Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Elliptical Trainers

Schwinn 470 Elliptical Machine Review

Last updated on

This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Read Our Disclosures

The Schwinn 470 Elliptical Machine is a major upgrade over the earlier 430 model, with improved incline settings, more workouts, and more user profiles.

But how does this compare to the cheaper Schwinn 430 model?

In this review we’ll guide you through the design features, 13 display console metrics, and what to expect from the 29 workout programs. We’ve also added a summary of the pros and cons from customer reviews, provided by people who already have the Schwinn 470 in their home. This is to ensure you only buy the best elliptical trainer for your own home gym.

Ergonomic design features

The Schwinn 470 includes Precision Path stride technology to make running on the machine as smooth as possible

With so few high quality elliptical trainers available that provided both resistance and incline, this has become one of the stand-out features of the Schwinn 470.

Although not ideal for shorter users (under 5’2″) due to the 20″ Precision Path stride length, the large articulating footplates and rear glide rails provide a smooth running motion throughout your workout.

Being a front driven elliptical, the running motion will already provide a more intense workout for your quads and glutes compared to a rear driven machine, with the 6 incline positions really boosting the maximum intensity.

With 25 levels of eddy current creating the resistance, there’s no need for any belt or fan system around the flywheel. This helps to keep your workouts quiet, as well as smooth.

Stability is another area that Schwinn have put great thought into with the 470. As well as the standard large front stabilizer, you also have added support around the middle and back of the machine in the form of adjustable levellers.

These can be individually adjusted to cater for any uneven ground the machine might be resting on, while at the same time strengthening the support of the glide rails.

If you’re worried about needing to move the machine once it’s setup, transport wheels have been attached to the front stabilizer bar to make transport a lot easier.

Schwinn 470 Elliptical Machine

Schwinn 470 Elliptical – Features Summary

  • Dual track two LCD window system allows you to monitor up to 13 different display feedbacks
  • Schwinn Connect goal tracking and data export keep you up to date on reaching your fitness goals
  • 29 programs
  • 4 user settings
  • 25 levels of resistance
  • High speed high inertia perimeter weighted flywheel make every workout smooth and quiet
  • Charging USB port and data exchange

Heart rate fitness test

As the company’s leading elliptical machine, the Schwinn 470 doesn’t just provide a wide range of effective workout programs, but also gives you two options to test your current fitness level.

  • Fitness test – Designed to measure your physical fitness level according to how much workload you are capable of, the main fitness test compares your power output to your heart rate.After starting your workout, starting the fitness test and holding the built in heart rate sensors will begin to adjust the intensity until you are training at 75% of your maximum heart rate.At the end of the 3 minute test the console will calculate a fitness grade, based on the age and weight values entered for the current user profile, heart rate, and power output.
  • Recovery test – Measuring a slightly different form of fitness, the recovery test will calculate a score based on how quickly your heart rate recovers after exercise.Both the recovery test and fitness test grades provide an excellent way of tracking your improvement across future workouts.
  • User profiles – While the preset workout programs will certainly be useful for the majority of training goals, there may also be times where you want to design your own workout.This is why the Schwinn 470 elliptical provides the option to create up to 4 user profiles, each with its own custom designed workout.

As well as being able to design custom workouts, setting up your own user profile means you can enter basic personal information, such as height and weight, to get a more accurate reading for the number of calories burned.

Ease of assembly

Detailed step-by-step assembly instructions in the user manual mean the Schwinn 470 is simple to put together

Together with missing or faulty parts, a machine being difficult to put together is one of the main reasons for negative reviews of fitness equipment.

This is usually based on the quality of the assembly instructions and how well each step is explained.

Fortunately, Schwinn (and parent company Nautilus) have built a solid reputation on being high quality products, backed by a high level of customer service.

This quality has also been extended to the assembly instructions, where almost every step has its own page providing a detailed exploded drawing of how the parts fit together.

They also provide tips on how to put together any parts that could prove awkward, such as connecting the console cable from the flywheel to the console support.

With the flywheel housing and glide rails already pre-assembled when you take them out of the box, this helps to cut down on the time it takes to get setup.

Judging from peoples experience in the customer reviews, setup time varies from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

Workout programs

Schwinn 470 Elliptical Machine

The Schwinn 470 provides a wide variety of preset exercise programs, which generally fall into one of 4 categories; Fun Rides, Mountains, Challenges, and Heart Rate Controlled (HRC).

Fun Rides – 4 preset profiles to choose from, generally with a gentle variation in resistance and intensity.

The Fun Ride options are ideally suited to anyone who is just starting a fitness program or looking for a lower intensity cardio workout.

Mountains – With greater variation in resistance levels through each of the 4 programs, Mountains are designed to improve your aerobic fitness while assisting with fat loss.

Challenges – With 2 interval training options and 2 forms of uphill climb, Challenges provide the highest intensity workouts designed for higher people with higher levels of personal fitness.

Heart rate controlled – As well as the 12 preset programs, the Schwinn 470 also includes 4 heart rate controlled options.

With numerous studies into the effects of cardiovascular exercise at specific heart rate ranges, knowing which level you are at is important for making sure you achieve your goal.

While the 50-60% setting will be better for general aerobic fitness, 60% to 80% is considered a much better option if your goal is fat loss.

With a total of 29 workout programs to choose from, you can be sure of finding a workout that helps you move closer to achieving your fitness and weight loss goals.

Display console design

The Schwinn 470 Elliptical display console

If you are finding it difficult to choose between a shortlist of ellipticals, a good area for comparison is usually the display console.

With two display screens instead of the usual one, the Schwinn 470 makes it much easier to quickly find important information about your workout.

While the lower display shows your speed, time, distance, resistance level, and calories burned, the larger display is reserved for displaying information about your current workout program.

The grid area also shows clearly how far through the workout you are.

There are other areas of the screen that have been specifically allocated to displaying your heart rate, intensity, and any current goals or achievements.

Whereas the earlier Schwinn 430 displayed quick select buttons for just the resistance, the 470 also provides a collection of buttons for quickly adjusting the incline.

The same focus on enjoyable workouts seen with the 430 model is also shown on the Schwinn 470 console.

With a cooling fan, speakers to listen to your favourite music, and a stand to rest your tablet while you watch a film, your workouts can be both effective and enjoyable.

Customer reviews

As when buying any new piece of home gym equipment, it’s important to find out as much as possible from existing customer reviews.

The Schwinn 470 elliptical currently has a number of reviews on popular shopping sites such Amazon, which also provides some useful questions and answers from people interested in buying the machine.

Listed below is a summary of the most commonly mentioned positives and negatives from these reviews.

Pros

  • It operates very smoothly and quietly
  • Motivating to be able to keep track of your workout information so clearly
  • Wide range of workout programs makes it more fun and challenging to use
  • Schwinn Connect is a useful feature if you want to track your workouts and monitor your progress
  • Large, cushioned footplates make it easy to get on and off the machine
  • Multiple compartments in the display console make it easy to store your water bottle and mobile phone / MP3 player safely
  • Shelf to hold your tablet is a useful addition for anyone who likes to watch TV or a film while they workout
  • Easy to understand display makes it quick to setup user profiles and workout programs

Cons

  • A few occasions where a replacement cord was required to power the display console
  • Most negative reviews were relating to the delivery not being at the time they had arranged, rather than any problem with the machine itself

Although there are a customer reviews with lower ratings, the majority of these are relating to either the assembly taking longer than they thought, or delivery not happening at the time they thought it would.

What’s noticeable is that a representative from Nautilus Consumer Relations has replied to many of these reviews with a direct contact number, to help resolve any issue as quickly as possible.

It’s this level of support and attention to detail that’s also helped them develop an award winning blog with the Bowflex Insider.

Review Overview

Overall Review Rating

4 / 5

With its updated Schwinn DualTrack™ LCD display, backlit screens and goal tracking functionality, the Schwinn 470 Elliptical Machine makes important workout information easy to read, even in low light.

If you want to track your progress over weeks, months, or even years, workout metrics can also be uploaded via a USB thumb drive to the SchwinnConnect™ website. (Also compatible with MyFitnessPal)

Additionally, the console’s USB port can be used to charge your smartphone, tablet or other media device while working out so you don’t have to worry about draining your battery.

With easy to use features, simple assembly, and a unique console designed with you in mind, the newly designed Schwinn 470 is made with the same high standards that have made the Schwinn name famous.

Product dimensions: 63.2" (H) x 70.1" (L) x 28.2" (W) Product weight: 169 lbs User weight limit: 300 lbs