Garmin Forerunner 405 Wireless GPS-Enabled Sport Watch with USB ANT Stick and Heart Rate Monitor (Black) by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin Forerunner 405 Wireless GPS-Enabled Sport Watch with USB ANT Stick and Heart Rate Monitor (Black)
Digital camera Review: Crap watchband and easily chiipped bezel make this a big loser
Summary: 1 Stars
- Functions: generally impressive, and with footpod data output is great
- Looks: great
- Quality: After about a year, I have now been through 5 watchbands, and all but one broke at the same place: right where the clasp is secured by two loops. The other watchband was apparently degraded by wearing it exactlly 3 times (3 hours in the pool) and broke at one of the eyelets. This is obviously a huge design flaw for a $300-400 running/sports watch
- Useless as a true multisport watch. Absolutely cannot be used for swimming. I'd be cautious even wearing it in the shower as soap seems to degrade the rubber.
- The watch face sits high and bulky on your wrist and therefore is prone to be scraped. The bezel edges simply do not withstand any abuse. There are now more chips on my bezel than silver paint.
Digital camera Review: Disappointed
Summary: 1 Stars
The bezel function does not function when it's wet or your fingers are wet, which means it's useless when exercising. You'll have to lock the bezel everytime you use the watch.
My wife wanted a new gps-enabled watch and I got her a 305. It's way better.
Digital camera Review: Disappointed by Garmin ... AGAIN
Summary: 2 Stars
I had the brilliant idea of using one device for collecting calorie data from stationary workouts during the winter, and gps/calorie data during the cycling season.
WRONG!
I wanted to upgrade from the Forerunner 305 because Garmin refuses to pay the royalty to Polar to calculate calories burned from heart rate. Instead they use some wacky algorithm that uses your weight, age, pace, distance, and apparently the phase of the moon to determine a value which is just plain wrong when you are moving, and zero when you are sweating like a madman on the stationary bike in the basement.
So I decided on taking a chance on the Forerunner 405 after searching the reviews and after talking to some (uninformed) salespeople. Thus was born the title to this review: "Disappointed ... AGAIN". They obviously decided to use the same error prone algorithm in the Forerunner 405.
Now I have to trudge through the slush over to City Sports and get a refund. Ok - not a big deal, but I was looking forward to doing some training this holiday season, not standing in line waiting to deal with some poor bleary-eyed sales clerk.
At least I had a chance to try out the touch-bezel feature. My first impression of this feature is that if you are familiar with an iPod you will 'get' this concept quickly. All others will be condemned to a bottomless pit of frustration. Obviously I will not have the chance to field-test the 405.
Well, here I go through the slush to get my refund ...
Digital camera Review: Disappointed--305 is Better
Summary: 1 Stars
I did a lot of research on both the 305 and 405 before I purchased the 405. The deciding factor was the price, I actually got the 405 cheaper than the 305. Also, since it was the newest unit, I thought it might be better than the 305--I was wrong!
I used the 405 for over a year and had problems with it from the start. First, let me say I read the manual and sat with the device customizing it--this took about 2 hours. Any time I wanted to change something on the watch, I had to pull out the manual and spend some time with the watch. The menus were difficult to navigate and not very intuitive. I had my husband, a computer geek, try it out and even he was frustrated. As many reviewers have stated, the device doesn't work with wet/sweaty hands. This was incredibly frustrating when I needed to know what time it was and couldn't get off the training screen. I'd often forget to lock the bezel after I started my run, then my shirt would touch the watch and the timer would stop or flip to another screen--which I couldn't change (wet hands). I can't tell you how many runs didn't get recorded. When the watch worked, I did like the data it provided and it seemed to synch up with the satellites quicker than my 205. It also had less erroneous data and worked better under tree cover.
I usually run 3 specific days in a week, so I could plan ahead and make sure the watch was charged the night before. This was ok as long as I was never spontaneous, then the watch was often dead when I wanted to run. I almost had my Forerunner 205 repaired to use as a backup watch when I found the 305 dead. An On/Off switch is such a valuable feature! Yes, this watch is smaller than the 305, but as a woman, it's still too big for me to wear on a daily basis. The ANT stick worked on and off. I finally resorted to having my husband call Garmin's technical support and after an hour or so on the phone, they finally were able to get it to work. The bezel got to the point of only working from time to time with dry hands, so I gave the watch to my husband to see what he could do with it. He asked me why I had put up with this watch for such a long time given all the problems and frustrations I had with it. That was what I needed, I bought the 305. The 305 is bigger and heavier and tends to slide around a bit on my wrist, but since I wear it only for running, I can bear it. The data seems as reliable as the 405 and synchs up in about the same amount of time. The biggest advantage for me is the On/Off switch. I know how much battery life is left at the end of a run and I know that is how much will be there when I start the next run--no guessing! I've customized the screens and can easily navigate between them at a touch of a button. I don't worry about losing the small ANT stick anymore when I travel, as the charger/data cable is larger. The watch actually works like you would expect--WELL!
For me, the 305 is a much better device than the 405.
Digital camera Review: Dissapointed so I returned it
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought the 405 because I train with heart rate and started running more outside again. I thought the GPS would be nice.. I actually hated the touch screen thing, it would activate all the time by itself and the screen would fade in and out. The battery was horrible. I actually returned it and bought the polar ft80. Haven't looked back since.