Overall whichwearable rating Value 

“Your long term fitness friend”  whichwearable

Available to buy at around £129.99 at this link.

Heart Rate capture   Records activity without the need for a smartphone to be with you at the time of exercise.

Fitness  Analyses your effort using a fitness “currency” called “MEPS” .

Comfort   It didn’t irritate me on long 1/2 marathon runs.

App    Syncing and uploading was poor in 2017 but has improved greatly in 2018.

Features  ANT broadcasting of my heart rate to running machines rocks!

Why buy it?

• You just want to exercise hard and not bother about Smartphones and Apps.
• You take exercise and your heart rate seriously and don’t want to get injured.
• You exercise regularly or simple want to move from unfit to fit.
• You are a coach and want to ensure your team get and stay fit. They can all use them.

What could be improved?

• App support for cheaper Android phones as the App used to crash regularly.
• Driving the App from the Calendar menu appears not to be intuitive.

Unboxing

The box contains :

1. Heart rate strap without myzone unit.
2. The myzone unit that fits into the strap and need to be charged.
3. A proprietary charging cable (USB) to connect and charge the myzone unit.
4. A rubber wrist band branded “myzone” for wearing on your wrist.

First run

I visited Frampton on Severn and stayed at the house beside the canal. I tested the unit initially there but have used it on and off over a year.

The canal provided a great test track for exercise crossing it running up straights and coming back via short bridges.

I ran the route above. The screenshot is from the excellent Google fit app as it shows the route using GPS.

After connecting the proprietary cable to the unit and charging it (Unit has an LED that goes from red to green) for 40 minutes I synced the unit to my low end Android phone and the App. When you put the belt on the unit beeps to say that it started to record your heart rate. This is reassuring. I left my phone at the house and went out for a run on the canal.

The App

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The App is mainly driven from the “calendar” view where you start a workout on the day. Then it tells you in a colour chart how many MEPS (The myzone currency for exercise) . After the exercise you get an email to say how well you have done with your activity. The challenge here is that if you run with a smartphone you won’t be looking at the screen as most likely it will be strapped to your arm. The best way to monitor your heart rate will be to use a smart watch such as the Android Wear device below.

Broadcasting your Heart Rate to an exercise machine 

The photo above shows that the myzone unit (just detached from my chest for 1 second literally) was broadcasting my heart rate to a running machine. This is a great feature and also worked on a Wattbike. The unit is actually an adapted Garmin heart rate strap (See pairing information displayed below).

The Android watch App 

The myzone unit has an Android wear App that is wonderful. I saw my heart rate zone go from green to amber to red whilst climbing up the steps below. This is great. I didn’t need my Smartphone either. You can see my heart rate is 113, the background colour is blue (one up from green) and my work rate is 62% of my maximum effort based on my maximum heart rate of 170 bpm. Beside the little lightning icon you will see the number “1”, that’s the number of MEPS  (“MEPs is an acronym for myzone Effort Points, and it’s the metric by which everything is measured in the myzone system. MEPs are earned by exercising in your desired heart rate zone over a period of time. The more effort you put into your workouts, the more MEPs you earn!”) I have earned.

Summary after 1 year of use 

The myzone belt is like someone you meet who you are not sure of first, then you don’t like and then they become your best friend. It’s there and ready for you, no messing about with your phone, just grab it and go. It records your activity and when you are near your phone uploads the workout and sends you a nice email with the summary of the workout. You don’t need to have your phone with you at the gym, just the belt. It transmits your heart rate to any ANT machine such as Wattbikes and step machines. The audio beeping when you attach it to your chest reassures you that the battery is charged and it is working and recording your activity.  The product is used by football teams to see who is working hard and who is slacking on the pitch as it records everyones activity. I have had issues which initially infuriated me but having spoken to myzone they appear to be blips in server outages and support for the App. If you have a low end (Cheap) Android phone I would check out the device and if the App doesn’t work return the myzone under warranty. That was the weakest point, support of low/mid tier Android phones last year. You can see the errors in uploading to the server below.

whichwearable highlight : Just grabbing it and going to the gym without having to think about smartphones and Apps.

whichwearble lowlight : In 2017 only, App wouldn’t work on low end Android and upload the workouts, very frustrating. It now works a lot better.