The Garmin Forerunner 235 was one of those products that I found last Fall, researched, stalked for months, and hoped it would be exactly what I wanted. If only I could find one for sale. Turn out, the best wife ever picked one up at the local running store and it landed under the Christmas tree.
So, after much anticipation, trial and error, and continuous tinkering, I've pretty much decided, it's almost perfect.
I wear it all day, every day. Tracks steps, monitors my heart rate, syncs wirelessly to my phone, and posts alerts. All things I expected. It also displays the time of day. Handy feature in a watch.
Garmin has an app store that allows you to download watch faces and features. After a week, I decided to try a new face, which added step count to the home screen. Turned out to be ok, but not what I wanted, so I tried to go back. What I learned was, the factory home screen is not saved on the watch or user profile. I can download any new screen I want, or switch among screens I downloaded. But the original screen is gone. Not to be outwitted by software, I did a factory reset, wiped everything, and went back to start.
The home screen does its job well. The resolution is nothing impressive, but saves battery life. Garmin kept this in mind with their graphics, something other designers didn't consider with their apps. When I'm at work, the lazy bar starts to grow along the left side of the watch. If I don't move, eventually, it buzzes and tells me to get off my butt. A short walk gets rid of the bar. It's a good reminder, but it only seems to come on the hour.
Another interesting feature is the step goal. Everyone seems to have gravitated to the magic 10,000 steps a day. Hey, at least it's a number. Garmin has a system that adapts to my step count, and adjusts that goal according to my recent history. It's a little more realistic, and personalized to what I actually do. I'm not sure if I could get it down to 1,000 steps by just loafing for a week, but I do know the more I walk, the higher the goal climbs each day.
Garmin steps do not equal an iPhone step. I can push Garmin steps to Apple Health, but have to turn off all other sources to prevent double counting. Not sure how to fix that, but it's not really a big deal, since I just keep the watch on all the time anyway.
The Garmin Connect app wirelessly syncs over BLE in a regular interval, or whenever I open it up. In the app, I can view my steps, runs, sleep patterns, and weight. In order to get my Withings scale to send weight to Garmin Connect, had to get the MyFitnessPal app in the middle. So much for data standards.
The big reason I wanted this watch was for the wrist-based heart rate monitor. No more chest strap to worry about. Have to say, I've had mixed results. I'm guessing my pulse at rest, sleep, and light activity is accurate. The watch only checks over some interval, but picks up when I move more. Once I start an activity, such as timing a run or at the gym, it seems to track continuously. I found it to be low while running, at least compared to my last watch, the Forerunner 210 with the chest strap. After a few miles, it seems to catch up to where I expect my heart rate to be, but I really need better accuracy, especially durning warmup. I've read it gets better over time, so I will keep trying. I've also worn it to the gym, with mixed results. Riding a bike, it matched the handlebar readers the whole time, but lifting weights, it dropped to what I thought has half my pulse and stayed at that level, consistently reading half my effort. Again, I really need to have a good number to keep an eye on my effort in whatever I'm doing.
In the Connect app, all day heart rate is buried under a few menus, but it is interesting to review. I almost wish I could tag the data points to recall what I was doing during certain spikes. Another gripe, Garmin heart rate does not sync to Apple Health, and I can't find a middle app to send it there.
The watch syncs with my phone to display whatever alerts pop up on my home screen. I can read texts, see who is calling, and any other alert I get. Turns out, I never minded all the alerts on my phone until they landed on my watch. I wish there was a way to select which ones buzzed to my wrist.
Battery life is good with me. Although it is waterproof, I clip it in the charger when I take a shower in the morning or after a run. This keeps the battery up all week. I do wish the cord were longer. It's about 24 inches. Not long enough to reach from a wall plug to a bedside table top.
The watch doesn't come with a full manual, but there is one available through Connect and online. Maybe I'll read it someday.
All in all, I like the device. I'm hoping the heart rate monitor function improves over time, and would love some developer to paste this number on a new home screen. I'll keep wearing it and keep on running.
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