Running Watch

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2

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  • lisawilkes20
    lisawilkes20 Posts: 138 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Thankyou everybody. You have all helped & given me some good info
  • lisawilkes20
    lisawilkes20 Posts: 138 Member
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    dewd2 wrote: »
    The 235 is a solid choice. If you don't care about the HRM, the 230 will be cheaper.

    I have the 630 and have a love/hate relationship with it. Had I known how sensitive the touch screen was going to be I'd have gotten the 230.

    Thanks for that, I was wondering, if it was easier with a touch screen instead of having to press buttons, but maybe not!
  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    lisawilkes20 wrote: »
    dewd2 wrote: »
    The 235 is a solid choice. If you don't care about the HRM, the 230 will be cheaper.

    I have the 630 and have a love/hate relationship with it. Had I known how sensitive the touch screen was going to be I'd have gotten the 230.

    Thanks for that, I was wondering, if it was easier with a touch screen instead of having to press buttons, but maybe not!

    The buttons work every time.
    I haven't heard anything bad about the 630 though.

    FR230 + Scosche Ryhthm+ has been great to me. Better than the 405 + Garmin soft strap. Better than the 220 + soft strap. Better than the 230 + soft strap.

    The FR405 had a touch bezel. Buttons too, but the bezel was to navigate through menus, etc. It was wonky. I had problems on occasion, but other people had problems all the time.

    My FR220 was lost, not broken ;)
  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,445 Member
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    scorpio516 wrote: »
    lisawilkes20 wrote: »
    dewd2 wrote: »
    The 235 is a solid choice. If you don't care about the HRM, the 230 will be cheaper.

    I have the 630 and have a love/hate relationship with it. Had I known how sensitive the touch screen was going to be I'd have gotten the 230.

    Thanks for that, I was wondering, if it was easier with a touch screen instead of having to press buttons, but maybe not!

    The buttons work every time.
    I haven't heard anything bad about the 630 though.

    FR230 + Scosche Ryhthm+ has been great to me. Better than the 405 + Garmin soft strap. Better than the 220 + soft strap. Better than the 230 + soft strap.

    The FR405 had a touch bezel. Buttons too, but the bezel was to navigate through menus, etc. It was wonky. I had problems on occasion, but other people had problems all the time.

    My FR220 was lost, not broken ;)

    It is not horrible but more of PITA. When running in the winter my long sleeves can change the screen and even start and stop my music. I have to keep the watch locked while running. One day while running in the rain I paused my watch to use the restroom. A rain drop hit the screen and saved the frickin' run. :#
  • Ryokat
    Ryokat Posts: 168 Member
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    I have a question for all you who have the "newer" (newer than 2003) Forerunners. Does the watch need to have a clear view of the sky, or can it be worn under sleeves? The Forerunner 201 needs to be worn on the outside of my jacket (but it is totally old school technology). I am looking to replace my old Forerunner and my Fitbit Charge HR with one device--thinking the Garmin Vivoactive HR will be a good option, but only if the GPS still works while being covered up.
  • OldAssDude
    OldAssDude Posts: 1,436 Member
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    I have a Garmin fenix3 HR, a Polar V800, and a Suunto ambit3 Peak. The Suunto is more accurate, but has less features than the Garmin. The Polar is pretty good too, but again not as many features as the Garmin. The Garmin has much more features, but overt the year that I had it has been quite buggy. In Garmin's defense they have fixed most of the issues with software updates.

    I think I did have the Forerunner 235 at one time that was pretty good, but the fenix3 HR felt much more well built than the Forerunner.

    Garmin also announced the fenix5 which will be available in February.
  • ritzvin
    ritzvin Posts: 2,860 Member
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    If you search for dc rainmaker online, he has lots of very detailed reviews of running watches.
  • jennypapage
    jennypapage Posts: 489 Member
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    unrelentingminx wrote: »
    I have a TomTom runner. Doesn't do everything under the sun but it tracks my distance, speed, cadence etc and will connect to some HR monitors so it's good enough for my needs. Battery life is amazing and always quick to find a GPS signal.

    same here.it's a great watch for its price.
  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    dewd2 wrote: »
    scorpio516 wrote: »
    lisawilkes20 wrote: »
    dewd2 wrote: »
    The 235 is a solid choice. If you don't care about the HRM, the 230 will be cheaper.

    I have the 630 and have a love/hate relationship with it. Had I known how sensitive the touch screen was going to be I'd have gotten the 230.

    Thanks for that, I was wondering, if it was easier with a touch screen instead of having to press buttons, but maybe not!

    The buttons work every time.
    I haven't heard anything bad about the 630 though.

    FR230 + Scosche Ryhthm+ has been great to me. Better than the 405 + Garmin soft strap. Better than the 220 + soft strap. Better than the 230 + soft strap.

    The FR405 had a touch bezel. Buttons too, but the bezel was to navigate through menus, etc. It was wonky. I had problems on occasion, but other people had problems all the time.

    My FR220 was lost, not broken ;)

    It is not horrible but more of PITA. When running in the winter my long sleeves can change the screen and even start and stop my music. I have to keep the watch locked while running. One day while running in the rain I paused my watch to use the restroom. A rain drop hit the screen and saved the frickin' run. :#

    When I had the 405, same things happened when the bezel was rubbed on anything. I had to lock it every time I ran.
  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    Ryokat wrote: »
    I have a question for all you who have the "newer" (newer than 2003) Forerunners. Does the watch need to have a clear view of the sky, or can it be worn under sleeves? The Forerunner 201 needs to be worn on the outside of my jacket (but it is totally old school technology). I am looking to replace my old Forerunner and my Fitbit Charge HR with one device--thinking the Garmin Vivoactive HR will be a good option, but only if the GPS still works while being covered up.

    Under shirt sleeves is fine. Under rain jackets are fine. Under thick jackets? I'm not sure.
    The new ones also get signal really, really fast. Both the x2x and x3x series I've found less than 15 seconds to get signal, usually less than 5s.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    I love my Fenix 3. It has a built in optical HRM at the wrist, but I always wear the chest strap when I run. The wrist one is just a random number generator.
  • lisawilkes20
    lisawilkes20 Posts: 138 Member
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    Thankyou all for your comments
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited January 2017
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    Ryokat wrote: »
    I have a question for all you who have the "newer" (newer than 2003) Forerunners. Does the watch need to have a clear view of the sky, or can it be worn under sleeves? The Forerunner 201 needs to be worn on the outside of my jacket (but it is totally old school technology). I am looking to replace my old Forerunner and my Fitbit Charge HR with one device--thinking the Garmin Vivoactive HR will be a good option, but only if the GPS still works while being covered up.

    My 920XT picks up a GPS signal within 5 seconds, even inside my house before I walk out.
  • fitmom4lifemfp
    fitmom4lifemfp Posts: 1,575 Member
    edited January 2017
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    I use a Polar M400. I looked at Garmin, but didn't see anything that would cover all the activities I do (cycling as well as other things). The M400 has GPS, and it syncs to a phone app if you want, or you can plug in to a PC and sync it that way (that's my preferred method - I sync about once a week). You can set up custom profiles for all sorts of activities.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,693 Member
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    Ryokat - My F15 works under sleeves in the winter. I can also acquire satellites while in the house or in the car. Some days it's slow, but most of the time it works fine.
  • misskris78
    misskris78 Posts: 136 Member
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    I have a Tom Tom spark and I love it. It's great for running, cycling and swimming; and I can also track gym workouts. It finds a GPS signal quickly and I think the HR monitor is very accurate.
  • lisawilkes20
    lisawilkes20 Posts: 138 Member
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    I've finally bought a watch, ended up going for Garmin Forerunner 35, which I thought was going to look too big, but its not that bad. Seems to do what I want, only had it couple of days, so dont understand the heart rate monitor/ heartbeat yet. Thanks for comments
  • malcolmjcooper
    malcolmjcooper Posts: 79 Member
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    I have a 225 and love it wouldn't bother upgrading to the 235 for the extra money
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
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    lisawilkes20 wrote: »
    I've finally bought a watch, ended up going for Garmin Forerunner 35, which I thought was going to look too big, but its not that bad. Seems to do what I want, only had it couple of days, so dont understand the heart rate monitor/ heartbeat yet. Thanks for comments

    Nice. I dithered for ages between the 25 and 35 a few weeks ago when I was finally upgrading my 205. In the end I decided the extras on the 35 weren't worth it to me and spent the $60 difference on some gear instead.
  • pondee629
    pondee629 Posts: 2,469 Member
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    I went from the Garmin Forerunner 110 ( which sometimes took forever to locate satellites, but worked well as a timer, GPS mapper and, with a chest strap, Heart monitor) to the Forerunner 225. The 225 locates satellites very quickly, seems accurate as a GPS tracker and timer. The wrist Heart Rate monitor, I'm still not completely sold on as it seems to be "jumpy". I really don't think my heart rate goes from 130 to 150 and back to 130 over the course of a minute or two. But it does seem to be accurate, or at least over the course of a run gives a similar read out as the old chest strap monitor.

    Short story, I like the Forerunners and the 225 is good.

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