I'm training for a half Ironman and bought this watch two months ago. It is overall fantastic, it greatly exceeds my expectations, and I have no complaints whatsoever.
I started training by using the Google WearOS watch I already had. It, theoretically, could do what I needed it to do since you can download apps for just about anything. But there were problems.
Each app you download makes the watch even slower to respond than it normally was. It often locked up. The touchscreen, a feature I thought was so cool at first, turned out to be its worst feature during triathlon training.
In water the touchscreen is 100% unusable. Actually, just the contact of the water on the touchscreen makes it magically change from screen to screen or even turn off half way through a swim. When it’s wet and your finder is wet, there’s only a 1% chance that your touches will register properly. During running it's impossible to interact with the tiny icons on the tiny screen as I bounce around while striding. And during rides, with my gloves on, there's no touchy at all.
Touch screens for triathlon watches are to be avoided.
This Garmin does not have a touchscreen. You interact with it through five buttons that work perfectly in the pool, while running, and with gloved hands.
The watch never locks up. It has all the power it needs to be extremely responsive to your interactions, every single time.
The watch is always on. Unlike a "smart" watch that must turn its display off to conserve battery, this watch is always on. I can see the time, date and other indicators all the time. If I activate it by touching a button, I get a ton of other features.
The GPS locks onto a satellite very quickly, and consistently records my activities. The pace is always accurate. The heart rate monitor always works (PROTIP: tightening the strap during a training session results in a more accurate heart rate). It provides all the biofeedback I need during my training sessions.
The Garmin Connect app that comes with it provides a treasure trove of data that you can, and will, analyze on a daily basis. It tells you how you sleep, and how long you're in which sleep zones. It tells you how you’re training - your pace, your distance, your cadence, your heart rate, VO2, and even if you’re overtraining...everything you need to know to understand how to make minor adjustments. The sync between watch and app happens without you having to do anything. You can also connect with your friends and view a feed, similar to Strava. Garmin Connect is so good that I simply stopped using Strava...it’s no longer needed.
The battery lasts crazy long. My Google watch would die on day 2, so I HAD to plug it in every night. That meant no sleep tracking. The longest I've gone between charging my Garmin is 11 days.
11 DAYS!!
That's insane.
Here's the bottom line...
This watch is perfect for triathlon training. It's the perfect watch because it just works. And it works every, single, time.
If you are training for a triathlon, you will regret not buying this watch.
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This Item  Garmin 010-01746-00 Forerunner 935 Running GPS Unit (Black) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $218.99 | $309.99 | $299.99 | $299.99 | $219.99 | -32% $169.99 List: $249.99 |
| Delivery | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | Get it Apr 30 - May 1 | Get it Apr 30 - May 1 | Get it Apr 30 - May 1 | Get it as soon as Tuesday, Apr 30 | — |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| For working out | ||||||
| Sleep tracking | ||||||
| Sold By | Stavvy Sales | Beach Camera Same Day Shipping | Beach Camera Same Day Shipping | Beach Camera Same Day Shipping | Tech-Boutique | Amazon.com |
| control method | application | — | — | — | touch | application |
| resolution | 240 x 240 | 480 x 272 | 480 x 272 | 480 x 272 | 240 x 240 | 128 x 128 |
| mounting type | Wrist Mount | — | — | Wrist Mount | Wrist Mount | — |
| batteries included | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| battery average life | 15 days | 336 hours | 336.0 hours, 60.0 hours | 336.0 hours, 60.0 hours | — | 40 hours |
From the manufacturer
Who cares that Forerunner 935 gives you rich data like running dynamics, wrist-based heart rate, training status, FTP and VO2 max? A dedicated athlete like you who’s ready to beat yesterday. This premium GPS running/triathlon watch helps you fine-tune your training and recovery to be a better athlete.
Forerunner 935
Premium GPS Running/Triathlon Watch with Wrist-based Heart Rate
- Offers advanced running and multisport features in a comfortable watch you can wear all day, and it only weighs 49 grams
- Provides elevation changes with a built-in barometer; altimeter and electronic compass help you keep your bearings
- Evaluates your training status to indicate if you’re undertraining or overdoing it and offers additional performance monitoring features
- Provides advanced dynamics for running, cycling and swimming, including ground contact time balance, stride length and more
- Battery life: up to 2 weeks in watch mode, up to 24 hours in GPS mode or up to 50 hours in UltraTrac mode
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Monitor Your Performance, Training and RecoveryJust how effective is your current training plan? Forerunner 935 will help you monitor your training and recovery so you can better prepare for a race or training cycle. Training status is a new performance monitoring tool that automatically evaluates your recent exercise history and performance indicators to let you know if you’re training productively, peaking or overreaching. The new anaerobic training effect metric opens a window of insight to a critical dimension of training. |
Analyze Your TechniqueWe’re making it easier to get the data you need to improve your form. Let Forerunner 935 measure crucial running metrics that you can use to analyze your performance. Biomechanical measurements such as cadence, stride length, ground contact time and balance, vertical oscillation and vertical ratio are the key to understanding your form so you can bring your best on race day. These metrics are available with the addition of a compatible heart rate strap or the compact Running Dynamics Pod, which clips right onto your waistband. |
Run, Sprint, Swim, Bike, TriYour routine is anything but routine. Forerunner 935 lets you change things up with ease thanks to built-in activity profiles for running (indoor/outdoor), cycling (indoor/outdoor), swimming (pool/open water), cross-country skiing, paddle sports, trail running, hiking, strength training and many more. For brick workouts and du/triathlon races, the auto multisport feature lets you switch sports with just one button press. The 935 is compatible with advanced workouts for running, cycling — and even pool swimming. |
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Smarter ConnectionsSmart notifications delivered right to your wrist are just the beginning. When paired with your compatible smartphone, Forerunner 935 also gives you access to automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, audio prompts, music controls and more. Let your loved ones follow your runs and rides in real time with LiveTrack — or use GroupTrack, which lets you keep tabs on your riding buddies as you go. For getting your data to and from the cloud, if you like the quick connection Wi-Fi provides, 935 can do that, too. |
Follow Your HeartWrist-based heart rate might be an easy choice when you want to move without restrictions on race day, but Forerunner 935 gives you the option to tap into much more data with the addition of a compatible heart rate strap. A chest strap heart rate monitor (like HRM-Run or HRM-Tri) unlocks advanced features such as lactate threshold and the HRV (heart rate variability) stress test. |
Make Every Day a CompetitionGet the extra push you need to beat yesterday with Strava Live Segments. Strava Premium members can sync running and cycling segments to their 935 for live feedback during their activities. Also get alerts for segment starts and finishes, view leaderboard rankings, and see how your current effort compares to your PR. |
Customize and Connect
Forerunner 935 automatically syncs to Garmin Connect, our free online fitness community where you can review your progress and even share via social media. You can also customize your device with data fields, free watch faces from NUUN, and even apps like Uber and Accuweather, all available from Connect IQ.
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| Forerunner 935 | fenix 5 | Forerunner 735XT | Forerunner 920XT | |
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| Price | — | — | — | — |
| GPS/GLONASS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wi-Fi connectivity | ✓ | (Sapphire versions) | ✓ | |
| Smartphone notifications | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connect IQ app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wrist HR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Aerobic training effect | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Anaerobic training effect | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Training Status | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Training Load | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Weight | 49 g | 85 g | 40 g | 61 g |
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My HONEST Review of Garmin 935 Forerunner
Anton Komarov
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Customer Review: Excellent overall Value...
brian barnett
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Excellent overall Value...
I currently have a Suunto 7 and in my never ending quest to find an accurate swim watch, decided to give the Garmin forerunner 935 a try. I'll start out with the positives. The battery life is measured in days because of it's LCD? display. (it's not amoled). Overall, I like LCD a LOT better. The Garmin display really POPS in sunlight ! My Suunto 7 with it's bright display needs to be recharged every 1.5 days or so. It's also annoying that one has to "flick the wrist" to get the Suunto display to wake up. The Garmin display is always on, and I prefer to have that at the expense of screen brightness. I sometimes take 24 hour call shifts so I have to make sure to keep a charger at work or my Suunto smartwatch will become a decorative bracelet. As far as smart watch notifications, I really just use that feature to notify when someone texts me. It's not as easy to read as the Suunto, but then again I'm going to reach for my phone to reply anyways. So in practicality, no difference. I have used the 935 for cycling and it generates a nice map as you would expect from garmin or any modern smartphone. The Garmin connect software has power rating too, so I would imagine with the right setup, one could capture that data too but that's more than I need. What I found catchy is that the Garmin connect app includes all these achievement medals for a myriad of accomplishments. It sounds a little silly but I do find them motivating ! For instance, i received the "Climber 1" achievement for climb >500 ft on a ride. So now I'm thinking that I want to get Climber 2 (1000ft). I know this is beginning to sound like a trash the Suunto 7 review , but because the Garmin only needs one app to connect, it does so much more effortlessly than the Suunto. The Suunto 7 needs both google wear and Suunto app to connect which seems to require frequent re-boots to re-synchronize with my phone. One other thing I really like about the Garmin 935 is that it’s NOT a touchscreen. I prefer navigating with buttons, especially while swimming as water and touch screens are not good bedfellows. To be fair , the Suunto 7 also can be activated for workouts via touch or buttons. Okay, so now for the less than optimal. My primary means of exericse is ...swimming, which is the bugaboo of smartwatches. I have owned a SWIMMO which was specifically designed for swimming and also the aforementioned Suunto 7, which I still have. The SWIMMO was very limited in functionality and was inaccurate for it's one job it was intended for. My Suunto 7 would also frequently miscount laps, maybe one in four workouts would add or drop a few lengths. The pressure was on to see how the Garmin 935 would perform. To be fair, I did 1000meters just touching the wall and switching directions to test it's accuracy. it counted accurately under that condition. I chose a 1000M as to be long enough distance to see any miscounts. However, when I repeated 1000M with kick turns, the accuracy suffered a bit as I demonstrated in my video. However, sonce I did my initial review i have found that the Garmin performs as well as the Suunto 7 as far as accuracy in lap counting and my last couple workouts it has been spot on! So I may have been a little harsh in my initial assessment. (Nobody’s perfect) Overall, I really think the Garmin forerunner 935 is a great value and it is my everyday smartwatch that is almost always on my wrist now.picture:Garmin 935 on left, Suunto 7 for comparison
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2017
Awesome workout buddy and fitness tool. I've had this for about two weeks now, and it works flawlessly for running, biking and swimming. Huge upgrade from my old Garmin 910xt, which after many years finally bonked and started giving ridiculous elevation readings. This watch is lightweight, thin, and I find the wrist-based heartrate monitoring is really excellent; I've not yet paired it with my old chest strap and I probably won't need to. Downloadable and customizable watch faces and widgets make this even more fun and impressive. Auto-uploading works like a champ, no more heading to the computer to plug in the ANT stick after a workout; it auto-uploads activities through my phone using Garmin Connect, and also connects directly to my home wi-fi if my phone is off. Also a useful coach through sleep monitoring, and performance monitoring including training status, VO2 Max, recovery hours needed, weekly training load, and more. Also a good basic smartwatch with regard to receiving messages and alerts when in proximity of your phone, with apps available to extend functionality if you are into it. Finds and locks into satellites within seconds; battery life is astounding; full charge easily lasts more than a week.
I also invested in a glass screen protector, which not only protects the watch face but also makes it look a little nicer with a no-smudge glossy shine. Went on perfectly and gives me some peace of mind.
I also invested in a glass screen protector, which not only protects the watch face but also makes it look a little nicer with a no-smudge glossy shine. Went on perfectly and gives me some peace of mind.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2024
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017
1) I have had a Garmin GPS unit at my wrist from 2004 and, in particular, I went through the series 910XT and 920XT. Hence I claim that I know a thing or two about using GPS devices for sports.
2) I prefer the square format, but these days they seem to be all round and so no choice there. I just think that a square display provides, in general, a better organization of space. For instance when I cycle or skate I like to have the Distance, Time, Avg. Speed, Current Speed in one display and all the heart rate measurements on a second screen. As menus on this watch are organized by groups of 3, I find this less desirable.However, I found that the watch is easy to read and in that sense I would not complain. More recently, I found a third party software by Dozen Cycle and finally I was able to get more fields than just 3 on my display. Now I am satisfied. (See the second picture below). I just wish one could customize the display to have up to 8 fields on each individual display. Or 6, but 3 I find a little bit short of what I need.
3) It is light, much lighter than my 910XT and 920XT. I just hope that this "lightness" does not translate into less durability. The strap I really do not like. It irritates me if I wear as a watch. I did not have this problem with the 910XT and 920XT. The strap on the 935 is much softer than on the 910XT or 920XT as far as I can tell.
4) Sensors are fast to acquire signal. No problems with GPS signals so far and /or connecting to HRM and other devices.
5) Precision is as good as on my previous devices or better. Only things that surprises me a little bit is the calories consumption that on this device seem to be overall lower than on my 910XT that I used as a comparison (4 or 5 years apart, I thought, should show some differences).
6) I do not swim anymore so I have not tried it in water and I will not try it into water in the foreseeable future. So cannot comment on that. But, since the 910XT was already quite good in that sense, I am confident this is even better.
7) I learned how to use the 910XT and 920XTin a matter of 1 hour. The 935 has many more functions and menus and it took me quite a bit longer to learn the tricks I need. I found the manual (downloaded from Garmin's website) not very useful or, better, full of information, but not always quickly applicable. I learned more just by researching the internet under specific keys.
8) Connection with Garmin Express is fast and very reliable. So getting my workouts on Garmin Connect has been very easy
9) Battery time... So far (it is new) it looks great.. As a watch it can go many days in between charges. When I work out, I seem to find that 1 hour = 10% of charge, roughly
10) I connected to my Android, but I quickly disconnected it too. Why do I want the two to be connected? If I am going on a workout I tend to leave the phone in the car. I also use the watch for inline skating and falling on a bike or on skates is usually not good news for expensive smartphones.But I connected it to make sure that it works. Not difficult to do either after installing the proper application on my smartphone.
11) as a watch it is not bad at all and can be customize a fair amount (see my watch face below)
12) I was curious about the heart rate measurements without the strap and, overall, I found them very accurate. That is a pleasant plus even if I train with the HRM because I want to have more metrics to download and to study.
OVERALL. I am happy. These devices seem to get more and more expensive every iteration, but they also contain more and more functionalities. I guess that is the trend. I resisted buying the Fenix 5X even if the Fenix 5X is better looking, there is no doubt about that, and has a stronger feel and touch. But, I really know that I would never ever use the maps and I already have a nice mechanical watch that is 10x spiffier than the Fenix 5X, so the 935 hit my sweet spot between what I want and what I need. I would have preferred a device a little bit sturdier, but even if it is thinner than my previous devices, it is quite usable and I have no issues finding the buttons even while exercising. As I took one small tumble on skates, perhaps, I noticed that being thin is not so bad as during the fall it did not get scratched, which is not always the case with bulkier devices.
This device hits the sweet spot for me. I wish it were a little sturdier, but overall great features and functionalities.
Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017
I will not go into a technical review of the Garmin 935 GPS unit as there are already many available on internet and very detailed ones on YouTube. I will instead try to address some issues that I think are important to the average consumer. Mind that I gave 5-start rating and thus I like it, but still there are a few comments that I feel could be usefulReviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017
1) I have had a Garmin GPS unit at my wrist from 2004 and, in particular, I went through the series 910XT and 920XT. Hence I claim that I know a thing or two about using GPS devices for sports.
2) I prefer the square format, but these days they seem to be all round and so no choice there. I just think that a square display provides, in general, a better organization of space. For instance when I cycle or skate I like to have the Distance, Time, Avg. Speed, Current Speed in one display and all the heart rate measurements on a second screen. As menus on this watch are organized by groups of 3, I find this less desirable.However, I found that the watch is easy to read and in that sense I would not complain. More recently, I found a third party software by Dozen Cycle and finally I was able to get more fields than just 3 on my display. Now I am satisfied. (See the second picture below). I just wish one could customize the display to have up to 8 fields on each individual display. Or 6, but 3 I find a little bit short of what I need.
3) It is light, much lighter than my 910XT and 920XT. I just hope that this "lightness" does not translate into less durability. The strap I really do not like. It irritates me if I wear as a watch. I did not have this problem with the 910XT and 920XT. The strap on the 935 is much softer than on the 910XT or 920XT as far as I can tell.
4) Sensors are fast to acquire signal. No problems with GPS signals so far and /or connecting to HRM and other devices.
5) Precision is as good as on my previous devices or better. Only things that surprises me a little bit is the calories consumption that on this device seem to be overall lower than on my 910XT that I used as a comparison (4 or 5 years apart, I thought, should show some differences).
6) I do not swim anymore so I have not tried it in water and I will not try it into water in the foreseeable future. So cannot comment on that. But, since the 910XT was already quite good in that sense, I am confident this is even better.
7) I learned how to use the 910XT and 920XTin a matter of 1 hour. The 935 has many more functions and menus and it took me quite a bit longer to learn the tricks I need. I found the manual (downloaded from Garmin's website) not very useful or, better, full of information, but not always quickly applicable. I learned more just by researching the internet under specific keys.
8) Connection with Garmin Express is fast and very reliable. So getting my workouts on Garmin Connect has been very easy
9) Battery time... So far (it is new) it looks great.. As a watch it can go many days in between charges. When I work out, I seem to find that 1 hour = 10% of charge, roughly
10) I connected to my Android, but I quickly disconnected it too. Why do I want the two to be connected? If I am going on a workout I tend to leave the phone in the car. I also use the watch for inline skating and falling on a bike or on skates is usually not good news for expensive smartphones.But I connected it to make sure that it works. Not difficult to do either after installing the proper application on my smartphone.
11) as a watch it is not bad at all and can be customize a fair amount (see my watch face below)
12) I was curious about the heart rate measurements without the strap and, overall, I found them very accurate. That is a pleasant plus even if I train with the HRM because I want to have more metrics to download and to study.
OVERALL. I am happy. These devices seem to get more and more expensive every iteration, but they also contain more and more functionalities. I guess that is the trend. I resisted buying the Fenix 5X even if the Fenix 5X is better looking, there is no doubt about that, and has a stronger feel and touch. But, I really know that I would never ever use the maps and I already have a nice mechanical watch that is 10x spiffier than the Fenix 5X, so the 935 hit my sweet spot between what I want and what I need. I would have preferred a device a little bit sturdier, but even if it is thinner than my previous devices, it is quite usable and I have no issues finding the buttons even while exercising. As I took one small tumble on skates, perhaps, I noticed that being thin is not so bad as during the fall it did not get scratched, which is not always the case with bulkier devices.
Images in this review
