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: Don't believe the bad reviews
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, please read the manual before using this watch. There is a bit of a learning curve but once you know it inside-out and are aware of the caveats, you'll find this watch to be an awesome investment.
Looks: This watch looks awesome. I tried on both the FR305 and the FR405 and the FR305 looks like a brick on my wrist. That's not to say this watch is 'small'. The FR405 is pretty big and probably too big to wear out in public when you're not exercising. You could probably get away with it but I'll explain why you can't in the next section...
Comfort: It's not exactly a comfortable watch to wear and this is why I gave the watch only 4 stars. Part of the wrist band is hard and not flexible. This can make it uncomfortable to wear if you don't wear it loose. I don't mind wearing it loose and it never bothers me when I'm running but forget about wearing it out in public. If you're wearing a jacket, like even a fleece, it's hard to put your hands in your jacket pocket because the watch is still a bit bulky. Still, the most important part is, it's comfortable (for me) when I'm running and that's all that matters.
Functionality: Works perfect. Sure, you need to give it a little bit to warm up and obtain a GPS signal. What I do in the morning before my run is put the watch up on the window sill and go do my morning routine. By the time I'm ready to head out, I grab my watch and it's already obtained the GPS signal. Other times, I take my time to stretch for 5 minutes and usually by the time I'm done, it's ready to go. There's only been a few times where I kind of had to walk around like a dummy before I was able to 'run'. I've never had a problem with it losing signal at all! Surprisingly, it works well at the track too! And if you're worried about the touch bezel not working when your hands are wet, I haven't had that problem yet but hey, it's written in the manual. If you read through the manual, you'll see that but if you didn't, don't say I didn't tell you. My suggestion is to just play with it for a few days and you'll figure out what you can do and what you can't do, and also you'll learn what works well and what doesn't.
Complaints: I guess the only complaint I have other than the comfort issue is the alerting. I have setup workouts that require me to stay in range of my pace. Let's say I want to keep within a pace of 8:00-8:10, I expect it to beep whenever I run too fast or too slow. It does initially when I start my workout, but for some reason after i've been running for awhile, it stops alerting all together. I may need to go back to the manual to see if this is normal or contact Garmin and see why this is happening. I'd understand if the alerting 'calms down' a bit after you've been running for awhile maybe to account for hills and other things that may slow you down. Or, maybe there's a way to tell the alerting to beep when you've gone out of your range for too long? I dunno...
Digital camera Review: Don't fear the Garmin 405
Summary: 5 Stars
I normally don't write reviews on purchase but I felt compelled to do based on other reviews of the Garmin 405.
Don't fear this product! I was cautious to purchase based on the mixed reviews on here and I did a TON of homework before comitting to a HR/GPS product but I'm glad that I bought this. I've owned it for one month and I couldn't imagine running without it. I only charge this watch once a week and run anywhere between 25-35 per week. I'm currently using it to help train for my first half-marathon.
It did take a little getting used to because of everything it does. I have no trouble with the touch bezel even with a shirt sleeve over it or running in rain storms (as other user have posted having troubles with). I normally hit 'start' at the beginning of my runs and then lock the bezel and let the autoscroll feautre go to work. It shows me my distance/pace, max heart rate and time spent running. You can set the autoscroll up in a lot of different ways. When I'm done running I turn the GPS feauture 'off' and it seems to save a ton of battery life. The watch goes into a powersave feature and then waits for me to go on my next run. The Garmin Connect website is great as I can upload my runs/training and then review them later at work or at home.
This is a really slick running product. Other reviews to come as I spend more time with this watch. I'm giving this product 5 stars.
Great job with this one Garmin!
Digital camera Review: Don't waste your money!
Summary: 1 Stars
I highly recommend saving your money and waiting for the next generation. Unless you don't sweat and don't exercise in high humidity, the touch bezel will only work sporadically for you. Plus, the battery life is very poor. I went through 2 of these before finally giving up and going back to my 205.Digital camera Review: Drawback: "active" battery life on EXTENDED rides/runs
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first GPS watch, so I cannot write a review that compares it to the 305 or any other GPS watch. As a fresh look, I will begin by saying that I am happy with the watch, and the whole interactive experience of being able to analyze data through Garmin Connect. I can design workouts through Garmin Training Center, which is also fantastic. Great! However, as others have pointed out, the watch could use some design improvements.
I use the watch for both cycling and running. Beside the predescribed difficulties with the bezel while in the act of cycling or running (as detailed by other reviewers), a second criticism I have, not given by others, is "active" battery life DURING EXTENDED USAGE ("active" meaning the watch is not in power save mode (PSM), and I am actively using the watch through either automatic scrolling, or manual touches). Active usage can be programmed with PSM reversion -- i.e., if one enables the "timeout" function on the watch, it can automatically switch to PSM during use; however, it becomes tedious having to press buttons to come out of PSM when one needs to check stats (compounding existing issues with the bezel), so its simpler to just use automatic scrolling while keeping the timeout function off.
What I've found is that on long cycling rides, usually at about the 20-25 mile range (after ~2 hours "active" usage), the low battery signal begins to sound off. One time during an out-n-back 1/2 century ride, my watch lost power before completing the return trip. For this reason, I turn the "Virtual Partner" and "Backlight" functions off on extended workouts. The GPS works fine, but the bottom line is that the power dies out, and this battery life issue is a drawback for endurance workouts, particularly for those training for a century, 1/2 century, or marathon. That said, battery life is less than average to average (at best). Unless one is an elite runner, the watch will most likely power out before finishing a marathon. Not sure if the same is true with the 305, but if so, then why did Garmin make an upgraded watch that does not correct a problem?
Nonetheless, I still give the watch four stars, because beside the two flaws I've mentioned (bezel and battery life), the watch is totally awesome. The Garmin 405 does give me an edge in training, just not EXTENDED training.
Digital camera Review: Engineered by Non-Runners
Summary: 1 Stars
I have had the 405 for over one year now and I cannot understand how a company could make such a badly designed product and not recompense the buyers for their flawed design. If this was a car, there would have been a recall, not for the sake of safety but for the sake of customer satisfaction.
Bottom line - the touch bezel option is worthless when wet. The locking feature has to be used often and the intense frustration that comes when you have to take the watch out of locked mode to either change a setting or turn watch back on because your break went over the allowed minute will drive you crazy. I've used this watch for a year and I've learned to live with it, but I would not ever give it 5 stars.
I guess if you live in a very dry climate and you do not sweat a lot this probably would be a 4 star watch, but still the bezel ... this is not an iPod, it's a watch and when you try to use it as a watch in normal mode it doesn't even give the date unless you push one of the buttons down and that activates the GPS to begin draining the battery down.
I'm trying to decide what to replace this watch with, either the 310XT or the Timex Global Trainer. I hope this review helps at least one person not buy this watch and look else where for a better design.