Garmin forerunner 230

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JoanneKendrick
JoanneKendrick Posts: 151 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi I am looking at buying this watch. Has anyone else got it. What are your thoughts? My husband bought me the fitbit z blaze but I had to send it back as it wouldn't sync, kept freezing, loosing bluetooth connection etc. I have a Samsung s5. So please can you advice if it's any good. Thanks.

Replies

  • tcatcarson
    tcatcarson Posts: 227 Member
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    Me - I love it. Looks good, it's very light, customisable faces and apps. No wrist HRM but I wear the chest strap for running so not a problem for me.

    Counts steps if that's your thing, great GPS and app for running. No regrets buying.
  • scorpio516
    scorpio516 Posts: 955 Member
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    I had a 220, lost it, and have a 230 in the mail. On the 220, syncing was a matter of the phone, it didn't sync with my old HTC One M8, but it synced perfectly with my LG G4.
    I think the 2xx line is the perfect running watches. Enough features to make most runners happy (structured workouts, every sensor you could want, indoor/outdoor modes, etc) but not too many to raise the price of the watch.
    However, the 735 would be better if you wanted to use it biking and swimming too
  • GolfingDad5
    GolfingDad5 Posts: 16 Member
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    I have a 220 and couldn't imagine running without it. No trouble syncing with mine.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,401 Member
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    I'm considering it but my niggle is that it's too big and too thick for everyday wearing. I'd love the original vivoactive, but it's only got smart gps sampling, which is rubbish for running, cycling and everything else that is a bit faster.
  • Vladimirnapkin
    Vladimirnapkin Posts: 299 Member
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    Once they moved to Bluetooth connection to your phone, the Garmin watches became hard to beat. I've got the 220 and it is terrific. The only thing I wish it had is activity tracking. The 230 does this, as does the 235. The 235 has the integrated HR in the watch, so no chest strap. Reviews show there is a bit of a lag compared to a chest strap, but I'm not sure that's a deal breaker. The 230 looks nice, too.
  • kota4bye
    kota4bye Posts: 809 Member
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    I have the 235, I like it, I don't HR train as much as I should, so it is plenty accurate for me.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
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    tcatcarson wrote: »
    Me - I love it. Looks good, it's very light, customisable faces and apps. No wrist HRM but I wear the chest strap for running so not a problem for me.

    I have a Fenix 3 HR - the one with the OHR sensor on the back of the watch. Whenever I do anything "important" (bike, run) I wear a chest strap. In fact I'm about to buy a second chest strap for swimming. The wrist sensor Garmin used ... I don't know if it's the hardware or software but the results ain't good. You aren't missing anything.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
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    Vladimirnapkin wrote: »
    Once they moved to Bluetooth connection to your phone, the Garmin watches became hard to beat. I've got the 220 and it is terrific. The only thing I wish it had is activity tracking. The 230 does this, as does the 235. The 235 has the integrated HR in the watch, so no chest strap. Reviews show there is a bit of a lag compared to a chest strap, but I'm not sure that's a deal breaker. The 230 looks nice, too.

    I still have the 220 (Fantastic watch) but I wanted to switch to the 230 since it has a few more features. It tracks steps, and does some fancy things like phone notifications. Check out DC Rainmaker's reviews on the watch. The 235 has a HRM built in but. As you suggested yes there are some limitations. There is a slight lag on the heart rate when you're decreasing your intensity. You can still wear a chest strap with this if you want to track that on intervals so it's not a deal breaker. Even without the chest strap the wrist based HRM is pretty good. More than good if you're doing a pretty steady state run.

    This is my run this morning. If you overlay the pace and the heart rate you can see where I walked over a bridge (It was pretty and I wanted to watch a crane in the water). The heart rate drop doesn't exactly run along the pace but it mirrors it pretty well. This was on the Fenix 3 HR but the wrist based HRM is the exact same as the 235. It works really well but you need to keep the watch snug on your wrist. If you give it room to slide around it gives you some wacky readings.


    Even if you choose to get the 230 without the HRM you'll love the watch. The Bluetooth works perfect for me on my Samsung S6 and you'll like the smart notifications. You can't respond on the watch but it can show you who is calling and will display a text message along with the name of the person sending the message. Additional messages (if you don't clear them on your phone) will however just show the name and the number of messages they're sending. All in all pretty slick. I keep my phone on silent most of the time now and rely on the buzz from the watch to tell me when I get a message.

    Of course there's no question about the watch's ability to track your activities. It's a Garmin.

    Full review here.

    http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/11/garmin-fr230-fr235-review.html
  • ScreeField
    ScreeField Posts: 180 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Definitely check DC Rainmaker's site. Great stuff there.

    The 230 'just works' and works really well for running, which is awesome. Not every device out there does.

    It may be worth deciding what you'd like out of the device before making a final decision. For example, if I wanted a daily wear watch to track steps and lots of different activites (running, biking, swimming) and wasn't worried about 24/7 heart rate or advanced stats, I'd go with the vivoactive (the one without the HR in the unit). I bought this one for my Mom and she loves it.

    If I wanted advanced running and heart rate stats, didn't want to wear it all the time, I'd go 620, 735, or 920 (which may be on sale). If I wanted something inbetween: daily wear with better stats, I'd go with the 735, unless I only ran, in that case, maybe the 230. I sold my 920 and have a 735 on order and my husband uses the 230 for running--no daily wear.

    I have a 5" wrist and as far as appearance, I think the vivoactive looks best by far. The 230/235/620/735 all have pretty much the same case and would be a distant 2nd choice for daily wear, followed by the vivoactive hr, and finally, the 920 (ugly) or fenix 3 (too big). I'm currently test driving the vivoactive hr, which feels both big and ugly to me--almost as bad as the epix.

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