GPS Watch with Heart Rate Measurement @Aldi for $99

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ALDI

• 

  jong on 15/07/2014 - 15:00

  -1

  Wrist-based HRMs aren't that accurate; they bobble around more than chest straps, and they are further from the source of the electrical signals they're trying to measure. Plus, it looks like the Aldi one needs you to manually plug it in to a PC to upload the data if you want to track performance.

  If you have a modern smartphone - iPhone 4s or better - you can get a Bluetooth Low Energy chest strap for ~$80. That uses your phone to log and display the data. If you then put a running app on your phone - Runkeeper, or iSmoothRun - it'll automatically log your heartrate along with speed/climb via GPS to a website, and give you audio feedback (so that you can set heart rate zones, and have it warn you if you go over/under, without having to look at a screen).

  • 

    jong on 15/07/2014 - 15:05

    eBay's showing no-name bluetooth chest straps starting at about $20; brand name ones (Polar, Wahoo etc) start at about $75.

  • 

    scrimshaw on 15/07/2014 - 15:07

    -1

    The accuracy of a phone's GPS is also better too, since it has A-GPS using 3G data.

    Standalone watch GPS's and fitness trackers are usually only accurate up to 10-15 meters so you tend to get a large variance in distance readings.

    • 

      Joshman5k on 15/07/2014 - 16:19

      +2

      I always thought GPS was more accurate than Phone tower triangulation. However it takes longer to get a sync. So phones use the Phone towers to get a fast location (but not accurate), and then use the GPS Satellites to get a more accurate fix.
      New phones also use your Wi-Fi details to guess where you are, based on their Google Street View data, as well sending data periodically to Google's Location servers.

      • 

        thejew on 15/07/2014 - 16:27

        Josh wins!

      • 

        bargain lover on 16/07/2014 - 13:14

        correct, A-GPS reduces location acquisition time. If there is only 1 tower nearby then no triangulation of course. You can see this sometimes on phones when maps thinks you are right by the tower, and you are not.

        When I ride with Strava on phone, and Garmin 500, the Garmin is usually more accurate.

        The Garmin when it has an open view of the sky and good coverage from satellites can do 4m accuracy, though thats fairly rare in our concrete canyon world

    • 

      michjfro on 16/07/2014 - 05:41

      +1

      The accuracy of this watch according to the manual is 3m 50% of the time and within 6m 95%.

  • 

    takezo on 15/07/2014 - 15:23

    +2

    Suggest you take a look at this if you think wrist based HRM is inaccurate:

    http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/02/monitor-bluetooth-smartan…

    I've had an adidas smart run watch for a while now, and there's definitely no bobbling. They don't even work by measuring electrical signals, but by shining a green light into your blood vessels.

    Mind you I'm not sure why this is even being discussed, as this just works with a chest strap.

    • 

      tedibaba on 15/07/2014 - 19:26

      +1

      Thanks, Very informative.

  • 

    Domingo on 15/07/2014 - 16:39

    Where is the Wrist-based HRM?

• 

  Dice on 15/07/2014 - 15:34

  +5

  As above, read the description - it comes with a 'chest strap'.

• 

  barefoot on 16/07/2014 - 11:22

  +1

  It's a chest-strap HRM, so STFU about wrist-based HRMs.

  I'm about to return my one that I bought last time. It's been a good GPS unit - especially at the price - but the HRM is too flaky to be useful. Without fail, every ride, it randomly spends 10-20 second intervals recording me at 210+ BPM.

  Wet contacts doesn't help. New battery doesn't help. It's just not a good device.

  I'm replacing it with a Garmin. Sure, that's not in the same price ballpark, but I've decided to suck it up and spend the right money to do the job properly. Absolutely rock-solid HR signal from the Garmin. No spikes, no blips.

  I recommend this unit if you only want to spend $100 on a GPS and HRM. It's stunning value for that price. Just don't expect it to be quite as good as a top-end system that costs ~3x the price.

  NB - the software for this Aldi unit is Windows only. I got the software working on Linux (under WINE), but it couldn't communicate with the watch through USB. It uses proprietary drivers - it doesn't just mount as a mass-storage device (which is what Garmins do).