Garmin Forerunner 405 Sports Watch with USB ANT stick – Black
Posted by Notcot on Apr 7, 2010 in In-Car Technology |
- Garmin Forerunner 405 Sports Watch
- Suitable for running, trekking, cycling and more
- ANT+SPORT technology
- GPS-enabled, water resistant
Garmin Forerunner 405 Sports Watch with USB ANT stick – Black
this sportwatch / GPS isn’t perfect and depending on what you value, you’ll either love it or hate it (as confirmed by the many reviews on the 405 and 305 and the comparisons between the two). I’ll list some criteria of mine and rate this watch accordingly. (Note: I’ve had it for a week now, and used it several times, plus I have owned other Garmin handheld GPS devices in the past).
* Reliable GPS: my biggest complaint with prior GPS devices was that they lost the satelites under the trees which made their distance measurements fairly useless (as I run in a forest). This watch is amazing. it grabs onto the signal and holds it fast. Really cool!
* wearable sport watch: unlike the 305 which is a bit big and heavy for my tastes, this is really a wearable watch. Obviously this is vastly superior to the handheld gps devices (but of course no map either).
* Utility for running: when I run, I primarily care about the time (or lap time) and how far I have gone. Both of these pieces of information are visible on the training screen (but it is important to push both the buttons to lock the bezel so that odd things don’t occur during the run). So for my main priorities, this watch is really excellent.
* Features: this is a full featured watch with all kinds of extras such as a virtual training partner to pace yourself against, etc. More than I will use, but it’s pretty loaded.
* pc software: conceptually there are really cool pc software programs (like sporttracks freeware from zonefive software and the less good software that garmin distributes) which should make it fun to analyze all the data (including seeing your tracks in google earth). why I say conceptually should become clear in my next bullet.
now for the less good stuff:
* Ease of installation: Although getting the watch up and running was fairly easy, I still haven’t gotten the thing to talk to the ANT PC USB stick nor have I gotten it to talk to the heart monitor! Even though the watch says it has pairing enabled, and teh PC says the ANT is searching for a watch. From googling around, apparently this problem can be solved, but at least based on what I read, no one has any good theories as to waht the problem is, or how to reliably address. Suffice it to say that many people, including me, found that the bluetooth wireless communication simply doesn’t work well out of the box. Quite frustrating. I’m a computer scientist by training and have some experience with electronic devices…yet so far, to no avail.
* usability: although the bezel is a cool idea (ipod like), the instantiation of this idea isn’t great. the bezel is way sensitive and the menu structure isn’t intuitive. One frequently ends up in places one doesn’t want to be. With some time, experimentation, and learning, it is usable…however these are not the hallmarks of an intuitive user interface design. I’m really glad they have the lock bezel feature.
OK, I’m probably over amazon’s recommended word count, so I’ll stop. bottomline, I like the watch, glad I bought it, and it serves my primary objectives well, but in many ways I consider it a “version 1″ and so you have to be a patient tech friendly person to rate it the way I did.
Rating: 4 / 5
I upgraded from a 205 which had an excellent user interface, good battery life, rich set of features and was very easy to use. My main reason for upgrading is that I wanted a heart rate monitor built in and liked the idea of a smaller unit with better GPS receiver. On balance I made an expensive mistake and wish I’d just bought a cheap HRM to go with my 205. While the addition of the HRM is nice and the device is smaller, everything else about it is worse than before. The battery runs flat about twice as fast as before (you can’t switch the unit off – so it continually drains). The user interface (bevel) is appalling – it’s difficult to use when standing still, very difficult to use when running and almost impossible to use once you get sweaty hands. The features are poor (less of them and less options) compared to the 205, far less intuitive driven menus and clumbsy in operation. It doesn’t connect to MapSource (unlike the 205) because the USB link is purely for charging – and don’t get me started on that useless ANT USB device – very little navigation software recognises it. I work in the software industry as a developer and I would be too embarrassed to put out something as bad as this to my customers. If you’ve already got a 205/305 please please please keep it and don’t upgrade just yet. This product has a lot of maturing to do to get anywhere near acceptable. If you are looking to buy your first GPS, and you don’t know any better, this product might impress you a little more than it did me, but I would suggest for now that you buy an older 205/305 which you can get for a steal.
Rating: 2 / 5
I have just got my Forerunner today and have given it a good go. This is my first GPS watch and I think its amazing. I don’t like the heart rate monitors which I have had with other watches so I bought my 405 without it. I have found the watch very easy to use and it connects quickly to my computer. It also charges very quickly to. When I uploaded the data and looked at the google earth map it did show a slight error. It showed that I was running in a hedge and in the middle of the road at points but I was actually running on the path a couple of feet away. I have checked the route and it is pretty much the same distance, so this really doesn’t make much difference. I found it accurate and worth buying. However I have read reviews on the watch being poor compared to the cheaper 305 but I haven’t tried the 305.
Also I have not had problems with the touch bezel but make sure you wipe your hand of sweat if you want to mess with it on the fly.
Hope this review helps you.
Rating: 5 / 5
I previously owned the 305 Forerunner, which was an excellent bit of kit.
Unfortunately, it got damaged so I chose to replace it with the 405.
What a mistake.
The touch-sensitive bezel is a nightmare. Takes 10 minutes to do the simplest thing as you’re always correcting a misinterpreted ‘touch’. Can you imagine trying to change something during a run? Would drive you mad.
I also need to use this for Nordic skiing. The manual tells me it doesn’t respond to a gloved hand. Useless – I’d have to stop and de-glove everytime I wanted to do anything with it. With the 305 it was a simple press of a button.
The watch may be able to offer better GPS sensitivity and so on, but if the overall product is unusable then it’s all rather irrelevant. It has been designed by some tekky geek with no comprehension of its practical implications.
Can you imagine trying to ‘rotate’ the bezel when cycling. It ain’t going to happen.
Stick with the 305 or go for a Suunto.
Rating: 1 / 5
I have the older version of this item and found the size and shape was cumbersome and painful to wear on my wrist (which is small), so I was tempted by the sleeker design of this one. I haven’t found it any more comfortable to wear, despite the shape change, but the really important thing, is, is it user friendly? I have to say it most definitely is not. I’m no techno wizard, but i managed to navigate myself round the controls of the older model successfully without too much hassle but this one is an absolute nightmare. It is hyper sensitive and flits from one mode to the next at the merest of touches. I can’t see any rhyme or reason to the sequence of controls on it and every time I need to use it, i waste several minutes randomly touching and pressing it, trying to get back to chronological mode. Admittedly, i haven’t looked at the CD that comes with it but the quick instruction booklet is completely useless, and i mean completely useless. Usually, with a new product, you phaff around for the first few uses, learning how the thing works but after several weeks of regular use, i am no further forward whatsoever in understanding how it works. Moreover, whilst charging one time, all the buttons/touch pads froze and nothing would work at all. i contacted garmin believing i had a faulty model (and even wondered if this was the reason it had previously changed screen so randomly)but after a few days of leaving it and trying buttons again, it started to work again for no obvious reason. In the meantime, garmin took ages to get back to me and suggested holding down both buttons until the watch reset itself. I wavered between 2 and 3 stars in this review as the controls really are dire but once it is in chronological mode and working ok, it’s really useful and does the job. Ideally i would just like a product that is a stop watch with GPS, so that i can work out time on the run, pace, and miles covered. This is all i use this item for, but i really don’t think it’s because i want a simple product that I find this one so awkward. It’s definitely rubbish when it comes to user friendliness, but like me, you’ll probably buy it anyway, cos garmin has a good name and there aren’t that many alternatives on the market.
Rating: 3 / 5