I've go a Polar E 600 its for education. Thats what I do (soon at least) I bought it so I could use it in the classroom but it has tons of features and has infa-red downloading of course with really nice software all for about $260.
I aquired a Polar s720i off Ebay for $515 aussie. They retail for around $700 here. What I saved I spent on sensors to fit out my road and mountain bikes.