the display to automatically turn on every time I brought my arm up. It eats up the battery in no time. I also do not have it synching all day long--I synch it at night when I take it off to get ready for bed. After the first few days I don't wear it to sleep either. I'm not sure that having that thing on 24 hours a day is a good thing. I do think it would be a good way to track how many hours of sleep you are getting and would be eye-opening how many nights are less than they should be (at least for me). I'm just ready to take it off once I get to bedtime.

**UPDATE--I may start wearing this to bed for a week or two in order to REALLY see how much sleep I'm getting. I'm tired, wondering if I've some unknown health issue that is causing it. Before I bring it up to my doctor, I want to see how much sleep I'm actually getting, because it's probably less than I think I am. So the sleep tracking is a nice thing to have right now!

The Charge HR beats the annoying chest straps hands down and is easy to use. It gives fairly accurate telemetry for heart rate, workout/footstep activity and sleep rest patterns.

I would love to make it my constant companion but I just can't wear it due to a fundamental human factor design failure. Human skin needs to breathe and evaporate moisture and the rubber strap prevents this very basic skin function. How can something so basic be ignored? Another irritation is that there is no give to the rubber so it constantly pulls at my arm hair. I have tried everything but it is just so very irritating. I do not have a latex or skin allergy of any kind.

I followed all the care tips provided by the Fitbit folks: cleaned it often with mild soap; didn't wear it after getting sweaty or wet; gave it a rest by taking it off for a while; loosening the strap helped but not nearly enough and the light leakage at night was annoying.

Now isn't it strange that all the above recommendations came in my very first email after I setup my account? So it's not like they don't know that this is a big problem. Yet they seem stubborn about providing a common sense easy fix -- leather or non-rubber straps which accommodate the skin's need to breathe. How stupid! Now I know that positioning is important for the light diode sensors, but that could easily fixed by tightening a conventional watch strap up a notch during workouts. Sheesh!

What has helped the most is using talcum and baby powder. The problem here is that the white powder clings and discolors the strap. It also discolors darker clothes.

I liked the gesture sensing function where the display comes on... But it kept coming on during my sleep when I changed positions. This very annoying feature could easily be fixed by disabling it during user defined sleep times. I had to completely disable the feature 24X7 which means that it now takes two hands to read my watch. More stupidity.

Similarly, the display does not stay on in exercise mode. This is the one time when it's really needed. Why should I have to stop working out to use two hands to read the display? Turning off the screen like this doesn't save that much power. More stupidity.

So this thing is just too high maintenance to wear like a watch. I'd love to give the Charge HR a 5 star thumbs up but an otherwise beautiful piece of engineering is marred by failing to accommodate a basic biological function of the skin.

One of Fitbit's proposed solutions to the skin chaffing issue is to not use their product so much. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take their advice.

Word to the wise... If I could do it over again I would not buy this product. Wait for Fitbit to get a clue. Wait for Fitbit to actually listen to their customers. Wait for Fitbit to fix this design flaw.

I'm not a techie so I'm not going to review all the specs. I wanted a wrist heart monitor and hit the bonus of a pedometer, a sleep tracker, a calorie burning tracker, and a motivational coach all in a little device that fits on my wrist. It syncs seamlessly with my iPhone and Mac. Love the heart monitor...no chest strap yay...who cares if it's a point or two off. As long as I'm within range that's all that matters. If you need it to be 100% accurate you are better off putting a rubber band on your wrist and pulling and snapping it when you feel that type A thing coming on. I love the water tracker and the sleep tracker. There are times when I feel like I am awake when I'm sleeping and sure enough the tracker picked it up with the awake figures. I don't use it for dietary/food purposes as I've learned to modify my diet for my elevated cholesterol. But others I know say it works fine with My Fitness Pal. I like that it motivates me by tracking my numbers and that in and of itself makes me want to do better the next day, I did have to drop a star though. I think there should be a medium size tracker. I know some one who has one and their wrist is larger than mine & they have a small so I thought I'd be ok with a small as the large looked way too big. It's a little on the snug side and a medium would have been perfect.
*update to my review...5/2016.... I wish it had a tone to let me know when the battery is low. It use to show it the first couple of months but now I don't know until I want to check it and the battery is dead. Also takes too long to sync with the app and if my phone goes in sleep mode the unit & the phone don't pair and I have to start again. Real bummer

I purchased this tracker when it was close to $100, now it's almost half the price. Having used this tracker, I understand why it is a lot cheaper now. I had nothing but issue with this tracker. The most frustrating issue was customer service. I would hold for more than 30 minutes every time I called and I would receive conflicting information from each rep I spoke with. For example, the package my tracker came in says a full charge will allow up to (I get the "up to") 6 days of activity. Out of the box, mine provided 1.5 days. I had to charge daily. One CS rep said a full charge will provide 1 - 3 days ... though my box and advertising says differently. She also said because I'm swimming, it depletes the loop of a full charge ... I DON'T and CAN'T swim, never suggested that I did. After a month of charging daily, the tracker would "die" because daily charging didn't provide at least a days worth of tracking activity. Finally, CS advised me to return it. They had it for almost a month so I bought the FitBit Surge to track my activity (which I very much prefer).A month later I received my Polar Loop ... I had to reregister and enter info all over again. When I again encountered problems, CS informed me that I was sent a brand new tracker that they placed on the same band. When your battery dies, you are to purchase another tracker, there's no battery replacement.My Polar Loop is in my closet. I am using and enjoying my FitBit Surge.

I wouldn't buy this again. It would be fine if I didn't care about tracking my work outs. I also got the bluetooth HRM. The issues is it doesn't track well with the Polar loop. So I use the Polar Beat app. WHY can those two apps not share information? It's absurd that two products from the same place cannot make it easier.I can wear my Polar HRM, and burn 1,000 calories in the gym, then check my loop and it says I need more activity and it's not the settings. It's a flaw. That should tell you how well the loop tracks your activity.I recommend the HRM, you can use other apps with it to update your Fitness pal. Polar for whatever reason makes it hard to share. The website cannot even link up the two different "polar app's"

The loop itself isn't super sexy. I wish it had a little nicer look and in my opinion, it's a little bulky for a female. But it gets the job done. The loop has consistently been tracking my activity, sleep, workouts* (*with the HRM on), etc. My only complaint is it is very slow to sync with the Polar Flow app. Sometimes there will be hours or even most of a day where it hasn't synced and it won't until I connect it to the computer. It's frustrating when you want to easily see where you're at for the day at a glance. I contacted Polar Support and they suggested uninstalling and reinstalling the app (which I did, didn't change anything) and re-setting my phone (which I haven't done because I don't want to reset my phone). This tracker seems like its about a year or two away from working out all the bugs - and once it gets there, it'll be a real kickass product. All that said, for the price... it gets the job done.***UPDATE***Now I've been using the loop for several months and have learned its pitfalls - I would consider getting another device. Here are the issues:1. The app sucks.Polar knows the app sucks and keeps saying they are going to release a fix but haven't. It doesn't sync like it's supposed to with my iPhone 6. When I contacted their support, uninstall and reinstall the app (which I did with no success) - then their next suggestion was to hard reset my phone. Upon researching the app, I found complaint after complaint with no solutions from Polar (though I did get them to give me a vague "we're going to release an update to fix the syncing problem soon" - which has not happened in the six months I've been using it). To me, the instant feedback is the most attractive feature of the 24 hour band, so not having that is a pretty huge bummer.2. Tracking is not consistent.I've tested the band a number of times on outings to see how it compares to the apple health app and to other previous sessions and have found it to be very inconsistent. Though the technology they use does the best it can - you're not going to see super consistent tracking when it comes to steps taken, etc. It monitors your arm swing, so if you are carrying something, holding a baby or have your arm up on your purse, you likely won't get credit.3. Sometimes, it decides not to record my heart rate...I've used the loop to successfully track heart rate sessions in the past, but the last couple sessions have been a struggle. I've been working with a personal trainer (and I work hard so I like to see my progress in numbers). I put on my H6 band, made sure it was reading my heart rate, started my workout and disconnected the bluetooth receiver after the workout only to find the device stopped tracking my heart rate and didn't record any of my calorie burn or heart rate data. The app shows that a heart rate session started and ended but its only showing 31% of daily goal reached. Very, very disappointing because I don't have any other way to track those calories.4. If you have a desk job, the bulk is somewhat uncomfortableFor something that you have to wear 24 hours a day, this band has a pretty high profile. As an office worker, I get annoyed with my band sometimes because there's no good way to adjust it so it's not uncomfortable while I work on the computer.I haven't tried any of the other bands, but now that I've had this one for a while - my official review is a combination of argh and meh.

I was very disappointed with the Polar Loop. (Before the Loop I had the recalled Fitbit Force, so I will occasionally compare the two for the sake of clarity.)1. I like that the clasp is secure (my Fitbit would fall off my wrist and several times I was blessed to find it again), but don't like that you have to permanently cut the watch band to make it fit. I can't upgrade and then pass the Loop on to my husband because his wrist is bigger than mine.2. I bought it because it would pair with the Polar H7 heart rate monitor, but the monitor won't pair with one's phone and the Loop at the same time; this means that if you are running with an app that uses the heart monitor you cannot check your heart rate on your Loop - which is the whole reason I bought it. The software that comes with it has an app you can use that syncs the information to your Loop, but it only syncs AFTER the workout so that doesn't help. Also, neither the loop nor the software includes the option for a heart rate zone alert ("above target heart rate"/"below target heart rate"). I even paid to upgrade the software because it had "guided runs", but it was a waste of money (upgrade Digifit instead).3. The software is terrible. Between a not-very-useful interface and syncing problems (it usually won't sync until I plug it in to my computer), it is practically useless. I checked my Fitbit app on a regular basis, but I finally just gave up on the Loop app.4. It only calculates steps, not miles. I know some people are really motivated by steps - I'm motivated by miles. It simply isn't available, on the watch or on the app.5. The sleep mode is useless. The loop "senses" when one sleeps instead of having a button one pushes to start and stop sleep mode. That's useless for someone like me who usually gets up once in the nights because it cuts out of sleep mode the first time you get up. It constantly records that I got less than 5 hours of sleep. Again the software leaves a great deal to be desired - no "3 times restless, 2 times awake", getting a close up look your sleep pattern, just "4 hr 29 min" of sleep, and try to figure out quality for yourself.I am now looking for a new fitness tracker, which is very frustrating - and I can't even pass the loop to someone who would appreciate it because the Loop is permanently cut to fit my very small wrist.

I loved (still do) the idea of an activity tracker that, when paired with a Heart Rate Monitor, can keep track of steps, calories burnt, heart rate during exercise (or whenever the HR monitor is worn), sleep and whether or not you're in "Fat Burn" or "Fit Zone" for your workout. Those are just the basics of what the Loop is supposed to do! It also is supposed to notify you if you've been inactive for an hour or more. Like I said, great idea, BAD execution on the part of Polar.I am sure my unit is faulty; but I've read other reviews with many of the same issues. I have had my Loop for three weeks, to the day. Very rarely could I get this thing to sync with my iPhone and/or iPad. What good is the inactivity alert if it comes 4 hours after the fact when I finally get the Loop to sync? The button is quite finicky; and you get no information at all, ever, without pressing that button!I thought the no syncing thing was the most frustrating thing about it... until I contacted customer service at Polar. I simply wanted my Loop replaced. I was told it might be replaced but most likely just repaired. They are not friendly and show no desire to make you feel good about doing business with them. Forget that. My Loop and the H7 Monitor are being returned to Amazon for a full refund. Did I mention the Loop took forever to Pair with the Monitor too? I will fully weigh out all other options before buying another Loop. I just hope there truly is a better product out there... because now I don't WANT to give Polar any more of my money!

Here is what Polar does well: Monitoring your calorie burn while you are working out using a heart rate monitor. If you get the heart rate monitor, you will get that with this device, but you can also get that by just buying one of their fitness watches with a heart rate monitor, as well, and use that watch during your dedicated training sessions. They have arguably the best algorithm for accurate calorie burn during exercise out there. You get that in this device.The goal of these "wear 24/7" devices is about monitoring the other things you do, like general activity at work (sitting too long at a desk job is really, really bad for you) and sleep (to help you understand restless sleep, waking up, etc.). Polar doesn't do these things well with this device.Here is why I say that.A key to being successful as a 24/7 wearable is tied to the ability to capture and surface the information the device is tracking in a way that is meaningful.* In capturing dataFrom spot-testing the "steps" menu, I've walked a very short distance (20 yards) and the device registered over 100 steps. Simply not the case when I also counted them. It wasn't a little off, it was a lot off. So, I don't feel like they capture the "non-workout" information in an accurate way, yet. It just isn't there thing. They didn't grow up in this world like the other wearables.The sleep tracking is pretty meaningless. It just tracks your sleep as "low activity" time. It doesn't tell you important information like how long it took you to fall asleep, how often you woke up, restless sleep time, etc. like the other wearables do. It doesn't even know when you go to sleep, at least as far as I can tell (their website and supporting manuals aren't good on instructions). They just don't have their technology together here. When I wake up in the morning and push the button on the Polar Loop, it flashes a message that says, "Sweet Dreams". I'm waking up, not going to sleep. The technology just isn't there. The other wearables allow you to push and hold a button when you go to sleep and wake up. That's how they know you are asleep. This device has a button. I don't get it.Displaying the informationI'm an Android user, so there are no apps for me. I'm a slave to the Polar Flow website. In a word, it is bad. The data doesn't synch correctly. It doesn't surface any meaningful data beside the data (like heart rate, calorie burn, etc.) that is tracked when I'm working out and using the heart rate monitor (again, just like their fitness watches). Because I'm tied to the computer, if I want the real-time feel, I have to buy another synch/charge cord to keep at work (I keep the other one at home). Another $30 just to get realtime data. I've read there is an Android app on the way (not verified by Polar as far as I can tell), but with the sad state of their Website (where you'd assume the most robust features would be), I don't hold a lot of hope for the app being that stellar.Custom SupportI have to cover this, too. Polar's customer support is bad as of the writing of this review. It took them over a week to respond to an inquiry about where I could buy another charging cord for this device since that option was on their website's product list/store or Amazon.com. I wanted to pay them more money and they took a week to tell me how I could do it. Their answer was "just call us". That blows. I'm an Amazon Prime member I expect to be able to buy it and have it at my house in two day, max. As a company, they don't seem equipped to play in this game. The other wearable companies are light years ahead of them based on my current experience.I'm actually thinking of ditching this device after about 3 weeks of use. At the time of this writing, I would recommend the FitBit Flex as a better alternative. I've used FitBit in the past and they capture and surface data in a much more meaningful way and have better overall features. I am fully aware that if I do switch, I will loose the ability to have a heart rate monitor track me when I workout. But that tradeoff is worth it in my book to get all the other benefits outside the 1 hour per day I workout.The only hope I hold is that the Polar Loop team is kicking it 24/7 to upgrade the software on the loop to capture data better, allow me to interact with it better (push the button to note sleep), and really working on the Website and Android App so I can see meaningful data when I need it (now, not tonight when I synch it at home). We'll see.

It wasn't bad while it lasted, but I'm sorry at the price I should have gotten more than 1 year and 4 months out of it! The bracket which holds the charger in place broke -- one of the flimsy little tabs on the side broke. This made it impossible to recharge the device as the charging cord wouldn't stay in place. Certain aspects of the HR were nice . . . heart rate (obviously), incoming call alert, etc. But I simply cannot get beyond the fact the entire thing was rendered useless in a short 16 months!

I have had my Fitbit Charge HR for a little over a year now. I loved it for the heartrate monitor and sleep tracker. It's a nifty little wrist-machine. The charging cable is 2-3 inches long, so it's a bit annoying when I plug it into the wall to charge. HOWEVER, it isn't very robust, and in fact the band began bubbling up only a few months after receiving it. Right around the year mark, the screen faded so badly I couldn't see it unless I was in my pitch-black room at night. Then the plastic prongs that help hold the thing together broke and now it's in pieces and unusable. Notice, I am not a rough person with my electronics, especially when it costs over 100 dollars. My iPhone 4 is still in awesome condition and it's six years old - not a scratch or a crack. I usually use my electronics until they decide to die without any intervention from me. Therefore, I wasn't slamming my arm against a brick wall while wearing my Fitbit, and I've never dropped it. I was always careful with it around water (i.e. dishes, laundry, etc). In the end, it was fun while it lasted but I am less than pleased.

My girlfriend and I bought these for each other for Valentines Day. I gave her the small Charge HR in plum and mine's the large Charge HR in black. I have to say that so far I'm disappointed.

Right from the beginning, it didn't want to pair and sync with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5, which I love!). After 3 attempts it finally paired. No big deal, and could overlook this if the problems didn't persist.

It has since stopped syncing twice in about a week and a half. The first time was 2 days long -followed the instructions in the help forums to get synced again (cycle off/on Bluetooth on my phone, connect Fitbit to computer via USB, hold button on side of Fitbit down for approx 15 seconds to reset connection) and nothing. Then a day later just started randomly syncing again on its own. This 2nd time it won't sync is currently 3 days and counting.

My girlfriend is having an issue too (she has hers paired with an iPhone 6+) although her issues are far less... we had just pulled hers off the charger and the Fitbit said 100% charged, but after syncing the Fitbit with her iPhone, it said her battery was low. Not a significant issue, but given my problems, thought it worth noting.

Finally, and this is where I will probably differ from most other people... I have a job where I drive a lot, Department of Transportation highway worker to be specific. My fitbit is constantly racking up footsteps while I am driving from one job location to the next. On one recent trip that totalled about 90 miles, it logged me as walking almost 4000 steps during that time (it vibrated and notified me of my 10000th step about 70 mIles in, and I was about 2500 steps away when I started driving!). I also operate a boom truck and went up and down in the bucket several times that day, but never walked a single flight of stairs, yet my tracker said I did 90 flights that day. I realize most people have desk jobs and my occupation is a bit extreme relative to that, but again, thought it was worth mentioning.

Lastly, and maybe it's just because prior to getting my Fitbit, I hadn't worn a watch in years, but I find the rubber wristband somewhat uncomfortable. Whenever I take it off or put it on it's ripping hair out of my arm.

I will continue to use it for a while and post updates as necessary, but so far am giving the Fitbit Charge HR 2 stars out of 5.

- EDIT/UPDATE - 12/19/2016 -

- The syncing issue seems to have gotten better over time, but the notifications for calls are still hit and miss.
- The racking up of steps and floors for me has also not changed with my driving-heavy job.
- On my Fitbit, there is some kind of a bubble for about 2 months now where the rubber has separated from the electronics housing underneath right below the display.
- At one point this last summer, mine stopped taking a charge and eventually died. My girlfriend resurrected it somehow though with a reset or two.
- On her Fitbit, the button is now missing after the plastic piece that wraps around the underside came off when it disconnected from the charging cable.
- Also, if I had it to do over again, I would have put a screen protector on it right from the start. The display is plastic and scratches easily. Fitbit should include a screen protector with the initial purchase in the package!

Update: After 1.5 years, I've had the band come apart on me twice. The first the bad started to bubble and come apart after exactly a year. I called Fitbit and had it replaced without any problem. 6 months later, the band is coming apart again. I haven't called fitbit, but I'm guessing they won't replace the second one as the warranty has elapsed. I'll update once I've tried.

I am by no means an active person and could be more aplty described as a basement-dwelling couch potato, I know this even more now after fitbit's progress reports. This fitbit has endured probably less than 1/8th of the abuse a regular active person would put on it and still has fallen apart twice. There is no way that I can recommend this tracker and will be looking for a different brand if I again decide to buy a device to track my lack of activity. For now, I'm going back to the 2 watches I've had for 10+ years (each one cost the same or less than the fitbit)

I lowered my rating to two stars because the device is fantastic, but since the band is trash and there is no way for it to be replaced, it's the cheap band that ruined this device.

********Original Review*********
This activity tracker is not really waterproof and has a sub-par battery (2-3 days max). The screen is also a joke....who the heck puts a piece of scratch-able plastic as a watch face? As an adult, I've never scuffed a watch....the Charge HR got a scratch on the face inside of an hour of me wearing it. It's too small to put a decent screen protector on, So I guess this will be a feature I avoid in my next tracker...or anything that I put on my wrist.

The sleep tracking and silent alarms are awesome. HR tracking, steps, distance are all accrate. I clean it after charging/workouts with a toothbrush and some diluted dawn. No skin irritation or anything like that. I do wear this looser than I would a regular watch which took some getting used to, but no complaints there.

I wish it had an activity reminder that would tell me to move after my rear's been planted for x minutes. Other activity trackers do that....there is a vibrate function on this, so what gives Fitbit?

a bug that I've encountered is on long car rides. On a drive from CA to UT I apparently crushed all my records for stairs and steps even though I was sitting for a solid 9 hours straight. The software also hates to stay paired with my phone and there is an incredibly annoying push notification whose only purpose (other than to hog space on my notification bar) is to let me know that call notifications are enabled. Needless to say, I don't have notifications enabled on my fitbit due to this. Even before the update I never paid much attention to the notifications because by the time the fitbit registers a call is coming in and decides to vibrate, the caller is leaving me a voicemail.

 I really wanted to like this. While it's obvious that a wireless device that communicates with your phone will put out radio frequencies, there needs to be an option to halt the radio frequencies except when you want them. That way, you don't have to expose yourself to a lot of additional RF's which, by the way, are starting to concern a lot of scientists (see, e.g.: http://ehtrust.org/cell-phones-radiation-3/read-the-research/). The manufacturer states that when you turn off bluetooth on your phone then the fitbit won't sync, but what happens is that it keeps sending out bluetooth signals to see if bluetooth has been activated again on your phone or not. There needs to be an option for manual sync only from the watch itself so it is not always attempting to find a bluetooth signal. I'll attempt to upload a video here showing the RF output with "All-Day Sync" turned off and with it turned on (serious spike in RFs when it's on ... and thus the battery drain). If they fix this then I would probably give 4 or 5 stars and would purchase it again. As is I'm returning it. Keep in mind this is supposed to be worn 24/7 and you are exposing yourself to additional microwave radiation 24/7 with the source directly on your body. Hope the video comes through ok.

Unusable because I carelessly lost the piece of paper that you need to cut the strap to fit. I tried to get another sent to me after fruitlessly searching their product downloads section to print out. I paid for an extra Loop charger to get the measuring paper, pin pusher, and extra charger but didn't get the measuring paper. So, down another twenty-ish dollars and impossible to use. My wrist is 7 inches, but need proprietary tool they refuse to provide. Frustrated to anger with their refusal to help me woth a simple fix for my mistake.

I picked up the H7 heart rate monitor at the recommendation of a trainer and had been using in conjunction with google fit to keep track of workouts and runs and thought the loop would do a better job than the GPS on my phone. I really like the heart rate monitor and wanted to like the loop. The software for it is just way to buggy. This morning I did an hour long workout, and a 25 minute walk. As you can see by the attached picture, it recorded my hour long work out just fine, but somehow decided my 25 minute walk was two events, one that lasted 14 minutes and the other that lasted 1 hour and 38 minutes. It does this constantly. The other day it told me I worked out for 11 hours. Of course this renders the device useless. I mean, I guess some of the data isn't nonsense, but figuring out which data is real and which isn't, is not my idea of a fun workout.

The Loop start of great when I first got. It tracked the heart rate with the extra chest strap. Did what I want to track my daily active and gym workouts. At this point there was no android app for the phone, it was to come soon. The phone app did come out and it was great I no longer had to collect the Loop to the laptop to get the data to sync. This version required a manual sync to the phone but was better than nothing. They updated the app and now it would sync with the loop on it own and would now get warnings to get up and move. Battery life went form a week to two day at the max. Was a good trade off. But then all hell broke lose on 1Jn2015, they released a new version of the app with major issue. The data on the app would not always show the correct data or would stop showing updated date, at least the data was correct on the web app. Took them a good month to fix the app, then it was good again. data still did not always agree between the web and the pone app. Then the next app up date on 8Jul2015, broke the sync. The Loop and the phone app would not sync, about a week later it started to sync again on it own, but stooped after 24 hr. This pattern repeat off and on. Would only sync for 24 hr then stop for days. Call Polar and informed them of the issue, they would not admit that their could be a problem with the app. Past history show that their software release lacked quality control release. Then even sent me a new Loop and it did the same thing. To me it showed that the application was having issue again. After 2 major bug release in their software in less than a year, I decide to get something different. After research I went with the Microsoft Band, to date 2 week later I am very happy. I had a Polar watch before that was good to see the heart rate and work with the gym equipment, is why I stayed with Polar, was not the right choose after all the issue with the app that made the Loop a bad product in the end.

I bought the H7 chest strap separately and wanted this band to help me count calories when I work out. You dont need the band wtih the H7 chest strap but I wanted it to track my every day activity level. The first loop I ordered didnt hold a charge for a whole day. I contacted Amazon and they sent a replacement quickly. The replacement loop that was sent, held charge for 2 days TOPS. This sucks but I lived with it. I didnt necessarily have issue with the basic function of the band, but the software and data analytics that it syncs up to are not that good. The syncing to the phone was wonky and frequntly didnt work well, or took 10 minutes to pair. The real killer is the frequency which you have to charge it - especially since you are supposed to wear it 24-7. I had to charge as often as I plugged in my phone! I could only get 2 days of wear off one charge if I never touched it (lighting up the display wears down the battery). So I stopped wearing it for about a month because I didnt have time for charging every two seconds, and it was inconvenient when travelling. I pulled it out of the drawer yesterday to charge it up and wear it today, and it would not take the charge at all and basically died. It just keeps showing the charging icon even when it was unplugged, and then it went blank and is unresponsive. I wore this device about 15 times total and it is now dead. I tried to return it as it was defective, and AMAZON is saying I am about a month and a half past my "window" to return. I understand a 30 day window for regular returns if you dont like the color or just want something different size or something. I do not understand why I cannot RETURN A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT. I am EXTREMELY unhappy. I would appreciate it if this seller would contact me on this. I would NOT recommend this product at this point.

It's a pedometer that Polar admits is not designed to count steps!The good - it's nice looking.The bad - it doesn't work.I noticed that the step count seemed off. I started paying attention and realized that sometimes it didn't count any steps and sometimes it only counted some (I did some 200-step tests to check it). I also tried it against a Fitbit and a Jawbone, both of which recorded within 1% of each other over the day. The Polar, on the other hand, was between 30-60%. Not only is it inaccurate, but it's inconsistent.I emailed tech support, and they said, "The Loop does not update steps in real time, please allow the unit up to three minutes to update your count."So I took the unit off for 10 minutes, put it on, did 200 steps, and took it back off for ten minutes. The verdict? I walked 67 steps.I contacted tech support again and told them that I had followed their protocol. Their response? "The Loop is designed as an activity monitor to help motivate people to rethink their day. It is not meant to be used as a detailed training device. We recommend reviewing the Loop's data as a measure of your day's overall activity, not to analyze each step taken."WHAT?How is something thaat kicks out a random number at all useful in this way? And how can you advertise that it "Displays daily activity, calories burned, steps taken, time of day" if you admit that it can't actually count steps with any accuracy?Save your money and get a Jawbone or Fitbit.

Incredible idea, not ready for prime time... It literally will not integrate with any other partner service. Will be returning it and going back to another fitbit flex... I really was excited about being able to track workouts, steps and sleep patterns in one device. Unfortunately if you are used to using mfp or another 3rd party service to track your steps, this just won't cut it... Yes the h7 integration is neat, but I already have a polar watch to do that. In order for this product to actually be ready for prime time, you need to allow integration of a users steps with another service. They state they are trying, but that's just not gonna cut it. Do it, stop saying your going to do it... It's been several months, I'm glad I wasn't one of the first to own this, I would have been waiting a long time... thankfully I'm within the return period. For anyone hoping to use full integration in one device with other services, this is not it.

The is my fourth fitbit. The wristband breaks under normal use. This starts as bubbles in the band, then frayed glue, then disintegration. The only remedy at 366 days+ is to beg for a repair which I did just once, for my most recent fitbit. They sent me a refurb which I thought was great. But the refurb lasted only three months before it failed. All in all, I've purchased four and five failed.

Why NOT put the wristband on a hinge and take the stress of the glue and make the band replaceable? This century old design works great for watches. It's almost like they design these Fitbit things to fail in a year...

Five stars if they change their annuity model and make a durable product.

I love the fitbit line and really liked my Charge HR until about 6 months in when it started falling apart. First the band was just slightly giving away, now it's much worse and I can see right into the device. I do wear it daily/nightly, but I work in an office environment so it gets treated pretty well.
For the price, I would have expected it to last much longer.

I truly do not recommend this product.
Now, when I first purchased this product, it was terrific. The battery life lasted 5 days. This was running the heart rate monitor, everything, at full throttle. Evidently Fitbit feels the need to periodically update their products, understandable, you have to keep things new and fresh. I've owned my Fitbit, Charge HR for 4 months now. It hasn't been a great deal of time. As one might suspect, it gets worn all the time, as it tracks your sleep and what not.
The reason for the one star is that Fitbit pushed an update out on this particular product, and the battery life is now reduced to a day and a half to maybe two days if I'm lucky. My Charge HR is spending quality time with the wall outlet now, instead of on my wrist like it should be. I've looked at other products outside of Fitbit, and to be honest, the Microsoft Band is looking better and better.
I would not recommend getting this until Fitbit does some changes in their firmware to get their battery life back to 4 - 5 days without charging.

I originally got a Fitbit Charge HR in May of 2015 (via Amazon) and less than 3 months later (July), the band began to bubble up and then the band started lifting completely from the hardware. Mind you, I don’t wet it and followed the care instructions. So I reached out to Fitbit and what I will say is they have excellent customer services. All I had to do is email the issue and send two pictures; I had a new device within a week. Of course this isn’t the end of my story, my replacement devices band began to malfunction in the same way in September of 2015 (less than 3 months). Again the process was easy to get a replacement.

Now it’s December 2015 and the band of my 3rd Fitbit Charge HR is malfunctioning, at this point I don’t want a replacement I’d rather a refund. I was told I wasn’t eligible for one (hey I understand its business), but what got under my skin was they offer of 25% off their Fitbit Surge (a larger device/upgrade). So they want me to spend more money on their products? Wow, that’s just crazy, especially since I know that the Surge devices are also prone to band issues per a coworker’s watch and a friend. I wrote this blog to vent a little, but also to warn other consumers that just because a wearable is the most popular, or has the most commercials don’t mean it’s the best. Also just because you haven’t heard of problems with the device personally (through your immediate circles) doesn’t mean they are without issues.

NOT ACCURATE!!!! Update: Died after 4 months
Let me start this by saying I was a personal trainer for 12 years so I may be a little more critical then most.
The reason I am so disappointed in the Fitbit Charge Hr is that it isn't close to being accurate except for the heart rate. I gave it one star for that.
What it does that is wrong:
1. When i woke up the first morning (still in bed) it said I had done 131 steps went ,01 miles and burned 337 calories. The next day it said when I woke I had done 109 steps, walled 0.5 miles and burned 338 calories. That's all well and good if I felt like cheating but I don't.
2. It cannot differentiate between walking up a hill and stairs. It also gets confused. The first day it logged my set of stairs here as 2 floors. The next day it logged the same set of stairs as 3 floors. Today it was all over the map! If I walk up an incline it will register that as stairs. Not the same thing. As someone who does stairs for a workout and was hoping to stop counting sets, this has proven to be useless because it is not consistent for the same set. Irritating!
3. Today it says I walked 12,888 steps and yesterday 14,930. Problem being is I walked a lot more today then yesterday! Consequently the mileage is also inaccurate.
Hard to tell on the sleep cycle because I am not aware of the times I am "restless".
Calories burned I don't pay much attention to for a few reasons. One is that there are many variables on how calories are burned. The fitbit is not equipped to give an accurate assessment. Like a bike at the gym...its just a gauge..a very approximate one.
So far the only thing that has proven accurate is the heart rate monitor. My guess is I can find one of those for less then $155.00.
With all that said, if you are fairly new to exercise this could be a good gauge. Make improvements every day. My only concern is my example of getting more millage in today then yesterday and yet it shows I got the opposite.
I suppose if you want to be part of a community of lets start exercising, it can be a plus but personally I wanted something worth the price and something a bit more reliable then this. I wasn't expecting perfection but this is just too far off the mark.
Maybe I just got a lemon. Hard to tell because this is my first one.
UPDATE: IT DIED AFTER 4 MONTHS! The Fitbit will no longer charge. 150 dollars and it only lasted four months,