This is my third belt in three years and whilst I'd like to be able to say that the first two failed during a bout of shark wrestling, in fact they were not equal to the savage beating at the hands of a balding middle aged bloke on a gym bike. I was sufficiently peeved to think about a zenith bluetooth belt instead which would talk to a smartphone running a £3.99 workout app but I don't have either a smartphone, £90 for the belt or the inclination to bin my ageing Suunto T4 watch which works fine. Anyway, the signal seems nice and fat insofaras it works at a distance and a variety of angles whereas the previous belt needed to be close to the watch and dropped out at the slightest sign of provocation. Belt arrived with a very nice Maxell dead battery. One new battery later, still wouldn't pair with the T4. Whilst nowhere in the 126 page user does it tell you to do this, so don't try this at home, I fitted a new battery upside down as per the old style HR belt routine, refitted the battery the right way up, paired it again and it worked.
In action the belt is much more comfortable as the business end is a small circular blob which is less intrusive tyan the old style rigid strip. Sensor pads either side are stuck to the elastic belt which looks like a recipe for trouble so I'm going to store it carefully in a rigid case. Get batteries in bulk off ebay rather than the Suunto offer which, at the price, ought to come with a free Faberge egg.