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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin 235 Review}}
* There's no support for displaying your current [[Pace From A Footpod]] while getting all other data from GPS. For situations where pacing is critical, such as running a marathon, this is a must have feature. If you need to know how fast your running, look elsewhere.
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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin 235 Review}}
[[File:Garmin235.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The {{Garmin 235}}, showing the display of heart rate.]]
I had remarkably high hopes for the Garmin 235. I was naïve enough to think that it would be like the [[Garmin 225]], but with better optical heart rate monitoring[[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]], better [[GPS Accuracy]] and adding in [[Connect IQ]] to boot. Sadly, the GPS accuracy is even worse and the optical heart rate monitoring is still not viable. The 235 has some cool novelties, but if you look at the four basic questions I use to evaluate the foundational capabilities of a running watch, it comes up short.
* '''How far did I run?''' This is the most basic question, and sadly the 235 has distinctly grim [[GPS Accuracy]]. Even with my low expectations of recent Garmin devices I was rather disappointed. It's possible that the variants of the 235 that lack the optical heart rate monitor (230/630) might do a little better, but I wouldn't expect a huge improvement. Of course, the error that you'll see will depend on the nature of your route. On straight lines and with a clear view of the sky it should do okay, but in tree cover and on twisty courses it's likely to be pretty ugly. How much this will bother you is likely to depend on how what you're using the watch for and the nature of your personality.
* '''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. Even Because of the best nature of GPS , watches that rely on GPS signal alone tend to have serious problems with current pace, and the poor accuracy of the 235 exacerbates this. If knowing how fast your running is important to youThankfully, then look Garmin has added support for a watch that has the display of your current [[Pace From A Footpod]]while getting all other data from GPS. (This was added in the 4.70 firmware, released June 2016. )
* '''Where am I? '''The 235 has extremely limited support for navigation, but it's better than nothing.
** '''Back To Start'''. This is a simple arrow point to your starting point, so it won't help you backtrack. However, knowing where your hotel is in a strange city or where you parked your car is immensely valuable, especially if you're running a circular route.
** '''Back To Waypoint'''. You can mark a location and use the arrow to point to it later. Again, this is a simple "as the crow flies" pointer.
** '''Connect IQ Apps. '''It's possible to add more navigation by installing a [[Connect IQ]] app. Connect IQ application take over the role of the display and recording of your activity, so while they can add some navigation they may not have the functionality that you'd expect from a running watch. I tried dwMap (V1.4.0018b) and it will give you navigation, but you have extremely limited options for displaying other data, with just four predefined fields shown.
* '''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. . There is support for Cadence from the internal accelerometer, though I find that's not as accurate as the [[Footpod]] which it supports. While the 235 has alerts for heart rate, pace, distance, and time, it lacks an alert for Cadence which would have been the most valuable.
The 235 is not a good choice for ultrarunners, as its battery life is too short. You can charge the 235 while you're running, but I'd recommend getting a watch with a longer battery life so you don't have to charge it so often. See [[Best Running Watch#Watches for Ultrarunning| Watches for Ultrarunning]] for more details.
{{BuyAmazon|AZID=B0160BC1FO|AZN=Garmin 235}}
=Garmin 230/235/630=
Garmin produces three similar watches; the base 230, the 235 that adds optical heart rate monitoring [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] (OHRM) to the base 230, and the 630 that adds extra functionality to the base 230. I don't see that the additional price of the 630 is worthwhile, so if you don't want the OHRM then go for the 230. {| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
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! Garmin 230
=Garmin 235 Pros=
* [[Connect IQ]] allows the 235 to include rich apps to extend its core functionality. For instance, the [https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?213535-Watchface-ActiFace-FR920XT-Vivoactive-epix ActiFace] app makes the activity monitor far more inspiring.
* Garmin has added support for displaying your current [[Pace From A Footpod]] while getting all other data from GPS. For situations where pacing is critical, such as running a marathon, this is a must have feature.
* The 235 is a nice size, looking more like a watch than a brick. I find it a lot more comfortable than the [[Garmin Fenix 3]], [{Garmin Epix]], or [[Garmin 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 Garmin Connect smartphone app and website are both excellent, and Garmin is continuing to improve them.
=Garmin 235 Cons=
* The [[GPS Accuracy]] is terrible. I'll add more ; see below for details in the near future. * The See below for the details of the [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] is also terrible, but it's broadly similar to other systems. See below for details.
* I love the idea of having continuous hear rate monitoring, especially to get things like [[Resting Heart Rate]]. However, the poor accuracy limits 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.
* 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 includes an internal accelerometer to give you an idea of pace and distance while running on a treadmill without a footpod, but I found the accuracy was rather poor. I've yet to come across a watch that can reasonably estimate your pace from the movement of your wrist, nor does it seem likely that this functionality is practical.
=Optical Heart Rate MonitoringGPS Accuracy =To analyze the accuracy of the The Garmin 235's optical heart rate monitor did a rather worse than even I gathered a little over 20expected,000 readings and analyzed them in comparison with an ECG-based chest strap heart rate monitor. I created to cross to visualize this comparisonhad remarkably low expectations. The first graph shows images below back up the heart rate measured by the ECG HRM more rigorous statistical analysis to your find on the horizontal against the Garmin 235 on the verticalmy [[GPS Accuracy]] page. If the two systems match exactly then the point will be on the green line of equality. You can see Given that many of the points cluster around this green line, but are distributed more widely [[Garmin 225]] did worse than I think is acceptable. In addition you can see a cloud of points well away from the green line that represent times when is the 235 was reading a wildly high heart rate. There is some discussion within the running community that these high readings might be the optical system becoming confused by the impact of foot strikes as they tend to be vaguely in the vicinity of [[CadenceGarmin 620]]. This graph uses transparent points to give a better impression of , and the density of data, with black areas having at least 10 data points lining up. There 225 is essentially a blue regression line, which will be aligned 620 with the green line if the system is accurateOptical Heart Rate Monitoring, but as you can see it is distinctly misaligned. I've also included two red lines s possible that are 25 bpm away from the true value230 or 630 might do a little better than the 235. The second histogram shows the distribution of errorsHowever, even if those invariants are proportionally better, and includes the erroneous cloud of points is it's still a slight bump to the right really grim level of the main spikeinaccuracy.
{| class="wikitable"
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|[[File:ORHM-Garmin235-ScatterBridgeGarmin 235.pngjpg|none|thumb|500pxx300px| You can see the 235 does terribly in the middle twisty section, which is a difficult section for most GPS watches. However, they rarely do quite this badly. The distribution 235 also does quite poorly under the bridge, which counterintuitively is a section that most watches are able to handle without issues. You can see a few tracks where the 235 seems to get significantly lost, and the spread of the blue lap markers is further indications of readings between some fundamental issues. If you compare this image with the equivalent on my [[Garmin 235 OHRM vertically 225]] review, you'll see how much worse it does than even that rather mediocre watch. To show how the tracks should look, check out my review of the [[Polar V800]] or [[Suunto Ambit3]]. (This diagram has tracks color coded with green indicating good accuracy through to red indicating poor accuracy, and the Garman Ant+ system horizontallylap markers as blue dots.)]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:ORHM-Garmin235-DistributionAccuracyGarmin 235.pngjpg|none|thumb|500pxx300px| Here is another view This close up section of a zigzag shows the same data, showing 225 failing to track the greater error.]]|}Of shape of the 20trail,000 readings, slightly more than 10% were out by more than 25 BPM (demarked by the with far too many red colored lines on , and the first graphblue lap markers widely distributed.) The average error (standard deviation) is 19.1 BPM, This diagram has tracks color coded with an average reading that was 5.7 BPM too high. If you're an experienced runner that has a green indicating good idea what your heart rate should be, then you may be able accuracy through to ignore values that are out by more than 25 bpm. In that casered indicating poor accuracy, and the standard deviation drops to 4lap markers as blue dots.2 BPM with an average that is 0.03 too low. Of course, if you know your heart rate to within 25 BPM, then the 235 will only get you slightly closer. To give a sense of how the errors manifest themselves, I've included a few anecdotal graphs. {| class="wikitable" )]]
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|[[File:Garmin235-OHR5ZigZagGarmin 235.jpg|none|thumb|500pxx300px| During this run you see Most GPS watches tend to show the 235 having a couple of major dropouts. For tracks that have the rest of green lines shifted slightly down and to the runleft, blue up and to the 235 roughly tracks the true heart rate. ]]|- valign="top"|[[File:Garmin235-OHR3right.jpg|none|thumb|500px| Here we see the The 235 giving an accurate readingdoes not show this typical pattern, but one though it may be that is rather misleading. While I frequently see the 235 displaying green lines are a heart rate that is wildly too high or too low, I know I can ignore that informationlittle closer to the actual trail than the blue lines. Where the 235 is It's not unusual for a GPS watch to be more problematic accurate in one direction than the 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 You can see the 235 initially gives an inaccurate reading that lap markers shifted based on direction which is somewhat close to also typical. (This image has the real heart ratetracks color-coded for direction, but then spikes to wildly too high. I tried several times to adjust with green coming from the tension and position of right, blue from the 235, but nothing helpedleft.)]]
|}
=Optical Heart Rate Monitoring=
I've gathered all the results of my testing under my [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]] page.
=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. You'll notice that the 235 has a rather short list of missing features ;}
* '''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.
* '''WiFi Uploads'''. While the automatic upload of workouts via WiFi is nice, the upload will typically only go to the manufacturer's web site.
* '''Running Dynamics'''. Some of the newer Garmin watches support [[Running Dynamics]] that can show and record Vertical Oscillation (VO) and Ground Contact Time (GCT). (You can get this with the 630.)
* '''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.
=Visual Comparison=
{| class="wikitable"
