Sole E25 vs E35: same stride, a heavier flywheel and a foot more floor

Buy the Sole E25. It’s the elliptical we recommend to most people, and the Sole E35 doesn’t change the part you feel: both have a 20-inch stride, 20 resistance levels, a power incline to 20% and Sole’s lifetime frame warranty. What the E35 adds is a 25 lb flywheel instead of 20 lb, a 375 lb rating instead of 350, a 10.1 in touchscreen instead of a 9 in LCD, and 5 years of parts cover instead of 3. It costs about $600 more, $1,499 to $1,899 against $999 to $1,299 at time of writing, and it takes a foot more floor. Pay it if you’re over 300 lb or you’ll be on the machine an hour a day.

We haven’t bench-tested either one yet, so this comparison runs on the published specs; we’ll add measured noise and power after our bench test.

Flywheel and floor space

Flywheel weight is what you feel on an elliptical. A heavier wheel carries more momentum through the top and bottom of the stride, which smooths things out at low resistance and makes a 45-minute session feel more like gliding than pedaling. Going from 20 lb to 25 lb is a real step, and it’s the main reason to pay more if you’ll use the machine daily for long sessions. We’ll tell you how big the difference feels once both have been through the same sessions on our floor.

Floor is the other half. The E25 is 70 x 24 x 64 in and weighs 189 lb. The E35 is 82 x 31 x 71 in and weighs 231 lb: 12 inches longer, 7 wider, 7 taller and 42 lb heavier to get into the room. In a dedicated gym space, that’s fine. In a spare bedroom or a corner of the living room, the E25’s footprint often decides it on its own. At 70 inches it’s the shortest elliptical we know of with a 20-inch stride, and our compact ellipticals page covers the smaller machines with shorter strides.

Stride, resistance and incline are the same

Both have a 20-inch stride, which suits users from about 5 ft 2 in to 6 ft 2 in, so buying the E35 doesn’t buy more leg room. Both have 20 resistance levels and a power incline to 20%. The incline shifts the work between muscles, and it’s what separates a Sole from cheaper ellipticals that incline by hand or not at all.

Height is the one place size matters. The E35 stands 71 in tall against the E25’s 64, and a tall user at full incline sits higher than the console on either. For anyone over 6 ft, we’d want at least 7 ft 6 in of ceiling with the E25, and more with the E35.

Weight rating

The E25 is rated to 350 lb and the E35 to 375 lb. Ellipticals don’t take a foot strike, so we don’t use the 50 lb margin we apply to treadmills, but we still wouldn’t buy a machine rated right at the heaviest user’s weight. The E25 covers almost everyone. For a user over 300 lb, the E35’s higher rating and heavier frame are the better choice, and the Sole E95, rated to 400 lb with a 27 lb flywheel, is the next step up at a typical $2,199 to $2,599.

Console

The E25 has a 9 in LCD with Bluetooth; the E35 has a 10.1 in touchscreen. Neither needs a subscription, and both run Sole’s basic app. The LCD shows speed, resistance, incline, time and the built-in programs, which is all most people look at on an elliptical. The touchscreen does the same with more pixels and a slower response than the tablet you already own.

We lean toward the LCD, since there’s less to fail and nothing to go out of date. If you want a touchscreen anyway, the E35 is the cheapest Sole elliptical that has one.

Noise and power

We’ll run both on the same meter in the same room, the way how we test describes. With no foot strike, the drive is the only real noise source, and we don’t expect it to separate two machines from the same family. The E25 plugs into a standard 120 V outlet, and an elliptical draws a fraction of a treadmill’s power because nothing is moving a belt for you.

Warranty and price

Both have a lifetime frame warranty. The E25 covers parts and electronics for 3 years and labor for 1. The E35 covers parts and electronics for 5 years and labor for 2. The parts that wear on an elliptical are the drive belt, the rollers and the console, so two extra years on all of them is a meaningful part of what the $600 buys if the machine runs daily.

Sole’s prices move, so check the retailer. Both take a while to assemble, and the E35’s extra 42 lb won’t make it any quicker.

Which one we’d buy

The E25. For a smooth 20-inch stride, power incline and a frame that doesn’t rock, under $1,300 and on 70 x 24 in of floor, we don’t know anything that matches it, and the E35 adds nothing to the stride or the incline you’ll actually use. We’d buy the E35 for a user over 300 lb, for a dedicated room where the extra foot of floor is free, or for someone spending an hour a day on it who wants the heavier flywheel and 5-year parts cover for that mileage. If you’re still deciding on an elliptical at all, our ellipticals for seniors page explains why the E25 is the one we point most people to, and the Sole brand page covers the rest of the E-series.