Oregon Scientific Pedometer with Panic Alarm Review

About the Oregon Scientific Pedometer with Panic Alarm

When I bought this, I thought the panic alarm was for if your heart was beating so fast from walking or running, it would go off to warn you that you better slow down or collapse. But no, it is just in case you are walking and think someone is approaching you with bad intentions. The alarm is not that loud and I doubt anyone would know it was a "panic" alarm. However, the rest of the pedometer was fine for the cost.

This was my second or third step counter. I got a real cheap one, then this, then another, then moved to a fancy schmancy aerobic one I never use. This one measures distance walked and time elapsed which is good if you want to see how fast you can walk a certain distance. It measures calories burned but it is a very rough estimate as there are many factors that go into burning calories and how many steps you take is just one. But it's nice to know you ARE burning calories. It stores seven days of data including how far you walked, time it took, and calories burned. The step counter measures 0 to 99,999 steps. Not a problem for me. If I saw 999, I was celebrating. (Hey, I have a sit down job!). There is a regular clock you can set for 12 or 24 hour view and it has a backlight and a safety clip to be sure you don't lose it as it is on your waist band. I lost mine though.

Having said all that, this $30.00 pedometer packed quite a few features in for the price but the steps were often off. I would walk 20 steps, it would say 30. I would do it again, 18. You have to program it so it knows your usual stride which is quite a simple process. After that, it should have been pretty accurate but it was sort of all over the place. I don't think it was terribly off and I don't think it TRULY mattered. I walked. That is what mattered. I bought this just for measuring steps. This is not an aerobic device which I also have which measures heart rate and calories burned and does all kinds of fun things. This is a straight on walk pedometer for people who want to count their steps and keep track of them. It works fine for that purpose as long as you don't need it to be 100% accurate. It gives you a pretty good idea of how far you walked, a ballpark figure of calories burned, and a correct reading of how much time elapsed from start of the walk to finish.

My Viewpoint

Although this doesn't have a heart monitor on it, it isn't made for aerobic activities. It is made for walking. It does what it should more or less accurately and it has some advanced features even much more expensive pedometers don't. I liked this one but I bought an Omron one after it (I lost this one. Even with the clip and safety clip, it disappeared.) and it was far more accurate. And more expensive and that isn't even the fancy schmancy one I mentioned above for aerobic work! I am such a gadget geek. I give this 4 stars. It isn't the best but value for your money is there and it will give you the info you need, albeit not exact.