Anyone have experience with these two units? I have the Polar 625x and the Garmin 301 came in today, the Polar and accompanying software have not worked on my laptop or my desktop, the 301 software loaded up first time. I haven’t taken the 301 out yet but I’m very impressed with the features and the upgrades over the 201.
I have had the 301 for about 6 weeks. It works great after you change the battery in the chest strap. Don’t even bother with the supplied one - go get a new one today. The chest strap is my only complaint as it is a bit medieval in design compared with the new Polar straps. They obviously didn’t spend much time on this part of the design.
Thanks yet another opportunity to warn people the X in 625X stands for Xtra complicated product.
I have had the 301 for about a month. So far - so good. The only issues I have had are poor HR readings (needed a new battery as the other poster pointed out) and the advanced workouts would not work if one of the ‘sets’ was longer then 10 min. Garmin has a software fix for the advanced workouts.
I also like how Garmin has improved the TC software. It’s not everything I want yet - but still nice to see a company taking feedback from the customer base and making changes/improvements. Bodes well for the future.
When it comes right down to it. Which one to buy? I have been looking at both of this for sometime and can’t make up my mind. How does one decide?
I’ve used the 625x 6months or so now and have never had any problems with it or the software. Great unit, like anything that’s designed to be an top end product it does have more features than you’ll ever need but if all you need is run speed, bike speed and heart rate, set it up for “basic use” and just forget all the other features. Downloading should be easy through the USB adapter or if you have a laptop like I do with built in IR port that’s even easier. Try downloading the current version of the Polar software at www.polarusa.com.
The Garmin’s look great but I like the smaller size of the polar and the bike compatibility.