Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Belt Review

The strap of the Polar H7 heart rate monitor features two clips on the front to attach the monitor, and a rubber pad on the back of the strap that will wrap around your chest.

The belt itself is very easy to attach and comfortable to wear. If you start by wrapping the belt section around your abs with the clips being secured in front of you, you can then rotate this around your body until the clips are at the back and slide it up until it is just below your pectoral muscles.

Bluetooth connectivity with the Polar H7

The Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Belt uses Bluetooth 4.0 for use with the latest compatible smartphones

Once the strap is attached, you can use a variety of fitness apps to track your heart rate on your smartphone. Once you connect to the Polar H7 through Bluetooth, you should see your heart rate display on your phone screen.

The transmitter is compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (5th generation), iPad (3rd and 4th gen), iPad mini and iPod Nano (7th gen).

You will also find that some rowing machines, treadmills, stationary bikes and cross trainers with heart rate monitor programs will also automatically pick up the transmission from the Polar H7. This will save you having to hold onto the heart rate monitor sensors on the machine to get an accurate reading.

Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Belt – Features Summary

Gives you live heart rate on your mobile training application
Uses coded 5kHz transmission to connect with the majority of Polar training computers and gym equipment
The soft textile chest strap seamlessly adapts to your body shape
Provides ECG-accurate heart rate to any Bluetooth smart ready device
Makes it quick and easy to add heart rate to your smartphone
Long transmission range (~10m)
User replaceable battery
Compatible with iPhone 4S

Combining the Polar H7 heart rate monitor with the ‘Polar Beat’ app

The Polar H7 app is very useful for seeing a live stream of information for your workout

Another of the nice usability features with the Polar H7 is the app that has been developed by Polar specifically for use with their Bluetooth heart rate monitors. The ‘Polar Beat’ app can be used to clearly display all the most important information from your workouts and cardio sessions.

By measuring your heart rate, pace, distance and calories burned, this helps to turn the Polar H7 into more of an all round activity tracker as well as a heart rate monitor.

While some heart rate monitors need to switch through different screens on the watch to see your stats, once the Polar H7 belt is connected to your app this offers the benefit of live streaming all your information to one larger, easy to read screen.

There is a range of different programs that can be used to monitor and set targets, including Free Training, Distance, Duration and Calories.

Once your current fitness session has ended, you can even see a weekly summary to see how much you have improved.

As well as Polar’s own app you can also monitor your heart rate and fitness using other apps such as Runkeeper and Enomondo.

If you are looking to connect your Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Belt to your phone via Bluetooth then you may find that it doesn’t appear in your phone’s usual Bluetooth menu. If this happens then you can simply use the setting on the app that will then connect the two successfully. This combined with using Bluetooth 4.0 will help preserve the battery life on your phone when connected.

Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor

The Polar H7 Heart Rate Monitor Belt offers a very simple way of monitoring your heart rate, without the need for a watch as long as you have your Polar H7 compatible phone with you.

While the main product is the belt, what really sets the overall set apart from other heart rate monitors is the quality of the app that can be used to monitor your training progress and statistics.

The only thing to really make sure before you purchase is that your phone or receiving device is compatible with Bluetooth 4.0, as this is how the Polar H7 will need to connect. You can find out more about this with Polar’s article on Polar H7 compatible devices.