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 | A Review of the Polar AXN Outdoor Computers |
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| A Review of the Polar AXN Outdoor Computers |
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Reviewed by Jim Dotter, President, Biometrics, Inc.
Polar has three new models that are aimed squarely at outdoor sports and adventure racers. These are the AXN300, AXN500 and AXN700. The AXN feature list tells part of the story, but I want to add the real-world part that you don’t get from the feature list.
When Polar first announced the AXN series, my first thought was that these new models were really S-Series monitors in a different case, and should be evaluated as a store-and-download heart monitor/altimeter, that had some other goodies like a compass and barometer thrown in. Hence, my initial plan was to compare them against other Polar models ( S720, S625X, and S725) which provide that same core functionality.
Now that I’ve spent some time with them, I realize that the AXN models were created -from the ground up - for a different set of users than the S-series. They are the product of a lot of careful research concerning which functions are needed and useful in an outdoor watch/altimeter, and how these functions will be used in the real world - including some pretty remote parts of it. Many of the familiar features of the S Series are gone, and even heart rate monitoring, which used to be the core of any product from Polar, is relegated to a more appropriate role in the entire scheme, as just one of several interesting things you might like to know in whatever situation you’ve gotten yourself into.
All three units are about the same size, which is large compared to a watch but small compared to some of the other outdoor watches on the market, such as the Suunto models. The AXN700 ends up feeling larger because of the heavier duty band. The key differences between the AXN300, AXN500 and AXN 700, when compared to each other, are:
The AXN300 does not download. It does upload - meaning you can set up your AXN300 watch settings from your PC
The AXN 300 is lighter than the other two,because of its reduced feature set and its plastic case. (it weighs 3.0 oz vs 4.2 oz )
The AXN 500 and 700 are similar – they both sport the two-way IR communication with the PC. This allows you to set up your watch and download your adventure data afterwards. They also have some nice compass features not found in the AXN300.
The AXN500 has most of the features of the 700. The AXN700 is a bit more of a rugged expedition unit, with a special acclimatization test and this crazy armadillo-esque watch band... we'll expand more on the AXN 500/700 differences later.
Is this a fair comparison? It depends. If you already have a Polar S720 or S625X or S725, you might be glad to hear that they do a lot of the same things the AXN500 does for you (at least in terms of altitude), and the things that it doesn’t do might not be too important to you. The choice comes down to whether you prefer the cycling data ( S720 or S725 ) or running pace and optional cycling data ( S625X ) of the S-series or the hiking/trekking features of the AXN500 (barometric pressure, compass and a few other features), as both the S-series and the AXN series give you altitude data.
If you are looking for something that you can wear skiing or on your mountain bike that will give you a graph of your altitude and heart rate, you could consider any of the above models, and the price difference is not so great between the AXN500 and the S models listed above. So if you already have your S720 and just want to grab a graph of you ski day at the resort, stop reading now, save your money and keep the S720 you have.
However, if you don’t already own a downloading altimeter model, or if you are doing some more adventurous trips where you need to find your own way, read on.
The headline story here is that the new AXN models bring rugged to a new level. They definitely look like they belong in the middle of a kick-ass adventure, and their hardy construction make them more suitable for rough sports activity. They weigh in at 4.2 ounces (130 grams) for the AXN500 and AXN700, or 3.0 ounces for the AXN300, compared to 2.1 ounces for the S720/S625/S725. The case on the AXN500 is stainless steel (plastic on the 300, titanium on the 700); the crystal is heavy duty glass. The display is large and very readable. The strap (both AXN300 and AXN500) connects to the watch in a reinforced manner you don’t see on many watches. It’s not coming off! (The AXN700 strap is such a phenomenon that it gets its own paragraph below.) The combined effect is – bombproof!
Water happens – a lot – when you are outdoors. Not a problem here. Polar says these models are good to 100 meters, which they then qualify by saying just don’t go scuba diving with it. They still say don’t press the buttons underwater, but that sounds like lawyer-speak to me. Anyway, they back it up with a two-year warranty. And after ten years as an official Polar dealer, we have never had a case in which they did not stand by their warranty.
The features are well laid out for outdoor activity. You can record your outing, and that will give you heart rate and altitude at the usual sample rate choices of 5, 15sec, 1 min or 5 minutes. Whether or not you are recording your activity, you can cycle between views that show you the time, altitude, barometric pressure, a compass function, and some tests (more on that later). There is also a stopwatch and a countdown timer, which are independent of the activity recording. This is a change in Polar’s thinking, and reflects that they have become aware that this is not another HRM in the standard format. It’s outdoor gear in a more general purpose, Swiss Army interpretation.
The altimeter, barometric pressure, and activity views each have an on-screen graph (very small) that shows what this data has been doing recently, for some configurable duration. The graph for altitude also allows you to set the scale. Each vertical pixel in this little graph can show 3, 30 or 300 feet. There appear to be about 15 pixels of height available.
At first, the addition of that little graph seemed to be rather gimmicky, but it points to an approach that Polar has made with these units: to get the information to you while you are out there, rather than waiting to get back home. This can be an important difference when things get a little sketchy out in the back country. You get useful information from the graph, as long as you know what the x and y axes are, and those are configurable.
You might, for example, really like to know that you have been consistently, gradually, losing altitude, or gaining it, over the last hour or two, or how much the barometer has changed while you stopped to rest.
Be aware that these units use changes in barometric pressure to determine altitude. There’s no GPS receiver involved. While this is a tried and true approach, and is generally very accurate, you can get some drift if you are changing altitude while the storm is moving in and the barometric pressure is changing. In one test I saw the altimeter drift by 75 feet over 6 hours, but there was some weather moving in. Except for this situation involving the technology, the altimeter is accurate, because they have included a thermometer, which allows them to adjust for changes in temperature (warmer air is lighter) in calculating the altitude.
Polar has gone to great lengths to make the altimeter as accurate as possible. They have made it easy to calibrate, even making it easy to calibrate several times as you progress through your adventure. You can set up a series of calibration points on your PC and upload these into the AXN. Then, assuming these correspond to points of reference that you can identify as you are trekking, you just stop at each location and calibrate, picking the next one on your calibration list. It sounds complicated but they’ve made it pretty easy. You can easily use this feature by working briefly with your map before you head out. If you do, you’ll have a very accurate altitude reading, because the drift due to barometric change will be limited to the change since your last calibration point. Two or three points in the day ought to cover it.
You can also set altitude alarms, which will sound when you reach a certain height. You can see the totals for the day, so on the ski trip at the resort, you can legitimately claim bragging rights in the bar later that night when you show off your 20,000 vertical feet. Or if you have the nerve you can show off your average vertical speed. Hey, it’s not all about survival…
It is a nice feature to have the choice of monitoring the altitude or the barometer. If you set it up to store the barometric pressure overnight, you can look at the watch the next morning (assuming you stayed at the same altitude all night) and see whether the barometer has been falling during the night – generally an indication of weather moving in. This is good information to have before you make your plan for the day. These are features for people who like to really get out there!!
To continue reading this article - Go to page 2
Polar AXN 300 is $199.95 |
