Which to buy: Suunto t6c or Polar rs800cx??
da_cox
Posts: 7
in General Chat
Anybody used either of the above and have any preferences or drawbacks? I'm planning to buy one of them but they cost roughly the same and do roughly the same things as far as I can make out.
I read the 220 review and they plumbed for the Suunto, but without getting my hands on either I'm not willing to part with my money without getting some more feedback from the street. Plus, I think the Polar looks better although admittedly that's not the best reason for buying something!
Any tips on where to buy would be useful as the cheapest I can find is between the £250-275 mark without pods...
I read the 220 review and they plumbed for the Suunto, but without getting my hands on either I'm not willing to part with my money without getting some more feedback from the street. Plus, I think the Polar looks better although admittedly that's not the best reason for buying something!
Any tips on where to buy would be useful as the cheapest I can find is between the £250-275 mark without pods...
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Comments
Polar are not the most user friendly...out of the two I would go Suunto....
Other than that dont be either and use 'feel' to see how hard your working.....
IE swim as hard as poss for as long as poss (or for race distance), Cycle for as hard as poss for as long as poss (or race distance) then guess whats coming....run as hard as poss for as long as poss (or race distance) until you either finish the race/training session or you hit the wall and crawl home on your hands and knees with your body telling you its had enough and is gona shut down......lol
the foot pod is great, with on average 40km running a week I have had to do one battery change and I did it myself in ten minutes. I now have a spare battery for it and the chest strap in my sport bag, bat change is easy.
However, the watch itself did annoy me. I trained with it for the Berlin marathon this summer. All was great, until the morning OF the marathon.....no batter. The damn thing let me down in that day...although it had only been in operation for slightly more hours than the battery should have lasted. I was VERY VERY annoyed with that. Polar took over two weeks to send it back to me after the battery change....bat hange has to be done by Polar....I learnt that with my S625x (or watever it was called) where I got a jeweller to change the battery, this led to a broken watch after my first swim.
the watch itself is nioce, but it's really not worth so much money. I like keeping track of my km from the bike and the run and downloading them to the computer, but I don't use anything other than speed, pulse, time etc...
For this price the watch should really have a better computer connection, it's a little fiddly holding it infront of the IR sensor.
I find the HRM monitor great compared to other products. In my scity there are a lot of tram lines, other HRMs don't work when near these lines, they either show crazy pulse figures or nothing, but the WIND connection on the 800cx is great - no problems.
But as it works at 2.4Ghz you won't be able to use it in the water.
To make a long story short. I have never used the Suunto. If my 800cx were to break, I would look at the suunto but probably I would buy another Polar.....it works almost always.....gives me lovely graphs.....tells me plenty of useless info and gives me something to play with. It's too expansive, but what are you gonna do?
hope this helps.
I've a T3C. T6C will give you interval breakdowns of HR, pace etc - T3/4C will only give you avg and max for the entire session UNLESS you have a PC pod AND the PC is within range ... OK for treadmill, turbo or MAYBE track work (untested on all fronts!).
Until late 2009 I would have said their customer service was brilliant too - they replaced FOC my entire T3C when it wouldn't pair with a bike pod, and shipped a replacement HR chest belt (w/out transmitter) w/out query/proof when the lug that clicks into the transmitter snapped off.
However, I've suffered the snapped lug problem three times now; the 2nd time I never boteherd them as the FOC HRM replacement came with a belt and I still had the original at that time. 3rd time I raised THREE online support calls with Suunto via their updated website thing not one of which was answered/picked up/etc. Very very unimpressed. In the end due to pressure of time , training and events I had to buy a replacement belt for £19.
The lug breaking thing is not unusual it appears - I have heard of several other people suffering the same issue.
Overall I am delighted with the T3C and what it offers me - but couldn't recommend them any longer particularly as their post sales support seems to have stopped completely.
didds
Thanks for this - really useful blog going into a lot of detail between the two products. Looks like I'm not the only one fussing over the two HRMs. I think I'll probably go for the Polar as it does more things and if you're going pay through the nose you might as well get enough bang for your buck.
The reason I'm not going for the T3c or Polar equivalent is that I also like mountaineering and with the altimeter funtions combined with the GPS I can get better crossover between the sports.
I'm planning a trip to the Cairngorms this Feb so fairly serious stuff, but not quite in the same league as the 'Eigerwand'! I have thought about the Garmin 310XT and was very tempted, but have you seen the size of it in real life!! Going for the Polar rs800cx is probably massive overkill but it sounds like a lot of fun. Am planning to do a triathlon this year so am finding reasons to justify it to myself...