Adidas T-16 Treadmill Review

Adidas is one of the world’s most famous brands. With a reputation for premium-quality products that are used by the world’s best athletes, the famous 3 stripes are generally a stamp of quality on any product. We’ve been surprised to see fitness equipment carrying the brand and when we got our chance to test and put their running machine through its paces, we jumped at it!

Assembly of the T-16 is similar to many other treadmills and we’d recommend having two people doing it to make it easier. You can tell a good deal about the manufacturing quality of a machine during assembly. For example, do the bolt holes line up and the components fit together comfortably without having to use excessive force? The T-16 passes this test with flying colours. Once assembled, we could see that this is a serious looking running machine, with quite a classic, retro look about it. It seems to wear the famous 3 stripes well!

Now for the real test: we get to put the T-16 through its paces as a running machine! The deck provides plenty of space so that you don’t have to stress about your position on the deck, even when sprinting at the machine’s respectable top speed of 18 kph. The combination of the belt and the deck make for a really good running surface: it absorbs impact well without but is not all that soft and is ideal for those wishing to train for road running events. The motor, albeit smaller than some other treadmills at this price, has plenty of power and is fairly quiet. The frame of this heavy-duty treadmill is very stable and there’s minimal rattling when running. All in all, it’s not the quietest model we’ve tested but then again it’s certainly not the loudest either.

As you’d expect from this sort of price point machine, there’s a powered incline function and it provides 15 levels. At its highest, it’s somewhere around 12%, which is fairly respectable and will appeal for those focusing on weight loss, rather than training for a marathon as jogging on incline is a very efficient way to burn those calories.

The console has a somewhat minimalist, retro, look to it and is laid out in a very clear way. Without picking up the console manual, it all makes sense. Big green GO button, big red STOP button, up/down keys for speed and incline and fast access keys for both. A key for the fan, a key to scroll through the programs and one to select them. It really couldn’t be much easier.

Feedback for your workout is delivered via a 5” blue back-lit LCD display. It’s a bright, clear display that provides feedback on speed, time, distance, calories, pulse rate and incline, with the speed set up to take centre stage which seems to encourage you to want to go a little faster! There’s also a most welcome option to be able to change the units of measurement from KM to MPH which is sure to appeal to many users.

There’s a selection of 30 different workouts to choose from. 24 of them are pre-set and their profiles are printed on the console itself. There are also target modes for time, distance and calorie burn as well as a straightforward manual quick start mode. Finally, there are two heart rate controlled programs and this is something we were pleasantly surprised to see. We’re fans of heart rate control training as this maximises efficiency and ensures different users can hit their goals quicker. To make use of this functionality, you’d need to use a compatible wireless chest belt transmitter (any uncoded 5kz one like a Polar T31 uncoded will do).

The folding system is pretty good and as you’d expect from a quality treadmill, there is a soft drop feature. Also included on the T-16 are 3.5mm jack music input port and two speakers that do a pretty good job, tablet holder, water bottle holders and cooling fans.

Overall, this is a solid offering from Adidas. They’ve paid attention to the most important parts of a treadmill and the focus here is clearly on usability. A good, solid machine that doesn’t pull up any trees, is probably the best description here.