Sole Fitness F89 Treadmill, New Model

Incredible Technology

Embark on a fitness revolution with the SOLE F89 Treadmill, where advanced technology accompanies every stride. The impressive 21.5" display unveils a vivid fitness landscape, providing a panoramic view of your progress and achievements. It's not just a screen; it's your personalized window to a world of possibilities. Stay seamlessly connected with integrated WiFi and Bluetooth features. Stream your favorite workout playlists, sync your fitness apps, and immerse yourself in a fully connected fitness experience. The F89 isn't just a treadmill; it's a connectivity hub, ensuring you stay in sync with your fitness journey. For instant control, dedicated buttons for speed and incline are at your fingertips. Experience seamless adjustments that match the rhythm of your workout, without interruptions. The SOLE F89 is not merely a treadmill; it's your responsive fitness companion, enhancing every step of your journey.

Frame

The Sole F89 has a z-shaped frame, which has become the blueprint for tech-savvy home treadmills. The frame is an anodized aluminum, making it stronger and more corrosion-resistant than regular aluminum. Because the frame is aluminum, it also keeps the treadmill lighter than steel.

Overall, the frame looks similar to the F85, but Sole has adopted an all-black/charcoal colorway. This new aesthetic looks even sleeker.

Motor

The F89 has a 4.0 HP drive motor and an incline motor. The incline motor is located in the back of the deck, which is beneficial for smoothly declining the treadmill. It’s still a residential machine, not commercial, but a household of users can accomplish all of their desired walking and running on the F89.

As Sole’s new top-of-the-line treadmill, the F89’s motor supports daily training by more than one runner.

The Sole F89 continues the trend of Sole treadmills being slow to adjust speed and inclines. It helps users feel stable as the treadmill transitions. However, the F89 does not perform well for short interval workouts because it takes too long to get up to speed or incline grade.

Running Surface

The Sole F89’s dimensions align with the 22” x 60” deck size that Sole offers in its premium treadmills. This size provides plenty of room for running, even for runners with longer strides. The F89’s 375-lb weight capacity is due, in part, to the reinforced deck.

The F89’s textured running belt can be adjusted side to side using a hex key in these bolts at the end of the deck.

The F89’s running deck is firm, not soft. Sole’s treadmills take runners smoothly from their indoor activities to their outdoor races and training. A firmer running deck helps you keep your paces consistent and keeps the feel between outdoor and indoor running similar.

The F89 is great for road runners, but it may not provide the support that users who need a soft landing and high shock absorption want.

Folding/Storage

Like Sole’s previous treadmill releases, the Sole F89 preserves one of my favorite features: more transport wheels. Rather than tilting the treadmill onto two transport wheels, you can just push the F89. It makes moving it a short distance around your space much easier.

The Sole F89 is a folding treadmill. Its footprint shrinks 47% (that’s almost half!) to 44” x 38” x 71”.

A yellow hand release level under the deck releases the treadmill from its folded position. I prefer this design to the kick release that the F63 and other treadmill brands use on their folding designs. The hand release lever is less prone to breaking and does not require users to balance on one foot to unfold their treadmill. Some users may find this process more accessible.

The deck will softly lower to the floor with the help of a gas shock arm. However, the deck is heavy and more difficult to lift. The F89 does not have a handle to help you fold the deck, making it even more difficult.

Incline/Decline

I am walking on the incline, set to level 15, which measures at just under 14% incline.

The back of the treadmill elevates to decline the treadmill, reaching about -5% grade.

There are 15 levels of incline and 6 of decline. Each level does not equal a 1% increase in incline grade. Our F89 was slightly inclined even when at a flat grade.

Features & Accessories

Sole was already killing it when it came to high-tech features before the Sole F89. Now, the larger screen is the perfect way for Sole to keep up with the competition’s display and showcase their unique features.

Console Overview

The Sole F89 failed to update one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to Sole treadmills: the buttons. Despite its much larger display, the F89 shows only a limited selection of speed and incline levels.

It’s hard to remember the incline goes to level 15 and the decline to -6.

In particular, it does not show the minimum, neutral, or maximum incline levels. The speed buttons fare a little better, but the buttons for 6.0 mph and 8.0 mph are noticeably missing. With such a large screen, the lack of buttons was even more noticeable.

There is more than enough room to have a button for every speed level on this machine, but instead, they skip around.

There are switches by the stability bar at the front of the console. These control the incline and speed on the left and right, respectively. I am not the biggest fan of them because they aren’t as intuitive or fast to adjust as the Peloton or Horizon dials. If Sole could find an easier way to adjust the speed and incline without interrupting my arm swing as much, they would be golden!

The speed switch on the Sole F89 increases or decreases the speed by 0.1 mph.

While I’m at it, I might as well mention the missing physical buttons to control the volume. It’s fine doing this on the screen while you are walking, but it was tricky for me while running.

Screen

The F89’s 21.5” screen size is competitive with other premium treadmills in its price range.

The star of the show when it comes to the F89 is the screen size. Sole has gifted us the superior viewing option: a 21.5-inch touchscreen. 20+ inches has been the preferred size of smart home fitness equipment for a minute now, so it’s great to see Sole add a folding treadmill with a large screen to compete with the likes of the NordicTrack 2450 and the Peloton Tread.

Sole’s smart equipment has been at the top of my favorite list because they offer apps from Netflix, YouTube, Max, Prime, and more. The larger screen makes the most of their content offerings.

Storage

The F89 has enough storage to get me through a long run without leaving the treadmill deck.

The Sole F89 has two cup holders and two small item compartments.

Fan

The angle and strength of the fan on the Sole F89 just don’t make sense.

Sole has not impressed us with their treadmill fans. We recommend using a floor or ceiling fan for cooling while you train.

Device Rack

The Sole F89 has a simple plastic device rack.

There is a device rack to hold your phone or tablet at the top of the console. It is a comfortable viewing height. Your phone or tablet may not fit as nicely if you have a large case or attachments like a PopSocket.

Pro tip: make sure that the adjustable clip at the top of the device rack is pushed all the way down when you aren’t using it, or it will make a bit of noise.

Speakers

The Sole F89 has Bluetooth speakers. They sound okay. The quality of the Sole+ audio is not as good as iFIT audio on NordicTrack or ProForm machines or Peloton training content on their machines.

The F89’s speakers are loud enough to hear over the motor and your foot noise, but I prefer to listen to the audio through my headphones for better quality.

It seems like Sole has mostly fixed the audio of the Sole+ classes. Some of them used to be too quiet. So far, I have not had any issues hearing the Sole+ coaches.

Bluetooth

As I mentioned, the Sole F89 has Bluetooth speakers. You can also connect to the F89 via Bluetooth in a few other ways.

Sole F89, meet my Garmin Forerunner 965.

You can pair your Garmin watch with the F89, but the connection requires you to pair the treadmill to your watch as if it were a phone. This requires you to disconnect your phone from your watch first. I don’t like this complicated setup. It doesn’t add features to the connection between the watch and the treadmill.

Most Bluetooth heart rate monitors should pair with the F89. Lastly, you can connect the Sole+ app to keep all your Sole workouts in one place.

Screen Mirroring

I feel no shame in screen mirroring a Peloton class to the Sole F89 screen.

Sole offers screen mirroring on the F89. This feature is smooth for iPhone users. Hiccups arose for me, an Android user. This was unexpected because the screen is an Android device. iPhone users can use their native screen mirroring feature. Android users have to download the Anplus Screen Mirroring app from Sunrise Technology, which is available in the Google Play app store.

Wireless Charging Pad

Don’t worry about your phone battery depleting; the Sole F89 has you covered.

The F89 has a wireless charging pad. If your phone supports this type of charging, it is a very convenient way to keep your device powered through the longest of your walks and runs.

Performance

The Sole F89 makes me feel ready to tackle any outdoor run.

When I’m not testing treadmills, I often run outdoors. I have a love-hate relationship with very cushioned treadmills because they allow me to hit paces and distances that I struggle with outdoors. For that reason, I like the firm cushioning of the Sole treadmills.

 

I like that I can hop on the Sole F89 and dial into the correct paces immediately. Firm cushioning exposes your body to the right training load to make running outdoors easier should you decide to join a run group, sign up for a local race, or discover your neighborhood trails.

I get to run and watch Netflix—it’s my dream job and dream jog.

Sole gives you access to entertainment, customizable training content, and trainer-led content. Such a large range keeps me from getting bored with my workouts. Sometimes, watching my favorite shows and movies helps me get through a hard workout because it takes my mind off of how my body feels. It incentivizes my training by combining my binge-watching time with my training time.

The console is slightly more stable due to its heavier weight. The treadmill performed well when I ran with a forefoot/midfoot strike, but the console wobbled a lot more when I switched to a heel strike.

It’s awkward for me to reach some parts of the console while running without hitting the motor hood.

I also had a hard time not hitting the motor hood when I interacted with the console while running. I wish the console was positioned over the belt more to give you more room. This might not be an issue for taller users because of their longer reach.

If the deck were shifted under the console a little more, it would be great.

Unlike other brands, Sole has thrown the door wide open to any type of training you could want. If what’s built into the screen isn’t enough, you can screen mirror content from your phone. Sure, the setup to take advantage of these cool content options might take a little longer, but it is worth it.

Subscription & Content Options

Sole is not playing around when it comes to content options. While other brands restrict what they offer or lock apps behind their paywalls, Sole does not. They’ve made sure to highlight that their training content and apps are free for Sole customers to access.

With Netflix priced as high as it is, do you really want to pay twice to stream a show while you are using your treadmill? If your answer is “no,” then Sole gets you. You just need to connect the Sole F89 to WiFi and log in to your Netflix account. Then, you are good to go.

If you have Wi-Fi- and a Netflix account, you can watch Netflix on the Sole F89.

In addition to Netflix, the Sole F89 has YouTube, Prime Video, Disney Plus, Max, Peacock, Hulu, Spotify, ESPN, CNN, Audible, and Kinomap.

The Sole F89 has trainer-led video content onboard. There are hundreds more classes available in the Sole+ app.

The Sole+ app allows you to have one account across all your Sole equipment. You can train with the hundreds of free classes, view your workout history, and more. You can screen mirror this content from your phone or tablet to the F89. The classes don’t adjust your speed or incline, but they can start and stop the treadmill, so you are perfectly synced with the trainer.

You can see these screen options in an onboard, custom, or manual workout.

There are also traditional onboard workouts from Sole. There are eight preset programs, seven fitness tests, two heart rate customizable workouts, and twelve slots open for user-determined workouts. Finally, when you throw in the screen mirroring, which allows you to view any video content on your phone, your training