Best cheap fitness tracker Polar Loop 2 $66 Reviewed

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Information About Polar Loop 2

Confused styling meets step-sensing smarts, the second coming of Polar’s Loop gets oh-so-close to tracker greatness, but fails to nail the fitness game. The cut-to-fit comfort of the rubberised Loop is perfectly wearable – if you can stomach its inexplicable shiny strips, functionless but for fashion – with waterproof wizardry meaning you can splash through 20m of the wet stuff before it’ll conk out.

What’s more, it works well as a standalone strapper. Employing a single, small touch panel to scroll through time, activity target progress, calories burnt and steps taken, it’s a simple interface built on a battery good for five days at worst.

In fact, as footstep-counters go, it does the duty better than many: daily targets are presented as a gradually filling bar, with your Polar pal telling you just how much of a certain activity you need to do to fulfil your fitness fetish, based on a level selected to suit your lifestyle. Bar half full? Jog for 20 minutes or walk for 45 to crest the peak of pavement performance.

Perpetual notification-missers will also benefit from the Loop 2’s optional vibrations for phone alerts, whilst its 85-LED dot display definitely won’t go unnoticed: bright to the point of painful, there’s no issue spotting it at sunrise to silence the alarm.

So far, so good – unless your workouts involve more than a walk or a run. Stride-counting accuracy is on a par with competitors, but, lacking heart rate sensor smarts (unless paired with a pricey Polar peripheral), the Loop 2 frequently under-rewards abs-crunching challenges or sweaty spin sessions that don’t involve vigorous wrist movements. 

This translates into bar-filling frustration as Polar’s fitness friend insists you still owe it several minutes more movement (risking a dreaded ‘inactivity stamp’ on your calendar, should you refuse), despite your near-death dumbbell session earlier in the day – though periodic ‘time to move’ reminders are a godsend for absent-minded sedentary striders.

After living with the Loop 2, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Polar’s created something more than a pedometer, but not quite a fitness band – a feeling that flows into the app. By default, your up-and-active stats are displayed around a clock face, with blue bands representing moments of movement (darker means better); a tap toggles to a pie chart of active time totals. 

This is all appropriate for annihilating daytime inactivity, but beyond step counts and sleep totals, there’s little here for high-pace pedallers to justify the price-hike over similar, smarter and more stylish sports trackers.

Stuff says: ★★★✩✩

The Polar Loop 2 is no pro-performer when it comes to stat-savvy sports sensing on a pound-pinching budget

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 $65.53 Amazon