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From Fellrnr.com, Running tips
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* 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 it's good enough to be viable. I've found it's wrong too often for me to trust it, and while the readings are sometimes obviously wrong, sometimes they can be a little misleading. Tightening the strap really tight helpsa bit, 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. I'd expected the heart rate data to be used for calorie calculations, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.
* 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 235 has some [[Firstbeat]] features that normally require a heart rate strap, such as recovery time, training effect, and [[VO2max|V̇O<sub>2</sub>max]] 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.
=Optical Heart Rate Monitoring=
No one likes to wear a chest strap, and it can be particularly annoying for ladies as it can interfere with support clothing. This makes the idea of an optical [[Heart Rate Monitor]] that uses the changes in capillary fill under the watch quite attractive, and I found the 235's predecessor, the [[Garmin 225]] to be one of the least problematic optical heart rate monitors. Sadly, Garmin used a different sensor for the 235 and I found it to be so problematic that it was useless to me. To evaluate the 235, I compared it to two other chest based systems. I used the [[Suunto Ambit3]] with a Polar Bluetooth H7 strap, and a [[Garmin Fenix 3]] with the Garmin Ant+ chest strap. The graphs below show the two chest strap based heart rate monitors tracking very closely. There are some slight differences in how the data is smooth, but you have to look closely to see this. Given these two systems tracking together leads me to believe they are giving a true representation of my [[Heart Rate]].
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:Garmin235-OHR5.jpg|none|thumb|500px| During this run you see the 235 having a couple of major dropouts. For the rest of the run, the 235 roughly tracks the true heart rate. ]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:Garmin235-OHR3.jpg|none|thumb|500px| Here we see the 235 giving an accurate reading, but one that is rather misleading. While I frequently see the 235 displaying a heart rate that is wildly too high or too low, I know I can ignore that information. Where the 235 is more problematic than other optical systems is that it will display a plausible but inaccurate value.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:Garmin235-OHR4.jpg|none|thumb|500px| For this run the 235 initially gives an inaccurate reading that is somewhat close to the real heart rate, but then spikes to wildly too high. I tried several times to adjust the tension and position of the 235, but nothing helped.]]
|}
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
