Garmin 010-00679-05 Forerunner 50 Sports Watch with Heart Rate Monitor and USB ANT Stick by Garmin
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Our Price: $129.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $81.97 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin 010-00679-05 Forerunner 50 Sports Watch with Heart Rate Monitor and USB ANT Stick
Digital camera Review: Beware: Does not have GPS!
Summary: 3 Stars
While, as others say, this item is pretty easy to use right out of the box, buyers should know that it is not GPS equipped. Therefore, you cannot map your routes, upload them to routiki, etc. The documentation is poor, the controls are not terribly intuitive, and the calibration was off by more than 10%. I was able to manually calibrate it but was hoping for something better.Digital camera Review: Changed the way I run
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the garmin 50 watch with heart monitor to help with my marathon training. I quickly learned that without the foot pod my experience was limited. So I went back and purchased the foot pod to go along with it and it has changed the way I run. The watch is comfortable, the heart monitor is not bothersome, and the foot pod is not even noticable. The watch with the associated software (and I have downloaded both the internet software and the desktop software) allow me to monitor heart rate, speed, distance run and step cadance. With this information I am able to get a better workout and determine appropriate pacing, and accurate distances. It also has pace alarms that let me know when I am running too slow or too fast. It can use heart rate alarms to alert me when my heart rate is too high, but I haven't used that feature yet. I like that I can view instantaneous pace information, time distance or heart rate at the push of a button. All in all, it was a very wise investment and I am thouroughly enjoying it.Digital camera Review: Decent Heart Rate Monitor with some flaws
Summary: 4 Stars
I've used cheaper Heart Rate monitors (mostly from Polar) and despite some of my complaints below, I'm pleased with the Garmin Forerunner 50 after using it over the past 3 months.
Pros:
* User replaceable heart rate monitor strap battery
* Heart Rate Graphs that can be analyzed (the .tcx format is in XML)
* Wireless transfer to the PC with a supplied USB stick (I couldn't find other units that could do this at this price point)
* Heart rate picks up pretty quickly if the strap is a little wet, except on the first time I used the device
* Customizable displays for Heart Rate and split or overall time data
* Can share data with friends using Garmin Connect (so your exercise buddies know you worked out - good for accountability)
Cons:
* Wristwatch software menus are somewhat unintuitive, others are a bit cumbersome. For example, why would you want to have two separate times with different a different date, hours, minutes, or seconds? I can see having different time zones, but the rest doesn't make sense.
* Some customizable displays are useless. Why would I want to display Heart Rate on top (as the large easy to read number) and Heart rate on the bottom (smaller to read number)? The split data also displays this way.
* Wish there was an autosave feature. You have to press the "stop/start" button to stop the workout, then hold the "view" button to save, then press the "view" button again to confirm the save. I lost a two hour workout once, but now I remember the key sequence.
* Cannot easily determine calories burned. Even the online app (Garmin Connect) didn't calculate this information for me, because the XML file just stores a zero instead of taking the information from the average and the weight that you input into the device. It's possible to manually calculate this from the data, but it may be annoying to users that use the default software.
* USB stick has a key ring area which is flimsy. I had it attached to a metal keyring and it broke in two weeks.
Some other things worth mentioning:
* I had to return one unit to Garmin since the Heart Rate Alarms would not work, but it was covered under warranty. I had to pay for return shipping and the new unit works just fine. Tech support was decent and prompt - I didn't experience the hold music that other reviewers had reported.
* I'm using Garmin Training Center v3.4.3 and wrist watch software 1.1d which appears to be the latest at the time of this writing. While the wrist watch software cannot be updated by the end user, I hope that Garmin Training Center and/or the Garmin Connect (the online equivalent) will improve and perhaps one of these programs
Digital camera Review: Does a bunch of stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm new to running and have read that heart rate, pace, steps per minute, time and distance are what we guage our own performance on. I own the Forerunner 50, Foot Pod and Heart Monitor. They work great. I plan on buying the Garmin 310TX or the 305 when I can run 10K daily. The 50 does everything the bigger models do except GPS and the automatic distance stuff. Run an established known distance and you can calibrate the 50 with the optional Foot POD. The online Garmin Software is an awesome freebie to track your results, goals and performance.Digital camera Review: Don't buy it!
Summary: 1 Stars
I received the FR50 as an Xmas gift. I used it twice between Xmas and surgery in the first week of January. After I was cleared to run again (in March), I had to replace both batteries.
After running with a partner that has a model 305, I realized that I had to calibrate my FR50. It was calculating a route at a distance of 4.2 miles, when I knew that the route was only 3.67 miles. That's not within 10%, which is what is indicated in the user manual. Calibration is a pain, mainly because the controls are not intuitive at all and the user manual sucks. Once I got it calibrated, it measured the same route fairly accurately. But, when I looked at the history page on the display, I discovered that it was storing my training runs using the pre-calibrated distances. So, my 3.67-mile route was being stored at distances ranging from 4.17 to 4.23 miles.
About the batteries...the next time I change the batteries, I'll have to recalibrate...if I'm still using it.
I thought this was going to be an upgrade from a Mio Sport, but it isn't. I'm ready to junk this and go back to the Mio Sport. I can get my distances using a Google mapping tool for runners and log my times using an Excel spreadsheet.
Don't buy this product. The frustration factor is too high for any benefits that you might achieve.