The ultra-compact Polar Verity Sense tracks heart rate from arm or temple
Polar has launched another addition to its arsenal of heart rate trackers. This one is called Verity Sense and builds on the OH1+ and H10. Its ultra-compact design comes packing more battery life, a wider Bluetooth range and bigger memory.
We reviewed the OH1+ a couple of years back and since then this has become one of our favorite heart rate monitors. It’s small and lightweight, it spits out accourate heart rate data both in and out of water, it has memory for caching data, ANT+ and BLE connectivity and 12 hours of battery life. Yes, there’s lots to like. You can find our full review on this link.
Polar Verity Sense – what’s new?
Polar has now issued an upgraded version of the same. The naming convention is different, and this one goes by the name Verity Sense. Your guess as to the reasons this particular name was chosen is probably better than ours.
The device takes across all the features of its predecessors including the ultra-compact circular design of the main unit. There’s still one physical button on the side and a LED on the other side.
Our hope was that Polar would upgrade the button so that it protrudes slightly more, but it looks to be exactly the same. That was one of the things we found slightly annoying on the OH1+, the fact that it’s a bit difficult to get the button to register when you press it. Nevertheless, that’s one negative in a sea of positives!
What is different is the strap and plastic enclosure. They look to be more comfortable and secure. The other problem with the OH1+ is that it can easily flip. This has been resolved now with the new design.
As before, you can wear the heart rate monitor around the arm, clip it to swimming goggles, or fit it under tight-fitting closing. It is much easier to wear than traditional heart rate chest straps and much more precise than heart rate stats derived from something that resides on your wrist.
Polar has also made some improvements under the hood. Verity Sense packs 8 hour longer battery life than before. In total you can squeeze out 20 hours of training between charges. You still get dual Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity. But the Bluetooth range has been doubled to 150 meters and now there’s 16MB on-board memory instead of 12MB. This allows for a massive 600 hours of training data.
The Polar Verity Sense can be purchased at polar.com. The recommended retail price is $89.95 (£79.50 in the UK), which sounds pretty reasonable. Availability with other retailers will follow later in the month. There really is no reason to purchase the OH1+ over Verity Sense unless you want to save arond 10 bucks.
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