Sole F80 Treadmill Review and Price Comparison

Your Sole F80 Treadmill Buying Guide
Summary of What The Experts Say

Many experts have chosen the Sole F80 treadmill as their best buy in the $1500 price category. A few experts however, seem to be more impressed with the other models in Sole's lineup. To quote the experts roughly, one believes the F83 offers more bang for the buck than the F80. One expert believes the Sole F80 is overpriced considering it's basically the same as the Sole F63 in many areas. If there's one weakness in Sole, experts say it's their relatively short history in the treadmill market. Finally, experts very much like the console of the Sole F80.

Summary of What The Users Say

Of the users that have commented on the Sole F80 treadmill, most are extremely happy with their purchase. Of the users that are not happy, the problems reported include the cushioning system being less effective than advertised and the lack of available service techs in the area when a problem arose.

What You Should Do

The Sole F80 treadmill is one of the best selling treadmills on the internet. Based on the research we've done on this treadmill and its competitors however, we think the Sole F80 may actually not be the best choice as many experts claimed. Learn why this is the case as we compare the Sole F80 treadmills below. [Click To See Rest of Review][Close Reviews]

(We also compared the Sole F83 and F80 that you can read here.)

Sole F80 vs Smooth 6.25 - A comparison between two equally priced treadmills

The Sole F80 and the Smooth 6.25 are both strong competitors in the under $1500 arena but which is the better deal? The short answer is it's a coin toss. Depending on what you are looking for in your treadmill, you could walk away with either and be happy. But I'm sure you want to know the differences between the two so let's get down to it.

If you look at the numerical ratings from Treadmill Doctor for these two treadmills, you would notice that the Smooth 6.25 is slightly superior to the Sole F80 in cushioning and quality. The F80 treadmill's warranty however is slightly superior to the Smooth 6.25 with 2 years labor instead of 1. So this basically means the Smooth 6.25 is a slightly better constructed treadmill but with a slightly inferior warranty when compared to the Sole F80. Next, let’s see how they compare in the features department.

The Sole F80 comes with fans (not a common feature), speed adjustment controls on its arms (even less common), 55” belt, 2 and ¾” rollers, wireless heart strap and 11 MPH maximum speed. Compare this to the Smooth which has no fans, no speed controls on its arm, a belt that’s 1” shorter, 2 and ½” rollers, a wireless heart strap and 10 MPH maximum speed. From this, you can clearly see that Sole walks away the winner in the features department. This is not to say that the Smooth 6.25 is inferior to the Sole F80 in all areas (Smooth has 0.25 HP more to its motor as one example) but for the most part, you’re just getting a lot of little extras here in and there from the Sole F80.

If you live near a Dick's Sporting Goods or a Hilton hotel, you might also be lucky enough to try out one of the Sole treadmills. No such option exists for the Smooth since they only sell their products on the internet.

In terms of price, you can get the Sole F80 for $1479 which is $20 less than the Smooth 6.25 but a twenty dollar difference is practically negligible when you are dealing with a piece of equipment in the four figure range.

Up until this point, it would seem that I’m favoring the Sole F80 treadmill just a bit more than the Smooth 6.25 treadmill, so why did I say it’s a coin toss between the two at the beginning of this comparison? The simple answer is because the Smooth 6.25 treadmill is the better constructed treadmill of the two. To put it another way, the Smooth is likely to going to take a bit more abuse than the Sole before needing a repair.

There are two reasons we’ve used to come to the conclusion that the Smooth 6.25 is the better constructed machine of the two. The first reason we’ve already touched up on above when we looked at how the Treadmill Doctor rated each of these two treadmills – the Smooth 6.25 is rated slightly higher than the Sole F80 in cushioning and quality which all contributes to the definition of a better constructed machine. The second reason why we think the Smooth 6.25 is the better constructed machine of the two is because the running part(the base) of the Sole F80 is essentially based off of (one expert even said it was identical to) the Sole F63 which is a sub $1000 treadmill. Although we have doubts when one expert said the base of the Sole F80 is exactly identical to the Sole F63 since the rollers (which makes up part of the base) is larger in the F80 than the F63, we do believe the bases are more similar than different.

As we’ve mentioned again and again on this site, a sub $1000 machine should not be bought in the hopes that it will last under regular running. Even though we along with experts and users have been very positive about the Sole F63, it is still only a very good walking and jogging machine. You can run on it but keep your hopes low in terms of it lasting for very long if you run regularly on it. When the F80’s base is more similar than different to the F63’s base, we’re thus slightly less confident in the F80’s ability to perform for a runner than the Smooth 6.25.

Verdict 1: For runners, we recommend the Smooth 6.25 over the Sole F80. We view the Sole F80 as somewhere between a Sole F63 and a Smooth 6.25 in terms of construction. If you’re less concerned with the construction quality of the treadmill or if you’re going to do more walking/jogging than running, the Sole F80 is the superior choice for the many extras that it has that the Smooth 6.25 treadmill doesn’t. Depending on your needs, either can serve you well. Thus, it’s a coin toss.

Sole F80 vs Sole F63

As we’ve just mentioned, one should not expect treadmills that are priced at around $1000 to last in the long term if the user is a regular runner. The Sole F63 which we have scored highly is not exempt from this either.

So what makes the Sole F80 treadmill different than the F63? Quite a few things actually but whether they justify the price increase is up for debates. Let’s first list the differences.

These differences include the thicker upright bars on the F80 which contributes to a more solid running feeling (according to one expert), a better console supplied for the F80 in another expert’s opinion (although we like the blue LCD look found on the F63), rollers that are a quarter inch larger for the F80 as listed on Sole’s website, extended ranges for the maximum and minimum speeds on the F80, longer parts and labor warranty, 2 heart rate control programs on the Sole F80 vs none for the F63 (both come with a wireless heart rate monitor), and just improved overall reliability, power and noise level according to Treadmill Doctor.

If you ask us, if you’re going to get a treadmill mainly for walking or jogging, we actually think the F80 is slightly overpriced considering you can get the F63 for $400-$500 less. Unless you really feel you need the extra programs, the slightly larger rollers, the extra 1 mile per hour max speed, or if you really feel the F80 is that much more stable than the F63 after trying it out in person (this is probably the most important), or if you feel safer purchasing a treadmill with a longer warranty (equivalent to a 2 year extended warranty which is less than $100 in value), you would be better off saving yourself almost half a grand by getting the F63 instead.

Verdict 2: The F80 is a great treadmill but we think the F63 is the better choice if you don't need all those extras. For runners that were looking at the F80 as an alternative to the F63, it’s not a bad idea but we believe the Smooth 6.25 is the better choice by a slight margin. If you want to RUN on a Sole specifically, we recommend you take a look at the Sole F83, or better yet the Sole F85 instead.


After reading opinions from experts and users, we have objectively analyzed the Sole F80 Treadmill and assigned it a meta score as follows:

If the total price is $1375, you are getting a Super Bargain (5.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1500, you are getting a Great Bargain (4.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1625, you are getting a Good Bargain (4.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1750, you are getting a Small Bargain (3.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1875, it is No Bargain (3.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2000, it is Somewhat Overpriced (2.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2125, it is Greatly Overpriced (2.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2250, it is Severely Overpriced (1.5/5.0)

The current lowest price is $1479.00 which makes it a Great Bargain.

Notes:

1. This meta review was first published on October 25th, 2007.
2. For a list of resources used to construct this meta review, click he

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