This is one of the more popular Nordictrack skier computer monitor from the 1990s. On the upside it has a large, easy to read LCD display, it's reliable and runs off 2 AA batteries. Display includes Pulse, but the ear reading pulse cable is never very convenient. I tend to ignore that feature and use an old Polar watch and chest strap, putting the watch on the grip holder just below the display. It reads both time and countdown time. The countdown feature is triggered by holding down the time button until the LCD starts blinking, then using the Up or Down arrows to adjust. It will remember your set time, e.g. 20 minutes. This is very handy for HIIT type workouts, say count down from 20 minutes and do intervals every odd minute starting from 17 minutes to 3 minutes x 30 seconds. Also nice is that you can just use the machine until it beeps your goal time. The Calorie counter is only useful relatively since it doesn't reflect the arm difficulty, the leg difficulty or incline. That is, it can only be compared to itself on the machine with the same settings. Distance feature is again useful for relative comparisons with similar settings. Another downside is that it only will display one of the numbers at a time - time, distance, calories or pulse. Some of the monitors from the later 1990s will display all at once. So to summarize, it's easy to read, nice countdown or countup time feature and will give you the basic info. I wish it included a conversion table or spreadsheet for calories taking arm resistance, leg resistance and incline into account.