Latest revision as of 15:58, 27 November 2019

Garmin 610

The Garmin 610 represents good value for money, providing all the key features you're likely to need in a small package. It misses out on some of the cool new abilities of the more recent devices like its successor, the Garmin 620. With the release of the Garmin 620 the price of the 610 has started falling, so it has become great value. While the 620 has many more features than the 610, the 610 is actually a better watch as it has slightly better GPS Accuracy and can display Pace From A Footpod. For a simple evaluation of a GPS watch, I look at how well it can answer some basic questions:

• How far did I run? This is the most basic question, and the Garmin 610 has good GPS accuracy. It will give you a better idea than most watches how far you've gone.
• How fast am I running? Knowing how fast you're running can be a nice to know, or it can be vital for your training or race performance. Because of the nature of GPS, watches that rely on GPS signal alone tend to have serious problems with current pace. Thankfully, the 610 is one of the few devices that will display current Pace From A Footpod while getting all other data from GPS.
• Where am I? The Garmin 610 has only a simple "back to start" or "back to waypoint" arrow, which is better than nothing, but far from state of the art these days.
• What's my cadence? Cadence is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of running. If you get your Cadence right, many other things naturally fall into place. The Garmin 610 supports Cadence via a Footpod, but has neither alerts nor does it have an internal accelerometer to estimate Cadence.

For ultramarathon running the Garmin 620 does not have the battery life. See Watches for Ultrarunning for more details.

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1 Garmin 610 Pros

• The 610 is smaller than the Garmin 920XT and closer to the size of a traditional watch.
• Like the Garmin 310XT and Garmin 310XT , the 610 can use the optional Footpod to display your current pace while using GPS for overall pace, distance and route. Only the 310XT, 910XT and 610 can do this (so far). Given that current pace can be out by more than a minute a mile, this is a great feature.
• The 610 will alert you when a metric is out of range, including an alert for Cadence that is really useful and one of my favorite features.
• The 610 displays and records Training Effect, an indicator of how hard or effective a training session is. I don't think the algorithm in the 610 is quite as good as the 620, it's still useful.
• The touchscreen interface works with gloves and in the rain, unlike most touchscreens found on phones or media players.
• The 610 will not display Heart Rate Variability but it is possible for it to record Heart Rate Variability for later analysis. This recording can be enabled from the firstbeat.com ATHELTE software (there's a free trial).

2 Garmin 610 Cons

• The battery life is rather short at 8 hours. It will be fine for most runners, but ultrarunners will need to look elsewhere.

3 What's Missing

While I don't consider these missing features as 'cons', it's worth understanding the features that are missing compared with other watches.

• GPS Pre-cache. Most of the time, even GPS watches without satellite pre-cache will locate the GPS signal quite quickly provided you've not traveled far from the position of the watch was last used. However, those times when you have traveled, a GPS watch without satellite pre-cache can take several minutes to locate the GPS signal. This can be remarkably annoying when you're freezing cold and wanting to start your run to warm up.
• Altimeter. GPS is far less accurate vertically than horizontally, so a barometric altimeter can provide a much better idea of your ascent and descent. It can also be useful for navigation if you're ascending or descending a mountain. In some races I've been far more interested in how much ascent is left rather than the distance to the top.
• Downloadable Apps. Smart watches have got is used to the idea of a device that can be extended with new functionality, and this concept is being introduced to running watches.
• Extended battery life. Some porches can extend the battery life by turning the GPS reception off for short periods. This can dramatically reduce GPS accuracy, but it's a useful trade-off for some ultramarathons.
• Navigation. The navigation capabilities are useful if there is a risk of getting lost. I've made good use of this feature when running in an unfamiliar city, or when running remote trails. There is a simplistic 'back to start' arrow, but that's a poor substitute for a map display.
• Graphs. Instead of simply displaying a numeric value for things like heart rate, some watches will display a graph of the value over time, giving you a sense of how things are progressing.
• Running Dynamics. Some of the newer Garmin watches can show and record Vertical Oscillation (VO) and Ground Contact Time (GCT).
• Alerts. Some watches will alert you when a metric is out of range. The alert for Cadence is really useful and one of my favorite features.
• WiFi/Bluetooth Uploads. While the automatic upload of workouts via WiFi or Bluetooth to a Smartphone is nice, the upload will typically only go to the manufacturers web site.
• Web Configuration. Some watches allow you to setup the configuration via a web site, and then download your changes. This is vastly easier than fiddling with the watch.

4 Comparison Table

I evaluate running watches in three distinct ways. Firstly, you can use a watch on its own, without any kind of Footpod. This is probably the most common way runners use their watch, but you miss out on a lot. The second rating is with a standard Footpod that is available quite cheaply. These Footpod's can be reasonably accurate once the calibrated, but calibration is a little tedious. The final evaluation is with the Stryd Footpod, which is vastly more accurate than any other type of Footpod, or and more accurate than GPS. The table below looks at the score, and the value for money of each watch for each of the three conditions. (I’ve also tested the Apple Watch 3, but I’ve not included it in these tables as it’s not really a running watch.)

The score is the sum of how well each watch can answer the four basic questions (how far, how fast, where are you, what's your cadence), plus some bonus points.

1. The "How far you've run" will be based on GPS only for "without Footpod" and "with Standard Footpod", but based on Stryd if supported in the "with Stryd Footpod" table..
2. How fast you're running assumes you're using a Footpod if it's supported, otherwise the rating is 0-2 based on GPS accuracy.
3. The "Where are you?" is based on various navigation features such as back to start, breadcrumbs, and preloaded maps. For some watches, you have to turn GPS off to get the benefit of Stryd, so those watches have worse "where are you scores" with Stryd than without.
4. The cadence score uses 1 point for an internal cadence sensor, 2 points for footpod support, 1 point for support from chest strap cadence, and 1 point for cadence alerts.
5. I give 1-2 bonus points for application support, 1-2 bonus points for data upload, 1-2 bonus points for Optical Heart Rate Monitoring, and 0-1 bonus points for battery life.
6. Value for money is the score divided by the price (at the time I last updated the table.) Your needs may be different, so you might weight the different aspects of the watches differently, or be basing your decision on different criteria totally. Hopefully this table will give you a good starting point for your decision.

4.1 Score Breakdown without a Footpod

4.2 Score Breakdown with a Standard Footpod

4.3 Score Breakdown with a Stryd Footpod

4.4 Basic Features

5 Navigation Features

For "navigation":

• Color Maps gives you full color maps, rather like a smart phone, with roads and paths marked out.
• Track Outline is a display of where you've run, rather like a breadcrumb trail. If there are maps, the outline is superimposed otherwise this is just the outline on its own without any context.
• Course Outline is an outline of a route that can be downloaded. I've found this useful during ultras or in unfamiliar cities where I've needed to know where to go.
• Back To Start is a simple arrow point to your starting point, so it won't help you backtrack.
• Back To Waypoint returns you to a previously marked location using a simple arrow to point.
• Compass. A magnetic compass can help you orient yourself or the map. Without a magnetic compass you have to be moving for the GPS to give you a sense of direction.

(Older Reviews: Polar RC3 GPS, Soleus 1.0, Motorola Motoactv.)