Sole S73 Treadmill Review and Price Comparison

Your Sole S73 Treadmill Buying Guide
Summary of What The Experts Say

Experts say the Sole S73 treadmill is just the non folding version of the Sole F83 treadmill with a shorter deck. Since it doesn't fold, experts believe the Sole S73 is thus more stable than the Sole F83. In terms of performance, experts agree that there shouldn't be any performance issues especially since the S73 has been consistently updating itself each year over the past few years (while keeping the same model name). It has also been suggested that you might want to spend a few hundred dollars more and get the S77 which is of a slightly higher quality than the S73.

Summary of What The Users Say

No user reviews and comments found for the S73 so far.

What You Should Do

The non folding versions of the Sole treadmills really get less attention than they deserve due to the popularity of their folding version counterpart. For this particular model, it's no exception. As the experts have noted, the Sole S73 is basically the Sole F83 without the folding functionality and a shorter running area (20"X 58" shortened to 20"X 55"). Another way to put it is that the Sole S73 is basically just the Sole F80 with a bigger motor, greater maximum speed and sans the folding feature. What this means essentially, is that the Sole S73 is basically somewhere in between the Sole F80 to the Sole F83 in terms of functionality and price. [Click To See Rest of Review][Close Reviews]

To determine whether the Sole S73 is a good deal, we're going to do a comparative analysis with what else, the Sole F83 and the Sole F80.

Sole F83 vs Sole S73 vs Sole F80

For the buyers that haven't read our in depth Sole F80 and Sole F83 review, we're going to provide the following summaries to help us review the Sole S73.

Sole F80: We only feel comfortable recommending the Sole F80 for regular walking or jogging although the occasional run should not be a problem. This conclusion was arrived at since the F80 is essentially just a slightly improved Sole F63 which is priced below $1000 – a price level where treadmills just don’t get made at a quality high enough to sustain long term running. It’s motor and belt size is also slightly below what we’re comfortable recommending for runners.

Sole F83: We said this is the first Sole treadmill in the folding series (F series) that we would recommend the buyer run regularly on. Having said that, we think it needs to be priced at closer to $1500 instead of $1800 to be classified as a best buy. In other words, we think competitors offer more to their treadmill at a lower price than Sole does at this price point.

So how does the Sole S73 fare against these two? We believe the Sole S73 is sufficient for runners that are of an average stature. We think the S73 should sell for more than $100 less than the Sole F83 since you're losing not only the folding functionality when you downgrade from the F83 to the S73, but also losing 3 inches to your belt. Similarly, we also feel the $200 more you pay to upgrade from the Sole F80 to the Sole S73 is also a little on the expensive side. We can’t justify paying $200 more for a motor upgrade AND losing instead of retaining the folding feature.

As we’ve mentioned earlier, the Sole S73 is essentially the F83. So it follows that if the F83 is running capable as we’ve determined in the Sole F83 review, then the Sole S73 should also be running capable. Let’s take a look at the stats of the Sole F83.

1) The motor at 3.0 CHP (continuous horse power) is sufficiently strong (we recommend 2.0CHP for walking, 2.5CHP for jogging, 3.0CHP for running)
2) The belt at 20"X58" is sufficiently long enough for runners of all sizes (50-53" for walkers of all height, 54"-57" for joggers of all heights and runners of average height, 58"+ for runners of all height)

For the above reasons, we've concluded the Sole S73 is suitable for runners of average height because it shares the same 3.0CHP as the F83 and has a belt length of 55". (Using the above guidelines, the Sole F80's 2.5CHP and 55" belt is a little lacking in and thus not completely recommended for runners.)

In terms of our reasoning behind why we think the Sole S73 is a bit expensive, we have to take a look at the Sole F80. If only the Sole F80 would upgrade its motor to a 3.0CHP, we would then classify it as a treadmill suited for running for average height users. This is exactly what the Sole S73 has done - upgraded the motor. But it's also done something else - take away the folding feature. So by upgrading the motor and taking away the folding feature, there's a $200 price difference added which we think is pushing it a little ($100 would have been better or $200 but retaining the folding feature is also acceptable.)

For the above reasons, we've arrived at the following verdict.

Verdict: The Sole S73 is a treadmill that's slightly better than the Sole F80 but slightly inferior to the Sole F83. Although we feel it's a decent treadmill, we also feel it's slightly expensive. Even though we feel it's slightly expensive, it's still the least expensive out of all the treadmills from the Sole brand that we would recommend for regular runners.


After reading opinions from experts and users, we have objectively analyzed the Sole S73 Treadmill and assigned it a meta score as follows:

If the total price is $1350, you are getting a Super Bargain (5.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1475, you are getting a Great Bargain (4.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1600, you are getting a Good Bargain (4.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1725, you are getting a Small Bargain (3.5/5.0)
If the total price is $1850, it is No Bargain (3.0/5.0)
If the total price is $1975, it is Somewhat Overpriced (2.5/5.0)
If the total price is $2100, it is Greatly Overpriced (2.0/5.0)
If the total price is $2225, it is Severely Overpriced (1.5/5.0)

The current lowest price is $1649.00 which makes it a Small 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 here.

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