This review will mostly cover the experiences unique to the N79 Active Edition, including the Polar for Nokia Bluetooth heart rate belt.

First, I have to thank Nokia Innovations and the NST Dudes (as they affectionately refer to themselves) for providing me with the N79 Active Edition (hereafter N79AE).

Regarding the N79 handset itself, detailed reviews have been around for quite a while, so I’ll make this brief. The N79AE only differs from the standard N79 by adding an arm pouch and the Polar for Nokia heart rate belt (hereafter Polar4Nokia). My first impressions of the handset are very favorable and its S60 3rd ed fp2 is a nice upgrade from my former E61. The phone is gorgeous, lightweight and packed with all the Nseries features, making it one of the best valued Nokia handsets when considering features to the price. At present, only “Seal grey” color is offered for the N79AE. Regardless, at 97 grams, it’s easy to see why the feature-laden N79 was chosen for the AE bundle. Very good choice, guys!

The arm pouch.

pros- Well-constructed, attractive, lightweight, breathable backing with a wide, soft and easy to put on velcro strap feels comfortable against my skin. I hardly noticed the arm pouch during a recent four hour long run. When the handset is in place, navigating the menus through the neoprene face works quite nicely, albeit for the major keys only (forget the numeric keypad).

cons- Snug compartment makes it difficult to pop the phone out for on-the-run captured media. Putting the phone back into the snug compartment often causes buttons to be pushed on the face and top of the handset, activating things/menus you didn’t want and worse, turning the phone off. The phone compartment isn’t merely snug, the clear plastic window sticks to a clean handset face like glue and handset sounds are muffled too much.

Polar4Nokia.

This accessory comes in two components; 1) Fabric HR belt and 2) Bluetooth heart rate monitor.

The first component is a Polar-standard, soft fabric HR belt. You can find these anywhere Polar products are sold and, for the ladies, can be found in special Polar sports bras. The belts are fitted with two snaps which hold the receiver/transmitter in place and double as electronic leads.

The second component is the recent Holy Grail for NST users, the Polar Bluetooth transmitter. When worn, the belt is comfortable and is no different than any other fabric Polar belts. The electrode snap interface from the BT module to the fabric belt is a Polar standard. The Polar4Nokia transmitter activates when it is worn and detects your heart rate. The unit requires a small battery which is supposed to be good for 150 hours of use. I wish it was rechargeable, especially in light of Nokia’s hope for a green reputation. My old Polar belts saw up to 1500 hours of use before replacement.

GPS

GPS chipset performance is very good. So good, in fact, that I want to confirm whether or not the N79AE contains an upgrade. I cannot find any specs on the specific chipset used, although Nokia has always used chipsets from Texas Instruments in the past. I’m able to observe 32 channels of reception, with relatively fast TTFF (time to first fix). I recommend waiting a couple minutes AFTER the familiar NST green “GPS ok” light to lock in the max number of satellites for better workout data accuracy. GPS performance so far without using A-GPS has provided me with better data than I’ve seen with three different external BT GPS receivers I used in the past with my former E61.

Accessing rolling data.

This is going to take some getting used to. I have used Polar wristwatch HR monitors continuously since 1992. The whole point of a heart rate monitor is to make accessible current HR data for the purposes of your activity. So, for 17 years I have been used to looking at my watch for instant HR figures and preset alarms for necessary HR ranges. Presently, this is the only real design flaw of the N79AE as easy screen access takes some adjustments and the phone has NO alarms for HR range values. User suggestions for the current setup are as follows:

1) You must wear the arm pouch on you forearm or wrist. You simply cannot see the data if the pouch is on your upper arm.

2) You should switch the screen orientation to landscape only, disabling auto-rotate. Otherwise, the constant motion of running makes the auto-rotation feature go crazy.

3) You have to wear the earbuds if you want to hear the faint lap tones. The snug arm pouch muffles away even most ringtones in urban environments. I may not have the best hearing anymore but I couldn’t hear lap tones, nor ring tones while running next to traffic. Earbuds in with no music playing, problem solved. Still the faint lap tones need to be addressed in future builds.

4) Disable auto-keypad locks. If you want to see your progress with a single tap, you need to disable auto-lock. The N79AE has a nifty unlock slider at the top of the handset, but accessing it gets a little tricky in the arm pouch.

Summary

On a scale of 1-5, I’m giving the N79AE a “4″ , citing the following minor obstacles in the way of a perfect rating: Difficult to remove phone on run, Access to data on run and No HR range alarms. Otherwise, I couldn’t be more happy than I am with this setup. Overall, the N79 on its own is a fantastic representation of why I love Nokia. But the N79AE bundle is a real treat and an excellent addition to one’s workout arsenal. When I first heard of the N79AE, I knew I had to have it. Now that I do, it doesn’t disappoint.

Absolutely recommended!

I’ll post more about this innovative fitness bundle after a bit more use, including a Sports Tracker introduction and details on product availability. So check back in a couple weeks!

-David

Nokia N79 Active

There’s not much time left remaining for the contest set up by the guys at the Nseries Innovation Newsdesk where the Grand Prize is a Nokia N79 Active phone bundle, which has been called a “healthy twist on Nokia’s smallest Nseries”. The deadline for entries is March 14th!

The challenge for the contest takes advantage of the Nokia’s Sports Tracker mobile application’s geo-tracking features along with your creativity to draw a virtual heart on the planet. Sports Tracker tracks the travelled routes of your workouts, saving that route on a map for you to see, analyze and share with your friends. Sports Tracker also gives you the ability to add geo-tagged pictures and video synchronized along your workout route.

Nokia’s using this contest to promote their newest bundled package, the N79 Active, combining the brilliant N79 phone with a brand new product from Polar heart rate monitors made exclusively for Nokia. The “Polar for Nokia” Wear-Link heart rate monitor belt communicates with the Nokia Sports Tracker mobile application via Bluetooth, adding heart rate data to your recorded workouts. The N79 Active bundle also includes an arm pouch to carry your mobile during your activities.

To enter you easily install the Nokia Sports Tracker mobile application to your GPS-enabled Nokia phone and sign up for a free Sports Tracker account, both of which can be done at: http://sportstracker.nokia.com. Then, look for and join the group called “Location Artists- Win A N79 Active” while you’re logged into the Sports Tracker website. Now all you have to do is go outside, start up the Sports Tracker program on your GPS-enabled Nokia phone and perform a workout in the shape of a heart. Upload that workout to the Sports Tracker website and choose to share it with the Location Artists group.

The deadline is March 14th, so hurry! Look for an earlier post of mine for tips and tricks to draw your heart and good luck!

Once more, I want to thank Andrei and the guys over at UMapper for recognizing my Nokia contest entry for their Map of the Week. They gave me the same honor a few weeks ago for one of my routine Sports Tracker workouts.

UMapper can be used by anyone for logging and embedding custom maps just about anywhere. I started using their service to embed maps of each of my workouts when I began this blog, and I like that I can choose from many different map providers, each with multiple viewing options. I also like that I can add graphics, information and media to my maps and see those changes reflected anywhere I have embedded a particular map.

All UMapper features are quite user-friendly, especially for WordPress bloggers via UMapper’s available plug-in.

-David Hroncheck

The guys over at the Nokia Innovations Newsdesk started a contest, “Track a Heart, Win a Nokia N79 Active”. They’re asking participants to use the Nokia Sports Tracker program, available for most Nokia handsets, to trace the shape of a heart on the earth. To enter, go to the Sports Tracker website and create an account, then join the group “Location Artists”. Install the Sports Tracker application on your Nokia mobile and start “drawing”. Your workout routes show up as a continuous line, what you do with that line can be artwork with some planning. Here’s a screenshot of my workout for the contest:

My workout page for the N79 Active contest

The planning for my entry too a couple hours using Google Earth. I first looked locally for the most natural heart shaped route, then I printed out the map for easier planning. The way the Sports Tracker application works requires your artwork to be drawn in one continuous path. So it’s not possible to stop your line and begin again elsewhere.

The way I’m using Sports Tracker nearly every day to record my training, I have become quite familiar with it’s features, mostly by trial and error. I noticed that any pause in satellite data would create a straight line (usually) to the point where the satellite signal is picked up again. I also have made mistakes by pausing the application mid-route when I wanted to register a lap instead. These issues and more were resolved a long time ago, but I thought I might be able to turn those problems into a technique for the “Location Art” contest; And it worked.

Once I planned my design, I mapped out a single-continuous route. For easier reference to my path, I saved all the key waypoints in the necessary order as landmarks within my Nokia Maps application on my mobile. I began a new workout at the first scheduled waypoint and, basically, connected the dots (waypoints) as I continued, always referring to the next landmark in my Nokia Maps application. The lines I drew which crossed over the tops of buildings and over water (though it is currently ice anyway) were made possible by pausing the Sports Tracker application at one waypoint then resuming at the next, resulting in a straight line.

Problems. After testing this technique a bit I set out for my first attempt. Sparing you the fine details, I failed. I completed the route, my heart rate high just from adrenaline, and I immediately checked the output. FAIL. My heart looked like a spider web. Not all my waypoints were successfully recorded. I just spent 4,5 hours biking 39,5km and it didn’t work. Oh, and I missed my first scheduled running workout since Christmas…Bad.

Success. The next day I headed out earlier with some ideas on how to insure a better result. Another 4,5 hours and nearly 40km later, I stopped the application and checked the output. It still was missing some waypoints that I had visited, nevertheless, the results were pretty good. Feeling rejuvenated from relief, I resumed my training program when I got home by running some hill repeats; Back to life.

No matter how I fair in this contest, I feel pretty good about having done this little project. I’m more familiar with my city’s streets and found some new shortcuts. I’ll also forever visually regard certain areas of my city relative to this project; “That restaurant is at the bottom of the seven“. Anyway, it was a rather fun detour Nokia provided me with this challenge.

Grand prize is a Nokia N79 Active, featuring the new Polar BT Wear-Link chest strap. Some runner-ups will receive the Polar BT Wear-Link chest strap, compatible with a new version of Sports Tracker on many Nokia devices. Good luck to everyone who enters!

…and here is a link to their press release: Nokia N79 Active gets your heart racing