Revision as of 08:19, 29 October 2014

The Soleus 1.0

The Soleus 1.0 is one of the cheapest on the market, with a recommended price of $99, but often available from Amazon for $75-85. While it has some significant limitations, it is basically functional. The Garmin 10 is the cheapest Garmin GPS watch, but at $130 it's nearly twice the price of the Soleus 1.0. (There are other GPS watches by Soleus that have better functionality, but their price makes them unattractive when compared with the other watches here.)

1 Soleus 1.0 Pros

• The big attraction of the Soleus 1.0 is the price, which is half that of the Garmin 310XT.
• This is a smaller watch, similar in size to the Garmin 610.

2 Soleus 1.0 Cons

• There is no upload of data to a PC (which also means no firmware updates).
• No support for a Heart Rate Monitor or a Footpod.
• The claimed battery life is 8 hours, which is a little short. However, I've read reports of people getting longer battery life.
• The initial acquisition of the GPS satellites is slower than the better watches like the 310XT/910XT.

3 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.

3.1 Score Breakdown without a Footpod

3.2 Score Breakdown with a Standard Footpod

3.3 Score Breakdown with a Stryd Footpod

3.4 Basic Features

4 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.)