Nokia 5800 App Review: Heart Rate Monitor

With people worldwide, increasingly relying on fast food (read junk food) for most of their daily food intake, obesity is spreading like a wildfire in developing and developed nations. Couple this with sedatory lifestyle of most of the tech jobs today and we have a killer combination. Not surprisingly fitness awareness is on the rise and thanks to Picobrothers, our 5800s now has a fitness application of its own- Heart Rate Monitor.

While the name says it all, Heart Rate Monitor doensn’t convert your 5800 to an online pulse measuring device but it does make your 5800, an ideal accessory for all your heart rate monitoring needs. More details and and screenshots after the break.

Screenshots-

The flash based application makes pulse measuring a walk in the park with its unique algorithm. As we mentioned this app can only assist in pulse measurement: users gotta tap on the screen to everytime they sense a heartbeat and the app will display the pulse rate in beats per minute (bpm). As per the developers, the app needs a minimum of five heart beats to accurately calculate the pulse rate. We accept that its to straightforward but its not that difficult to use either.

What we like?

1. Simple and intuitive interface
2. Fast algorithm

What we don’t like?

1. The large navigation pad hogging the lower half of our 5800 screen
2. The absence of a wired/wireless pulse monitor that can directly feed data to this app

Verdict

Fitness based applications are still in their infancy on the symbian fifth edition platform. While Nokia Sports Tracker is definitely one of the most versatile apps in this genre and Heart Rate Monitor is an ideal companion to Nokia Sports Tracker.

The app does a good job of calculating bpm within 5 registered heart beats and if the developers can modify the code to accept input from a wired/wireless pulse monitor, every fitness freak will love to have this app on his 5800. However, in the absence of accessory support, the app is still worthy of download and given the fact that its a free app, anyone who monitors pulse rate should have this app on their 5800.

Download Heart Rate Monitor