Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood watch, but make sure you are buying for the right reasons
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016
My rating for this item is 3.5 stars. This was a great watch in many respects, but I ultimately decided to return. After wearing every day for 3 weeks and on multiple runs, here are my impressions for a few of the key features:
1. Look/feel - 5 stars
- I had actually tried a couple of the band-type models before this one. When my wife saw this one she immediately said "now THAT one looks good..". I'm a decent-sized guy (6'1, 190 lbs) but wrists are fairly narrow. The watch looks and feels great though. While the face is large, it's also thin (about 1/2"). Also, I haven't worn any watch in years and had concerns about whether I'd want to wear this one, but I've never worn one this comfortable. The band is rubber but it's very soft. I literally forget it's there. A couple of times the "run" button (top right section of watch) inadvertently got pushed, but not a big deal. I got the black and it looks masculine, and while certainly is not a dress watch, is something that can be worn in the office, which was important to me as I wanted something I could wear 24/7 for the tracking features. Although ultimately this is subjective, I think Garmin hit a home run here with the form factor.
2. Activity tracking
The unit allows you to track steps, sleep, and also links to My Fitness Pal for integration of consumed calories. I'll detail each below:
- Steps: 5 stars - Tracking for steps was dead on. After a run I actually counted about 75 steps in my head while at the same time monitoring the step count on the watch. It was pretty much dead-on. It also tracks distance traveled via steps, which is nice. Note that you can also pick up some "steps" from moving your arm around a lot, etc, but this is with all trackers, and the goal with these anyway is just to get an idea of whether you need to me more active, etc.
- Sleep: 3 stars - I really have no basis for comparing how this unit does versus other trackers, but I can describe how it works with the 235: You have the option to set up your typical "sleep hours". For example I set mine from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM. This is good because whatever time frame this is set for, you won't receive email/text alerts from your phone. When you wake up you'll see a display (on the Garmin Connect app) for "deep sleep", "light sleep", and "awake". Here's where the functionality is exposed though: When I put my four year old to bed at 8:30 and lay down with her as I read her a story, as far as the watch is concerned I've gone to bed. So the next morning it will show that I went to bed at around 8:30, then I "woke up" at about 9:00 when I left her room, then "light sleep" while I was reading from 9-10, and then finally a mix of "deep sleep" and light sleep until I get up the next morning. If I stay up to watch a movie (or other sedentary activity) from 9-11, same deal, will show as "light sleep", then there will be a pink line indicating that I was "awake" from 11-11:30 as I got ready for bed, etc. The good news is that the Garmin Connect app will allow you to manually edit the true sleep start and wake times, and then whatever is in the middle of that is actually fairly accurate. The disappointment I guess is that the heart rate monitor does not appear to have any relationship at all with sleep tracking, such as learning over time via your heart rate when you are dozing off, etc. It appears to be purely based on the accelerometer within the watch. Note that you can manually tell the watch when you are going to sleep, but who's going to remember to do this every night? Additionally, there's no feedback on the Garmin Connect app as to what Garmin is classifying as "light sleep" vs. "deep sleep". There's no feedback/coaching saying "hey you need to work on trying to get more deep sleep". It's just static data with questionable value.
- Intensity minutes: This is a weird one. Intensity minutes mean the number of minutes spent working out. Default goal is 150 per week. The first two weeks that I had the watch I had this feature. Then there was a firmware update a week ago and it went away. I emailed Garmin Support; in their first response they seemed quite confused about this and asked me for a screenshot and more data. A day later I got a second email saying that Intensity Minutes are not a feature of this watch. Hmmm; maybe it's something they removed? Dunno; ultimately not a huge deal to me, but just another example of the quirkiness of the software/firmware/Garmin quality control, which I'll detail more below.
3. Heart rate monitor: 3.5 stars
It is well-documented that the technology of wrist-based HRMs is still developing. I knew this going in. Since I'm not a "serious" athlete (i.e. I don't run marathons but am just trying to stay in shape, with 3-5 three/four-mile runs a week, some strength training, and some swimming) I do not require absolutely accuracy. I just kinda wanted a ballpark number to see how I'm doing (I also thought, incorrectly, that the watch might be able to "learn" more about me over time with the HRM, such as sleep times, etc). The HRM is actually pretty accurate most of the time. I've compared with manually taking my pulse as well as one of the pulse-taking apps that reads your forefinger. However, about 8 out of 10 times when I randomly decide to check my pulse on the watch, the display will show it up around 90-100 beats per minute (even when I've been at rest at my desk or whatever). Then within a second or two the display will drop to my normal range of 60-70 beats per minute. The problem is that when I look at the heart rate history on the Garmin Connect app, these heart rate spikes are sprinkled throughout my day. I emailed Garmin support about this but so far have not heard back; I will update this if I do hear back. Anyway, at the end of the day, I'm just asking myself how useful the data is when all these spikes are across the day. It does seem to be fairly accurate during workouts (which other professional reviews have concurred), so for actual training it is probably adequate (though not as accurate as a chest strap HRM). For my use though I personally just didn't see any value here, especially when my $3 iPhone app will do a better job of it anyway (also well-documented that HRM via fingertip is more accurate than wrist-based HRM).
4. Firmware/Software - 3 stars
- Watch: I used to be a product manager for a major software company, and in general I'm just a fairly organized dude. The menu structure they came up with on the watch is truly laughable. It just didn't have to be this hard. For some reason they use the same upper right button to access "Activities" such as running, etc as well as the main System settings, all the data fields, etc. Curiously however, on the main level of screens, where you can use the lower left buttons to cycle through the various data screens, there is another "system" sort of option here where you sync, etc. Why in the world they didn't put all "system control" related functions under one spot is baffling. There is a lot of great information within the watch, and over the last 3 weeks I've more or less memorized how to access it, but it still doesn't flow and I still have to think about it too much. Nothing a software update couldn't fix, but whether Garmin has the software developers, or the will, required to make these is another story (I just don't know). And by the way, the manual does not come in the box, only a "quick start guide". The manual online is fairly basic and not very detailed.
- Garmin Connect app: The app has a lot of great information. Again I think could be organized much better where it's more intuitive right off the bat, but within a day or two you know where to find most of the stuff you're looking for. No real problems here, but a similar story where something that's good could easily be made "great" with some tweaks.
6. Bluetooth syncing - 3
- I'm giving this it's own category. Everything you do on the watch ultimately syncs either to your smart phone (mine is an iPhone 5s) or the Garmin desktop app via the included sync/charging cable that comes with the unit (or both). The focus here will be on the Bluetooth sync to the phone. Sometimes it works gloriously, and sometimes it just sits there. I have no idea what the issues are, I can't figure out any trends or patterns as to why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Thankfully there is a manual sync option on the watch itself, which requires four button pushes to access (which are now burned into my memory). Has synced every single time with this method. Also once you sync via this method, the watch/app typically begin to sync automatically again with no issues. It's as if this function has to wake everybody up or sometime. Not a huge deal but as with the software in general it just feels beta and half-baked.
7. Smart notifications - 5
This all works beautifully. Note that for this to work your phone has to be close; you can't leave your phone at home and go on a run thinking you'll be getting notifications as you go (but who cares anyway). Where the unit shines is when you're driving or in a meeting or whatever. I love it and it's all the "smart watch" that I need; I have no desire to respond to text/emails from a watch face. Also something that has been great is the ability to set a silent alarm; so on days that I have to catch an early flight, go to the gym or whatever I won't wake up my wife.
8. GPS - 5 stars
Garmin really hits a home run here. I live in Houston (if that even matters) and the watch picks up the GPS in no time (within 5-10 seconds). Also very accurate. For example, after one of my runs, during the cool down I decided to play around and just walk from one side of the street to the other and back. When I went to the Garmin Connect app (where you are able to view the map of your runs) I could see that it actually tracked me going across the street.
9. Activities - 5 stars
This is a run-centric watch, NOT a multi-sport watch, and for running it is outstanding. It has four Activity profiles: Run Outdoor, Run Indoor, Cycle, and Other. So if you are doing a sport that is not running or cycling, you can use "Other" and then change the name of it later in Garmin Connect (Weightlifting, swimming, whatever). Note however that this is not a swimming watch so won't track laps, etc, but will at least let you log the sport you did as an Activity. The running is where it truly shines though. I won't go into all the details as they are well-documented in other reviews.
10. Battery life is superb. I got about 6-7 days between charges, with gps being activated about 3 times per week for workout.
Summary:
I think you need to know why you are buying this watch. If you are more than a casual runner and like the idea of ditching the chest strap, I think this would be a great option for you to try. Truly, this is Garmin's traditional niche and where they shine. Where I think this watch falls short is that it is also trying to bridge towards those wanting activity tracking but who may or may not be hard core runners. To be successful here I think they need to clean up the software quite a bit. Just make the menu system more intuitive, and make the Bluetooth syncing work. They could also bone up on the sleep tracking; if nothing else just provide some explanation on how they are qualifying "light sleep" and "deep sleep", and some feedback on whether or not you are getting enough "deep sleep", or not..
My goal was to find a normal-looking, 24/7 wearable watch that put activity/fitness ahead of the gimmicky Apple Watch sort of "smartwatch" features. The 235 was the closest I've found, and if it was $250 I'd probably keep it. It looks great and is very comfortable. The GPS/running, step counter, and notifications are outstanding. And despite the serious shortcomings of the software, it is not so severe that I can't live with it. For me the issue comes to a simple cost vs. value decision. For $329 ($357 with taxes) I expect a watch to be slick and do everything really well. However, at this juncture there is too much of this product where either I don't see the value (heart rate data with false spikes throughout) or just feels like it's still in beta mode (software, Bluetooth syncing). I give it a solid 3.5 stars. I may circle back to the Garmin Forerunner 230 model (which is the same but with no wrist-based HRM), but am going to evaluate Ambit and Polar models first.
