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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin 225 Review}}

I've [[Best Running Watch| tested several optical heart rate monitors]] and found them rather ineffective, so I came to the {{Garmin 225}} with low expectations. I initially found that the 225 worked better than I expected, but when I did more rigorous approach I found the [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring| accuracy was lacking]]. I'm a little disappointed in the way Garmin has crippled the 225 software compared with the 620, and I was hoping the [[Garmin 235]] would be a big improvement. Sadly, while the 235 adds things like [[Connect IQ]], it's optical HRM is nowhere near as good as the 225. If you want optical heart rate monitoring, the 225 is the best I've found, or at perhaps I should say, it's the least bad. A simple rating of the Garmin 225 can be based on how well they can answer some basic questions:

* '''How far did I run?''' This is the most basic question, and the 225 has rather poor GPS accuracy, so its estimate of how far you've run needs to be treated with a quite a bit of caution.

* '''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.

The 225 is not a good choice for ultrarunners, as its battery life is too short. See [[Best Running Watch#Watches for Ultrarunning| Watches for Ultrarunning]] for more details. (Turning off the optical heart rate monitor only increases the battery life a couple of hours.)

{{BuyAmazon|AZID=B00XKRWTUE|AZN=Garmin 225}}

=Optical Heart Rate Monitoring=