I'm updating my review because after all the time I had it, it managed to almost work for most of that time. What is almost impossible is updating it either by computer or by phone. By computer it will take you days to get the update to work (maybe). By phone it will never work (bluetooth lost). Normal syncs work maybe 50% of the time, but sync well enough to get your workouts to the cloud. I don't think it is reporting my heart rate very well (at least compared to my old Polar device), it tends to report it as lower than it is. Also the user interface pretty much will drive you insane and also it tends to lock up so it no longer works (sometimes during a workout). If you reset it often it tends to behave itself. It does not speak to iPhones to report notifications, despite implying that it does. This is the worst technology experience I've ever had, and I was a software engineer for 35 years and had a lot of computers and devices. This is just such a poor device in terms of software and/or hardware (software I suspect) that I can't recommend ANYONE buy this. And any other polar device will, I suspect, suffer from the performance of the polar app on computers. Note I have a iMac and an iPhone. It's just possible they do better on PCs. I will leave my former reviews below in case they should be helpful, but you don't really need it. First, it seems to underestimate heart rate relative to my previous Polar chest strap and watch. Judging from how my heart feels, I suspect the heart strap is more accurate. Second, syncing takes a lot of time and it seems to want to do the next sync immediately after completing the last. I have to bring down the IOS app or the FlowSync program on my iMac to prevent this. It does charge quite fast though, and the graphics are good. It's fairly intuitive, which is fortunate since the manual is virtually non-existant. I couldn't update the software at first until I put in a problem report and ended up uninstalling, rebooting, re-downloading FlowSync using Safari, and syncing/updating again. The update took quite a while but did complete this time. I feel like it's adequate to replace my previous Polar watch with it's sealed chest strap (that had to be repurchased periodically) and I guess I'm willing to live with the under reporting of my heart rate (and thus lower calorie burn). The customer service was quite good. EDIT: After about a month of use, the update seems to have changed the way updates are made. It no longer fully updates on demand. Instead, with the app running, it seems to update periodically behind the scenes. While it is sometimes required to wait a while for the update to happen, it seems to be reliable. I have also had the touchscreen stop working and there is no manual but I kept the button pushed and eventually it did a reboot and after the reboot the touchscreen works again. It does record steps, but it doesn't translate a lot of steps automatically into a workout (as fitbits do). Thus if you want to walk for a workout, you have to start a workout on the watch. The online site is good, though various types of workouts have very different information available (and I can't quite predict what I'm going to get). However remember I bought this because my previous polar watch has been obsoleted by Polar. It still works, but I can no longer upload the workouts. So there is no guarantee of how long this watch will be supported. EDIT: After about 3 months, it has a new issue. Every once in a while, say every month, it just stops updating to online no matter how many times you try to sync to your phone. The only thing I've found to fix that is to attack the cable to my Mac and sync directly to the computer. I guess we have to say that this watch has a lot of capability, but it is a BUNDLE of problems you're going to have to address constantly. EDIT: New bug after more time on the wrist. The most consistent way to sync is to kill the app on the phone and then restart it. Then to connect it to power and then press the button to take it off the charge screen. Then go to the Activity screen and then press the button until it says it's syncing. However, sometimes after successfully syncing, it syncs again and errors out, leaving you with the error screen. The new bug is that sometimes if you do not reboot for a while, it stops charging even when connected. Also over time it seems to underestimate the heart rate to an increasing degree. I probably will end up trying to replace this thing this summer.
