15 responses so far ↓

• 1 Aledort

  I bought a fore runner 201 for my wife. It takes over 20 minutes sometimes to lock on satilites. My wife sets it on the car outside to get good satilite coverage. Then goes inside to strech out & half the time she leaves it because it is use less if not locked in. I sent it in to garmin They sent it back saying that it worked & that was normal. They failed big on this one DO NOT BUY YOU WILL BE SORRY!!!! GARMIN IS VERY ARRIGANT IN CUSTOMER SERVICE. Hold on for a little more longer in 2 years there will be way better products out there. I was going to put them on you tube with there junk product. Again don’t buy & if you do make sure you test it right away so you can return it in time & get your money back.

• 2 Johnsen

  I bought my forerunner slightly used about 4 months ago. For someone who is just getting started with a good fitness routine this product should prove to be beneficial. Depending on where I am it can easily interface with my desktop PC or my MAC laptop…definitely a plus. I can only think of two draw-backs and those are that it is not water-resistant, therefore no swimming with it and it may, at times take 5-10 minutes to lock in on satellites. Other than that I am quite pleased with it.

• 3 Farkas

  The watch is an excellent all-around training device that can be used across many sports. I found more use for it than I intended. I like the web facilities and how it let’s me analyze every second of my runs.

  Too bad the Footpods and the HR Monitors seem to come with battery problems. I had to send mine back to Garmin for replacement as the accessories just wouldn’t pair. They sent me a replacement and this time the HR Monitor paired in a second and the footpod is yet another bad one even from the box. I hope replacement #3 works. But the watch itself is awesome.

  The retailer I bought the product from HRM were very prompt in their delivery and are willing to support; but Garmin kind of undermines their efforts with the browning HR monitors and footpod.

• 4 Eggehorn

  I purchased this monitor while I was stationed at FOB Warhorse in Iraq. My intent for the watch as two-fold, 1) I wanted an easy way to keep track of where I had been during dismounted patrols and 2) to replace my aging and dying Polar RS200sd heart rate monitor.

  The Garmin Forerunner 405 (with Foot Pod!) is very good at what it does, which is keep track of where you were, how fast you went, and roll all that up into a neat little software package that lets you do a virtual tour of it all. Very cool. Just not very practical. The GPS information (i.e. location and altitude) is not displayed on the monitor. You can get heart rate, speed, average speed, average HR, etc but no location information. You also can’t easily get that once you’ve downloaded the data to your computer (you have to get pretty clever with Google maps to make that happen). It takes a bit for to get a decent satellite lock, but once it does it has no issues with tracking. As a GPS device, this monitor is rather lacking. Don’t misunderstand it does keep track of where you are and what you are doing, it is just impossible to figure it out while you are doing it. Its not like a dedicated GPS that you glance at and know where you are and where you’ve been.

  But wait! Its not a GPS device, its Heart Rate Monitor! It says so right in the title! And yes it does that! But it doesn’t do anything with the information it tracks. Its programming is based upon your age, weight, height, and…distance traveled. Heart rate doesn’t play into its calculations at all, or if it does it plays such a limited role that in my four months of using it I never once varied from burning 103 kCal per mile traveled. Not if it took me 7:30 with an average HR of 178, or if I dawdled along and did it in 18:00 minutes @ 107 BPM, it was 103 kCal. And if I didn’t move? Let’s say I was rolling on the mats, or lifting weights, or doing step-aerobics, no matter how high my heart rate got (188), my kCal expenditure was exactly 0. So it doesn’t exactly give you the fitness information that other monitors do.

  Now, where this system excels is in the bundled software. The Garmin software is outstanding and its integration with Google maps is impressive. The ability to compare heart rate with speed/effort is very nice. It is also easy to customize and tweak to generate reports that fit exactly what you are looking for (HR over time, speed, and elevation for example so you can see just how much that hill really sucked at the end of your run, compared with how easy it felt when you did it at the beginning of your run). The software isn’t without its limitations, for one thing you can’t edit the raw data, or even view it in any meaningful form. I know the data is there, buried among the software’s xml files, but trying to sort it out was just about impossible and not worth the effort.

  Another plus is just how robust this watch is. Where my Polar was scratched up, beaten up, and giving in slowly and painfully to the rigors of Iraq the Garmin kept right on going. It took four months of use and abuse with nary a complaint and as a watch there is a lot to be positive about, the display is easy to read, the back light is bright but subtle, the ability to synch its time with the satellites overhead was a real time saver for me.

• 5 Rich

  At first I thought the price was high for what I was looking for. But after finding out all this things it can do I purchased a bundle with the foot pod and heart rate monitor. What can’t it do is the question??
  1) Logs your run (automatically loads it when your near your pc) – you can watch it back over a google map, it shows your pace/speed, heart rate, elevation, mileage at any given point.
  2) I have asthma, it constantly reports my heart rate so I can feel more comfortable.
  3) You know your exact mileage, at times before the GPS I thought I was running further than I was. When I used this gps I found out I wasnt. Helps with goals.
  4) You can set mileage, calorie goals for a week, month etc. and it will keep track for you.
  5) I could go futher but by now you get the point
  NO RUNNER, JOGGER or biker should be without.

• 6 Cheney

  Hi, before buying it I did read some of this reviews, some good other bad, as usual. I must say it is a good gadget in general; good size, good gps performance (when it is not cloudy), footpod and HRM work as good as other brands. I see two operational issues; one is to use the bezzel when you run and your hands are wet; but I think I can live with that, secondly, battery only lasts 8 hours when you have GPS ON, this might be a problem. Garmin webpage does have a lot of problems, but they are improving it also the training centre (a local application) is not very nice. I think Garmin will do the improvements soon, hopefully. By the way, you can change the battery of the footpod, that is good for garmin, other brands (like Nike) make you buy a new footpod when its battery is off.
  Also, you can select many fields to see in the screen when you run, and even I am not a pro-user yet, I believe it can help a lot for training, like virtual partner option.

• 7 Ahmad

  I bought this and noticed that the mail in rebate coupon was not included. Contacted the seller, who never replied. Quite disappointed about that.

  The Garmin Forerunner is great for running & biking – unfortunately cannot be used while swimming unlike the Suunto and Polar. It takes some getting used to – it took me two weeks to finally get the hang of it – but it really does improve your training in terms of monitoring pace and distance. Was on the fence about order the bundle (foot pod and HR monitor) but am very glad I did – very useful for the gym for spinning and treadmill workouts.

  One downside – the battery lasts only about 8 hours. Sometimes the ANT agent takes a while to connect to the forerunner to upload data to the computer.

  Overall am happy with it.

• 8 Chuang

  The re-conditioned Geko 301 is indistinguishable from a new one. We use it in our land-surveying business in conjunction with National Geographic TOPO! to find section corners and quarter-corners. I’ve also used it with great results when sailing in a small vessel that lacked a compass and speedometer.

• 9 Dodd

  I’ve had great fun with my Geko 301, but it’s also been somewhat frustrating. I see that other reviewers have also experienced problems such as no functionality in forests. If you’re spending a day walking in a forest, the device is essentially useless. I wish someone had told me that beforehand. I’m in South Africa, incidentally. Worse, my second Geko 301 in a period of three years has just experienced display panel failure. The whole screen goes black and you can faintly see the information if you hold the screen to the sun at an angle! The first time this happened to me, Garmin said there was nothing they could do. I wonder if they’re going to say the same this time.

• 10 Ugo

  This GPS works with very good performance, It has all of I was looking for. I strongly recomend it.

• 11 Fitzgerald

  This is a great, small GPS unit. It is very light and full of great functions. It won’t map, but I use it to just keep from getting lost. Also, the altimeter and the electronic compass are great. The batteries last a while, but I only turn it on occasionally.

• 12 Bassett

  Garmin Geko 301 – GPS receiver – hiking

  Not a bad piece of equipment for the price…Reasonable battery life,
  fair amount of options, relatively easy operation in harsh conditions,
  fluctuating readings of elevations, once calibrated, generally appear to be within ascribed tolerances (have checked this against solid
  benchmarks)…. Though I would NOT want to absolutely stake my personal
  survival upon it, it is DEFINTELY better than nothing in orienting
  geo-direction, esp. in the dark and provides some degree of entertainment
  when one is out “Lost in the Wilderness”….. Wish ALL screens would
  include transceived geographical coordinates instead of just one and a
  means of noting and processing them as well….. This item field-tested
  at altitudes over 12K Ft. Thanks! Sincerely Yours From Upon High, J.

• 13 Fleer

  I have been using this on an inside track as a timer and heart rate monitor. It works great for that. Being able to download the results to a computer for analysis is great. It makes it easy to provide the data to your doctor or anyone else. Today I used the 301 outside and found that the GPS didn’t work as well as my Nokia phone (running Sportstracker). So I give this a 4 of 5.

• 14 Shin

  I have had one of these since February having previously used the Oregon Scientific Heart Rate Logger with Download (until it fell in the kitchen garbage disposal).

  The question I could not answer easily when searching was: does this work in the Gym, the answer is: Yes (and no) – there is a setting which switches off the GPS and just records your heart rate, and it works well if your working reasonably hard (elliptical, treadmill etc), although for light workouts (me on my Wii) the heart rate monitor struggles at best.

  I have used it whilst Skiing (theres a nice website that uploads your garmin data and even tells you which runs you were on etc), and airsofting.

  GPS performance works well except in wooded areas, although useful for navigating the woods, if you need accurate recorded data it will let you down, also as all GPS devices if your out running and you make an accute turn (e.g. 180 degrees) the recorded distance will fall off (the unit records points approximately 4-6 seconds apart. Taking wide loops alleviates this issue though.

  Battery life does how it says 14 hours on a full charge is no problem, however after I have downloaded into my laptop, I have picked up the unit for the next run and found the battery dead, so now once I disconnect from the PC I cycle the power to make sure it is switched off.

  The Garmin proprietary software works well, seamlessly syncs and displays lots of useful data. Online motionbased software (provides huge amounts of data on your runs, walks etc) works well and with the downloadable Garmin Connect software pulls data off the device as easy as the software on your machine. As I have said before with skiing there are other more specialised websites that either use .GPX tracks or use the Garmin Connect software to easily upload your data.

  Any waypoint editors, etc which work with the other Garmin walking/exercise units will read and write data to this device with few issues if any.

  Summary:

  This is the lowest priced forerunner with a heart rate monitor.

  If you dont have a big budget and want a GPS recorder/heart rate monitor get this one.
  If you can afford more get the Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor, apparently this has a better GPS receiver.

  This unit has provided me with loads of motivation to get my backside off the couch and get out there and run/walk.

• 15 Unterseher

  I was really excited to get this product as I was hoping to train for a triathlon and was pumped that it included a bike setting. I had a forerunner 201 before which I loved. However, I really dislike this model and I felt I needed to warn anyone looking to buy this model. The satellite is CRAP. I can run the same route 4 different times and get 4 different distances. The satellite goes out – it doesn’t matter if I am in the city, on a trail, or just main roads in the suburbs. I have found when I have run races and brought my garmin the mileage is WAY OFF – I’m talking 3.7 according to Garmin for a 5.1. Understandably it has a lot of great features, but not worth the price if it can’t do the simple things it advertises. Buyer beware!

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