Revision as of 06:57, 16 December 2015

The Garmin 235 has one of the nicest mixes of features in any running watch, and having tested its predecessor, the Garmin 225 I have high hopes. I'm still testing the 235, so this is just my initial impressions, not a full review.

• The 235 is a nice size, looking more like a watch than a brick. I find it a lot more comfortable than the Fenix 3, Epix, or 920XT, though I have rather tiny wrists.
• The color display is bigger than the Garmin 225, though it is neither square nor circular, but flat on the top/bottom and round on the sides, which is odd. Some of the screens end up with the edges cut off, which can make the graphs confusing.
• The Optical HRM does not work as well as the Garmin 225 and I don't think its good enough to be viable. I've found it's wrong too often for me to trust it. Tightening the strap really tight helps, but does not completely resolve the issues.
• I love having continuous hear rate monitoring, especially to get things like Resting Heart Rate. However, the accuracy problems limit the value, and the continuous monitoring seems to add problems where the 235 gets "stuck" at a particular value.
• My initial GPS Accuracy testing suggests the 235 is rather grim, though I don't have enough data to say more.
• Connect IQ allows the 235 to include rich apps to extend its core functionality. For instance, the ActiFace app make the activity monitor far more inspiring.
• The battery life is annoyingly poor, even for fairly casual running when the watch is used as an activity monitor. I find myself having to charge the 235 far too frequently and it seems to take longer than I'd like to recharge.
• The 235 will automatically pair to a heart rate strap without being in a pairing mode. This means it will link to someone else's strap, which is mightily annoying.
• The 235 will automatically detect when you go to sleep and wake up, rather than having to be told. This makes the sleep tracking a lot more convenient, as I tend to forget.
• You can enable notifications from your smartphone, which was not possible with the earlier 620/225/220. This relays the phone's notification messages, such as texts, calls, or other things you've enabled. For instance, it will notify me when someone joins my conference line.
• The 235 has some Firstbeat features that normally require a heart rate strap, such as recovery time, training effect, and V̇O₂max estimation. Yet again, the issues with the heart rate accuracy limit the value of this.
• The 235 can be charged while running, though the optical heart rate is turned off. This may make it more viable for ultrarunning.

1 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.

1.1 Score Breakdown without a Footpod

1.2 Score Breakdown with a Standard Footpod

1.3 Score Breakdown with a Stryd Footpod

1.4 Basic Features

2 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.)