Jan 25 2012
Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS Only – GPS & Heart Rate Monitors – Discount Deal
Advertise Here
Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS Only – GPS & Heart Rate Monitors
The Garmin Forerunner 610 is Garmin’s top of the range running watch packed with all the features you need for those truly epic runs. The swipe and scroll action makes it easy to adjust settings and a quick tap of the screen is all it takes to advance to the next training page so you can see more data.The 610′s sleek design and touchscreen is as tough as it is functional, withstanding rain, splashes and sweat whilst also remaining sensitive enough even to use under gloves.The 610 provides accurate distance, pace, GPS position, calories and more. It can even guide you back to the starting point of your run, giving you the freedom to explore new routes and always find your way back.Virtual Racer lets you race your previous bests or challenge any activities uploaded to the Garmin Connect website or there’s Virtual Partner which lets you set a static pace to measure yourself against.Vibration alerts, which you can customize for time, distance, calories, heart rate or cadence. So you know when you reach your targets with out even having to look.Training Effect allows you to train in a smarter way, Training Effect measures the impact of an activity on your aerobic fitness, which essentially helps you train more efficiently. It calculates your heart rate and the difficulty of the activity based on your user profile allowing you to focus your training. Specifications: Display size 1.0″ (2.54 cm) diameterDisplay resolution: 128 x 128 pixelsTouchscreen: YesWeight: 2.54 oz (72 g)Battery: Rechargeable lithium-ion
Price:
Discount Deal
Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS Only – GPS & Heart Rate Monitors
Related posts:
Steven Brown
Jan 25, 2012 @ 09:55:07
Superb addition to the Garmin forerunner line,
I picked this up almost as soon as it came out, as been desperate from an upgrade from my forerunner 305. Avoided the 405 due to the huge amount of criticism on the bezel control format.
Did have to think twice about spending such an amount on a running watch, but I’m pleased to report I’ve very happy with my purchase.
My main reasons for upgrading from the Forerunner 305 were, firstly, the very slow GPS pickup. If I had moved a fair distance, and started running, it could easily take anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes to get satellite reception.
The 610, despite it’s far smaller size, blows this out of the water. My average time so far has probably been about 30 seconds. Often less, though more a couple of times – but never more than a minute.
Secondly was the battery on my 305. Would only take a few decent sized runs before recharging was required. The 610 can manage about 8 hours. From what I’ve read, this isn’t much better than a 405, but definitely better than my 305.
My worry on the 610 was the control mechanism. I was happy with the 305 controls, and the “improvement” on the 405 was regarded as a bit of a disaster.
The 610 has 3 hard buttons on the sizes (for power, start/stop, and lap/reset), everything else is touch screen. I’m finding it very useful. In particular, swiping between screen you’ve pre configured by tap or swiping is great, much better than the hard buttons on the 305.
I’ve not had any issues with rain/sweat affecting the connection between your finger at the screen either.
Other features I’m enjoying over the 305 -
- Wireless Sync. When the watch is on near the ANT USB stick, data automatically gets transferred (have tried on Windows and Mac, with success on both). really nice feature.
- Virtual Partner. This has changed from my 305. Partner used to be a virtual character from a previous run (which I thought was a great feature). This is now called Virtual Racer. Virtual Partner is now a pacer – set it to run at 8 minute miles, and you can see distance/time behind (or on a rare occasion, ahead
- Easy changing of data fields during activity. You don’t even have to preconfigure the screens – holding a data field will change the information available on that field.
In summary – a superb running watch. The only downside is that it is a pretty steep price. But if you’re doing a lot of miles, this great bit of kit is definitely worth the money.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Twiggy
Jan 25, 2012 @ 10:04:54
Excellent Device,
Before buying the 610, I used a Garmin FR60 (also excellent) together with iPhone apps to do GPS tracks of my runs. The data from both never quite matched up. I was hoping to integrate the FR60′s HRM and footpod with the the iPhone but didn’t have much success with the Wahoo dongle. I also found that the iPhone app GPS tracking was a little off, not very good at pace based coaching and risky to use in the rain. I wanted something that would combine the best of both devices and I was glad I had experimented with cheaper things first so that I knew what I was looking for. The lower end GPS Garmin models would have been a mistake for me.
I’ve been using the 610 for nearly two months now and I’m delighted with it.
I’ve found the GPS tracking much more accurate than the iPhone apps I tried. The pace based coaching features like custom workouts and virtual partner are very good. I also really like that you can make the watch vibrate to alert you instead of beeping.
My only slight criticism is that when using a custom workout you can’t simultaneously use the standard alerts. However, even had I known beforehand, it would not have changed my decision to buy. This limitation may even be addressed in future software releases.
Was this review helpful to you?
|shuffler
Jan 25, 2012 @ 10:06:06
disappointed !,
Sold my trusty Garmin 205 and bought the 610 as a little treat for myself but am very disappointed for one main reason – it has a fixed powersave function that switches out after between 1 and maybe 5minutes (on a good day) if you havent’t started running or keep running ! I like to be ready for a race, allowing the watch to pick up satellites which can still take a while and then wait for the start of the race – only to keep finding it switches out and then there is not enough time to sort itself out in time – if only I had known this before ! – Having just done a google search it seems that I am not alone in this annoyance, and despite also this being said on Garmin’s own forums that they have not responded or afddressed the issue with an adjustable or overide powersave feature ! It seems also that if you stop for a minute during a long run or maybe marathon/triathlon then it will kick out again ! It has put all the other (good I believe) functions in the shadows and I wish I hadn’t sold the old trusty watch. Don’t buy until this problem gets sorted !!! If/when it does I will come back on here and praise it, but only then, unless I dump it in the meantime.
Was this review helpful to you?
|