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Leikr

318 bytes removed, 16:35, 18 December 2015
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The unique attraction of the Leikr is its huge color display that can show lots of data, a full color map, or some combination of the two. Navigation with the Leikr is great, but it comes up short in a number of other areas. In addition, I'm concerned that if Leikr stops supporting their web site, their watch is pretty useless as it's needed for data upload and configuration. So, while I love the Leikr and I'm glad I have one, I'm not sure I could recommend it wholeheartedly.
* '''How far did I run?''' This is the most basic question, and the Leikr has good GPS accuracy. The level of accuracy should be enough for most general running, though it will depend on your course and how precise you need to be.
* '''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. Without When the ability to display Leikr has a footpod attached it always displays your current [[Pace From A Footpod]] while getting all other data from GPS, the Leikr has rather poor pace data.
* '''Where am I? '''The huge, full color display means the Leikr can provide great navigation. It lacks a "back to start" arrow, but you can retrace your steps quite easily on the map.
* '''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 Leikr supports [[Cadence]] via a [[Footpod]], so it's better than nothing, but not up to the options of better devices.
* The biggest reason for getting the Leikr is its huge display. It's nearly twice the size and more than twice the resolution of its nearest competitor, the [[Garmin Epix]].
* The Leikr will use its huge display to show full color maps. These maps can be downloaded free from the Leikr website, which is a little easier than the slightly convoluted process needed for the [[Garmin Epix]]. One lovely feature that makes the maps even more useful is the ability to display data overlaying the map. I've found that having one or two key fields shown to the side of the display works really nicely. By comparison, the Epix will show data or maps, but not the two together.
* The Leikr will display your current [[Pace From A Footpod]] while getting the distance and average pace GPS, which is ideal. For situations where pacing is critical, such as running a marathon, this is a must have feature.
* The display size allows you to view a lot of data (up to six fields), or less data in a large font.
* The GPS accuracy of the Leikr is good, though not up to the best available. (See cons for some caveats to this.)
* The display can include graphs of some metrics, though I found them to be of less use than other implementations.
=Leikr Run Cons=
* The biggest downside to the Leikr compared to the 310XT/910XT/610 is that there is no way of displaying your current [Pace From A Footpod]] while using GPS for overall distance and course. You can only use a footpod by turning off GPS, which is pretty useless. GPS alone is not accurate enough to give you a good indication of current pace, while a footpod can do a much better job. Errors in GPS tend to cause the display of current pace to swing wildly, while errors in footpod pace tend to be constant and far easier to allow for.
* The Leikr is totally dependent on the Leikr website, so if this startup is not successful, you'll end up with a useless device. The web site is used to configure WiFi, configure the watch, and upload data. It would not be hard for the company to add support for data access via USB, as the watch has a USB mass storage mode for bootstrapping WiFi. The company's Facebook and Twitter accounts haven't been updated in a while and the Leikr is no longer available via Amazon.
* The Leikr will download a list of GPS satellites for quicker GPS acquisition, but you have to do this within a few hours of starting your run. This is a problem if you have to travel for a run, as the cache is likely to be stale. (I could not find out any details on how long the cache lasts for, and the Leikr site just says "within hours."