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331 of 336 people found the following review helpful.
Great watch to replace your coach
By David Okeefe
I've been training with the Garmin 405 for a year now and love it. Given the mixed reviews here, I was apprehensive regarding getting it, but it in truth is a great training device.
686 of 726 people found the following review helpful.
A Terrible Disappointment - Stick with the 305
By Charles B
As a long-time user and fan of the Garmin 305, the Garmin 405 was a product I was looking forward to for months as I was excessively affected emotionally to see the next generation of the 305 I have enjoyed so much.
I could not be more disappointed with the result.
The Garmin 405 is a classic example of a good product conception and clever design gone horribly defective as the Garmin team concentered on form (looks) distinctly beat out the folks worried when it comes to function. The watch looks fine (great for a HRM/GPS watch, so so for an each day watch) but in terms of actual purpose-built functionality, it is terrible. There are multiple reasons for this which I will outline below.
(1) Useless when wet (yes, that includes sweat). The fact that you can not toggle amidst screens or do anything with the bezel while the device is wet ought to have caused the designers to toss out this novel touch sensible conception and stick with what works. Instead, they decisive to go with a neat design conception that works outstanding when the salesperson is showing it to you at the store, but will provide endless hours of feeling of annoyance at being hindered or criticized when you are out running and just want to see your heart rate. This is my initial bullet point because it is the best example of the type of design failures that make this a terrible device.
(2) Use of built in functions/screens - The manufacturers carried over the capabilites of the Garmin 305 and added a virtual training collaborator functionality, but the display may only show three fields at once and the fields themselves are too little for good observing while in motion (ie running). Cycling amongst the displays is easy to do while sitting on a couch, even fun when you run your finger along the bezel, but when you are out running you speedily realize that it is very difficult to accomplish anything with the device. With the 305, if you wanted to alter fields on the fly, you could manage to do it while keeping a reasonable pace. With the 405, you need to press buttons and run your finger along the bezel to switch fields - again, outstanding on a couch, closely totally unlikely on a run.
(3) GPS Accuracy. I have swapped messages with humans who disagree, and I will say that I at times have great accuracy, but have likewise had multiple experiences where the accuracy of this device is off by so much as to make the pace and distance gains of a GPS useless. The best example is running a measured mile with typical neighborhood street tree coverage and having the device show I went a total of 0.70 miles (the 305 on the same stretch showed 1.01). I have had this occur multiple times in respective emplacements and accordingly have stopped using the watch in races when I want to know my true pace and distance (I am using the 305 again).
(4) Silly things that might (or might not) drive you crazy - There are two buttons on the Garmin 405 - both on the right side of the face as you look at it. These buttons carry out a great deal of utile functions, including locking the bezel so that you may wear the device in a non-GPS mode and refrain from running down the battery needlessly while still using the device as a watch. The problem is that if, like me, you in truth own a every day wear watch and when you travel you prefer to put the 405 in your bag or suitcase, having the two buttons on the same side means that if they press versus anything they will unlock the bezel and the GPS will begin running (or try to). The result will be a dead battery when you pull it out of your bag. It may seem minor, but pulling the 405 out of your bag after you arrive and want to go for a run, only to see it is dead, again and again, is annoying. The positive offset is that the watch actually charges at a beauteous decent speed. Oh yes, and when the battery does, in fact, die, you will need to go through all of the intro screens again to get it going which will most times freeze on you (check message boards for solution to this as some humans have posted them).
Overall, this is a terrible product and if you actually want to get a GPS enabled running device, I would highly commend you buy the Garmin 305. It is much for less and while it does not look as good, the size will not bother you after a couple of wears and it will work flawlessy for you. I suspect they will ultimately rectify the failings of the Garmin 405 but until they do it is not a good use of your money.
127 of 135 humans found the following review helpful.
Fantastic watch in spite of bad reviews
By T. Mullins
I had been looking to buy the Forerunner 405 for a lot of time, but was reluctant because of all the bad reviews on here. I had the Nike+, which was terribly inaccurate and quit working after a couple of month. I went in front and purchased the watch, ignoring the bad reviews.
First, I read reviews that said the bezel is hard to use. No, it's not. You have to sit there and play with it to learn how to use it. When it goes into sleep mode, it's not responsive, so you have to hit one of the side buttons a couple times to wake it up. Not a big deal. Personally, I sweat a lot, and have not had any troubles with the bezel not responding when I run. It has never locked up on me either. You may adjust the sensitivity of the bezel. It's preprogrammed on medium and I haven't had any difficultnesses with this setting. People complain that the bezel is easy to hit accidentally, therefore leaving it on and draining the battery, or whatsoever they complain about. You may lock the bezel so that this doesn't happen. If you lock the bezel and this still happens, then don't throw it in a gym bag or someplace it may get knocked around. Personally, I wouldn't be throwing my $300 GPS-enabled sports watch around anyways.
For the people who say that it's not accurate, I have had no issues with it's accuracy. Actually, I think it's very accurate. I was worried when it comes to it picking up satellites because when I had satellite radio in my car, it would often lose signal on a road that I run on. The Garmin has never lost signal for the duration of my run, and I live in WV and my route is right near mountains and trees. For those who complain in regards to the way it displays data for the duration of your run, you may program it to show you what you want, and you may turn off autoscroll so that it stays on the one display. If you want to see the next page, just tap the bezel. It's genuinely easy. I found that having 3 items on the page was too crammed and little to read, so I changed it to only show 2 items. I have it set to show my pace and distance.
For those persons who complained in regards to how long it takes to pick up a satellite signal, yes it may take a couple of minutes. Do a great deal of light stretching while it acquires the signal. For those complaining when it comes to the battery life, I ran 14 miles with it over the course of a week and it got down to 38%, so I threw it back on the charge just in case. It's simple to check the battery life, so check it now and then, and if it gets low, charge it. Just like you charge your cell phone each night or each other night. Just be sure to turn the GPS off after each use to save the battery.
Somebody complained that it doesn't read a steady speed/pace the whole time. No, it's not going to read that you are running a 10:30 pace incisively the whole 5 miles you run. Naturally, you are going to speed up or slow down and not realize it, and lets face it, it's a tiny electronic GPS device and may not be 100% in tune with each step. Mine will in general bounce around 15-20 seconds above or beneath my goal pace. What matters to me is that I know within 15-20 seconds what my pace is incisively when I'm running, and at the end it gives me very precise pace averages for each mile. I have had no issues with transferring my selective information to the computer. The ANT stick quickly links to the watch, and it may take a minute or so to download. The software does what you need it to do. If you need something fancier, there's more software out there. Lastly, this watch is large. For the men that may not be a problem. I am female and I found this watch to be rather large, and I am not a tiny person. This isn't a watch that a female may just wear fashionably. If you think this is a little sports watch, it's not. But, the strap has a great deal of notches to adjust to just in regards to any size wrist.
I'm sorry to complain when it comes to other people's experiences with the watch, but I just don't grasp how they are having these issues and I am not. The issues that a heap of complain regarding seem to be without apparent effort resolved by plainly getting more intimate with the watch or thinking in front a little. This isn't a watch you may just throw on and run with right out of the box and it be perfect. It is highly customizable, and every one is different. Once you custommake it how you like it, it is a very accurate, utile tool to help in your training. I am saddened that the negative reviews closely prevented me from purchasing this item, when it has been the best buy I have made in a long time. I love this watch and highly commend it. If you are not good with electronics, then possibly this watch isn't for you.
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