ProForm Sport 7.0 Treadmill Review

With a track record of producing treadmills that leave the competition for dust in the value for money department, ProForm has dominated the budget treadmill market for a number of years. The brand is owned by Icon Health & Fitness group who are the world’s largest manufacturer of fitness equipment. This provides two advantages: Economies of scale to enable the creation of impressive value for money treadmills and secondly, access to a significant portfolio of technologies.

The Sport 7.0 model from ProForm caught our attention when we noticed the specs mentioned of ‘iFit Bluetooth’ on a budget priced machine. So we decided to get our hands on one and find out more!

This is a substantial treadmill and the box weighs over 90 kilos and like most ProForm treadmills we’ve tested in the past, the assembly is best done by two people and takes around an hour following the clear instructions. First impressions of the assembled machine is that it’s a proper sized running machine: something that’s increasingly rare to find at this price point of £550!

So far, so good, but what’s it like in action?

The most tangible difference between running on the Sport 7.0 and a more traditional budget treadmill is the roomy deck size. Typically, when using a budget treadmill, a fair bit of concentration is needed to ensure one stays in the right position on the deck, especially when running. With this ProForm, your reviewers were able to sprint at full speed without constantly looking down to check the position of feet on the deck! ProForm have got the cushioning on this treadmill pretty spot-on: it noticeably reduces impact in comparison with running on the road without having a deck that’s too springy (this would result in too much trampoline effect and impact the running experience).

In terms of the motor, this ProForm has more than enough power to run the belt without the slippage that’s a typical characteristic of cheap treadmills. The top speed is a more than respectable 18 kph (just over 11 miles an hour), so it should be ample for most runners to be able to get a decent sprint in as part of their training.

We can confirm that ProForm has continued their tradition of having ‘real’ inclines with the Sport 7.0: 10% actually means 10% rather than 10 levels. While this gradient doesn’t sound like much, it certainly works up a serious sweat and shreds those calories pretty fast! We’re fans of treadmills with decent incline levels as it enables people targeting weight loss as their goal to train at slower speeds with incline and reduce the risk of injury.

The Sport 7.0 features a big console housing at the front, more reminiscent of gym treadmills than entry level home machines. Controlling the treadmill is simple enough in manual mode:  hit the button labelled ‘manual control’ on the console, press the green ‘run’ button and use the handy quick keys on the console to select the rough target speed and incline and the ‘up’ / ‘down’ keys to refine to precise levels. On the Sport 7.0, ProForm has replaced the LCD display used for feedback with a set of LED displays. We found the LED displays bright, clear and easy to read and believe that ProForm has made the right choice here: Better to have a couple of clear LED displays for feedback than the ever-shrinking and more difficult to read LCD display found on previous budget ProForm treadmills.

Something we’ve never seen before in all the years of reviewing treadmills is the ‘Watt’ meter at the center of the Sport 7.0’s console. When you first insert the safety key, you enter your weight and the console computer uses this information along with the speed and incline setting of the treadmill to estimate the exertion on the user and display this information. Whilst the science behind this may be very questionable, in practice, it actually works fairly well – especially whilst doing interval training. In order to enable interval training sessions that are very personalised and easy to control, you can save two combinations of speed and incline: one for ‘recovery’ and one for ‘work’ and use the dedicated buttons on the console to alternate between them with a single button press.

The built-in programs are fairly limited and without their profiles printed on the console (or for that matter in the instruction manual), it takes a bit of guesswork to figure out what they are! The only initial clue is that they’re split into two groups: Tempo based workouts (which are more traditional pre-set programs) and interval training ones.

BUT, ProForm has integrated its iFit Bluetooth technology with the Sport 7.0, which is a first: we’ve never seen this an iFit enabled treadmill at this sort of price point previously. You simply pair your Apple or Android based tablet with the machine and access the iFit functionality via ifit.com running on the tablet and using its internet connection. Whilst the full iFit experience requires a subscription (c. £80 for one year), it’s well worth a try if you can afford it. It provides pretty much the best set of interactive features possible on a treadmill. For some people, the interactivity and functionality like running courses anywhere on earth with google street view or having personalised daily workout programs will provide enough of a motivational boost to make use of their treadmill long term, rather than risk it becoming an expensive coat hanger after a short period of use. There’s a tablet holder at the top of the console and this is clever positioning as it keeps the tablet screen closer to eye level when running and doesn’t obscure access to the control buttons on the console facia.

Another innovative ‘first’ on this treadmill is having a Bluetooth Smart heart rate receiver built-in. This enables making ECG accurate heart rate measurement using any BT Smart chest strap (like the popular Polar H7). There are two advantages to this: A Bluetooth connection is far more stable than the old analogue ones found in most treadmills and also many runners already own a compatible belt as they pair it with their smartphones for measuring and logging heart rate when running on the road.

The build quality of the Sport 7.0 is solid and capable of handling a respectably high maximum user weight. There’s the standard Proform warranty of lifetime on the frame, 5 years motor and 2 years parts and labour (with the registration of machine for 2nd year).

Even without the iFit, this treadmill is every bit as good as the various ProForm treadmills that have dominated our top picks for the entire budget category for the past few years. With the innovations added to the console of the Sport 7.0 coming on top of the winning formula of producing a full deck sized treadmill with a decent motor and power incline for under £550 makes this machine particularly special! If you’ve got the space and are on a tight budget, this model has your name written on it!!