[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] THE GOOD
Long, wide belt is easy to run on, even at a full sprint. Speed goes all the way to 14, which is a full sprint for me. The incline/decline options are quite decent. The cushioning in the deck feels great. Raising and lowering the deck is pretty simple.
This treadmill does a great job with all the things you would think of when looking for a high quality piece of running equipment. And then they went and ruined it with a horrible control interface:
THE BAD
The treadmill will not function at all unless you have an iFit membership. After assembling it, I just wanted to turn it on to test it out, but you can't do ANYTHING until you put your iFit username and password in. You do get a very short free trial, but after that expires, not only do you lose access to the workout programs, but they also disable Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, etc, which I would say feels petty, but really I think it shows that they know their membership is overpriced and they have to add more incentive to get you to cough up their monthly fee. Now I'm left with a giant screen that gets in the way of my already-existing TV that I have always used to watch Netflix while on the treadmill, so the screen is a liability at this point. If that was the only issue, I'd still give this 4 stars, but it gets worse. Now that my machine is just a regular treadmill (just get on and start running), I would like to turn it on and go right away, but I still have to wait for several seconds for it to boot up before I can get going - every time. "Several seconds" can turn into nearly a minute if it can't access the Wi-Fi, at which point it gives me an error and wants me to fix it (fortunately, I can override and tell it to ignore it). If everything "smart" is disabled, why does it need Wi-Fi? So it can continue to pester you to sign up again, of course!
But wait, there's more! The basic controls are awful. The main console (not screen) will let you adjust the speed by 0. 1 MPH at a time, which is a nightmare when starting at 1 and trying to get to, say, 8. Even without the subscription, you can still use the screen to quickly jump to any speed, UNLESS your desired speed is 10-13. For some inexplicable reason, the controls on the screen go 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,14 (that's true even if you ARE paying for the subscription). That means if you want to run at, say, 12, then you have to hit 9 on the screen and then hit the stupid console button like 30 times WHILE RUNNING. It's just a button on a screen and you can have as many as you want for free, so the fact that they skip the ones I am most interested in jumping straight to is infuriating and it's all just the company being cheap, and the programers being lazy.
Even if the screen had 10-13, I would still prefer the quick-jump speed buttons on the traditional console for various reasons, not least of which is that the screen doesn't always register a press - if you accidentally do a slight swipe motion, it won't change the speed, and when you are running, it's hard not to slide your finger just a tiny bit. I'm also sweaty when I run, so the screen gets covered in smudges. If I was paying to use the workout programs or streaming services, the overlay gets in the way OR you have to explicitly open and close it. Since I'm not paying for the service, I'd like to just take the monitor off. For all these reasons, I wish the speed and incline functions were all in the traditional console - having them in the screen interface is a bad thing.
In short - everything about this treadmill from about knee level, down is fantastic. From there up, it's overpriced junk and makes me regret my purchase decision.