It’s been almost exactly a month since Garmin announced their lineup of fall running watches, including three new units: The Forerunner 230, 235, and 630. Each of those units replacing previous iterations of the FR220, 225, and 620. The FR230 and FR235 were unique though in that this time around they got pretty significant feature updates, bringing them far more in line with the FR620 of yesteryear, than other mid-range watches. Meanwhile, the FR235 also got a new optical sensor – this one developed fully in-house by Garmin.
This review will focus on the FR230 & FR235. While next week I’ll publish a review of the FR630. The only difference between the FR230 and FR235 is the optical sensor in the FR235 – that’s it. All other baseline features are the same.
For this review I was sent both a FR230 and FR235 to borrow from Garmin. Both are final production units, and this review is based on final production firmware (3.10+). After this review, I’ll be sending back all the demo units as usual to Garmin and getting my own – just the way I roll.
With that intro out of the way, let’s dive into things.
Unboxing:
Since this is a dual FR230 & FR235 product review, it would mean I have two boxes and thus two unboxing sections. However, in this case I’m temporarily going to provide you with a FR230 unboxing, and then follow-up with the official FR235 unboxing photos at a slightly later date (a week or so). The reason being simple: The FR230 arrived boxed, while the FR235 (final production unit) arrived naked in order to get it to me quicker. Don’t worry, it’s the same unit you have.
As for the differences between the two – well, one includes a HR strap (if on bundle) and one doesn’t…and the end. But let’s start at the beginning, with the box:
Once we crack it open we’ll find this small assortment of goodness worth of parts:
Removing the plastic, we get this:
Ultimately, that comes down to four things: The FR230, the FR230 charger, the HRM4 heart rate strap, and some paper manual stuff.
The charging cable used on the FR230 is the same as on the FR235 and FR630. It is not compatible with any other Garmin units (I tried, really, don’t do it – bad things happen due to the pins being different).
For the HR strap, note that it’s only included on the FR230 bundle including the heart rate strap. If you buy a FR235 you won’t get one (you’ll get an optical sensor). And if you buy just the base FR230 – again, no strap. In any case, here’s the strap (HRM4):
The above strap does NOT have Running Dynamics (that’s the HRM-RUN & HRM-TRI). It doesn’t matter though what strap you pair to the FR230/FR235, it won’t read Running Dynamics data from it.
Next we’ve got the unit itself, first the FR230:
Then the FR235 with it. The easiest way to tell my two units apart is that the black FR230 has a white trim, whereas the black FR235 lacks such trim.
With everything unboxed, let’s compare sizes.
Weight & Size Comparisons:
Next, let’s take a look at the weight. The FR230 & FR235 are very similar in weight, only 1g apart! The FR230 weighs 41g, and the FR235 weighs 42g.
If you compare that to the TomTom Spark, it weighs in at 47g (depending on band):
Next, here’s a side-profile view of many modern GPS running watches on the market. From left to right we’ve got:
From left to right: Garmin Epix, Garmin FR920XT, Suunto Traverse, Suunto Ambit3 Peak, Polar V800, Garmin FR225, Garmin FR630, Garmin FR235, TomTom Spark, Garmin FR25.
So basically, I’ve pretty much showed what we already knew – the FR235 is a super-slim GPS running watch that doesn’t weigh much.
Running:
To start a run, you’ll press the power button once, which triggers a screen enabling you to select an activity profile (note though, in this most recent public beta, this behavior changes slightly to minimize one of these steps). It’s here that you’ll select to Run outdoors or indoors:
Note that on the FR230/235, you get four activity profiles: Run Indoors, Run Outdoors, Bike Outdoors, and ‘Other’. On the FR230/235 you cannot rename these profiles, or create new ones. On the FR630 however, you can create your own.
Once you’ve selected one, the unit goes off and finds satellite coverage. In most cases, if you’ve been in the same spot as previous and downloaded the satellite cache (happens automatically with the Garmin Connect and Garmin Express apps), this usually takes under 15 seconds.
Once that’s done, it’ll bring you to the main data page (you can still see satellite status up top until you start).
These data pages are totally customizable, with up to four data fields each.
You get a bunch of pages, some tweakable, some not. Here’s the rundown:
Customizable Data Page 1 (1-4 fields)
Customizable Data Page 2 (1-4 fields)
Heart Rate Screen (Split: HR bpm & HR zone)
HR Zone Gauge (a little gauge of your HR)
Clock Page (current date/time)
Each of these can be enabled/disabled as you see fit. Here’s what they all look like:
As far as sensors goes, the FR230 & FR235 both support connecting to ANT+ heart rate sensors, ANT+ footpods, and ANT+ cycling speed/cadence sensors (more on the bike stuff later). For the FR235, you can choose whether to use the internal sensor, or an external HR sensor. Note however, that at present the footpod is really only useful for indoors, and not outdoors – since you can’t select to use it for pace outdoors.
With that all set, let’s start the run. At this point, the unit will show you current pace from GPS as well as distance and any other metrics you choose.
The unit includes basics like Auto Pause (which pauses the watch recording when you stop at a traffic light), Auto Lap (to automatically create laps at a distance of your choosing), and alerts. Standard alerts can be configured for Time, Pace, Distance, Calories, Heart Rate, or Run/Walk. Additionally, you can create custom alerts to remind you to Drink, Eat, Turn Around, or ‘Go Home’. These custom ones essentially work on a time/distance parameter – such as ‘every 10 minutes drink’, or ‘go home after 30 mins’.
In the event you want to do a custom workout, you’ve got a few options. One way is to create a workout on Garmin Connect (using a desktop computer), and then transfer it to the watch using either USB or your phone. In this case, you can create complex custom workouts like the below:
Additionally, you can also create an interval workout using a more simplified interval option on the unit itself. This allows you to program various steps in without too much complexity:
Now for the most part all of this stuff I’ve talked about to date is standard stuff for Garmin running units.
Where it starts to get interesting is new features like the ‘Finish Time’ estimator. This feature will automatically estimate how much time you have remaining until you hit a goal distance (such as 5K, 10K, etc…). You can enter a custom distance in as well as standard ones, using miles or kilometers. It’ll simply figure out what your estimated time of completion is based on how fast you’re running thus far.
Next, we’ve got some post-run metrics. The FR230 & FR235 both support VO2Max, even using the optical sensor (a rarity in the industry). In this case, the unit will give you a VO2Max value after each run (if it changes). It’ll also plot this online. Right now the FR235 estimates my VO2Max at 55, which is a touch bit below where I’ve had it measured previously. However, at the same time, the FR630 is measuring it also at 55 right now. Note though that historically these features can take many weeks – specifically of harder runs – to even out on the watch as it learns from you.
Similarly, I’ve been doing tests using a FR230 and FR630 with HR straps, while also using the FR235 with the optical sensor – looking at recovery time. IN most cases, they’re within an hour of each other (even if I think they’re a bit high overall).
Additionally, post-workout you’ll also get a TE (Training Effect) score too, if you look at the summary information:
Again, this is also listed online too on the Garmin Connect page (different run below):
So what about GPS accuracy? So far so good. You’ve got two options when it comes to GPS, one is to use just the default GPS option, and the second is to enable GLONASS. Doing so would take a slight hit on battery (usually about 20%). For me, I’m OK with that. I’ve been doing a bunch of runs in/around the city (and in snowy weather), without seeing any real issues. For example, here’s going right along buildings without any GPS variance:
Here’s an example from actually earlier tonight where four GPS watches all slightly struggled through just one 100m section of the run – though the FR235 and Ambit3 tracked the least problematic until the turn, though then temporarily seemed offset for another 100m across the bridge before joining back up. To be fair, this is one of the hardest little sections of roadway I have around my home, since it’s a tiny road between two sets of tall buildings.
The rest of the run was largely spot-on between the units, or within a meter or two of each other.
If you’d like to look at a few different GPS track comparisons, I’ve made a small table to allow you to dive into them below, using comparisons as well:
(Table to be uploaded Thursday Nov 27th, though files available now here)
Again, I’m not seeing anything that sticks out as concerning here (I’m also not doing a lot of trail running either right now, so if that’s more your thing you may need to wait and see what others say).
Finally, note one exciting feature on both the FR230 & FR235 is the ability to enable 1-second recording, as opposed to smart recording. That’ll help make your tracks look smoother (even if the distance under the hood is still theoretically the same). You can enable that in the settings menu.
Cycling:
Next, the Garmin FR230 & FR235 has a cycling mode that supports ANT+ Speed/Cadence sensors. This means that you can pair it to any ANT+ Speed-only, Cadence-only, or Speed/Cadence combo sensor. It does not support Bluetooth Smart sensors (of any type).
I’m not going to spend a huge amount of time in this section because it’s primarily a running watch, not a cycling watch.
The main use for a cycling mode on the FR230/235 is simply that it categorizes your rides correctly for upload to Garmin Connect. This ensures things like PR’s (Personal Records) aren’t all dorked up on the running front, from cycling activities (such as fastest 5K times).
In my riding with the FR235, it works just fine as a record-keeper of where you rode. Both it and the multiple Edge units came up with near identical GPS results:
FR235: 25.61mi
Edge 520 #1: 25.66mi
Edge 520 #2: 25.63mi
Edge 520 #3: 25.68mi
Edge 810: 25.54mi
And afterwards, if you look on Garmin Connect, you’ll get speed/cadence data as you’d expect from any other Garmin device. This also includes speed, heart rate, distance and a map of where you went (here’s a link to one of my activities):
Note that for HR accuracy on the FR235 using the optical sensor, see my optical sensor accuracy section a bit a later in the post.
Finally, note that there’s a wee bit of confusion regarding whether or not there is or is not an Indoor Cycling mode on the FR230/235. I’ve discussed this in my ‘Bugs, Quirks & Tidbits’ section at the end of the review. If things change there – I’ll note that here as well. Failing changes there, you can always just turn off the GPS to use the unit indoors.
The FR235 Optical Sensor – Background & Rebroadcasting:
Without question the most important difference between the FR230 and FR235 is the optical heart rate sensor stuffed into the back of the FR235. This would mark Garmin’s 3rd product with an optical sensor, following the Forerunner 225 earlier this summer, and the Vivosmart HR (announced just a few days from the FR235).
In the case of the FR225, it leveraged an optical sensor package licensed from Mio. Whereas for the FR235 and Vivosmart HR, Garmin decided to make their own optical sensor, which they’ve branded ‘Elevate’. While the sensors between the FR235 and Vivosmart HR are similar, there are subtle differences to the surrounding units – making performance quite different.
Anytime a company introduces their own optical HR sensor, I shudder. Because the vast majority of companies screw it up, or don’t spend sufficient time testing. This is even more true in the athletic space (versus just resting HR sensors). Thus, it’s probably the most important thing I tested in the FR235, and where I spent the majority of my time digging into results.
The sensor includes three green LED’s, which record not just workouts but 24×7 HR as well. In that mode, the unit samples at a variable rate dependent on what you’re doing. More activity means more HR data, while less activity means it reduces the HR sampling to save battery life. Meanwhile, in workout mode it records data at industry standard once per second (1s).
This HR is displayed just like it would be from a HR strap. Once you’re in an activity, there’s no difference there:
Further, outside of the workout mode as noted the unit is continually sampling your HR dependent on activity. But I dive into this more during the ‘Activity Tracker’ section a bit later.
Lastly, the FR235 can have its HR signal ‘rebroadcasted’ to other ANT+ capable devices. The unit rebroadcasts the HR over ANT+, identically to that of a heart rate strap. In effect, it turns your FR235 into a HR sensor for other devices – such as a Garmin Edge or a Recon Jet HUD unit. It does NOT broadcast your HR over Bluetooth Smart.
To enable this, you’ll start from the main time page and press down till you see this HR page:
Then, you’ll HOLD the up button down for a few seconds, which gives you this little nugget:
After selecting it, you’ll see your HR and time broadcast for all the world to pickup:
If you wander to another device – like an Edge series one, you can search for the HR signal and find it. And then boom – HR on the Edge, from the FR235:
Note that in this mode you cannot start an activity. It’s only offered as a standalone option, which kinda makes sense. It’s sorta silly to record two activities of the same type to Garmin Connect. Though, I’m sure there’s edge cases that make sense too – such as the Recon Jet example where you want to record your bike ride on the FR235, while also getting HR up to the Recon Platform. Hopefully they’ll look at allowing/enabling a broadcast mode during a recorded workout as well.
As for signal strength, I haven’t seen any dropouts when using it on my wrist, paired to an Edge cycling computer on my bike (a relatively short distance). Additionally, in looking at signal strength as measured by a NPE WASP unit, things look on-par with a Garmin HRM4 Both were at the same distance from the WASP (which was on my handlebars), with one measuring –32db (HRM4) and one at –28db (FR235). The numbers are displayed negative, the closer to zero the better. Of course, even just moving an inch or two causes the numbers to fluctuate a bit – so don’t overthink the slight difference there – it’s just where the pic was taken.
For fun, I then put the WASP module outside the room and half-way up the stairs, to see how well it’d pick up things. Sure enough, no problems with either displaying (now at –52 & –46):
I haven’t done as much with re-broadcasting as just native recording though in my testing, so it’s possible there’s some edge case I haven’t hit yet. Still, things look positive there from a functionality perspective. Of course, whether or not the data is terribly useful (i.e. accurate) in cycling is a totally different matter.
The FR235 Optical Sensor – Workout Accuracy:
Now that we’ve got the optical sensor background pieces out of the way, let’s dive straight into accuracy testing. Because honestly, that’s all most of you care about anyway. For accuracy testing I’ve been using a production unit on production firmware for the past 2-3 weeks, with near-daily workouts of both cycling and running. I have not yet tried it swimming (since it’s not a swimming watch).
In my case, my testing setup is pretty straightforward, I’ve got the following on most activities:
A) Garmin FR235 (Optical HR Sensor) – Right Wrist
B) TomTom Spark or Polar A360 (Optical HR Sensors) – Left Wrist
C) Garmin HRM-TRI & HRM-RUNv2 HR Chest Straps (Upper chest)
D) Stryd Power & HR Chest Strap (Lower Chest)
E) Scosche Rhythm+ Optical HR Sensor (Upper right arm)
Note, in the above test I’m careful to not put two optical HR sensors on the same wrist area. This can impact accuracy adversely for some sensors – so I don’t want to impact results adversely that wouldn’t otherwise be normal.
For data collection, the three non-wrist-worn units were funneled to a variety of FR920XT, Suunto Ambit3, and FR630 units that I usually wore in a SPIBELT. These were purely there for HR data collection, and not GPS accuracy data. In the case of cycling, most of the data was instead funneled to Garmin Edge units for record-keeping. Finally, all of this data is available at the end of the post for your own poking.
Ok, enough talk – let’s walk through results. First up is a hill repeat session I did back a few weeks ago.
Below is the key for the above. Note, those are not averages, but just wherever my curser was at that time. What you see above is that things track very well for Mr. Purple (the FR235). The brief issue you see at the start with the Scosche is because the strap caught/pulled loose on my clothing and I had to fix it while running – so it was flapping around.
The only issue you see on the Garmin FR235 side is some delay on the HR recovery as I ran down a hill. You see a small hint of this again later in the run too. But otherwise, it’s pretty much locked on the other units.
Next, let’s look at another hill repeat session I did – this one up in northern Finland in the snow. I’ll let you take this in for a second.
So yeah. Basically, what you see is that things are all good on the Garmin FR235 front until the recovery of each hill repeat (the part where I run downhill). So the FR235 nails the plot on the rise, but stumbles on the recovery. This particular hill was steep, and I was running in YakTraxs on ice, which meant that my stride rate actually increased a bit. What do we see then? The FR235 locks onto that instead of HR. In order to ‘reset’ it I basically stopped walking before starting my next repeat, which you see does the trick.
Now for fun, I then did a 10-minute sustained tempo portion after that. The unit tracks beautifully there – really nailing it.
So, to test my theory about the hill, the short hill from the main road down to our little snowy cabin was also equally steep. Sure enough, it did the exact same thing there when I ran the same way down it.
Now what’s interesting, is that in a later run down the same hill (you’ll see it two examples from now), I ran down the hill faster – so with a longer stride. That’s because I wasn’t in the recovery portion of an interval. When I had that longer/more natural stride – it had no problems. Just like it didn’t really have any major problems on my other hill repeats before in Paris.
Next, let’s look at a ‘simple’ run. This was basically just me wandering along at an easy Z2 pace, with a clean build. I finished with some short sprints. As you see here, the FR235 is kinda really ‘sharp’, as in, jagged.
Here, let me zoom in a bit to explain. See how generally smooth the red & green lines are? Then look at the teal FR235 line (or the TomTom Spark line) – they’re much more variable.
Still, despite that – it’s generally quite close most of the time – so for the above run, I’m content with the results, even if a tiny bit more variable (which they likely can easily address).
Next, let’s look at a run I did tonight. If I had to give this run a name, it’d basically be a “Let’s Hose It Up” test run. Essentially, optical sensors usually have issues with hard and fast pace changes. So after a short warm-up, I basically did some all-out chunks for 1-2 minutes. The average pace for these sections was about 5:35/mile (3:28/km).
During the warm-up, all four units tracked fairly well. However, what you see is the first and second intervals throw the Scosche for a loop, but also confused the Garmin FR235 too. The HRM4 and HRM-TRI had no problems tracking identically.
The third interval though the Scosche got the plot, but the FR235 struggled until about half-way through. Then finally, after that it got all happy and tracked the rest of the run quite nice. This could be simply because it took that long to get blood-flow up enough on a cooler evening for the optical sensors to catch-up. Yet, I didn’t tend to see such issues in the Arctic. The question is how often you do all-out intervals, and would it matter? As you’ll see in a moment, when I did those all-out sprint sections later in the run after more warm-up, it handled quite nicely.
Here’s my final Arctic run. In this case I basically warmed up nice and easy and kept it steady for about 30 minutes. Then I made for a hard run up a steep hill, before recovering briefly. From there, I did 30×30’s (30-seconds hard sprint, 30 seconds walk). A great way to test/look at recovery.
The guide for this in blue is actually both Scosche & FR235 (colors were auto-picked unfortunately), though thankfully it didn’t matter on this graph. The green is the Polar A360, and the red is the HRM-RUNv2 strap. Not that the colors matter, the FR235 nailed this easily. Not sure what the A360 was doing.
Here’s a closer look at the 30/30 portion. Again, green is the Polar A360, the others are the HRM-RUN HR strap, the Garmin FR235, and the Scosche Rhythm+ optical.
Very solid on that, despite the cold weather and the watch being partially exposed.
Next, on cycling. It’s outdoors that’s challenging for optical sensors on the wrist. This is because you’re ‘straining’ your wrist gripping the handlebars, and then any road vibrations nail the watch. And sure enough, it’s hard on the FR235 (sorta like I saw on the TomTom Spark sensor). It did better than the TomTom, but it’s super-jumpy. For example, in the below data plot I even added a 3s smoothing to it, just to make it easier to find the two lines given how jumpy it was. Here, compare before and after smoothing:
Before graph smoothing:
After smoothing:
What you notice is that while it gets the general concept if you’re looking at it from 50,000ft. But as you zoom in you realize there’s just a lot of cases where it doesn’t track quite as fast, or is much more variable, for example these sprints (this is showing some 12 minutes of time too!). That’s examples where things are dramatically different for 20-30 seconds at a time.
So where does that leave things overall? First off, keep in mind I usually use these sections to highlight ‘problem children’ sections, yet the vast majority of the run was otherwise fine.
So for the running side I’m giving it a very similar grade right now to that of the TomTom Spark: B+. There are cases where both units trip-up a bit. In most cases, those aren’t deal breakers, but I expect/hope that Garmin can tweak them over the coming months as they get more familiar with their own tech and the nuances. Some of the issues I had weren’t totally reproducible (for example, the downhill section on one of those hill repeats – but not other hill repeats). I probably wouldn’t use the FR235 as my primary HR sensor for cycling right now though – that’s just a bit too rough.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy sections were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well, more details here.)
Activity Tracker:
Like all recent Garmin wearables, the FR230/FR235 acts as an activity tracker as well. This means it’ll track your steps, calories, distance walked, and sleep. The functionality on the FR230/FR235 in these core areas is basically the same as other Garmin devices. So for example, you can tap down twice to get to the activity tracker widget page:
This shows your total steps for the day, progress towards a goal, as well as distance and calories.
Additionally, see the red bar above? That’s the move bar – or basically the lazy bar. If that bar is filled up it means that you haven’t moved in an hour. Your goal in life is to keep that move bar from chirping at you at the end of the hour. You’ll do this by walking approximately 100m over the course of that time period. You can turn off the inactivity alerts if you’d like.
Next, you’ve got sleep metrics, which occur automatically with the FR230/235. You fall asleep, it records it. Garmin has made good strides over the past year in this area, adding much more depth than it did in the past. The only thing you’ll need to set (which happens automatically when you pair the watch to your phone) is the estimated sleep times. I just set mine randomly to 2AM-7AM, but from what I’ve seen it has no impact on the unit’s ability to estimate sleep. You don’t manually trigger it on the watch anymore. Instead, afterwards on Garmin Connect you’ll see sleep metrics:
Finally, on the FR235-only, you’ve got the ability to display and record 24×7 heart rate – more commonly called continuous HR. The main benefit of this (aside from geek factor) is to track resting HR.
You can access your instant/continuous HR anytime you’d like by just tapping the down button once, which shows this page:
On the upper left you’ll see your current HR, while on the upper right you’ve got your resting HR for the day. Along the bottom is a graph for the last four hours, plus the high/lows during that time period.
The unit doesn’t sample or record this data at a straight rate of X times per minute/hour/etc, but rather does so variably, based on activity. You’ll notice that if you’re sitting still, it’ll sample far less often than if you’re up walking around. You can see this below where this morning I was sitting uninterrupted from roughly 8:45AM till 10:25AM (after riding cross-town round 8:25AM), so much so that there’s a few gaps in there where it didn’t sample at all. Yet as soon as I moved about – such as going for a short break/walk at 10:25AM, or my pedal home at 12:15PM, it shows more variability:
Back on the watch, you can also show your 7-day resting HR averages, which is (in my opinion) one of the best ways to see if you’re about to struggle in training.
For example, I know my resting HR numbers well enough to know that if they rise above about 44-46bpm, I’m probably about to get sick – or having trouble recovering from travel. In the 50-52bpm range, I start to see my workouts diminish. Though oddly, some days appear to be missing from GC, despite showing up on the watch.
Of course, every person is different here. My resting HR is very low – 39-41BPM is the norm for me, and these numbers align quite nicely with what multiple other devices have shown for me in the past (including just simple HR straps for testing these values).
Again, the continuous HR options are only found on the FR235 and not on the FR230. You CANNOT pair another HR sensor to the FR230 to try and get the same features – no such pairing option exists. It’s only with the optical sensor.
Oh – one final interesting tidbit, you can indeed wear the watch while charging it at the same time, such as this:
It might be a bit finicky to do this while running since the clamp design isn’t super-secure, but it would probably work if you were careful about how you arranged it. The unit DOES record during GPS activities while plugged into a USB battery pack. It does NOT record if plugged into a computer. Additionally, it does NOT record continuous HR while plugged in (likely because that lets in too much light).
Smartphone Notifications & Connect IQ Support:
Like activity tracking, smartphone notifications and Connect IQ support is present on most Garmin wearables these days – and the FR230 & FR235 is no exception. In fact, this is probably one of the biggest changes from the FR220/FR225 – since it lacks these features.
To start, on smartphone notifications the unit uses the standard notification control panels from iOS and Android. So any notifications you setup on those devices are piped to the FR230/FR235. They’ll show up instantly on your watch, vibrating or beeping depending on what you’ve selected.
You can dismiss these notifications or open them up for more detail.
Further, you can access existing notifications through the widgets menu, in case you want to catch-up on previously displayed ones.
Notifications do NOT require the Garmin Connect app be open. However, for some other smartphone features like accessing your calendar, showing the weather, finding your phone, or syncing data, that does require the Garmin Connect app be open somewhere in the background of your phone. Here’s shots from all of those pages:
On the notifications front, I haven’t had any problems with the unit ‘forgetting’ my phone – it’s been working great the last few weeks for me. I’m not sure if that’s improvements in the Bluetooth stack on the iPhone, improvements from the Garmin side on the device, or just plain luck. But either way – I’m happy.
Next, we’ve got Connect IQ. This allows you to download various widgets, watch faces, data fields, and apps to your FR230/235. This in turn enables 3rd party developers to create things/apps for your watch that can extend/replace functionality of the device. I talk a ton more about that in these posts here.
In my testing, I tend to keep things fairly vanilla during the initial period (sans-Connect IQ), so in the event something goes wrong, I know it’s definitely a Garmin problem versus an app problem.
Backlight and Display:
[New Section] There’s been a few questions and comments on the backlight and the display, both here after posting the review and on the Garmin Forums. So, I figured I’d take a few photos and give my thoughts.
First, remember that anytime you see photos of watch backlights – the exact luminosity of that display really comes down to the photographer. I can make any display look as bright or poor as I want merely by changing settings on the camera. That said, typically I just leave the settings largely on automatic. In this case, the only thing I tweaked after the fact in Lightroom was the white balance of the photo (in total) to get rid of the yellow glow. That’s it.
First, the photo you see above is all three watches (FR230, FR235, FR630), simply with their backlights enabled. On one of the units I put it at the pending/watch display screen. This means that it has white text on a black background. The other two are on usual mid-run screens with data fields.
Below is the same three watches, this time all lined up and all in running mode. From left to right they are: FR235, FR630, FR230
Note, I’ve seen some photos/videos of folks posting pictures of a backlight of various units during daylight – I’m not sure I totally understand the point there to be honest. Said differently: Try it in the dark, you know, where the light is for.
Finally, I zoomed back and took another photo, this time adding in a Garmin Fenix3 for comparison. As you can see, it’s brighter – so much so that it ‘blows out’ from a brightness standpoint. The rest of the photo is brighter than the others because there’s simply more light in the photo for the sensor to capture.
So is it bright enough to run with? Yes, absolutely. Approximately 80-90% of my runs with the unit were in the dark. It’s just that time of year for running.
Is it as bright as the Fenix3, or even the FR620? No. But it also doesn’t matter. It’s perfectly readable, and those watches are what I’d describe as ‘excessively bright’. Yes, it can be nice to have such a bright display if you’re trying to use it as a flashlight, but when I’m running, there’s no tangible benefit to that extra brightness. I can see the display just fine with the current brightness state. Some would even argue it makes it harder to see the text.
Of course, any brightness comparisons can be a personal thing and differ from person to person, but it’s not really something that bothers me on any of these units.
Bugs, Quirks, and Oddities
The FR230 & FR235 aren’t without their oddities. Most of these are fairly subtle, yet others are more concerning. Here’s a round-up of where things stand. If/when these get addressed, I’ll note it accordingly:
– FR235 Battery Life: It’s bad. Really bad. It’s about 2-2.5 days for me, using the optical HR sensor on its usual continuous mode (24×7). It’s supposed to be 9-11 days. Garmin says they’re aware of the issues and are working on it, with hopes to issue a firmware update in a few weeks. I’m sorta realistic though that something will have to give here – such as reduced sampling rates. Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, but it’s a pretty big jump to increase battery life 4x over what’s there today without any negative impacts. Note: For some users, they are seeing more like 5-7 days.
– FR235 optical HR is a bit…jaggy: For lack of better term, perhaps spikey, the optical HR signal seems to be a bit non-smoothed. It’s rare that I ask for something to have more smoothing, but it seems like that might be called for here. I’m sure there are other ways they can address it, but it’s just a touch bit too variable. This isn’t a deal breaker right now, but is something they should address.
– FR235 optical HR quirks with fast pace shifts and some hill sections: As noted in the accuracy section.
– Currently within structured workouts (those that you create online and download to your watch), the unit fails to alert on pace based sections of a custom workout (high/low alerts). Fixed in firmware update on Feb 25th, 2016
– A few minor quirks, such as if you power off the unit temporarily (i.e. to reboot), it’ll actually fail to show the 4hr continuous HR graph upon powering back up (such as faintly seen in the background of the bug photo above).
Next, is the curious case of the indoor bike mode. This appears to be available on some people’s units, yet not other units. When I asked Garmin about this yesterday, they said it wasn’t a feature they planned on offering – yet it’s clearly on existing production units shipped to real customers. Oddly enough, my unit doesn’t have it as an activity profile I can enable (simply missing). I’ve re-checked in again today asking them to provide some clarification.
This mode was simply just like the outdoor cycling mode, but indoors. The only real purpose here is to automatically categorize the workouts on Garmin Connect as indoor cycling. You can otherwise replicate the same functionality by just turning off the GPS in cycling mode. Still, it has some benefit (and matches functionality seen on cheaper watches from TomTom and Polar).
Finally, we get to one particularly sore point – which is Garmin’s inability to get their specifications correct on their own website. Since announcement, the Garmin has listed Virtual Racer as a feature on the FR230/235. Yet, it’s not present. When I asked Garmin about this yesterday morning, they noted it was a mistake and would be removed shortly. As of this morning, it was still present.
Now, you may think this would be a minor mistake if not for the fact that it’s been there a month! Further, if this had been the first instance of it occurring, I’d be less concerned. But almost every product Garmin has released in the last year has had Garmin.com specifications errors that takes days to weeks to clean up. Quite honestly, this isn’t very hard. All they have to do is have a short meeting in a conference room with the web content folks and the product team folks and just scroll down the page and triple-check everything. It would take perhaps 10-15 mins to go through all 3-4 pages.
So yes, this is a clear ‘calling them out’ moment on repeated errors that are so easy to fix, yet significantly impact the consumer if they’re looking for that feature after purchase. In this case, Garmin says there are no plans to include the feature in the FR230/235.
Product Comparisons:
Like all products I’ve reviewed, you’ll find the FR230 & FR235 in the product comparison tool/database. This means you can mix and match features against other products I’ve reviewed or used. In the case of below, I’ve placed the FR225, FR230, FR235, and TomTom Spark all on the table for comparison. But you can easily mix and match your own comparison table right here.
| Function/Feature | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark |
|---|
| Copyright DC Rainmaker - Updated May 14th, 2021 @ 3:18 pm New Window |
| Price | $299 | $249 | $249 | $149-$199 (Features Vary) |
| Product Announcement Date | May 12th, 2015 | Oct 21st, 2015 | Oct 21st, 2015 | Sept 3rd, 2015 |
| Actual Availability/Shipping Date | July 2015 | November 2015 | November 2015 | October 1st, 2015 |
| GPS Recording Functionality | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Data Transfer | USB, Bluetooth Smart | USB, Bluetooth Smart | USB, Bluetooth Smart | USB/Bluetooth Smart |
| Waterproofing | 50 Meters | 50 Meters | 50 Meters | 50m |
| Battery Life (GPS) | 7-10 hours | 16 hours | Up to 16 hours | Up to 11 hours (varies) |
| Recording Interval | SMART RECORDING (VARIABLE) | 1-second & Smart | 1-second & Smart | 1s |
| Alerts | VIBRATE/SOUND/VISUAL | VIBRATE/SOUND/VISUAL | VIBRATE/SOUND/VISUAL | VIBRATE/SOUND/VISUAL |
| Backlight Greatness | Great | Good | Good | Great |
| Ability to download custom apps to unit/device | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Acts as daily activity monitor (steps, etc...) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Music | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Can control phone music | | Yes | Yes | No |
| Has music storage and playback | | No | No | Yes |
Connectivity | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Bluetooth Smart to Phone Uploading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Notifications to unit (i.e. texts/calls/etc...) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Live Tracking (streaming location to website) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Group tracking | | | | No |
| Emergency/SOS Message Notification (from watch to contacts) | No | No | No | No |
| Built-in cellular chip (no phone required) | No | No | No | No |
Cycling | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Designed for cycling | Barely (Speed mode only) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Power Meter Capable | No | WITH SOME CONNECT IQ APPS (BUT CANNOT RECORD DATA) | WITH SOME CONNECT IQ APPS (BUT CANNOT RECORD DATA) | No |
| Speed/Cadence Sensor Capable | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Strava segments live on device | No | No | No | No |
| Crash detection | | | | No |
Running | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Designed for running | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Footpod Capable (For treadmills) | Yes (also has internal accelerometer) | YES (Also has INTERNAL ACCELEROMETER) | YES (Also has INTERNAL ACCELEROMETER) | No (Can use internal accelerometer) |
| Running Dynamics (vertical oscillation, ground contact time, etc...) | No | No | No | No |
| VO2Max Estimation | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Race Predictor | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Recovery Advisor | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Run/Walk Mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Swimming | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Designed for swimming | No (protected though just fine) | No (protected though just fine) | No (protected though just fine) | Yes |
| Openwater swimming mode | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
| Lap/Indoor Distance Tracking | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Record HR underwater | N/A | N/A | N/A | NO (NOT ENABLED IN SWIM MODE) |
| Openwater Metrics (Stroke/etc.) | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
| Indoor Metrics (Stroke/etc.) | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Indoor Drill Mode | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
| Indoor auto-pause feature | N/A | N/A | N/A | No |
| Change pool size | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Indoor Min/Max Pool Lengths | N/A | N/A | N/A | 15m-50m |
| Ability to customize data fields | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Captures per length data - indoors | N/A | N/A | N/A | Yes |
| Indoor Alerts | N/A | N/A | N/A | Goals only |
Triathlon | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Designed for triathlon | No | No | No | Sorta |
| Multisport mode | No | No | No | No |
Workouts | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Create/Follow custom workouts | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| On-unit interval Feature | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Training Calendar Functionality | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Functions | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Auto Start/Stop | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Virtual Partner Feature | No | No | No | Yes |
| Virtual Racer Feature | No | No | No | Yes |
| Records PR's - Personal Records (diff than history) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tidal Tables (Tide Information) | No | No | No | No |
| Weather Display (live data) | No | Yes | YEs | No |
Navigate | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Follow GPS Track (Courses/Waypoints) | No | No | No | No |
| Markers/Waypoint Direction | No | No | No | No |
| Routable/Visual Maps (like car GPS) | No | No | No | No |
| Back to start | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Impromptu Round Trip Route Creation | No | No | No | No |
| Download courses/routes from phone to unit | No | No | No | No |
Sensors | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Altimeter Type | GPS | GPS | GPS | GPS |
| Compass Type | N/A | N/A | N/A | None |
| Optical Heart Rate Sensor internally | Yes | No | YEs | Yes |
| Heart Rate Strap Compatible | YES (ALSO INTERNAL OPTICAL HR SENSOR) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ANT+ Heart Rate Strap Capable | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| ANT+ Speed/Cadence Capable | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| ANT+ Footpod Capable | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| ANT+ Power Meter Capable | No | No | No | No |
| ANT+ Lighting Control | No | No | NO | No |
| ANT+ Bike Radar Integration | No | No | NO | No |
| ANT+ Trainer Control (FE-C) | No | No | NO | No |
| ANT+ Remote Control | No | YES FOR GARMIN VIRB | YES FOR GARMIN VIRB | No |
| ANT+ eBike Compatibility | No | No | NO | No |
| ANT+ Gear Shifting (i.e. SRAM ETAP) | | | No | No |
| Shimano Di2 Shifting | nO | No | NO | No |
| Bluetooth Smart HR Strap Capable | No | No | NO | Yes |
| Bluetooth Smart Speed/Cadence Capable | No | No | NO | Yes |
| Bluetooth Smart Footpod Capable | No | No | NO | No, has internal accelerometer |
| Bluetooth Smart Power Meter Capable | No | No | NO | No |
| Temp Recording (internal sensor) | No | No | NO | No |
| Temp Recording (external sensor) | No | YES (TEMPE) | YES (TEMPE) | No |
Software | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | PC Application | Garmin Express | Garmin Express | Garmin Express | MySports Connect |
| Web Application | Garmin Connect | Garmin Connect | Garmin Connect | TomTom MySports |
| Phone App | iOS/Android | iOS/Android/Windows Phone | iOS/Android/Windows Phone | iOS/Android |
| Ability to Export Settings | No | No | No | No |
Purchase | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Amazon | Link | Link | Link | Link |
DCRainmaker | Garmin Forerunner 225 | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | TomTom Spark | | Review Link | Link | Link | Link | Link |
Remember, you can mix and match your own comparison table here in the product comparison database.
Summary:
Overall I think the FR230 & FR235 may be the best bang for your buck running-specific watches that Garmin has released to date – even if there are still some minor kinks to work out on the optical HR pieces. If you look at the FR230 for example, it’s taking almost everything the FR620 had (except Running Dynamics) and porting it into a product slightly more than half the price of the higher end watches. And while Running Dynamics may be geeky-interesting, I don’t find them that interesting long term.
When it comes to the optical sensor on the FR235, from my testing it generally works quite well in normal runs, though there were a few edge cases where I managed to trick it briefly (such as the snowy hill descent, and the ‘Hose it up’ test run). Even when befuddled, it does seem to realize it, and snap back onto the right track. I suspect like most optical sensors it may be a bit of time before it’s 100% spot-on. Having seen the progression at various points over the past two months, I’m pretty optimistic about how much progress they’ve made on that front.
As for whether or not the FR235 will become my daily running watch? Hard to say, I think if they can work out some of the optical HR kinks, then it probably will. I don’t think I’d have any problems using it for long runs, and tempo runs – it worked well there. Even if they didn’t work out the kinks, then the FR230 would most definitely fit my bill. I tend to like lighter running watches over bigger ones (i.e. FR920XT/Fenix3), but that’s more a personal preference. And as nice as the FR630 may be, I’ve gotta say the buttons on the FR230/235 are just easier for me going into winter (than a touch screen).
With that – thanks for reading!
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Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
If you're shopping for the Garmin Forerunner 235 or any other accessory items, please consider using the affiliate links below! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, but your purchases help support this website a lot.
Since the Garmin Forerunner 235 is no longer sold, I recommend looking at
Garmin Forerunner 245:
Here's a few other variants or sibling products that are worth considering:
And finally, here’s a handy list of accessories that work well with this unit (and some that I showed in the review). Given the unit pairs with ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart sensors, you can use just about anything though.
This is a dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart cycling cadence sensor that you strap to your crank arm, but also does dual Bluetooth Smart, so you can pair it both to Zwift and another Bluetooth Smart app at once if you want.
This is one of the top straps I use daily for accuracy comparisons (the others being the Polar H9/H10). It's dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, and in fact dual-Bluetooth Smart too, in case you need multiple connectons.
Seriously, this will change your life. $9 for a two-pack of these puck Garmin chargers that stay put and stay connected. One for the office, one for your bedside, another for your bag, and one for your dog's house. Just in case.
This speed sensor is unique in that it can record offline (sans-watch), making it perfect for a commuter bike quietly recording your rides. But it's also a standard ANT+/BLE sensor that pairs to your device. It's become my go-to speed sensor.
This wifi-connected scale will track your weight and related metrics both on the scale display and in Garmin Connect (plus 3rd party apps like TrainingPeaks). It'll also then sync your weight to your watch/bike computer, to ensure accurate calorie data.
The HRM-PRO Plus is Garmin's top-end chest strap. It transmits dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart, but also transmits Running Dynamics & Running Pace/Distance metrics, stores HR data during a swim, and can be used without a watch for other sports. Also, it can transmit XC Skiing Dynamics as well.
And of course – you can always sign-up to be a DCR Supporter! That gets you an ad-free DCR, access to the DCR Quarantine Corner video series packed with behind the scenes tidbits...and it also makes you awesome. And being awesome is what it’s all about!
Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Hi Ray,
Love the blog and happy to hear that it is a full-time endeavor for you–which is a windfall for us, your readers. Curious, i got a FR235 for christmas from my wife and like it in general but trying to figure out what pod or strap and can add in order to pick up steps, cadence, distance etc when working out, on a spin/stationary bike, or a treadmill doing intervals…ideally it seems that the wahoo tickr x is better than the garmin pod but not compatible…any ideas or recommendations would be welcome.
Thanks
The optical heart rate seems worse since last update. Is anyone else having issues with the optical HR on the 235? I have the strapped tightened so tight it leaves a major mark. And yet I will be running where my HR probably is around 155-165bpm and it will say 110-120. Then maybe 10-15 min into my workout it will jump and seem to be more accurate. I thought this was due to being outside, but it happens on the treadmill too.
I also noticed it cannot seem to track HR well at all when weight lifting, but I am fine with that – that’s not why I have the watch. But I definitely want it for running and to know when I do intervals if I am recovered enough to speed back up. I don’t trust it since I know many times it is wrong just going by feel.
Is this a known issue – or something I need to contact Garmin about?
Thanks!
Have you tried one notch looser? If it’s so tight it’s leaving a major mark, I wonder if it’s also so tight the watch is compressing the skin & tissue so much it interferes with the blood volume changes it’s supposed to be measuring. Also make sure you’re off the bone and up an inch or two.
I have tried looser and tighter – I am up from the bone. It was working pretty well till the last update I did. Not perfect, but it was acceptable. Now it is a mess.
If you haven’t yet done so, do a reset (press+hold power until it turns off, then power up) and see if the behavior continues.
If still a problem, maybe try reflashing the firmware using WebUpdater software from Garmin; it’d rule out a botched upgrade.
Beyond that it’d be time to either return/exchange with your retailer or go through Garmin Customer support.
I will go try the reset. Thank you.
Hi Jodi is your problem sorted? I’m having the same issues the HR is just incorrect the majority of the time, I have recorded my lowest HR twice now whilst halfway through rowing machine intervals, I don’t trust it at all, not sure wether to send back or wait for a new update
Still giving me issues. :( I am updating now as it seems an update came out today. Will check again on my next run. Hoping this was addressed.
Ok hopefully this sorts it, let me know how it goes I’ll update mine ASAP
Hi! I am having the opposite. I am running really easy and then it records max HR or close and I know is totally wrong. Have you had luck
Hi Ray,
Would you use the “other” sport for rowing for example? Is there a way to connect it directly to the strava rowing activity?
For running cyclying and let’s aay rowing would you choose 230 or vivoactive?
Thanks,
Lorenzo
I would like to hear your opinion on this too! I want to track running and rowing and be able to keep all of my tracking/stats in one place. Withy my watch I want to be able to do interval runs but am really just looking to track overall stats for rowing.
I’d love any advice/input on this! Thank you!
Hi. Will the forerunner 235 automatically track activities like running, sports, etc? I know its a 24/7 fitness tracker but unclear if it recognizes different activities or if you have to activate it.
The 235 does not “automatically” recognize any activity. However, built into the device is tracking fro running, biking, indoor running and other. You do have to select which activity you want to track prior to beginning the activity. In my experience the “other” activity gets recorded as a run by default in Gamin Connect. You can later change the activity type if you’d like.
You can also download Connect IQ apps to add different activity types. For example, I walk my dog every morning and like to keep track of how much exercise she does. However, I did not want it being classified as a run nor did I want to have to change the activity type online after each walk. So, I download a ConnectIQ app called “Hike” which records the activity as walking in Garmin Connect.
Hi, does anyone know how the 230 compares with the polar v400? Price-wise the polar seem cheaper, but they seem to have the same functions.
M400*
Ray, like many, I’ve benefited from your reviews. I recently upgraded to a FR235 and am really enjoying the new capabilities — I had a FR305 before this! One issue I’ve had is getting the heart rate zones set correctly. The watch seemed to default to zones and I actually had to use the “Reset Zones” option before being able to change them to match what I had set on the Garmin Connect Mobile app. It doesn’t seem that the two are in synch despite the zones being a “device setting” option on Garmin Connect. Is this a problem you or others have seen?
Also, when trying to figure out a solution, I came across a Garmin online manual that includes a section on “Letting the Device Set Your Heart Rate Zones” — I assume this uses age, observed Max HR, etc to do so, but I was wondering if you new exactly how that feature worked?
Thanks, Todd
Sensor hub update v 2.5 now available for Garmin Express download/install. No idea if this is the production release of beta 2.41 or any additional HRM enhancements.
Hi Ray thanks for the great review, I have a question I hope someone can answer, I’m getting incorrect HR readings when I do anything, for example I have recorded my lowest readings during working phases off an interval session, it’s really not good and I am not happy, I’m unsure wether I should send it back for a replacement or wether this is a problem lots of people are experiencing and will be fixed through an update? I have tried wearing it tight, loose and further up my arm with no joy any help or I for greatly appreciated
Do also check the Garmin Forums as well. Optical HRM tends to be best on steady runs, and the smoothing may create some lag on intervals, but it ought to be pretty close. Some people are getting good results, some have having issues, and it’s not clear what differentiates them nor is it clear how many satisfied people just never bother to go to forums to post about it either.
Since you’ve tried different positioning and so forth, and assuming you’re updated on firmware, it could be a matter of a bad unit or it could be a matter of optical HRM just not working for you. Seems weird in that it works for some people and not for others. If I were in your shoes I’d return/exchange your current 235 and try another one; if two units both don’t work for you then it’d probably be best to consider other watches (or go back to your current for a couple months and see if it’s something Garmin sorts out).
Whatever you do, don’t settle for a watch that isn’t working for you.
Thanks for the reply George, I have just updated to the recent firmware release so going to give it a good testing tomorrow alongside a HR chest strap and a forerunner 610 if I’m still not happy I will send back and go for the garmin 620
Ray,
With all the comments on Optical HR results and potentially lower polling to save battery life, I tried a short treadmill run with my FR235 with the HRM3 to see how the results looked. The HR data looked good, but a few things I noticed
Recovery Advisor on the watch showed 0 hours
Training Effect on Garmin Connect shows 1.0
Calories burned only show 55
link to connect.garmin.com
Do the recovery advisor/TE only get calculated with the Optical sensor, and ignore the HR Strap?
Any idea why the calories calculated would be so low?
Thanks
I want to start using my Forerunner 230 for swimming but I don’t understand how or if it will record distance. Also, I don’t quite know how I cancan count laps using the watch while swimming. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks~ Heather
Simple; it won’t. It’s a running watch that has a cycle and Other mode, but doesn’t support any swimming metrics. You’ll need a different watch for that such as the Garmin Swim, or if you’re feeling flush with cash maybe a 910xt, or 920xt, or Fenix3.
Does anybody know, if the activity tracker will calculate burned calories for the day from the 24/7 heart rate measuring or only based on the steps/wrist movement? In other words: Is the wrist based heart rate monitor any good for measuring one’s daily calorie consumption (outside workouts) or only for the resting heart rate feature?
In this case, I don’t see any reason to buy the fr235 and not the fr230 (if you’re a athlete, you’ll always go for heart rate straps for workouts. Convenience is the only reason for wrist based measurement and convenience is, as we all know, a great selling point).
I’ve been channeling my inner Rainmaker (some might say Rainman). I compared the readings from a Wahoo TICKR strap conected to and Edge 1000 and the Garmin FR235 optical heart rate during a bike trainer ZWIFT workout. Note that this comparison was done after Garmin released a firmware update to reduce noise in the optical readings for the FR235.
Pro’s and Con’s: The initial HR for the TICKR was spuriously high for several minutes, before settling into the correct reading. That’s a common problem I have with straps. Your mileage may vary. The optical HR started with the correct heart rate from the beginning.
The optical HR is a still noisier, and there are occasional spurious high values of short duration. But these were less than 10 beats and only lasted a few seconds.
Verdict: For the convenience and comfort, the wrist-based HR is good enough for me.
I having an issue with the 230 and the lap notification. I am getting them 10-30mins later in my headset. I’ll hit mile 1 and 10mins later i’ll get the notification. I’ll be done my run, i’ll be home doing whatever then my phone will tell me my last mile time. I wear wireless headphones. The first week or so with the 230 i wasn’t having any issues with this feature. Anyone else having this issue or know of a fix
ok what did you guys do? It was working perfectly this morning. I didn’t make any changes.
Ray (or anyone else),
Do you have any idea how big of an impact to battery life using the Live Track feature would be? I ask because I’ve got a marathon on Sunday and was thinking about using for my wife. I expect to finish about 3:20 and was wondering if the FR235 would survive the race with Live Track turned on.
Thanks
Mike
It’s generally pretty small, since it’s over the same Bluetooth Smart (which is low-power) connection that smartphone notifications use.
You’d have zero problems with 3 hrs (or even 6-8hrs).
Thanks Ray. I used Live Track during my marathon yesterday. It worked fabulously. In fact, much better than my legs did. Oh well. It happens. There will be others.
Some details on battery. Started the race with 100% battery on my phone and on the watch. Immediately after the race my phone was at 85%. Didn’t check battery level of watch though until I got home which was probably 6-7 hours after the race started. Stopped for a big lunch. When I put it on charger it was at 59%. Not too bad.
My 235 has the wrong time and date, it is set to automatically sync the time, my computer, garmin connect website, and my phone all have the correct date and time zone. I can’t find any solution to this problem so far.
Your watch is working as designed. Garmin’s Running watches have always set their time/date from the GPS satellites and the Forerunner 235 follows that pattern.
They should be more clear about this in the manual since it’s different than the activity trackers I gather; and with many people buying this running watch for stuff other than running it’s clearly confusing.
Thanks George. I embarrassingly corrected this error when I connected to the satellite. I have always used forerunner watches for running, and this was the first time using it as a watch as well. I did notice that once I reconnected to Garmin Express the next day that the time and date went off course again, but just connected to the satellites to fix that annoying error. Bluetooth connections don’t cause the time and date to go off course.
Hi,Wayne, I had the same issue a month a ago, and was frustrated until it somehow got back to normal without me knowing how… So by connecting to Satellites do you mean to enter the running app and let the GPS connected automatically?
Had the same thing happen to my wife’s, go outside and let it quite satellites, that should fix it.
My 235 was in my bag all day, not on my wrist. Garmin connect shows I walked 2,000 steps. Anyone else have this happen? Seems very strange.
Thanks all!
Following – as I am curious if it tracks when not worn on wrist. I have not tried.
Hello Runners!
how do I get paired bluetooth headphones to FR235 to receive voice alerts?
I couldn’t find it in watch menu.
Or is it only possible via smartphone? first pair watch to smartphone, then pair headphones to smartphone?
No, only via phone.
Hi Ray,
I assume that Garmin are trying to improve the OHRM hardware. Do you know whether any improvements in the hardware would be incorporated into 235 production or would they wait until future models are released.?
Typically Garmin does make very minor (mostly but not always unseen) updates to units along the way if it’s hardware related that could improve performance. Whether or when they do that is hard to know, since I rarely hear about these tweaks until years afterwards.
I returned my 230 for the 235 for the added ease of wrist based HR. I logged my first run with the 235 today and my calorie burn was off. I ran 3.6 miles in 38:00, avg. HR of 147. My calories burned were 277, the same run with the 230 was 356 calories. I realize that HR data was not a factor with the 230’s reading, but 277 seems low for 3.6 miles. I used some online calculators and it seems like the count is off by close to 100. Any suggestions? I have checked all my settings. I am new to Garmin Connect and have been using Fitbit Charge Hr for runs along with Mapmyrun app.
By the way, the 235’s optical HR was dead on with the Fitbit.
Thanks for any help!
Really love your reviews. Have to rely on them because of the detail that you provide. Great job!
Hello,
I’m in major need of some advice- I’ve been researching for days and can’t decide what device to buy. (These reviews have been extremely helpful, thank you!)
I’m going to be training for two half marathons this year and some additional running events BUT also go to the gym and complete circuit type workouts. The Garmin forerunner 235 seems perfect for me but I would like to be able to track the gym workouts too, which I know the Fitbit surge does. However, the Fitbit surge doesn’t have pace alerts which I like about the Garmin. Can anyone help me? Can I track these workouts on the Garmin/ will Fitbit allow me to set pace alerts? I’m pulling my hair out with all of these stats!
Many thanks in advance!
Yup, you can just use the FR230/235 in the ‘other’ mode without GPS, which is essentially the same as what the Fitbit Surge would do in a gym situation.
Hi,
Thanks for such an in-depth review. I have two questions. I currently run with the Forerunner 250. It’s an old watch but still works well. However, I’m looking at the newer watches which will be slimmer on my wrist and connect wirelessly to apps on my phone. I don’t cycle or swim so I don’t need functions. However, coming from the Forerunner 250 with it’s huge screen, I worry that I will find the screen on these watches too small, especially during a race when I need to glance down quickly to check my pace.
Also, living in South Africa, I run predominately in bright sunlight and I have heard comments about the poor screen lighting on both of these watches. I know you addressed this but the photo seemed to be taken on an overcast day or in darker conditions, what is it like in bright sunlight?
I’d appreciate your thoughts on this or any recommendations as to a good update.
Many thanks
Hi, I had the 920XT )Big Screen)and have purchased a 235 also. My eye sight is failing where I do wear glasses at times for reading but I have NEVER had an issue reading this watch in full daylight or overcast conditions. Personally I love it, even with a 4 split screen I can flick and read all so I can’t see you having any issue. The only thing I haven’t done yet is to see what it’s like at night time, but then again, I’ve never had a watch that was a stand out at night anyway. Go for it :-)
Does the 230 allow you to mark laps manually, or does it only do Auto Laps?
You can use manual laps and/or auto laps
Yes, anytime you hit the Lap button during an activity it marks a new lap. The auto-lap counter restarts from that moment as well.
Hi DC Rainmaker,
using my Garmin FR235 since Christmas last year and I can say I am really pleased how this thing works.
Everything works perfectly well and even my battery lasts for 5-6 days without prob.
My biggest complaint goes to Sleep tracking because it seems to be in 50% cases inaccurate.
It doesn’t record sleeping at all or like last night when I went to sleep at 10:30pm and I woke up at 6:00am, it actually registered that I went to sleep at 6:20pm and that I woke up at 5:20am.
That is the only thing that really frustrates me at the moment.
I have one more issue with it and it happened this morning actually for the first time.
I went for a 5k run and I finished the same with two records.
When I uploaded everything to the app and Garmin Connect it seems that it didn’t register my run as a run or activity and it only registered it through steps.
New VO2 is added to Garmin Connect which is ok and in the mobile app under steps it is showing a trophy below my pic for today, but again, today’s run is only registered under steps and not under run or activity.
Did you or anyone else experience anything similar and do you know how to fix it?
I synced everything I could through the app and Garmin Connect but no changes.
Inside the watch my run is registered and I can see my time, records everything… it just didn’t sync with the app or connect correctly.
Any advice would be highly appreciated.
Thanks.
Goran
Hi Goran,
As far as your 5k not syncing I had the same thing happen to me yesterday only it was a marathon. The steps (40,000) synchs but not the run. Very frustrating.
I never figured out why but I did find a work around. I finally put my watch on the charger and plugged it into the USB port on my computer. Once I did that Garmin Connect recognized it and I was able to download the activity.
I’m hoping it’s a one time issue and I don’t have to start doing this all the time.
Ray,
with the Forerunner 235 Sensor Hub software version 2.50 as of January 14, 2016 the wrist heart rate works much better, way much better. I guess perseverance is the key in this life. Is it the algorythm?
Thank you for everything.
Hello,
how can i check which software version do i have on my 235 forerunner. I tried to update, but after i installed file in the watch folder, the watch did not asked for update. I did this on mac osx. Now im not sure if its updated or not.. How to check this out?
thank you
Hi Georigios,
What is the difference between the 3.30 version from December 29th 2015 which I currently have installer on my 235 and the 2.50 version you are referring to?
Garmin forerunner 235 software verison
link to www8.garmin.com
Garmin Forerunner 235 sensor hub software version
link to www8.garmin.com
What is sensor hub in this context?
That is not clear to me…
Please check this out:
ttp://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=9579
The watch firmware is 3.30. The WHR sensor hub is the optical HRM subcomponent, its firmware version is 2.50. Go to the About screen in your watch and scroll down to see th various sub-components and their firmware versions.
Just got my 235 today!
After a month of use, im starting to notice a fair amount of soap residue build up in the band holes. This used to be red and is now white which is a bit of a pain.
I was wondering if the 230 is the most accurate watch between 230, 235 and 630. Have you found any bugs to 230?
Thank you for the very in depth review!
I bought a Garmin Vivosmart HR in Nov 2015 and was super excited because of the features it had specifically the wrist based HR monitor, ability to be worn in the shower, pool, etc. However, I ended up returning it due to it being very buggy. I wanted to ask if you noticed any of these problems during your evaluation of the Forerunner 235:
– Sometimes my Vivosmart HR would get stuck on steps taken, calls burned, etc.
– Often the data showing on my device would not match the data showing on my phone or my computer even right after syncing.
– The only activity the Vivosmart HR could really track was running but it would let me manually log other activities such as cycling which was nice but…apparently syncing was only one direction because the calories from a manually logged event would not show on the Vivosmart HR. For example, if I biked 16-18 miles and entered it along with my speed onto the Garmin computer app, I could see on the computer that my total calories for the day included the 800 I burned while cycling; however, those 800 calories would NOT show on the Vivosmart HR device or iPhone app. So if you are trying to track total calories burned for the day, it’s annoying (and I would argue, pointless, for an activity tracker) to have to remember to add 800 calories to whatever the Vivosmart HR shows in order to know your total calories burned for the day.
I hope this all makes sense! :)
Did you have any of these issues with the Forerunner 235?
Thank you,
Erin
Great info. I’ve used a 235 for awhile and am deciding if I should keep it or use a simpler / cheaper version:
1. Is there any difference in the quality of data for Training Effect, Recovery Advisor, and VO2Max using a Scosche R+ vs. the 235 optical monitor? I’ve read all (or most of the comments) on this thread and it’s not clear to me. My understanding is that the best option is a chest strap (which I don’t like) and optical monitors are 2nd best. What I don’t know is if the 235 will provide better data than a connected Scosche? I’ve had issues with accuracy during intervals from the 235 optical monitor and will likely use a Scosche more frequently.
2. For people who are evaluating this product for activity tracking: the sleep tracking is just awful. I also used a Fitbit Surge for awhile and it did a much much better job. The 235 basically tracks when I’m sedentary, or laying down, and when I walk again. It doesn’t do a good job of tracking movement and guessing when I’m asleep. This may not matter for sound sleepers. I have sleep problems and the difference in methodology between the two devices is meaningful. It’s not even worth it for me to sleep with the 235 b/c the data is so bad.
I’ll only comment on the sleep tracking part.
Initially I found it to be pretty crappy. However over time it’s gotten much better and I’ve been happy with it. It pretty much nails when I fall asleep and when I wake up. If I wake during the night it captures that as well. The deep vs light sleep may not be 100% but it feels close. When I wake up and feel like it’s been a bad night sleep the app usually heavily favors the light sleep. Conversely when it feels like one of those awesome sleeps it’s heavily weighted towards deep sleep.
Mike have you used any other sleep tracking devices? How does your experience compare to those?
Other than the vivosmart hr which I used for a few weeks, this is my first sleep tracker. Returned the vivosmart for reasons other than sleep tracking.
Despite your in depth and no doubt accurate review regarding your experience of the 235, unfortunately mine has not been so great.
I will be returning the watch today for 2 reasons, firstly the light bleed of the bottom of the screen is not acceptable for what is not exactly a budget watch. Im sure this would not bother everyone as much as it has bothered me but in my opinion its a sign of poor quality and design.
Secondly, I found the heart rate monitor to be very temperamental, it performed perfectly well on its maiden run however as soon as I stopped it refused to read anything above 40Bpm (I wish i could go from 160+ instantly down to 40) I tried all the tips mentioned elsewhere such as tightening, adjusting position, swapping wrists. none of these had any effect.
Very disappointed with the watch.
Hi all.
After a few failed tries via the Garmin Support.. Maybe someone here can help:
Using Android, with BT connected 235 to phone, I get notifications and also the audio control works well.
But, I have never get any “audio lap-ending”\ “motivate announcements” from the 235/ by the phone.
I have set it “ON” via the “Garmin Connect App”. I have tried using LG (G3) internal music player, also tried the Google Play player..
Anyone who have succeeded with this? Does it work? What should I do, set or try?
Thank you all!
I am having trouble pairing to speed/cadence sensors. I have a Garmin 010-12102-00 cadence sensor, and a Wahoo SC (Ant+ and BT). My 235 will not read any data off the Garmin cadence sensor. It pairs after a REALLY long time (a half hour or more), but I never get any cadence data on the watch. My 235 pairs OK with the Wahoo SC (it did take a really long time to pair the first time). Often I get no speed or cadence data. Last night I did get some data, but it frequently dropped out and it is virtually useless. I was also tracking my workout on my cell phone (Samsung S6) paired via Bluetooth to the same sensor. It worked fine.
Hi bcblues, did you get the paring sorted? I have the same Garmin cadence sensor and 235 wacht and cannot seem to pair. them The same sensor paired fine with another ant+ device in the shop….
Any tips greatly appreciated
No, I never did get it to pair. Actually, I got it to pair initially, I just never see and cadence data. Although I have not tried to hard to remedy it, since it is Ski season here, instead of cycling season.
I finally got my 235 to pair with the Garmin cadence sensor. Turns out I was not holding the watch close enough to the sensor. It did not pair until I actually had the watch touching the sensor.
If you are having trouble pairing a sensor, try holding the watch right on the sensor.
So it was operator error on my part.
Here is the plot from the cell phone paired via BT to the same sensor:
Hello guys,
this is my first post on this forum and i am not a native english speaker so pls excuse any mistakes.
I decided to buy a running watch / sports watch. My general goal is to get a better overview (estimated) of my activity level and sleep. In general i am (at least i think i am) a big fan of 24/7 HRM but i know that those optical sensors all have their disadvantages.
i read a lot of product reviews on DCRainmaker and think about buying the fr 235 or the vivoactive. I am no runner but i want to get into it nor am i a professional at all.
what follows is a list of the activities i need the device to track and what i want the device to be capable of (in no particular order):
Cycling:
I usually cycle 2 x 13km on monday to friday to get to work and back home. I want the device to keep track of my HR, my speed, i want to see the route i took on a map with time and date and distance and a estimated guess of the calories burned. (Things like cadence are not a top priority right now but i think both can do it with additional equipment)
soccer:
Usually once a week for 2 hours with some friends outdoor. i want the device to keep track of the activity: time/HR and estimated calories. it would be awesome if it could track distance the more detailed the better. ( i would also buy accessories for that, footpod or the like)
gym:
i go to the gym once or twice a week and i simply want my calories / training time and HR to be tracked.
running:
i want to get into running but have almost no idea what i need except for pace / distance / Hr / calories. I think intervalls would be great….. something like “run for 10min with an HR/Pace of XX then the device tells me to slow down to an HR/Pace of YY for 10min” or race against myself. i am kinda clueless what i need and what i want when it comes to running.
sleep tracking:
track my sleep (obvs.) maybe combined with HRM / smart alarm (set a time window ur clock rings when in light sleep).
hiking:
track distance/time/calories.
id like to get either the vivoactive with a scosche ryhthm+ or the fr235 (maybe with a scosche too).
in general i heared good things about the vivoactive and not so good things about the HRM 24/7 on the fr235.
The vivoactive is smaller so i think i can wear it all day and night, dont know about the FR235 had no chance to see one in RL.
Battery Life on the vivoactive should be better is that correct?
From pictures i find the fr235 looking a lot better then the vivoactive i could wear in RL (turned off so no display).
I know that the vivoactive is much cheaper ( I could get a new one for around 110euros with a coupon, they are not selling the fr235) but price is not the determining factor.
I think if the 24/7 HRM on the FR235 would work flawlessly i’d stick to it.
Thnx in advance for reading.
I will try to answer your questions based on my experience with the 235 (which is not all that extensive).
Cycling: It should work fine for what you want. Although Ray indicated that the HR graph is rougher due to the wrist-mounted watch (and optical HR monitor) shaking and vibrating on the handlebar. I have not used mine outdoor cycling yet, so I will see better how it works for me when it finally thaws in the spring.
Soccer: I am also a soccer player. Most referees will not allow players to wear watches, so that may be a factor. I also play pickup soccer, and I did wear the 235 once. I did not actually track an activity while playing, but the heart rate graph for the day, steps, and calories all seemed in line with my physical output. I think outdoors, you could track it as a run, with one second intervals on GPS recording and capture your workout pretty accurately.
Gym: I work out twice a day, but I just let the all day heart rate capture these workouts. I am sure you could “other” category of activity if you want to track minutes and have a HR graph for each workout.
Running: That is the main mission of the watch, so I think it would work fine.
Sleep: I find the sleep tracking OK but not great. Last night it showed me sleeping through the news, which was before I climbed stairs, brushed my teeth and climbed into bed. Clearly not exactly accurate. Other nights it is exactly spot on.
Hiking: Should work fine. There are even hiking Connect IQ Apps to track hiking as an activity. I plan to try it when it warms up.
Overall, I am satisfied with the 235. It is not perfect, but the heart rate monitor is OK for my needs and uses. I hope this helps.
Ty very much.
Vivoactive nor fr235 has a smart alarm Feature right? Thats a bit sad, i got my gf a miband 1s with optical hrm and it features a smart alarm.
No Garmin products have ‘smart alarms’ unfortunately.
Both the 230 and 235 are not available for direct purchase now from Garmin’s website. (You can sign up for an email notification when they are.) Any word on what’s going on? Back ordered? Production issues?
They are available (and in stock) at Amazon. I think same price as Garmin (FR230 is listed at $250) If you have Prime it’s free two day shipping. Don’t know why Garmin doesn’t have any in stock.
It’s pretty normal for a manuf. to not screw their retailers by directly competing early the the product lifecycle. Expect Garmin to have them after they’re available at a lot moe smaller retailers. Either demand is really high relative to forcasts or Garmin is being a bit cautious on ramping up production until issues some are seeing are resolved.
I used Garmin Forerunner 235 for two months now and have compared to 620 (paired with external HR optical sensor) which I have used for more than two years. One thing very apparent to me is, the 235 reported consistently higher average and maximum heart rates than the 620 even though side by side comparison of HR shown by two models on run are sometimes very close. (note: I also noted a few instances that 235 reported show high HR (like 170-180) for long runs triggered by change of efforts/pace during the run) , higher training effect, more recovery hours and lower VOMax values etc. For monitoring one’s running effort on races, the HR could be a joke as I have to slow down considerably. Not sure if Garmin can fix this with future firmware updates. I believe 620 is more reliable runner’s watch. This makes me want to switch back to 620 as my prime running watch.
I’ve noticed the same anomalies for HR, training effect and recovery hours on the 235. In my case I was previously using the 630. I’m a long time Garmin running watch user and I’ve had just about all their GPS watches.
I’ve worn both 235 and the 630 watches for the same runs. Here are the stats variations:
Training Effect: 235 = 5, 630 = 4.1
VO2max: 235 = 46, 630 = 51
Recovery Time: 235 = 70 hours, 630 = 36 hours
These are all big differences although the VO2max might be more explicable because I’ve only completed 5 runs using both models. The recovery hours are certainly off so there may be new factors being applied.
I too dislike the HR Monitor but the 235 stats are certainly off by some margin. I’ll stick with the 630 until there is a firmware update to fix the 235 issues.
I cant set the date for my garmin 235. When open gps and set the time automatically, the time and date is different from where i locate. I just can set the clock manually. However, the date is still not correct. It delay for 1 day. How should I do. Many thanks.
I had this problem with the time. I found that if you let the GPS indicates your current position, it would have be fixed after the announcement “GPS is Ready”. Doing that while letting the settings on “time set automatically” ON..
Hope it can help.
Ray, can you please ensure your reviews for activity trackers and GPS watches include a treadmill test. I would venture that many of your readers live in climates that have cold weather during the winter, and would probably be on a treadmill. In reading on the web, the TomTom Spark Cardio is awful on the treadmill, yet accurate otherwise.
That along with a product comparison like you did for the Vivosmart HR would be great additions to your reviews.
The Microsoft Band 2 and Garmin Forerunner 235 look interesting to me, but the issues people are reporting with the Garmin really have me worried about making such a big purchase. I want to use the device for when I play soccer (I simply wear a wrist band to cover the device so the ref allows that) and track how much I ran, and my HR. I am getting a Mio Fuse for free, so for the HR tracking during the soccer game that might be the most accurate, but it has no GPS and I’d like to accurately measure my distance covered and pace.
My questions are about comparing the 230 to both the 630 and Fenix3. I asked a version of this question on the Fenix3 thread, but got no comment. Noting that this thread has roughly 3x the comments of the other two clearly shows where the market interest is, and maybe one of you can help me out. I’m in the fortunate situation of being able to get a huge employee discount, so I’m more interested in functionality than price. I’m also kind of over the optical HR function as there are too many cautionary tales about its accuracy, and it being accurate is of key importance to me. So that’s NOT a determining factor. I’ll wear a strap, or try a Scosche, until they improve it. A second key component for me is battery life, and it seems clear Garmin hasn’t fixed the power consumption issues with the oHR yet. Shades of my old MotoActv (which would have been a great watch otherwise).
In one review Ray said the 235 might become his running watch of choice, but if I’m not looking at the 235 but the 230 instead, would I prefer the 230 to the 630 or the other way around, and why? One key might be the touch screen, but what’s the final verdict on the touchscreen? Some have spoken about some difficulty using it, but I don’t know if that’s a function of the watch or simply a display of ‘pilot error’. If it’s more of a hassle than an asset, the 230 wins.
I also dabble in triathlons. More than racing them, though, I use triathlon workouts as cross training to improve my running. With that the Fenix starts looking attractive. One comment of the 630 said that pushing start/stop buttons on the 630 killed his watch, and if I were swimming, I would push the start/stop buttons to record interval times. If that was accurate about the 630 (was it?), would either the 230 or the Fenix have the same limitation? I believe the wording for the 630 was something along the lines of, “pushing buttons while in the water was not recommended”. Is that also true of the 230? I’m assuming that it would not be true of the Fenix since it is designed to be a triathlon watch, but maybe it’s true for it as well and they just intend for you to use it passively and not push buttons. I don’t know. If you do, please let me know.
So, for me the choice seems to boil down to either the 230 on the one hand or either the 630 or Fenix3 on the other.
I know I’ve asked a lot of questions. If you have input to any one of them, please don’t hesitate to speak to it even if you have no input on the others. I don’t expect anyone other than Ray or a couple of others to have enough overview to comment on more than one or two of the points. Whatever insights you have to offer would be greatly appreciated. My current system is failing and I need to replace it with something, and since I have a momentary window to get a great price on whatever I choose, I need to make a decision quickly.
(And Ray, now that some time has passed and you’ve had some experience of the various watches, what would you now use as your default triathlon watch and running watch? Curious if they would be the same one.)
Thanks in advance for your help.
Nevermind. I went ahead and ordered the Fenix3. I was lucky enough to buy it for less than the 630 retails and it covers more of the bases for me than anything else. The optical HR is really intriguing, but both its dependability and power consumption issues lead me to pass on it. It seems the oHr is just not quite ready for prime time; close, but I need it to be more accurate. I can wait until they get it better, and whether they do or don’t, I have a great watch at a great price.
I’m using a Garmin 235 for about month now and i’m getting very varying HR results, but mostly i’m really disappointed with the watch :(
In cold weather it is not useful. I went for cross country skiing and the watch didn’t show heart rate above 70hr..
In other activities i get mixed results, but i’dont trust the readings…
My opinion – Garmin had no rights to sell product witch is unreliable and misleading!!
Have you tried some of the tips around changing positions of the unit?
Yes, i tried.. and tried on both arms, but in colder weather i had no luck (-5 till -10 C). In warmer weather or indoors i get better results, but often i see big variations and still i don’t now if the readings are accurate, because i have no other unit to compare.
I have small wrists, so maybe it is part of the problem..
I understand, that the technology is not there yet, so i will buy a chest strap for those training’s where i need to trust the heart rate. But for every day heart rate tracking, i’m OK with wrist based HR.
Perhaps, it is better to have a chest strap for those training’s where you indeed need to trust the heart rate. That is what I am doing as well. And let’s wait and see, it is a period of waiting…
Just to confirm the original poster’s results – the built in HR does NOT work for xc skiing (skate). My guess is that it is related to the arm/wrist movement using the poles. I’m pretty sure its not cold that is the issue though, just the movement.
It works great for me running or biking (except for sharp intervals, but that was mentioned in the review).
I have found that the HRM works fine in reasonably cold weather. What does NOT work is when wearing gloves. If you have the short gloves, the end of the glove hits the buttons if worn on the left wrist. It works fine when worn on the right. It will not work through cuffs of gloves or long sleeve shirts however.
Ray, do you know if there is a way to associate certain sensors with specific profiles? Or at least know which sensor is being used? I could not seem to find anything like that in the menu.
The 235 seems to be using the “sensor pool” concept Garmin’s been using on recent watches. It’ll pick up whatever paired sensors are awake and transmitting.
You can name/rename individual paired sensors and also see which are connected from Settings->Sensors&Accessories even when in an activity, albeit maybe only when paused. When starting an activity the watch does alert briefly as connects to each sensor that’s awake. You can also disable a given sensor yet retain the pairing; I do that for my HR chest strap as I usually just use the optical HRM yet want to keep the pairing for the times I may want to use the chest strap.
link to wareable.com
Interesting review, I see none of the issues many are posting about. Ray, are you considering revisiting some of these devices? I’m really hesitant to spend the kind of money these cost to have the issues people are complaining about.
They did have issues, as noted in their review (such as where they say they’d never use it for interval workouts or HIIT workouts). I think the reality is that publication is more geared towards general use, and in general, doesn’t dive into all the details about things not working right.
On the flip side, not all people have all problems. My usage was in general fairly good, but there were things that weren’t perfect (as pointed out in the bugs section).
I keep an eye on the comments here, but I haven’t seen anything wholesale that’s telling me I should re-do a review (which I’ve only ever done once). About the only thing I think I want to revisit is how well the FR235 handles 24×7 HR these days, post-update.
I’ve been using Forerunner 235 for last 20 days, during which I’ve had it on me entire day. I didn’t track any running activities, but I did track 10 bike activities, both on spinner indoor, and on bike outdoor. My experience is that for indoor spinning classes, optical HR is vastly inferior to chest strap. Biggest problem is that its reactions to changes are just too slow, and there are many pace changes in indoor spinning. Saying that, end results (AVG HR, MAX HR, TE) are not that much different and for average user it may be good enough, but if you want something that feels snappy and accurate during training, then you most definitely have to use chest strap. Same is true for outdoor biking, although with less pace changes, optical HR results tend to be accurate enough. I’ve expected that Optical HR tracking would be good for daily use, but it’s just inconsistent enough for me not be able to trust its accuracy (recalibrations to 71, 72 HR on start, then slowly going to right heart rate, not fast enough to track stair movement, …). As for other stuff, sleep tracking is sometimes inaccurate with sleep start and end time, but with ability to manually correct it, it’s good enough for me. Notifications are nice touch that I didn’t count on, but in the end found them of great value. Android and web app are pretty impressive, but I am uncertain whether there is a way to somehow export all data for long term analysis. All in all, for my needs Forerunner 235 proved to be excellent purchase that helped me get more insight and deeper understanding of my training and fitness levels.
I’m doing a 69 mile & 100 mile ultra this year. I’m after a watch with a better battery life. can the 235 be charged whilst on the move?
fellrnr says it can: link to fellrnr.com
Can the FR235 be used with a Stryd? I have a 920xt and I know that they are coming out with a power field for that, but do you know if they plan on doing that for the FR235? Thanks!
I got mine yesterday and my first impression is that the screen is dark. I’ve I’m in an average lit room, I can barely see what’s on the screen. Shifting the angle helps somewhat, but I can’t just quickly glance at the screen and get information. Running mode outside is awesome though.
For those of you with the black/grey version, how does it compare the the photos in this article? In the images above, the white dot pattern around the edge is clearly visible. Mine you can barely see – even in bright light. Maybe the contrast has been tweaked in the photos?
I have the Forerunner 230 and don’t really have any issues with the functionality of the watch. The only issue for
me is the white inner lining of the strap. So after just over a month in using the watch, the white inner lining of
the strap especially the little holes in them, are clogged from the sweat. From a hygiene point of view, this
is absolutely disgusting. Despite wiping the watch down after every run, its almost impossible to get into those little grooves. What is the possibility of replacing the strap with one which is more practical and hygienic?
Hi Ray,
You recently mentioned that you don’t intend doing another review of the 235 which seems reasonable to me but how about an update on the bugs section of your review. It would be interesting to know how/if these have been addressed.
I have talked to Garmin about the bug fixes, as my 235 doesn’t work right. They claim that they are working to fix it, but they have no time frame whatsoever. In the interim, they have suggested using a HR strap, because the wrist HR function is not working correctly. Disappointing, as the reason I bought this watch was to “ditch the strap”.
Excellent review as usual!
Will be ordering a 230 on the 1st Feb. Too many negative reports regarding the Optical sensor. Maybe one day they’ll have it working but for now I’ll save the $80.
I can generally tell how hard my heart is working by my pace anyway so HR data would be more “neat” than necessary plus I could always use a HR strap that is more reliable than the Optical sensor.
Figured this issue some have with the “dim lighting” is a non issue. Some folks just have poor eye sight and or just really anal retentive about things in general.
I found the simliar to be true regarding shoe size. I typically NEVER listen to reviews who state the shoe “isn’t true to size” because 9/10 it’s typically not the shoe but the particular persons foot type. That are the reviewer “s” don’t honestly know what size shoe they should wear, etc.
I find the recovery advisor useful on 235. With 235 it is also possible to use HR strap but my guess is, not many will ever want to :)
230 is a much lesser watch. Many functions of the 235 use the continuos HR data.
Screen dimness is no problem.
I would NOT recommend the 235. I bought one in December, and the wrist heart rate monitor is wildly inaccurate when I run. I have tried wearing it 4 different ways, but no luck. Garmin won’t take it back, because I bought it from a retailer. Retailer won’t take it back, because they say Garmin won’t admit it is defective. Garmin says that, eventually, they hope to have a software fix, but they can’t tell me when that will occur. Garmin sent me a HR strap so that I could at least get some kind of accurate monitoring while I run. So, basically, I have ended up with a 230 (function-wise) while paying for a 235. I could have saved $100 bucks by just getting the 230 in the first place.
Bad luck for you :(…. lucky me :)
Ray, do you know the function of the red curved line on the left side of the 235 watch face? It is displayed in the standard digital watch face. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it shows one the bottom half and some times the top half flashes with seconds ticking. Nowhere in the Garmin manual explains color graphics on the watch face. Thanks.
I do not own it (yet) but i think its the activity level, as mentioned in the Review u have to move once every hour, resets after walking for 100m or something.
That’s the “Move” alert bar. See the manual at link to www8.garmin.com
Also, Ray discusses and pictures it above in the review.
2 questions regarding HR zones
when i change setting for hr zone (default run cycling) in the android app it has no effect in the zone notified in the setting on the watch (even if i get a message from the app saying the synchro is ok)
did someone manage to get the FC zone set in the app through the watch by BT synchro ?
so I revert back to make the setting dirrectly on the watch… here comme the second issue
I cant manage to set different FC zone for run and cycling profile… when i change FC zone in run setting it change the cycling ones … and vice versa
did the setting are specific for each profile, or are they global on FR235?
I am trying to decide if it is worth it for me to switch from the Fitbit Surge to the Garmin 235. Below is a basic summary of the pro’s and con’s of the fitibit (as I’ve experienced it) and my current concerns with the garmin based upon this review, the comments, and other reviews I’ve read online. I would appreciate the opinion of anyone who has experience with the garmin or even better experience with both the watches.
Surge Pros:
-24/7 heart rate, consistent RHR (changes make sense to me)
-fitbit community – many of my friends and colleagues use fitibits
-smartwatch notifications – 235 also has this
-sync to strava – garmin also supports this
-consistent accurate sleep tracking – after a year of use only once did it not nail my sleep
-HR during running accurate enough for me – never had any dropouts in a year of use – heart rate corresponds to effort such that I can use my heart rate to understand my workout – note I’ve never used a chest strap, and don’t need that accuracy.
-battery life – usually lasts 4-7 days for me depending upon run length
-cold weather heart rate, have run outside as low as 2 F in Iowa winters and never had an issue
-vibration alarms – I haven’t used any other alarms than the vibration alarm for over a year now. Its great!
Surge Cons
-GPS locking fails – can be up to 1/4 of a mile off for the first mile or so of my run
-elevation from altimeter is awful – always been totally useless – elevation information is always wrong I believe this is connected to the gps problems
-smartwatch notifications late – sometimes miss a phone call because of a notification delay
-No workouts/pace alerts etc – used this sparingly with my 220 but did enjoy having the option
-treadmill workout tracking – assumes constant stride length no matter the pace
-touchscreen – can be very hard to use with sweaty hands
-gps failure – this has only happened once, but to lose a segment of my run is very frustrating
Garmin 235 concerns
-heart rate – this seems like it has been very inconsistent for some people. My main concern is the dropouts and pace locking, as those are things that has never happened to me with the surge
-battery life – I would like the battery to at least last 4 days to a week. 2 days seems really poor
-sleep tracking – A few people have mentioned the 235 doing poorly at this, any comments from someone with experience with both?
Thanks for taking the time to read my long comment. I very much appreciate any advice.
I cannot comment on the FitBit, as I don’t own one.
I will try to give you my experience with my 235:
hearth rate seems pretty good, good enough for me. I did have the RHR lock on me several times. But turning off the sensor and back on fixes it. Hopefully this will be addressed in a firmware update.
treadmill workout will always be based on a set stride length unless you buy a footpod.
battery life is decent for me. But I don’t think it would last 4 days unless you were not recording any workouts, maybe as a fitness tracker, but I have never tried. I just charge mine once a day, it only takes a few minutes to top off from 80+%
sleep tracking seems OK, but not great. It sometimes nails my sleep time, and other times is a hour or so off. I think that is to be expected in any wrist-based sleep monitor, though.
Here is what the wrist heart rate does when I run: It reads accurately for about 20-30 mins (or sometimes more or less, it varies each time). Then it jumps up about 50-55 BPM, and then seems to stay artificially high for the rest of the run. So, for example, say you are running and your heart rate is varying between 130-134 bpm. Then, for no discernable reason, the HR reading will jump to 185 and start varying between 185-189. So it’s not really just “sticking” on one number–it is just going high and then giving a wacky reading. BTW, the wacky HR number does NOT appear to be the same as my running cadence at the time. Pretty disappointing that the distinctive feature of the 235–the wrist heart rate monitor–does not work right and Garmin is still using that feature as the “sizzle” to sell the watch!
Sounds a lot like the third graph in fellrnr’s review (link to fellrnr.com) right at 24:00. This is exactly the sort of thing I am worried about. The surge may not have perfect optical heart rate, but at least it has always been consistent.
We have to bare in mind this was a first impression and not an extensive review from Fellrnr, what would be good to know was what version software and hub was being used for his initial testing, I’ve not had any of these spiking issues at all although I’m now concerned that it may be more prevalent in the colder environments, winters still a few months away for us down under.
I have had mine 6 weeks, and I have talked to Garmin 4 times about the “jumping and hovering” heart rate issue with the 235. I have the latest software update 3.30 and I do not live in a cold climate. The issue is a software bug (I am told) and they are working on it but have no time frame for the fix. They would not tell me how many people have complained about their 235 doing this, but they sent me a HR strap as an “interim fix”. I hope anyone who buys the 235 has better luck than I have had. I would have returned it but I did not buy it directly from Garmin, and my retailer will not take it back because Garmin does not consider it “defective” even though it has this bug that causes the HR to jump 55 beats and then stay there.
Hi,
Thank you for your detailed review!! I had a FR220 and upgraded to the 225 for the optical HR. I haven’t had any problems with my 225 aside from some minor discrepancies with treadmill running. Anyhow, I am running the Boston marathon for the first time this year and want to know if the added features of the 235 make it worthwhile to upgrade. I’m hearing about issues with the HR data and battery so am not sure if it’s a better choice. In your opinion, if you had a choice between the 225 and 235 which would you choose?
If it helps-I do a lot of indoor treadmill runs along with weight training and rowing in addition to my outdoor runs.
I appreciate your advice :)
I have both the 225 & 235 and my preference would be the 235. I find it far more comfortable, more stylish, far bigger screen and a heap more functions. I would say that as far as using it in the gym, the optical can be semi useless but you can always use your HR strap from the 220 if need be (I do). For Tready or outdoor running I’ve found it to be great and to be honest I haven’t been suffering a lot of the complaints of others for general running.
If you are a serious runner (Boston!) and want to measure your HR on longer runs (more than 40 mins) outdoors, I would avoid the 235. Garmin knows that the wrist heart rate monitor on the 235 has a “jumping” problem (it can jump up 50-60 beats and then stay there) in the later stages of a run, and they supposedly are working on a software fix. But why buy a watch that has this problem? With the 235, you are paying a premium for a feature (wrist heart rate) that doesn’t work reliably for serious runners. I wish I had not wasted my money on one….
One can only hope that Garmin’s software engineers do finally get this right. As I’ve said before I don’t have issues with mine running but it is all over the show for cycling and gym. What worries me more is what about the poor buggars lining up for the Fenix 3 HR paying twice what we have and to end up with a sub standard product.
Hi Ray, great reviews again.
1 topic mentioned before & (I think) a new one.
Firstly – Consistent HR on the 235. Having owned the watch for about 6 weeks, it does seem to be interesting how various people get it working for them. My neighbours works fine every time, my wife has to wear hers on the underside of the wrist, and for me, it only works on my right hand wrist! If it’s on my left one it would frequently drop to 90-110bpm half way thru a run when I’m expect it in the 160s. Exactly the same position on my right wrist, and for the past week or so I’ve been getting consistent measures.
Secondly, (and this one I couldnt see anywhere in the Garmin manual or in this forum.)
When I get in my BMW 4-series and fire the ignition, my 235 buzzes and tells me how far I am from home! It doesnt bother me, just curious as to what function is doing that. The watch is in standby mode, and it was doing it without any additional apps added to the watch apart from those installed as standard. My watch is paired to my iPhone 6 and the phone is paired to the car which does have satnav, but the nav isnt routing me anywhere.
Bizarre, or I’ve just missed the section that talks about this? If it’s the latter, apologies.
Hi Ian,
Do you mean that you have tried swapping watches between each other and a particular watch will work for one person but not for another? If not, perhaps you could try it.
Hi Phil, sorry – didnt make it very clear. What I was saying was a number of people seem to have issues getting the HRM consistently working on the FR235, and from personal experience of the 3 people I know with the same watch they all have to wear it differently to get theirs to work correctly. It seems that mine only seems to work on my right wrist. If it is on my left wrist the HR occasionally drops to a much lower number for a few k and then returns to the correct rate, whereas from the last 5 or 6 runs with it on my right wrist it seems to be behaving and tracking my HR correctly.
Hi Ian
It’s my turn to say sorry for not making myself clear or misunderstanding your reply. What I meant was what happens when you use your wife’s or neighbours watch, your wife wears your or your neighbours watch and when your neighbour wears your or your wife’s watch? Do you each personally get the same results whichever of the watches you use?
Hi Ian,
My case is the HR measured by my 235 will be normal for first few Kilometres, then suddenly show a spike with HR shooting up to 170-180 bpm for a few kilometers. Due to this, recovery advisor tells me to wait for 60 hours before next workout after a 10K mid pace run. To tell you the average HR tracked during a recent marathon where the issue of HR inaccuracy became more apparent – my 235 recorded average HR of 172 bpm for a four-hour run! You may not believe this. May be I got a faulty item in my case, but I have sent the watch to customer service for checking. If they say it is functioning properly then I will go back to 620 for sure.
Hi Phil / Tony,
Phil – I’ll try my 235 on 1 wrist, my wife’s 235 one on the other wrist do 5k then swap them over to see how they behave.
Tony, I did see a couple of times when I did get crazy spikes but most of my experience was drops to low numbers.
Garmin’s standard response was checking software versions (which of course was irrelevan as all were up to date) and then do a ‘restore defaults’ & a full reset – that MAY have fixed the issues for me. So it will be interesting to see how they behave.
Since posting this Garmin have offered to replace my watch, but as it is likely to still take them a few weeks to confirm the returns info I’m happy to carry on testing :-)
Same as you I can drop back to my 620, but will only do that if I really have to.
Phil… I think the bigger question here is why are you using your neighbors wife’s watch? ;)
LOL ! No, it’s my wife’s watch……my neighbours wife doesnt have a Garmin watch! ;-)
Hi Phil / Ray,
as promised I did 5k with my FR235 on my right wrist and my wifes FR235 on my left wrist.
As I wasnt going to save the run on my wife’s watch I just kept checking the HR between the 2 watches and they were pretty consistent.
After 5k I stopped and swapped them onto the opposite wrists putting watches in exactly the same dents and set off again.
Again I was checking the 2 HRs and they seemed pretty consistent then suddenly mine jumped about 10bpm for a minute, and again a bit later. I initially thought the test wasnt conclusive until I looked at it on Strava (see screenshot attached).
Note how it was steady all the way thru the first half of the run, then after I re-started you can see a number of spikes. These spikes were never recorded on the other FR235.
Unfortunately I didnt save the run on her watch as it would have destroyed all her PBs but her’s was definitely more stable. So I’m waiting for Garmin to provide the returns info
This time in JPEG!
and another run from last month where I swapped from left wrist to right 3.25km into the run until then the HR was just over 100 as opposed to 150/160
Hi Ian,
Thanks for the information. As I see it, your watch works correctly when worn on the outside of your right wrist but not the outside of your left wrist. Your wife’s watch works correctly on the outside of both of your wrists but not on the outside of your wife’s wrist, only on the inside. That seems simple enough.
Hi Phil, yep that pretty much sums it up! Although my wife hasnt tried the watch on the outside of her wrist for some time. It’s all a bit bizarre. :-)
After using the Forerunner 235 for six weeks, wearing it 24×7, I cracked the screen with my own elbow (while I lay in bed, I bumped my elbow against the watch). According to Garmin support, this is not covered by warranty. I would think a watch this expensive should handle a bump like this. The screen can’t be fixed either, but I can sent it to Garmin and they will replace it when I pay 121,- euro.
So I will have a (refurbished?) Forerunner 235 again, but I can’t wear it 24/7 because the screen is not strong enough to handle light bumps of body parts.
At this point, I don’t recommend the Garmin Forerunner 235, it’s not suitable to wear 24/7.
Hi, i’m going to get a brand new Garmin 235 but i’m a question about smartphone notification.
I’m already wearing a Fitbit charge 24×7, i love the small and light dimensions and I will continue to keep paired it to notify me the incoming call (in the past many issue on it on Samsung galaxy S5 mini, Android 4.4.2) but during running session i would like to switch notification on the 235 because phone could not be in easy access place to get a quick view and decide if i need stop running and answer or reply a msg.
What I need to know Is if it is possible to get the notification on both or more likely, which is the correct process to do the switch.
I suppose I need to manually unpair the fitbit and then pair the Garmin; at the end of the running session do it in a reverse order :-(
is there someone who can answer me?
Ray,
Did you happen to hear any updates or enhancements to the 235 to improve the battery life for just 2 days ? based on rest of your review I was planning to get the Forerunner 235. However I am just a little worried about the battery life ?
Thanks
Tarun
FWIW, I received my 235 last Friday and fully charged it Saturday morning. Since then, I’ve gone on three 45-minute runs. I have HR monitoring 24×7, but I have turned off all notifications except for calls. So…it’s been a little over 4 full days and my watch is at 34%. I feel like I’ll get 6 or 7 days out of a full charge.
Hi Tarun,
I’ve had a FR235 since mid December and I probably run for about 4 hours a week, I have the HR on 24×7 and have phone, calendar and SMS notifications on (not email), and I’ll easily get at least a week from it. With so many comments about battery life it is key to remember that the watch typically has an active bluetooth connection to a phone most of the time and so getting a week out of it is pretty impressive, especially when you compare it to the dismal performance of an Apple Watch which struggles to achieve 24 hours life.
Great review ! It helped me choose my 235. it’s been 2 month now and i’ve got absolutely no regrets !
I just have one question. I’m a rookie on the Forerunner GPS watch, so i don’t really know if what i want to do is possible but i’m trying to import track found on openrunner directly on my watch, to at least follow the route on it. I’ve tried everything but don’t get anywhere. Is there a solution ?
Thanks
natively FR235 does not have navigation features.
But there is an IQ connect app that can do this ‘dwMap’.
Ok thank you Adam, i will try it.
I am considering purchasing FR230 (thank you for the review!). Since it does activity tracking I was thinking to wear it all day long. Not sure how it will work because watch seems to be quite big…
Can someone tell me if it is scratch proof? Do I need to purchase some kind “screen protector”? Is it OK to wear it the gym during for example weights workout?
No, it’s not scratch-proof, you should use a screen protector.
Can FR230 be directly charged to electricity outlet/socket? via powerbank? or just via computer? Thanks
Yes, with any USB port (in turn plugged into an outlet).
Hi, does anyone know if the 230 can show how many minutes you have been in each zone on the watch after a run?
Thanks☺
yes, it shows it in summary/details of each activity.
Ok, thanks, that is something i’ve missed a lot on my fr210, which many of the polar watches have had :)
there is also an IQ connect data field available, that shows You this exact statistic during activity.
2 questions regarding HR zones
when i change setting for hr zone (default run cycling) in the android app it has no effect in the zone notified in the setting on the watch (even if i get a message from the app saying the synchro is ok)
did someone manage to get the FC zone set in the app through the watch by BT synchro ?
so I revert back to make the setting dirrectly on the watch… here comme the second issue
I cant manage to set different FC zone for run and cycling profile… when i change FC zone in run setting it change the cycling ones … and vice versa
did the setting are specific for each profile, or are they global on FR235?
anybody are experiencing same issue ?
the wierd thing is that the app allow you to set 3 set of HR zone (default / run / cycling) but the watch don t allow me different HR zone per profile
I was debating over the Forerunner 230 and the Vivoactive? Is there one better than the other, they really look similar in the comparisons.
I want it mainly for running, biking, hiking and walking. I do a few mud runs throughout the year and need durability as well. Any suggestions?
Would charging the FR230 directly to electricity outlet/socket affects its battery life? Is it advisable? Can you validate that based on your review 230 is better than 235? Thanks
Thanks a lot for your great and thorough reviews!
I’m a bit concerned about the battery life on 235 with optical HR. Is it possible to disable the continuous Optical HR so it behaves like a 230 for activity tracking?
I can currently get a 920XT HRM for around $50 more than the 235. Should I rather upgrade to 920XT? In the shop the 920XT felt a little more solid built?
Yes, you can turn off the optical HR whenever you’d like via the settings menu. Personally I’ve had no interest at all in the 920. It’s just not that appealing to me. I have really enjoyed the simplicity of the built-in HR that the 235 has. Others have had major issues but apart from interval sessions, it works well for me. For interval sessions (once per week) I use a standard strap.
Thanks! Good to know there is a solution IF I get battery issues
I know, the 920 is a bit bigger and not that appealing, but it has barometric height, magnetic compass, more sport types and some other tempting features.
I bought the 235, with an external HR monitor. My question is, how do I use the external, and not the internal HR monitor? Odd question, I know, but I paired the external one, and it is connected. But when I start a run, it says “NO HR”. So, in settings, do I have to set Heart Rate Monitor to auto or off?
I have an external HR sensor (Garmin HRM3) paired to my FR235 that I use on runs where I’m worried about cadence lock… I have the optical HR always set to auto. When I start an activity and I am wearing the external HR sensor, the FR235 detects it, automatically connects to it, reports this on the watch face, and then uses it for the HR. If it does not detect the external HR sensor, it automatically defaults to using the optical HR. This has worked very well for me so far.
Which ANT+ cycling sensor would you recommend for FR230?
Here ya go – check out the sensors section here in my 2015-2016 gadget recommendations guide: link to dcrainmaker.com
Just received my FR 230. I was wondering about Connect IQ. Is it everything that’s it’s cracked up to be? Does anybody have any suggestions for app, or watch faces, etc that are must haves?
I use actiface as watchface and love it
Hi, what is the difference between the HRM3 and HRM4(2015)?
Thanks
only the strap. It is thinner in HMR4
Is the poor screen quality as poor as the Vivoactive?
I am very surprised with the fact that Ray did not mention one of the biggest bug of this watch.
with the 325 YOU CANNOT set alerts (vibration/sounds) on custom trainings (e.g. too slow/too fast pace on a custom interval). Even my Garmin 305 had it!
fully agree! It’s actually considered as ‘known’ bug (from garmin forums) on all new devices: 230, 235, 630. It does not work in advanced workouts, only for pace alerts (HR work just fine). It’s even more strange that this is reported from maybe day4 from release (2+ months now) and still is not listed in review here!! There is dedicated section and no info there!
Other thing is that I think Ray is trying to cover too many devices and seems that lots of testing slips out :-/ I would consider pace-based advanced workouts as no1 feature of mid-range Garmin watches! As this is the no1 feature over other vendors. The one that gives Garmin an edge over Polar/Suunto/TomTom and others… And the one that does not work for over 2months now (and after 3? additional fw updates).
“I would consider pace-based advanced workouts as no1 feature of mid-range Garmin watches! As this is the no1 feature over other vendors. The one that gives Garmin an edge over Polar/Suunto/TomTom and others”
To each his own. I’ve had numerous Garmin running and triathlon watches going back to 2006/7. I can honestly say this is not a feature that I have ever even considered as being important, let alone used.
fully agree. That’s why I started the sentence with “I would consider…” meaning “in my opinion”
Fully agree!
I had it with my 310XT and 220 and it’s so annoying not having it here!
People do indeed use different features. And as the number of features grows, to what is literally hundreds of possible feature combinations, it becomes impossible to find and test every possible combination for every feature that every person might use.
For me, if/when I use pre-structured/downloaded workouts – it’s primarily with HR zones, not pace zones. So it’s not something I’m likely to run into.
On the flipside, there are plenty of things I try/do/use that other people won’t use. I’d disagree that pace alerts on downloaded/structured workouts is the number 1 feature of the watch (since out of 1,293 comments, I think this makes it only a few mentions of it at best). Not saying it’s not important – just putting things into perspective.
That said, I’m happy to add it into the bugs/quirks section here of the review until they fix it.
Finally, it’s always funny to me that folks complain both ways on the number of reviews I put out. People get upset when I take my time and test things a long time (and thus, delay putting out a review). And then they get upset when they think I don’t find some odd feature that just they use that doesn’t work the way they want. If you look at how many actual reviews I put out – it might surprise you. Typically only one every 2-3 weeks.
Ray, I think you need to stop slacking and take the time to test all the features, but I also want to see reviews every 3 days :)
You are doing a great job, a real service to all. Only honest commentary I’d make is it would be great if you retest common issues to see if you get the same, and update the review. Also, I mentioned it before, a treadmill test would be super helpful to many of your readers.
I just got the 235 3 days ago. All of ab, my bluetooth symbol disappeared off my watch, and when I go into bluetooth it says “waiting for app” but both my computer and my garmin connect app on my iphone are there. I’m SO FRUSTRATED!!! Any suggestions? Thanks
Angie
I’d switch off both the phone and watch completely, reboot and try again. Bluetooth is a horrible technology, of course it’s okay when it works :-)
So I picked up the FR235 for my wife over the TomTom Cardio which I had been looking at.
I thought that the Garmin ecosystem was much more mature and hence more reliable so I paid the extra $100 or so over the TomTom.
Well how wrong I was.
Out of the box it all worked fine, but then it ran its firmware updates and bang – stuck on 66 bpm.
What a joke.
Searching how to fix it appears it has been a massive issue all around the place.
Ran all the updates through Garmin Express on the PC to make sure.
Really disappointed – sort it out Garmin or it is going back.
I cycled the power and now it has also decided to be exactly 15 minutes slow on the time!
Btw Ray, I went to the Garmin stall at the UCI Tour Downunder tents in Adelaide to look at the FR235 in the flesh – and the Garmin guy said they were working with you to improve firmware!
I’m on the fence folks…many places have the 235 in stock as well as have the shoe pod. BUT these latest 66 lock ups… I may just wait. The price is too much for me to be a beta tester too.
Odd question: I’ll be working in a remote location with no Wi-Fi or blue tooth devices, how can I transfer my gps workouts to Garmin connect? I’ve tethered the 235 to my computer and have access to many folders, but none appear to have the gps files from my runs/withouts. Thank you.
A couple of weekends ago something goofed up with Bluetooth and I could not synch the marathon I had just completed earlier that day. Talk about frustrating.
I plugged the 235 into the computer using the USB port. Once I navigated my computer to Garmin Connect, I was able to select the Upload button. That gave me a list of connected devices. I selected the 235 and it scanned it for new workouts. Once done I selected the marathon and uploaded without a problem. Haven’t had the synch issue since then.
Hi Ray,
I upgraded my Garmin 220 to 235 and I a strange problem.
I like to set myself a custom workout via the garmin connect website and send it to my watch.
I usually, set a distance with a pace goal (for example, i want to run 0.3 KM in a range between 3:55 min\km to 4:05 min\km), with the garmin 220, when i ran too fast or too slow I used to get alerts, but with the 235 it doesn’t work and i can’t tell if I’m running as I planned or not.
Any idea what might create this bug? Is it supported on the 235?
Thanks,
Gidi
It’s supposed to work but it doesnt and hasnt since release. The same applies to the 230 and 630.
Hopefully Garmin will get their act together soon and fix it but I wouldnt hold your breath
I’m off the fence…cannonball into the shallow end of the pool…
Ordered the 235 direct from Garmin along with the Garmin shoe pod and both are arrive today.
Guy on the phone seemed like he knew what he was talking about. Told him I’ve been using an older non Garmin item and want the new offerings but need treadmill accuracy for certain. I wanted the shoe pod based on Ray’s blogs and he recommended it too. I did mention that I have been to quite a few sites and pages where there are known issues with dreaded “66” lockup etc. He told me they are aware of some issues and are continuing to work thru and fix. He acted like he logged onto his notes and read me some info from their TEAM about the latest fixes. I also mentioned the HR issues I’ve read about too. NO I never dropped this sites name but just said a very popular site that does reviews on various items mentioned some glitches in the devices accuracy. He told me the latest FW updates are 3.3 for the watch and 2.5 for the HR. Also told me this should fix the issues. AND also said that these will not be the last of the updates as well. I asked if I could halt the updates and he said I could. I may try the watch with what it comes with outta box first…and try to not allow any automatic updates until I have some bench mark of the devices operation. Anyone know if you can actually NOT have it update once you connect to your iphone and or PC with the charge cord? I’d hope there is a way to shut off auto updates of firmware. ???
Bottom line is I was treaded nicely and he said in the end if you’re not 100% satisfied we’ll refund your money. The price I paid was typical of what I saw on many distribution websites so I figured I got pipeline direct.
So I’m in! And am hoping that with my style of running, not harsh by any means, yields success with this device.
Anyone know if the 230 has a silent/vibrating alarm function? I wake up early and don’t want to disturb the rest of the family. Might seem silly but it could be a deal maker or breaker!
Yes Richard. You can select Vibrate or Vibrate and Audio for the alarm
Hi all,
I am guessing the FR235 counts calories using the HR monitor??
However, how does the FR230 calculate burnt calories without an HR monitor? Is it just an estimate? And how accurate it is?
Thanks.
Hey DCR – thanks for the awesome review, as always.
A quick question – how fragile are these watches? They seem like they could snap or stop functioning with a relatively small hit. Interested in using the 235 as a general training watch, but don’t want to bring it into a weight room if it won’t stand a smack against a piece of equipment.
Thanks!
Has the accuracy of the optical HR from the FR235 been improved, or is it still jaggy?
Thanks for the in depth review of the 235, you commented in one post about “About the only thing I think I want to revisit is how well the FR235 handles 24×7 HR these days, post-update.” And I’d be curious to hear what you find. There are a couple comments regarding the updates that Garmin put out, that now it barely samples, and one that said it sampled every 15 minutes. I’m curious how the watch is performing with 24/7 monitoring with all current software updates.
Hi
Do you have any idea how to change the system settings during a workout without hitting the stop button?
Best Regards!
Don’t think you can.
Hi Ray, thanks for all the useful info. Can you recommend a particular USB charger that is compatible with my 235? I tried a Juice Weekender and the Garmin just didn’t charge at all. many thanks
Hmm, that’s odd. It’s pretty much universally compatible, and the amperage requirements are super-low (meaning that it’s hard to find a unit that doesn’t charge it). What did it do once plugged in? And do you have to do anything on the Weekender to ‘enable’ charging?
I’m using an extra iPhone charger for mine and it seems to be working fine.
The Garmin just didn’t acknowledge that it was connected to anything. It charges fine from my computer. The Juice Weekender was functioning ok and will charge my iPhone no problem.
I’m wondering about either a) trying another brand of charger, or b) someone else suggested using an iPhone charger plugged into the mains – which I am a bit nervous about.
many thanks for any recommendations
John
I had wondered about that – do you just plug in into the mains?
thanks
To begin with, you do realize the 235 doesn’t display the same thing when charging from a USB power source as when charging from a computer, right? With the computer it switches to that charging display. With a USB power source it keeps the watch face visible and changes the battery icon to show a lightning bolt and display battery percentage.
I’ve heard some power banks will auto-shutodwn if they don’t feel something drawing enough current. Since I doubt the watch pulls much, perhaps that what you experienced.
As for plugging into the mains, so long as you’re using a properly built 5V USB charger it’ll do just fine. The only chance of a problem is if you’re using some super-cheap badly-engineered and poorly-built charger.
Success! I have just charged it using my iPhone charger. I have a non-standard watch face, perhaps that’s why it doesn’t show a lightning bolt while charging, it shows the battery percentage all the time but it had definitely just charged up.
Many thanks for your help!
John
Thanks for the great review, Ray. I was considering purchasing the 230/235 or the 630. But after reading all the issues people are having with the wrist based HR on the 235, the complaints about no pace alerts with the 230/235 and the issues with the touch screen on the 630, I’m now considering the Fenix 3. I currently have a 305 and before that ran with a 205. I don’t do triathlons. I just run. But I do like to make custom workouts and set pace zones, so that my watch beeps when I’m outside of the pace set. I had thought I wanted the wrist based HR, but with all the inconsistencies, I think I can just wear a strap when I run and skip the 24-7 HR. Now that the Fenix 3 has all the features of the 630, but without the touchscreen, it’s looking like what I want. Has anyone else decided on the Fenix 3 over the 230/235 or 630? I’m also wondering if the plastic strap is as comfortable on the Fenix as the one on the 230/235? Thanks.
I’ve just created and done a workout on my 235 last night, and all the pace zone, hr zone and time alerts worked perfectly. I’ve also noticed recently doing sprint intervals that the HR sensor has massively improved.. not sure whether its an update, but I always make sure it’s tight so cant move around on the wrist, and set data recording to every second in the “settings – system” menu. Although I don’t have a strap to compare all this against.
I also just recently (only a week ago) found that I can turn on “bike indoors” and it now appears on my list of activities! I’m guessing it’s been added from a recent update, as I never had it before? anyways to find it you press run – menu – scroll down to settings – scroll down to activity profiles and then simply set it to “show”.
I’m also considering Fenix 3 now. I’m a bit concerned about the size – it is quite huge. I’m also wondering if the barometric altimeter helps in positioning in areas with steep mountains / weak GPS signals?
I had a Fenix3, ended up returning it for gps accuracy issues. Maybe they’ve improved, but check the garmin forums to see if there’s current discussion.
As far as I know the altimeter has nothing to do with horizontal positioning, just altitude.
Karl, have you tried alerts based on distance? I do a couple of these when training and I’m finding that that the alerts to change pace (based on distance) don’t line up with distance the watch is showing. For example, say I’m doing 0.9 miles running, followed by 0.1 miles sprinting for 5 miles. I’ll get the notice to start sprinting at 0.93 or 0.95 and it just gets worse and worse the longer I’m in to my run. By the time I’m done, the alerts can be off by quite a bit.
That’s pretty much my experience from earlier today, too – the distance-based custom workout step transition alerts usually came between 10 to 40 metres too late (according to the lap distance reported by the watch itself on the data screens), and not very useful. I set myself ten sets of running 300m followed by 200m recovery, and I could see the lap distance get to 0.33km before I get a vibrating and visual alert, which hid the data screen momentarily; next thing I see is that the lap distance for the recovery part is already at 0.05km.
Hi
How does the Garmin FR235 work on rainy days or very hot days with sweat, are the records still work ?
regards
Beat
Not sure what you’re asking about the records, but my 235 works just fine when I’m running covered in sweat or soaked with rain. (I’m in the SE US so we get rain and some warm days even in winter)
Hi All
Would any current users of the 230 hrm be able to say if there are any current IQ apps that can be used on the 230 that would bridge the gap to The 630. ie are there any that would do the lactate threshold, stress score stuff. Thanks
I’m in the same position, choosing between the 230 and 630. It looks like the PEAR app for iPhone and Android has a lactate threshold test. Stress score I’m assuming my normal heart rate variability info will cover, but maybe I’m mistaken?
I’ve had my 235 since last Tuesday…love it.
BUT I’m no longer getting the notice to “move”. I’ve not changed anything…and it did work for a few days. I have HR monitoring on and the activity monitoring on as well.
Wondering why my unit is not providing notice that it’s time to get up and move around when it did.
BTW, my HR monitoring seems to be working very well. No I don’t have a strap to compare but when I slow my rate does goes down as well as speed up the rate goes up when I increase my run effort. I see on the app that my HR is a different number than my cadence so I don’t feel I have this issue. The app is showing different cadence values when compared to my recorded HR rates.
So far I’m very pleased with this unit/purchase.
Thanks again Ray!
Have you checked the garmin Connect app? Settings. .. 235 settings…. then you can turn on/off move alerts.
It’s on…
Actually it’s working. I guess I was moving around at work a bit more than I thought. Could be it monitors the resting HR rate. Maybe my rate is up from work stress…and though I’m sitting it’s still high enough with the arm movements etc to keep it higher than if sitting reading a book at home.
Either way…I got home and was sitting for a while and the screen flashed MOVE and the F235 vibrated. So it’s working.
Who would have thought…
Only other item I notice is that my calorie burn is low when I compare to my treadmill which I know is very high on the screen and wrong…but when compared to my Nike GPS watch the F235 is reporting much lower calorie burn for the same run length. I’da thought that with HR on that it would show a more accurate calorie burn since it has more than weight/height and of course the pace/speed you run at. I’m wondering why the F235 is less by almost 200 calories for the same run and effort.
Any guesses to my F235 fellow users?
Thank you!!!
When you wore the 235 in snowy conditions, were you able to still place it on your wrist in a place where you saw it and it seemed to track well? I’m in winter conditions here and hate fuddling with the strap so the 235 is a great idea for me, just wondering with my longer sleeves and running jacket if it would be an issue. That’s literally my biggest fear in dropping the money on this! Thanks in advance!
Yeah, I just placed it basically between the edge of my glove and my longsleeve shirt/coat. That was just far enough away from my wrist bone that it seemed to work.
What about pairing the MIO Link with the 230? Will you get the same metrics as the 235? I bought the 220 and the mio about a year ago. I have no need for 24/7 HR and hate to spend the extra money for the 235 if I can get the same info running using the mio. Any comments?
Does anyone know if Garmin reports gross calories (excess calories burned due to exercise + calories due to basal metabolism) or just the excess calories.
Garmin Speed & Cadence Sensor (Replaces GSC10) — I am interested in buying the aforementioned speed and cadence sensors and using to pair with the Forerunner 235 (purchased through Clever Training and happy with the watch for running, fitness tracking, etc.) for riding the rollers indoors. My concern is how the speed sensor works given my road bike has 700C tires and how the speed sensor knows this (as compared to a bike that has say 26 inch wheels and tires. I looked at some set up guides on YouTube, but did not see anything that mentions this. Is there a prompt in the set-up process when pairing with the Forerunner 235 that will ask what size tire is being used? Thanks!
I work at a desk treadmill and want to keep track of my steps. All the watches that are activity trackers use an internal accelerometer to measure steps which means your arm has to swing for the steps to register. Will the 235 work with a footpod for activity tracking or will a footpod only work when you are tracking a workout?
Anyone have issues where 24/7 heart rate is literly running 24/7 insted if pulling incrementally/ random checks. My battery won’t last more than a day now. The hrm light won’t shut off at night or when the watch is not even on my wrist. I’ve contacted garmin and they are looking into it but I’m curious to see if anyone else has had problems recently.
I am not. Only had the unit for 1 week but logged 6 runs. Wear the watch during the day at work and run at night on treadmill. Have only charged it 2 times. Original out of box…and 2 days ago where it was at 52% left. I shut off at night and don’t sleep with but am surprised at the daily ON time I have with HR and activity ON. Battery to me is lasting much longer than I thought it may.
My unit did do a FW update once I connected the app on my iphone and connected to the watch. My HR goes dim when I have the watch on the table off my wrist when I’m cleaning up after a run so I know my HR is not lit all the time with the FW its running.
Sorry about your unit. Hope you get it all sorted out!
First of all, thanks for the great review! I just bought this watch for marathon training and have only one complaint: I can’t seem to get my Garmin connect app to sync with the Strava app. I installed both apps, have accounts for both, and connected through the Strava app to Garmin connect, but its been three days and still nothing will show up in my Strava account and I’ve been on several runs.
Has anyone else had trouble syncing to Strava?? Any tips or tricks or steps I’m missing?
Thanks!
Sounds strange Hannah. I’ve had no issues syncing to Strava, and don’t think I had any wait time for it to start.
I would try revoking the permissions in Garmin link to connect.garmin.com
and try relinking the account direct in Strava to see if that might do the trick link to strava.com
I’m currently using a 230 and very happy with everything, cadence, instant pace, lap pace, 4 fields/page, GPS accuracy, chest strap, love it all. I was an early adopter and an early returner of the 235 due to so so many issues, mostly that instant pace lagging behind lap pace 30 seconds or so. Curiously, did I just get lucky that this 230 is performing so well, or did a software update since november correct the gap between instant and lap paces and that is why this watch is now so spot on? Also, has the OHRM improved at all for everyday use? If i were to pickup a 235 the OHRM would only be used during non-activity as I keep reading too many folks still having cadence lock issues.
Ray, Are you able to comment as to this? I’m hesitant to go back to the 235 due to the instant/lap pace issue that was present before, but if it is rectified then I’m less hesitant.
Awesome review! great details, (profile was a great idea, most helpful!) and the data hrm comparisons.
Thanks for your efforts! I have read your reviews for many items and do find them very helpful!
Does Garmin Replacement Band Forerunner 630 & 230 compatible with Forerunner 235?
In another word, can I install Garmin Replacement Band Forerunner 630 & 230 onto Forerunner 235?
Hi Ray,
I got an extra watch strap with my FR235. How do I change the watch straps? Thanks!
Wonderful Review! I bought the forerunner 235 because of it and have had it for 2 months.
After the last charge, I turned the watch back on. Now it displays the wrong time and date (before the charge and powering down) and I can’t correct or sync it with the app. Turned it off and on, firmware reset, app restart, phone restart…. Still no syncing with the app nor change to the correct date/time…
Has anyone else had that problem? Any tips on how to fix it?
Thanks!
Hi,
I don’t actually own said watches, but I did however give a FR230 to my brother.
I think he had such a problem, and after doing all that you described, he realized it had something to do with GPS signal acquisition. When he reacquired the signal it all went back to normal.
Hope it helps.
Yes mine did this too. I had to plug it in to the computer to kind of reboot it with the app. When you take it off the computer find the GPS signal. That should fix it
The same thing happened to me. I’ve tried everything I can find and nothing has worked, so I”m going to return it. It’s too bad because the features are improved in concept, but this is my third Garmin unit that’s failed and I think it’s time to move on to another brand.
If the FR230/235 is displaying the incorrect date, the only way to correct it is to 1.) have the Set Automatically toggle under Clock Options (or Settings→System→Clock) in the ‘on’ position; and then 2.) wait for the watch to acquire a GPS signal successfully. The process is automatic, and that is good, although ‘automatic’ sometimes means the user has no control over either the data values that are set or the timing of when it occurs; neither material ownership of the watch, nor the wilful demand for results here and now, on the part of the user makes any difference. The watch will not (and cannot be forced to) adopt the clock time on the computer or mobile device upon syncing, and there is no user-accessible means in either Garmin Connect online or a Garmin Connect Mobile app to set the date and time.
So this seems like the best place to ask about this issue.
I just received the Garmin 235 and the heart rate sensor is plain old faulty- for the most part it has been saying my heart rate is 66. Even when I’m not wearing the watch. I had a few other people put it on, and same thing. 66. Except for when I went for a quick mile run-then it said the heart rate wasn’t working. On the run I moved it, tightened it, switched wrists, turned it off and back on, turned heart rate off and back on.
I’ve connected it to my phone and it says its up to date (version 3.3). Anyone else had this issue, or have suggestions on what to do other than just return it?
Sounds like your heart rate monitor sensor is locked up. That happened to me a few times. Just go into:
Menu – Settings – Heart Rate Monitor
Turn off the HRM then turn it back on and it should work properly.
Unfortunately I’ve tried that multiple times now and that hasn’t done the trick.
Oops, I read through more of the comments on this page and see that I am definitely not the only one, and sending it back is the way to go. Lame Garmin, not a great first impression!
Anyone able to download the swim app from garmin connect & swim with the fr235?
What’s the exact name of the app?
Do I need to worry about the battery in my Garmin FR235 developing a charging “memory” or shortened life-span if I constantly recharge the battery without allowing it to occasionally discharge fully? Thanks.
No need to worry. “memory” was an issue with NiCd battery technology which most devices left behind years ago.
Thanks!
How can I reorder Connect IQ apps like data fields? The text REORDER shows up in the Connect app but so far I haven’t figured out how to make it work… :)
You change the order in the Garmin Connect App. I am able to change the order of the IQ Apps, but the reorder button on the app does not work in the Data Fields. Probably a bug.
I have 4 sections under Connect IQ Apps, “Applications”, “Widgets”, “Watch Faces” and “Data Fields”. All of them have a Reorder entry in the top right corner but none of them seems to work. So where exactly did it work for you?
That is where I accessed the reorder button. It works for me to reorder Applications and Widgets, but not Watch Faces or Data Fields.
I see, you’re right. I wonder why Gamin shows the button in the other two sections if it serves no purpose.
Hello Ray,
thank you for the great review. After reading the review it was clear that my next gps running watch will be a FR230 or FR235. But now, I´m not sure witch one to take. I read about the problems with the avg pace when the OHRM is on or that the OHRM doesn’t work with every arm. Now after days of reading comments, reviews and forums there are only two questions left.
Is the FR 235 exactly a FR230 if I turn the OHRM off? I mean in points of battery life and avg pace.
Is it possible that I turn the OHRM permanent off and a HRM strap permanent on or auto? So that the watch recognizes the HRM strap if i put it on automatically?
I hope you or the other guys from the community can help me and apologies for my not perfect english.
If you turn off the optical HR sensor, then yes, identical. And yes, you can add a HR strap and it’ll auto-pair to that for activities (but not for 24×7 HR).
Can I use an external monitor with the 230 for 24×7 monitoring?
I don’t think so.
Anyone have any idea why my FR235 heart rate widget would read a RHR of 50 while Garmin Connect would say 53 (after being synced)?
Does anyone know of a way to get an alarm when the unit is fully charged? I hate overcharging!
Can anyone comment on the turn around feature? I have the 225 but I run in a lot of places that I’m not familiar with. I’m shocked the watch can’t tell me when I’ve reached the half way point. Is this what the turn around feature on the 235 does?
Nice review.
I can see that there has been a couple of firmware updates since the review but they don’t seem to address battery life.
Can you comment on this? Is it just as bad as you initial testing?
I have to say I don’t see any issues with the battery life, so far it has been surprisingly awesome for me.
Does anyone know if on the customised fields I can display both current pace and average pace at the same time?
Ideally I’d like to see distance, average pace and current pace.
Tia.
No reason you shouldnt be able to. Up to 4 fields per customizable page, 2 pages are customizable.
Sure. I’ve got both along with HR and distance.
When I first started using the watch I was using 2 min run / 1 min walk intervals I had set this in both the programmed workouts and using their intervals section.
I have since deleted the ones I uploaded via garmin connect. And I have altered the one shown under interval.
When on INDOOR, everything works fine. But when I try to start an outdoor run, it still automatically sets it to a 2 min run interval and one min walk interval. The only way to override it is to set an interval that goes for miles…. Basically I want to do less intervals and try and run as long as I can now – without stopping. But the watch still defaults to these intervals even though they are not showing anywhere – and it only does it in RUN mode, not indoor run. Thoughts? What can I do to fix this?
Hi Ray,
Does the 235 use the HR to calculate any other parameters? If so, then if the HR measurement was incorrect the others would be as well. For instance if my HR was 140 but the OHRM was measuring it at 130 the other parameters would be wrong as well and I would not be aware that there was a problem.
Just the things like VO2Max/etc… so if HR was off, then those would be.
Hey Ray,
I know the 235 can create its own METS value, but is it comparable to the Firstbeat Athlete’s software number? I’m wondering if you have access to Firstbeat Athlete and if you’ve tried to import the files exported from the watch (using the optical HRM) and if Firstbeat Athlete can make sense of the files / generate the METS number. In the comparison chart you mention FB Athlete compatibility TBD, but not sure what that means. (If you don’t have FB Athlete, I could try to import files from the watch into the software and let you know what I get)
I want to buy the FR 235 but I’m a little worried about the optical HR.
I’ve read some comments on the internet that there are some issues with it and sometimes it’s not accurate enough. Can someone give me some new examples or comments why I should buy it?
Within the review there’s an entire sorta-detailed section on it: link to dcrainmaker.com
It’s titled: FR235 Optical Sensor – Workout Accuracy.
Beyond that, the vast majority of the 1,372 comments here are discussing the optical HR sensor accuracy. I’d say (and folks are welcome to disagree with me), that those comments on the whole mirror what I saw. It’s not perfect, but is mostly good in the majority of situations.
I have had a Forerunner 235 for 3 weeks and have used it only for indoor gym training (spinning mainly) so far. I lodged complaint with Garmin about it’s regular inaccuracy (still awaiting response). As a test I have been training with my Polar S720i on one arm and the FR235 on the other… The FR235 is being worn exactly as per the guidelines prescribe, and arm is not overly hairy, but it regularly rockets up or down for no apparent reason by +40bpm, and stays there for long periods then drops back to where the Polar HRM is measuring me – or it just shows inaccurate HR for long periods. I have checked actual HR many dozens of times with stopwatch and have checked accuracy of blinking heart icon on the Polar HRM continuously (feature that I miss on the FR235), and the polar has been correct every single time, whilst the FR235 has been giving very incorrect HRs. This morning during a 90min personal training session (no jerking etc at all to affect the optical wrist sensor) , it was totally inaccurate for 90% of the session… at a HR of 135 to 146bpm it was showing HRs of 35 to 75bpm for 40 minutes. I dried the watch and arm 3 times hoping that sweat might be causing the problem – the drying made no diff at all. So I am not a happy Chappie. I purchased the FR235 because Polar are not updating their infra red usb gizmo’s driver to operate on Windows 10 so I can no longer download my sessions. Below are 2 of the graphs showing the spikes – the 2nd one was this mornings session mentioned above. Also the battery life is a fraction of what it is claimed it should be – and I am not using GPS at all.
Hello
My foreruner 235 works perfectly except that he says I’m asleep when I actually went mountainbiking at 7PM and my sleeping time is set as 11 PM. Can someone help me with this?
Ride harder …. sorry couldn’t resist.
In all seriousness I don’t have an answer. But, I find that about once every two to three weeks the sleep tracker gets all wonky for some unknown reason. Mildly annoying when it happens but I quickly get over it by manually adjust the sleep time in the app or website. No biggie.
Just got my FR 235. I am concerned about what you said about pace notifications: – “Currently within structured workouts (those that you create online and download to your watch), the unit fails to alert on pace based sections of a custom workout (high/low alerts).”
Does that mean I won’t receive a beep or any indication when I am out of the pace range I have set? This is a BIG deal for me. Just want to clarify. And if not, how do you do a pace run?
Thanks for any feedback. I’ve already seen I can’t set up a custom pace interval run like I could on the FR 610, which is pretty disappointing; I suppose I need to do that inside Garmin Connect?
Thank you for the great review, Ray!
I bought a 235 for my wife, mainly because she doesn’t like wearing the chest straps. Unfortunately it’ll be going back. I don’t think this has been mentioned, but we found that the buttons are very easy to depress accidentally. Just from bending her wrist, she could hit the stop/start button on the upper left, so she lost her workout multiple times. The one time I tried using it, I inadvertently hit the button a few times too, though probably because I’m used to the “heavier” buttons of my 910XT and typically put my fingers around the whole unit when pressing one of the side buttons. I think I would have gotten used to it eventually.
We did find the HR monitor to be pretty accurate, albeit with the 15-20 second delay discussed at length.
We had no issues with the display, but didn’t use it in low light levels.
I would think if your wrists are activating buttons you are potentially wearing the watch too low on the wrist, in turn impeding the OHR performance. You could also try wearing it on the opposite side, I wear mine on the right wrist being a left handed writer.
I have only had that happen twice. The first time (the first time I used the watch), I was skate-skiing, and the cuff on my pole strap kept pressing the start stop button. I stopped and switched it to the right wrist, and it worked fine for the rest of the workout. The only other time was a couple weeks ago, when I was doing a strength workout. I don’t start an activity for my strength training, but for some reason I must have hit the buttons to start one, and I cannot figure out why. That has not happened before or since, and I do two workouts a day.
Maybe try it on the other wrist?
@dano: You can “lock” the device and stop its buttons from performing their normal functions, by holding down the Up button and then selecting Lock Device from the menu presented. When the device is locked, whenever a button is pressed the display will show the message, “Hold Up Key to Unlock” (and nothing else), which could be annoying because it means you cannot see the data screen until the message disappears, but at least it will prevent you from “losing” your workout or ending it prematurely.
I had this happen once. Now I just lock the device when I workout. Haven’t had a problem since. I setup my screen with 4 data sets and that’s all I really need whether running/cycling.
Ray – what are your thoughts – after so many complains about HR accuracy (including me), do you think that some watches are defective or is there anatomical differences and that’s the reason why HR isn’t working for so many people?
I think that i will return my watch as defective (i bought from Garmin).
I think issues fall into one of a few buckets, this applies to all optical HR sensors.
A) Bad algorithm/sensor issues for a specific scenario
B) Someone wearing it improperly (too lose, above wrist bone, etc…)
C) Body incompatibility with that particular sensor (i.e. skin tone, hair, tattoo, very-low body fat)
D) Simple a one-off bad unit
Many times, A-C can be solved by:
1) Sliding up/down wrist slightly, even 1cm
2) Changing to other wrist
3) Changing tightness
4) Putting on inside of wrist versus outside
I suspect the vast majority of issues are actually “B” (in first list), especially if folks are new to optical HR sensors. But there will no doubt be certain use cases where a company hasn’t nailed the sensor tech yet and it just doesn’t work for someone. If you look at however many tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of optical HR sensors Garmin (or anyone else) will ship – you’re going to run into issues on some percentage of the population. My guess is between 1-5%.
Garmin have agreed to replace my FR235 after seeing the exercise session graphs that I sent. I must say that I have a worry that the wrist sensor design may be flawed, so I am not optimistic that the replacement will solve the problem, however I will test it.
Hello everyone.
I am considering buying my first GPS watch. I care about GPS accuracy the most. I train MOSTLY on the track. I want a watch that tracks the distance accurately on the track. A friend of mine has the fr 235. The watch is 20 meters off per lap ! What are your thoughts on GPS accuracy on the track ? I am considering the fr 235/230/225 or the polar m400.
Thanks in advance.
A typical 400m track is about the worst application for a GPS watch. You’re turning more than you’re going straight, and that’s exactly what GPS isn’t so good at due to it measuring distance between readings. If you’re looking for really high accuracy on a track just count your laps.
You didn’t mention whether it read high or low, or whether you’d factored in the different distances across the lanes. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it were underreporting due to corner-cutting, so a typical 1-3% accuracy easily turns into 5% inaccuracy, so I’d say it’s not bad for running on an oval track barring undisclosed circumstance.
Thank you for your reply George.
I am more than familiar with how to count the distance on the track. I want to buy a watch to log my activities and monitor my pace and for most reasons that people consider when they want to buy a GPS.
I read a lot of GPS watches reviews on various sites. I am a really surprised that no one comments on the usage of these watches on an oval running track. I assume that many runners run on a track as part of their training.
Moreover, I some times I use the Nike+ app on my iPhone 4 on the track. The app/my phone is step on accurate ! The moment that I step on the finish line, the app marks 400 meters. You will be surprised by it’s accuracy. I would expect a similar performance from my watch. 1-3% error is fine. However, if the watch is 10 meters off, then there is no use to it.
Issa, not to be argumentative, but 10 meters error on a 400 meter track is 2.5%. I think it is highly likely that your iPhone is no more precise that the 230 or 235. Consumer grade GPS chips are typically accurate to the same degree (which varies based on the constellation of satellites at the moment).
I suspect that there is a lot more variation in how YOU RUN on the track, than there is in the hardware measuring it, either Apple or Garmin. For instance, the 400m track is measured on the inside line (well, actually 20-30cm from the inside of the inside line, if it is a IAAF certified track). If you pass somebody on a curve, for instance, it could easily account for the 10 m discrepancy. Or if the track is a high school track, or a community track, it may not even be close to accurate.
I am not making excuses for Garmin, either. I have issues with the HRM, which I find has a tremendous amount of “lag” when initiating an activity recording. But I am hoping for the best and thinking Garmin will provide a firmware update to cure it (they are typically pretty responsive to clearly improper firmware.
If you are happy with your iphone, and feel it is more accurate than a Garmin, then stay with the iPhone (if you don’t mind carrying the thing). Personally, I love the idea of accurate HRM without a strap, and a watch-based system rather than carrying a phone, but that is just me. You need to find what works for you.
Either way, let us know what you decide, and how it works out for you.Others will undoubtedly find your insight useful in their decision-making process.
Thank u for your reply bcblues.
I am not trying to be argumamtative. I just want to hear the opion of those who use the watch on a track. I want to decide on a watch to buy, which I am going to use on the track more than the road.
Wondering if there is a way to sync my FR 235 data (steps, calories burn, etc.) to the Fitbit app. I like the Fitbit app better than garmin connect app.
I’m just curious if anyone has had any issue with using the F235 for things other than running/cycling. I do those both myself, but I also do a crossfit like program in-house. I am coming from a Fitbit Surge, which recorded my heartrate properly, while the F235 has not. I’ve already asked Garmin for a new one (as I felt the one I purchased might have had a faulty heart rate monitor), but i’m having the same problems.
Case in point, did a cardio program with F235 on one arm and the Surge on the other. top heart rate was 182 (personal test), surge had me 178…the forerunner had me at 117. Am I missing something?
Hi hoping someone can explain something to me, during a run I get a coloured bar appear on the right hand side of the watch face and I can’t find anywhere what this is telling me, I thought it was heart rate zone but it’s clearly not as it does not match the heart rate zone screen when I show it, thanks in advance
That coloured ‘bar’ – more accurately, a segmented curve – tracing the right edge of the display tells you which of the data screens (which you can scroll through using the ^ and v buttons) you’re looking at. One of the segments will be thicker than the rest and in a different colour. If, for example, in Run»Activity Settings»Data Screens you have enabled all of:
• Screen 1 (N.B. there is no option to disable this)
• Screen 2
• Heart Rate
• HR Zone Gauge
• Clock
then the curve will have five segments, and if you’re looking at the HR Zone Gauge during a run the fourth segment from the top will be thicker and shown in yellow instead of grey.
Hi thanks for taking the time to answer
let me show your guys a simple upstairs & downstairs test here.
During the test I runned once(13th peak) while other cycles are much relaxed and the last cycle I walked very very slow.
235 HR:
Scosche Rhythm+ HR is just far better in this test.
Haven’t gotten any feedback on this yet; does anyone do Custom Workouts using pace? I could set my 610 to a pace range (say between 7:30 and 7:50 mile pace), and it would give an alert (beep) if I were under or over pace. Don’t see that on the FR 235. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance.
You do that in the Workouts section on the Garmin Connect web site.
1. Create a workout of type Run
2. Click/tap on [Add a Step] – the type should default to Run (as opposed to Recover, Rest, etc.)
3. Click/tap on [Select a duration…]
4. Choose either Time… or Distance… as the metric for the duration
5. Enter its numeric value (e.g. 05:00 for time-based duration)
6. Click/tap on [Add more…]
7. Click/tap on [Select an intensity target…]
8. Select Pace…
9. Enter the pace range you want
(then you do the rest of the editing, save the Workout, and sync it to your FR235.)
I don’t know if it would give an alert (beep) when below or above the specified pace range, and I’m not about to try it out for myself right now at 2AM, sorry.
Thanks. I know how to create the workout,. Was wondering if i could create a pace ramge one with the watch, and do want to know about the alerts when out of range. I’ll have to check it out but right now am on ice with a bum knee…
No problem.
I’ll assume “was wondering if” means you don’t know the answer. Directly through the FR235’s user interface on the watch itself, you’re only able to create and/or edit an Intervals workout comprising:
• optionally, a Warm Up step, that is ended by a press of the Lap button; and
• between 2 and 99 (inclusive) sets/reps of:
— a Run step, for a set duration (‘Time’) or a set distance, or to be ended by a press of the Lap button (‘Open’); followed by
— a Rest step, for a set duration (‘Time’) or a set distance, or to be ended by a press of the Lap button (‘Open’); and
• optionally, a Cool Down step, that is ended by a press of the Lap button.
You cannot additionally specify an intensity parameter/zone – with a metric such as HR, Cadence or Pace – for any of the steps in such Intervals workouts.
I experimented with a pace-based custom workout created in Garmin Connect online earlier today, and I received neither vibrating nor visual alerts when I was out of the specified zone by being either too fast or too slow. (I don’t know if the watch beeped, since I was wearing headphones with music playing through them, but I seriously doubt it did.)
I also experimented with a distance-based custom workout created in Garmin Connect online, and as described in my comment posted above, even though I got vibrating and visual notifications moving from one step to the next, they often came unreasonably late (by up to 40 metres according to the lap distance reported by the watch itself). Even if pace-based custom workouts actually generated out-of-zone notifications, they would not be particularly useful – to me, at least – if there could be a delay of 10 to 12 seconds from when the watch has the data to make a determination.
Thanks, that’s what I understood to be the case after reading the review on FR235. The watch has many features I really like, but this is a BIG minus for me. My solution appears to be to just use my FR 610 when doing pace or distance intervals. I get the beep when out of zone (pace), and a 5 second countdown when doing timed or distance intervals. This seems like a BIG oversight by Garmin. Do you suppose this could be fixed/ adjusted thru software? I don’t know enough about programming to know, but if so I will follow up w Garmin.
Thanks again for the feedback.
I’m sure it can be changed in the FR235’s firmware, if Garmin is of a mind to do so. I do like the idea of a countdown until the next preprogrammed interval, although with distance-based intervals, I would have thought the countdown would also need to be distance-based (e.g. 50,40,30… metres to next interval) instead of assuming the current pace would continue for the remaining 50,40,30… metres and hence determine the point in time that would be five seconds before the next interval.
The user can now get pace out-of-zone alerts for custom workouts on the FR235 – and I suppose the FR230 – with firmware v4.10 released earlier today.
(Yes, I’ve tested it. Can’t tell you how long the delay is between breaching the pace threshold and getting notified, though.)
Scouring the reviews so I don’t repeat a question! I’m overdue to buy my first running watch as I’ve been increasing my mileage and intensity My weekly workouts do include mixed interval training (from the PEAR app) and it has me targeting specific HR ZONES For training. based on your reviews it seems you can download training plans based on pace. Can you do so for HR? And will there be voice prompts to let you know you are out of zone? I already asked and found out the voice prompts won’t connect to wireless earphones. But will such voice prompts go to the phone??? Thanks so much. Probably overthinking the purchase but I’m excited to try and get the best watch for my needs. Thank you so much
Hi!! I’m not a runner I’m a power walker. I do a lot of 5k and my best time has been 32:08 so far. I walk pretty fast and I’m looking for the best watch for walking. I have tried many and was thinking about the 230. I was wondering can you use it in run mode then change it to walk in the app so it reflects I was walking not running. I had a polar 400 and liked it but it broke so I’m using vivoactive at the moment. The vivoactive always seems off on mileage for me. I do like that polar and vivoactive have walk modes and chest heart rate monitors.
Michelle,
Just took a look at my run from this morning. I can go in and change the category to say it was Casual or Speed Walking, so it should do what you are looking for.
Same here. I’m a walker too. I use the Hike IQ app.
Thanks Ryan!!! It’s between this watch and the Polar 400 again. I’m glad to know you can change it to speed walking. How are you liking the watch.?? Do times and mileage seem accurate??
Hi Jonathan!! What is hike HQ app??
It’s a connect IQ app. U can upload to ur watch through either the Google connect smartphone app or when connected to a computer.
Been very pleased with the 235. 0 concerns with the timing/mileage.
I got my new garmin from amazon and it doesn’t turn on. the computer doesn’t recognize the usb and the watch will not take a charge at all. It just has the screen with the charging battery on it but nothing changes once plugged into the computer. It is not the computer because my old garmin and all other usb work fine. PLEASE HELP this watch was $250 and I was hoping to use it for my half marathon tomorrow.
You should be able to try a soft or hard reset. Also, try holding down the power button for 15-20s, that might get it back to where it should be.
Can anyone attest to how accurate the accelerometer at determining pace, distance, etc? The Garmin website says it builds a table of data for different paces and distances from outside runs with gps. Does this seem to be true or is it just like a foot pod and its calibrated to your “normal” pace? I’m primarily running on an indoor track at the moment and it can be difficult to keep track of 50-60+ laps. Thanks!
Just started using the 230, but have both the 220 and the much older 60. Both ‘learned’ my pace after about 10 runs or so. The 220 used the internal GPS while I used the foot pod on the FR60 and cross checked with a phone GPS. I expect the 230 to do the same.
Did the 220 give consistent data at different paces in your experience? I do 6-10 mile runs for most part, but I have to throw in some 2 milers because thats what I’m evaluated on.
I’ve only done 2 runs with the 230 and the 220. Both readings were less than 1 tenth of a mile difference between them
I’ve only done 2 runs with the 230 and the 220. Both readings were less than 1 tenth of a mile difference between them
Sorry that should be 100th. Not 10th
Strange thing happened: I did a 27km run and it registered everything as it normally does – speed, elevation, pace, cadence, HR, … but after saving the activity, I noticed there was no map in GC. After checking the FIT file, I saw that all points of my track have the same coordinates (0,0)! I suspected that there was something wrong while running, because the autopause didn’t work. I didn’t run again so far so don’t know if it does it again. Anyone ever experienced this behaviour?
Did you have the GPS turned off?
Hi Tim, I had the same issue yesterday evening. Was this a one-time thing for you or is there a more serious issue?
Having the same problem here with a Forerunner 230, starting with a run on the 22nd February. GPS was definitely switched on, and it said ‘GPS ready’ before I started. But it seems it didn’t record any track for the run. I’ve tried loading the FIT file in Garmin Connect, and Strava, and Basecamp, it just doesn’t show any map.
I have now tried resetting the watch to default settings, and powering it off then on again. It seems to be working again now, and recording GPS.
There’s a new firmware version available (v4.10), maybe that fixes the problem.
Well, since the issue occured I did not manage to run yet. Biked to work this morning and the gps recorded it correctly, but like Craig’s my Forerunner updated yesterday to 4.10 & rebooted automatically. It still puzzles me how it managed to track speed, heigth etc. but not the coordinates. As if the GPS was definitely ON and registering, but all the data except the coordinates was actually recorded. If it happens again (hopefully not again during a race I worked half a year towards) I will publish it here.
I read this question before but didn’t see if there were any replies because I wasn’t having this issue at the time. My 235 has quit giving me the “move” notifacation. I’ve turned it off and restarted it and still nothing. Any ideas? Thank you.
Two things:
1. Go to Activity Tracking settings. (Press Select·Down·Up·Up·Select·Up·Up·Up·Select from the watch face.) Are the toggle switches for Status and Move Alert both set to ‘On’?
2. You indicated in an earlier comment that you are using a different watch face than Garmin’s standard Digital watch face. I don’t know whether a custom Connect IQ watch face can suppress Move Alerts.
I received my 235 from REI at the end of January. Outside of the optical HR monitor, I really like the watch and decided to wear a strap when I exercise and use the optical monitor for 24×7 tracking and for power walks with my dog. I found that for 24×7 tracking, the results were very blocky, the rate would stick at one rate for 15 to 20 mintues at a time. I know that the sampling is less frequent, but this is ridiculous. For the walks, sometimes the data made sense and sometimes it was absurd, way below where it should be or way higher.
I went to my local REI to exchange it yesterday. At first, it seemed to work much better, but this morning the 24×7 pattern had the block pattern again. Also on my walk yesterday, the rate dropped for about 5 minutes at about the 25 minute mark before recovering (on an uphill segment). I also could not get the backlight duration to change so I called Garmin.
Regarding the backlight, changing the amount of time it is on only affects activities. In watch mode or menu mode, it only stays on for 5 seconds unless you press a button. I wish the user could make that decision. Regarding heart rate monitoring, they are working on a firmware update to address these issues and expect it soon. They don’t have a release date but I got the feeling it would be less than a month.
Finally, I have noticed that the calorie estimates are lower than my Suunto Ambit/Firstbeat estimates for similar workouts. From what others post, Garmin estimates tend to be lower than other products. Garmin confirmed that the calories estimated are net of BMR calories. For example, if you burn 600 calories in an hour and your BMR is 2400 calories or 100/hour, your total burn would be 700. Garmin estimates the incremental amount. Most other manufactures do not net out the BMR calories.
When I first started using the watch I was using 2 min run / 1 min walk intervals I had set this in both the programmed workouts and using their intervals section.
I have since deleted the ones I uploaded via garmin connect. And I have altered the one shown under interval.
When on INDOOR, everything works fine. But when I try to start an outdoor run, it still automatically sets it to a 2 min run interval and one min walk interval. The only way to override it is to set an interval that goes for miles…. Basically I want to do less intervals and try and run as long as I can now – without stopping. But the watch still defaults to these intervals even though they are not showing anywhere – and it only does it in RUN mode, not indoor run. Thoughts? What can I do to fix this?
Hi Ray, thanks so much for your awesome work! I’ve been using the Garmin 230 since December and really enjoy it! I did notice an unusual bug this past week. All of the sudden, the map/elevation data of my runs are either not being recorded or not saving properly upon export. I’ve only been exporting via bluetooth the Garmin Connect App (IOS.)
All other data: time, distance, cadence, is recorded.
Any thoughts?
Thanks so much!
Wife and I have both had our F235’s for just under a month. For running only thus far. We are happy with the devices for sure.
So may be a silly question…we also mountain bike a bit. This watch has a cycling mode. Less any Garmin Ant+ added devices…what will the F235 do for us while biking? GPS on list the miles and provide some form of matrix data based on HR effort etc? I have not played with this portion/activity of this yet. Only done indoor running primarily and some outdoor running.
Any info on cycling would be great.
I may need one of the new Vivoactive HR’s too…just to have for daily use. I really iike the styling of this new offering. GPS is a must for me as well as Ant shoepod; HR and daily monitoring.
Many thanks again RAY!
I cycle every other day with the watch. So far it has been great. It will record cadence, speed, elevation gain and HR. It will also automatically sync with Strava if that’s what you use.My only complaint currently is with the reliability of the HRM, it seems to drift at least once or twice with each ride…. Gets annoying especially when training in HR Zones…
i have a sport watch with GPS and optical HR monitor but find the GPS speed inaccurate so am looking to replace it. Features most important to me are: accurate optical HR, upper HR range alarm, live-tracking of my position and elevation on GPS map, emergency button, step and stair counter, speed in MPH, distance, screen readable in sunlight. I haven’t found one device that has all these features. Can you please name one or more? thank you.
A senior.
Love the review! I was wondering how good is it on the track? What would be the settings I would use for Track workouts?
Hi Ray,
I think the link given in the “Heads up – Feb 23rd, 2016!” note at the top is incorrect, and that you wanted to link to http;//www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/01/garmin-vivosmarthr-review.html instead of the old Vivoactive in-depth review you posted in April.
Thanks again for your tireless and brilliant efforts. Your reviews are always a trusted primary source of information.
Oops, no, that link I gave is wrong as well, sorry. Too bad I cannot go back and delete my stupid comment!
Doh, I’m stupid. Thanks for the heads up! Fixed!
I see in the latest forerunner 235 firmware update (3.30 to 4.10) there is a reference to “virtual partner pace” issue being fixed… I’m confused I thought the virtual partner pace was a feature that ended up not being included in the 235. I’ve looked and cannot find anything about a virtual partner, what am I missing?
I’ve had the 235 since early December, my first GPS watch, it’s perfect for me.
link to www8.garmin.com
Change History
Changes made from version 3.30 to 4.10:
Added support for speed/pace and heart rate audio prompts.
Added support to download stored heart rate data from compatible straps (HRM-Tri and HRM-Swim).
Fixed an issue in which the virtual partner pace could get set to 4:00/mile when switching between activity profiles.
Includes various bug fixes and stability improvements.
Stupid question…
New FW is available. How do I load it? I’ve not connected my F235 to a PC yet. Can’t the Iphone Express APP do this? I log’d into connect.garmin website and hit the update button on my phone. It then says open in “connect” then it opens the app on my iPhone and does nothing.
???
What am I missing?
THANKS!
Pretty sure u have to use Garmin Express and/ or Connect to update the software. ?
You can also use Garmin WebUpdater, which works super-well with USB connected devices. It’s just a tiny little download and doesn’t require logging in or anything.
Well a new episode has arrived. After finding out that the announced virtual partner feature wasn’t there, after finding out that the alerts for interval training aren’t properly functioning, now yesterday I went out on a run, only to find out Garmin Connect (nor Endomondo,…) are showing a map.
Everything else is fine (distance run, cadence,…) just… no map. A few others reported it on the Garmin forum, and some Garmin guy announced they are investigating.
Very disappointing. I am starting to regret having given up my Tomtom Runner. Far more basic, but at least everything there worked without a hitch…
Come on Garmin, get your act together…
The pace and HR out-of-zone alerts for custom workouts are working as of firmware v4.10, which was announced and available several hours before you made the post above.
link to forums.garmin.com
So Garmin got its act together on at least one of the issues you cited.
By the way, I’m glad to hear the TomTom Runner worked well for you. I had to return my TomTom Spark Cardio+Music due to its lack of reliability (i.e. frequently crashing and resetting when it hit the Cool Down phase of my Intervals workout, and losing the session data) and TomTom’s failure to deliver on its marketing promise of smartphone notifications. Many have reported on the TomTom discussion forum having issues pairing with phones (running Android 6.0), sensors (Polar H7, which TomTom lists as compatible) and headphones, and it doesn’t look like those issues are getting fixed in a hurry by firmware updates either.
Thanks, I’ve updated the review in the bugs section!
Ok I’m confused!! Got my Garmin 230 paired it last night no problem. Well today I tried to use the find my phone feature and it does not work. So I started looking. Phone says the watch is connected via Bluetooth but in the Garmin app it’s changed my paired device as a 220. I tried to unpair the 220 I never added and it does not show it under items to unpair. Weird. I try adding the 230 back and it can not find it now. What is going on???
Michelle, try pairing your FR 230 from within the Garmin Connect app. At first I was pairing from the watch and also from my Android phone setup. It was always patchy and not very good. By accident I found the pair function in the phone app. I used it and have had no problems since.
Hope this helps
I’ve currently got a 620, but upgrading to the 235. On my 620 after I finished a run, I would always manually turn off the GPS to save power. Does the 235 have this feature, or does it automatically turn off GPS after you finish an activity.
No, it shuts off as soon as you exit the activity that utilises the GPS
Great review!! I am interested to buy a new Forerunner but I have doubts between FR 235, FR225 and FR620.
Currently I have a FR910xt but I would like to change because I am only running and cycling and new FR may be used as activity tracker. Also I would like to try wrist heart monitor but I do not know if it makes sense.
Waiting your recommendation.
Kind regards
Fernando
OK, so I need to use my PC to update the FW.
duh…
So has anyone done the new 4.10 FW to the F235?
Any improvements…or losses?
Thanks!
Unless you want the running alerts offered by the update, I have experienced significantly worse HRM performance since the update. Not sure why, since this update is not supposed to involve the HRM sensor. Yet my experience has been terrible.
I like the audio feedback on HR zone, but on the other hand, I can’t understand it. I usually listen to the radio through earbuds when running, I hear it say HR Zone and spit out a number but it’s choppy and I can’t understand it…
Thanks for a great review, I bought my 235 because of it and am quiet happy with it.
However I recently bought a Garmin Cadence Sensor (010-12102-00) for my bike but i cannot get to pair it.
I tried to usual troubleshooting, update to latest firmware (now on 4.10) etc. The sensor itself is active and in the shop they were able to pair with another ant+ computer.
According to the instructions you just need to activate the sensor and hold it with 1 cm of the watch. But nothing happens… I tried with the watch in different modes, bluetooth on/off (In case it interferes), while in settings, sensor and accessories menu… But still no reaction, very frustrating, has anyone any tips has anyone else been able to pair this specific sensor with a 235? Any help greatly appreciated
I had my watch in cycling mode and held it to the cadence sensor for about 15-30 secs before it finally picked it up. I was literally touching the watch to the sensor…
Like Aaron, I too need to ensure the watch is so close to the sensor you almost rip your arm off in the process. I’ve also noted that ‘for me’ for consistency I need to wear the watch on the same side as the sensor to reduce the distance and prevent drop outs. As far as not being able to connect, try the good ol’ shut down restart?
I, too had to first activate the sensor by rotating the wheel (I spun the wheel for at least a minute), then I attempted to pair the device. I first held it very close but not touching, and nothing happened. I then touched the watch to the sensor (not easy to do mounted on the backside of the crank arm). Eventually it paired. I have not used the sensor enough to know if there are connectivity issues.
Thanks all for the tips, I tried all of the above, shutdown watch, spun for a minute, watch touching the sensor for a minute as well, in cycle mode and in watch mode But still o joy :-( I have also contacted Garmin UK about this issue a few days ago but they haven’t responded yet…)
You do not pair the watch to the sensor in cycling mode (not in an activity at all). You go to settings, Sensors and Accessories, and that is where you pair the device initially. After it is paired, it will automatically connect when you enter and activity where that data is required for a field.
Hi bcblues, thanks for that comment. I can go to Settings, “Sensors and Accessories” but when I try to enter it it says ‘No Sensors Paired” and returns to “Sensors and Accessories”. I tried to pair while in that menu and also while it displays ‘No Sensors Paired”. Its dark now so I can easily see that the sensor is active as it green led blinks after a few revolutions. I keep the watch with the face touching the sensor and waited up to 1 minute but still no joy :-(
What should happen, do you remember? Does the watch beep (like when it fins a gps signal?)
an HIIT test here.
work time=rest time=60s.
235:(what a mess!!)
scosche rhythm+:
scosche rhythm+:
Ray, can you get clarification on the new FW. Garmin lists virtual partner fix and hrm-swim capability addition. That can’t be accurate, is it? There is no virtual partner function and no swim activity.
This FW update (4.10) is for multiple units, the 230/235 are only some of them. Those units that HAD the VP have a fix for it included in the update, No new features were included in the update.
As for the swim pieces, it’s the HRM-SWIM & HRM-TRI. But it’s specifically for the HR download piece, not adding swim functionality. Basically, those pieces are using the standard ANT+ store/forward functions – so this is just adding that capability to them.
Hello all,
I went through the article and comments but i did not notice few points regarding to FR235:
1 – is possible to switch off HR daily activity monitor and keep only stepcounter?
2 – if yes, is battery life the same like FR230 (up to 5 weeks)?
3 – is possible to switch of HR tracking for an activity if I do not need it (for example cycling)?
4 – if yes is battery life with GPS the same like FR230 (up to 16 hours)?
5 – is there assumption that HR accuracy will improve with next software updates?
I have now FR610 and I am really satisfied. I would like replace them and deciding between 230 and 235. Because I have reada lot of in comments about bad optical HR accuracy, I am wondering if 235 is worth of these money, and in worst case, whether I will get the same battery performance as 230 if I use external belt HR sensor.
1- Yes
2- Yes (I assume)
3- Yes
4 – Yes (I assume)
Thanks for the great in-depth review. This may be a generic question for all Gramin devices that encode data 1-sec intervals. What resolution of data do you get when you export (e.g., CSV) from Garmin Connect? And do you get all data variables recorded for display? For instance, Suunto Ambit devices export ~7 variables (not including VO2 max @ 1-sec resolution).
Thanks,
John
Does this watch track run/walks?
Yes it does do run walks and it does it quite well as I use that for when running with my wife. You can do it two ways, use the watches run/walk feature but I prefer to do it via a custom workout. The reason for the custom workout is that it gives me accurate pace date per portion of run and walk rather than just having a cumulative 1km split.
*pace data* not date :-(
Never seen such a great review, thank you very much for the deep insights on the watch. Keep going.
Wow!!! I had been looking for a deep and full review of Garmin products with HR sensor like this one. Hope you can add ahead one more column for Fenix 3 HR. Amazing work! Thanks.
Any idea when Garmin will release a handlebar mount for the FR235? It will need to be recessed to protect the HR window. Thanks!
They have the rubber block mount for watches, which works with these just fine. You wouldn’t really need to worry about scratches from the rubber one on the plastic lens. I think that’s pretty low-risk.
gramin 235 perfomance just too bad in HIIT when compared to HR strap.
I just got my FR235 and got it tweaked to my likings. The only thing I couldn’t find anywhere is information about Data Recording, which can be set to SMART or EVERY SECOND. Does this option relate to everyday-usage (24×7 HR, steps, …) only or does this include started activities?
Or the other way round, if I choose SMART, will I, during a run, get HR-, cadence- and distance-measurements every second or will it then measure ‘smart’, too?
Smart & 1s recording only relate to your recorded activities.
On the garmin 235 forum, a member mentioned having much worse performance with the built-in OHRM after the 4.1 software upgrade. I was experiencing the same. For me it was on HIIT type activities on the ‘Other’ activity profile. The forum member also was using Other. He/she then tested switching to the ‘Run’ profile and had great results. I did the same this morning, switching from Other to Run. I turned off GPS, and did a 30 minute interval lower body workout. And I got probably the best performance ever by the OHRM. Granted this is a whopping statistical sample of 1. But I have more interval workouts the rest of the week, and will do those on the ‘Run’ profile as well. Will report back on results.
That’s kind of annoying of that’s the case. A heart rate should be a heart rate regardless of what setting the watch is on. But it gives me hope that maybe the problem can be fixed. I don’t have nearly as good of a reading when I am in spin class. It’s a lot of up/ down fast/slow type work. My heart rate will show in the 130’s when I know it is MUCH more then that. So maybe there is hope
Ray,
I am using the Gamin Footpod on w/F235. Having great success at FW 3.30. Have it manually calibrated since the weather in PA has not allowed outdoor runs yet for GPS auto calibration of the pod.
I’ve not seen any cadence lock far as HR is concerned. Very happy. And won’t upgrade to 4.10 till I get more positive feedback.
Question is…does the value set manually for shoepod calibration directly affect the cadence recording/values? I’m using 98.2 as the manual value and my tests from previous runs show this to be accurate for my F235 to read what my previous devices did for a run while using the Garmin shoepod.
So does it makes sense that if the mileage per a run is OFF for a poorly calibrated shoepod would the cadence numbers during the run and log’d afterward be wrong too? Note my other device did not feature cadence or HR. But over all mileage was accurate on the treadmill for my runs. Meaning this new data is great from the F235 but I’ve no bench line except to see that now that’s it calibrated for the run mileage. And I see I’m in the 185 to 190 cadence average for a run. BUT what is my final mileage was OFF by .25 short or long? Would the cadence numbers be off too?
THANKS!
GMRO
My forerunner 235 is now stuck on HeartRate 66. It worked fine for about 6 weeks and I upgraded to firmware 4.10 last week but heartrate has been working fine until yesterday. I was still troubleshooting pairing a garmin cadence sensor when I noticed the heartrate was stuck at 66. I have seen quiet a few people have reported this heartrate-stuck-at-66 problem and combined with my bad and so far fruitless experience of pairing a cadence sensor I do onder now if I have a very expensive piece of crap sitting in my wrists? I reported the pairing problem with Garmin Support UK last weekend but I haven’t heard from them yet, I logged this heartrate problem last night so that probably will take a week as well if I will hear from them at all :-( I do wonder if I made the right choice buying this watch…
I have been using a footpod and it is on my shoes for most of my outdoor runs and all of my indoor track and treadmill runs. The footpod/watch was always slightly showing me at a faster pace. But then the past 3 runs both on a random gym treadmill and one I often run on, show my watch/footpod at a slower pace. So I think I am completing a mile and really have a bit to go. In reverse, the original way, it was less an issue, since I was going faster. But not, I feel like I am going fast (based on treadmill numbers) but footpod and watch say I am at a slower pace. It is super annoying. And even on a constant treadmill this is happening. Any idea why? Was there an update? What could have changed to make this happen on pretty much every treadmill this past week?
And is there a way to reset the footpod and start from scratch – or even manually calibrate with the 235?
Thanks!
Can’t say what to reset…
BUT wife and I both have F235’s @ 3.30 FW. And we have the garmin pods on our shoes. We have them setup to record our close to older equipment which we feel was right…
I set them manually with a value in the watch I set based on 6 different runs we each took on our treadmills. I have the AUTO calibration in the watch set to OFF and I have set a manual value. MIne is lower…hers actually needed to be set higher. I can say run after run we are not seeing a difference that matters.
BUT we have not run outside yet, PA is cruddy still, and we have not used the GPS on the F235 yet either. Nor used the AUTO on the watch.
My understanding from Garmin is when you set a manual number you need to toggle OFF the AUTO in the watch.
To me that worked.
Hope you get it sorted out.
PS> I don’t plan to use my pod for outdoor runs. I only want to use GPS but again the weather has not allowed this yet. Next week I may get out to try it and I’ll use my same older equipment too since I know my route with it and it was GPS as well. I’m anxious to see what the F235 shows.
ALSO worth a note…is my HR has never locked on my cadence rate either. I’ve always been at 3.30 FW and I’ve always used the shoepod too. I’m hoping that when I go GPS alone that the HR is not buggy.
GOOD LUCK!
Thanks GMRO,
Do you know under what menu the auto can be turned off? I do not see anything in the manual about this.
Also, any tips or places to read up on setting this manually? How’d you decide what to set it at?
Hi Jodi,
Go to SETTINGS.
Chose SENSORS AND ACCESSORIES
Scroll to your POD
IT can BE ON OR OFF
Scroll to CALIBRATION FACTOR
Once you go into that you can turn off AUTO CALIBRATION with the toggle.
Then scroll to SET VALUE and chose a value.
You can manually set it there.
Garmin has a formula but I found my wife’s was off as mine was while still using their formula. For 2 miles she was reading 1.83. I had to UP the value to 104 and it got her runs within .03 on the short side Her normal is 5K and 2mile runs and now its as close as we can expect.
Mine over shot by .20 distance in 4.5mile runs. I found my value needed to be 98.2 and I’m within .04 on the short side. If I move the calibration my longer runs record less…by .10 so I’ve left it at this and feel this is pretty good for my runs.
Using Garmins formula my pod should be at 96.4 but when I did that I was short by a lot so I decided to just play.
I’d think your cadence and stride could be a factor so I’m not in full belief that a std formula is going to get you as close as playing/running a few and tweaking. I’m 5’ 10” and my wife is 4’ 9”.
I’d think with AUTO calibration on and running a few runs with GPS on it should get close as it can. BUT again in PA we are not running outside yet.
Here is Garmins formula:
Actual distance traveled, divided by (÷) distance displayed on watch, multiplied by (x) current Calibration Factor. To illustrate, you perform a 4-mile run, but the watch displays 4.47 miles, and the current calibration factor is 100.0%. The new calibration factor will be 89.5% (4 ÷ 4.47 x 100.0).
Thank you again – I will have to play with this. I am not math oriented so this is confusing to me. :( I wish it would just work. :)
Hey Ray, thanks for the great review as always. I really appreciate all the work you put in to these.
My question is a simple one. Since this is intended to be worn 24/7, would you recommend a screen protector? And if so, what kind? I saw there is both glass as well as a flimsier kind. I previously had the 220 and no issues with scratches but only wore it for runs. I’m concerned with banging up the 235 at work or around the house.
Thanks again!
No issues that I’ve seen. It takes a far whack to get a scratch, but the majority of the time it just bounces off.
Most of the cosmetic damage on my FR235 are copped by the slightly raised plastic rim around the screen on the chassis; I can feel the nicks and unevenness when I trace the rim with my fingertip. Given the shape of the watch, the likelihood that the screen gets into contact with another hard surface or edge before other parts of the watch taking the initial impact is fairly low. Obviously, it’s still possible to accidentally to bump the screen into the corner of a table, etc.
In any case, screen protectors of reasonably quality are so cheap (e.g. €3.99 for six pieces of Savvies SU75 with free shipping worldwide from Germany), you can always just put one on, and keep it there for your peace of mine unless it noticeably reduces readability of the display for you.
I’m experimenting with a BROTECT Matte screen protector on mine, mainly to reduce glare and reflections outdoors, but unfortunately it makes the display almost impossible for me to read when indoors on in the shade. I might swap it for a SU75 myself later and see if that works better visually.
My bad experience with Garmin 235 continuous :(
Yesterday i wen for slow hike with my dog. I set my Garmin to outdoor running and it tracked heart rate good – 90 – 120 bpm.
Today i went for similar hike. I wore the watch on the same hand, in the same position and heart rate was way wrong. At the beginning – 60 – 66 bmp. So i tried different locations and it still tracked heart rate wrong – 80-90 bpm (about 20-30 bpm wrong).
I now, that Ray still thinks, that incorrect HR is user mistakes – incorrect wearing and bla bla bla, but now i 100% sure that it is problem with watch! And if i read Ray’s review of some Garmin product, i don’t trust anymore… :(
I really tried to like my 235, but i think it is going back.
I actually don’t say it’s due to user mistakes all the time – not sure where you read that. I think a fair chunk of the time, but not always. I also talked about in this very review cases where the device was at fault and wrong. Sometimes I really do wonder if people actually read what I write?
Nonetheless…One thing that’s generally best to do with optical HR sensors is that if you see it having issues tracking, to actually stop running/walking/hiking/whatever. Then let it find HR. That’s because by continuing to create footsteps, it typically will struggle to separate HR vs footsteps.
Know what you mean about people actually reading what you write. I also wonder about what kind of accuracy one should expect from consumer based activity tracking. If it does a good job of recording in 90% or greater of the situations, it’s a good design. I find the 220/235 to be a good design. I also think the next iteration of activity tracker will be better and so on. Nothing out there is 100%. It’s a tool, a good tool that I can use to help improve my performance, if I use it correctly.
That’s pretty much how I feel. I’m sure everyone wants/prefers information to be perfectly accurate and timely where provided at all, but irrespectively of how relatively pricey the FR235 is compared to other consumer-grade activity trackers and/or running watches, at the end of the day it’s still only a consumer-grade appliance.
Releasing minimum viable products into the market and using paying customers effectively as late-beta testers is an issue with the practice of ‘Agile’ delivery that technology-savvy consumers should have had the discipline not to accept from industry, but it’s some ten years too late now and that ship has sailed. No use whinging about it if we aren’t prepared to hold off buying optical HR monitors until one or more meets our personal standards, but elect to either go without, or stick with chest strap HRMs in the meantime.
The biggest value of the FR235 to me is how it made me change my habits to obtain better personal (totally amateur) fitness outcomes. If serious athletes want professional grade information systems to support their training, then I think none of the products geared towards consumers (including anything by Fitbit, Garmin, Polar, Suunto, TomTom) are good enough, or in the price range to reasonably warrant the level of post-sale support services some buyers seem to think a measly few hundred dollars will get them.
After nearly two months of going back and forth with Garmin about the forerunner 235 I flat out asked for a refund, which they granted. I had come from a Fitbit Surge, but from all the reviews and opinions i’d read up to then, Garmin was the superior device across the board. The 235 simply had everything the Surge had, plus a lot of smartphone options.
I picked up the 235 in Jan off of Amazon, but after a month I knew there was something up with the heart rate monitor. I was getting bpm numbers in the mid 30’s (yes you read that right) from cardio routines. I actually did a run (about a little over a mile) to exhaustion (at max sprint) with the 235 on one arm and the surge on the other. Surge had me around 183bpm at stop….235 had me 97…
I even picked up a scosche rhythm+ as a control. did a indoor cardio routine that I know full well what my output was. I did the workout with the 235, surge and the rhythm and this is what came back.
Surge- 158 bpm/avg176bpm/max 385 cal burn
Rhythm – 162bpm/avg, 183 bpm/max 407 cal burn
Forerunner 235- 121 bpm/avg,143 bpm/max 201 cal burn
The Surge is actually for me far more accurate. Every test i’ve run with both the surge and the rhythm have been in the same ballpark. The Forerunner was never close. I sent it back a couple of days ago for a full refund, which Garmin did give me, even though I purchased it from somewhere else.
The truth is, the elevate HR monitor is new, like first generation new. It doesn’t work. It’s not software; it’s the hardware. I don’t recommend any of their watches right now using this HR monitor. Wait a year or two for a generation or two to pass on it, because right now it’s a sham.
I think that’s a bit extreme to say it’s a sham. Many users (myself included) have had no issues with the accuracy of the HR outside of the documented HIIT workouts where it lags. I’ve done tests with the scosche and a strap and haven’t found any reason while running not to just use the OHRM
I did 10km of run/walk a few hours ago while wearing a Wahoo TICKR X monitor, and when I compared what it recorded with what the FR235’s optical HRM recorded, the two HR ‘traces’ seemed close enough to each other, for me _not_ to concur with fellow FR235 owners on here (and/or on the Garmin forums) that the oHRM is useless and invariably wrong.
Obviously my user experience does not invalidate anyone else’s bad experiences, just as their experiences cannot be assumed to be representative of that of all (or even just an absolute majority of) FR235 owners.
The issues with heart rate (cadence lock esp), inaccurate calorie estimates (I’ve “burned” more calories walking around a mall for 40 minutes than running 6 miles on some days according to my watch) and buggy software (how hard is it to get a watch, a website, and a mobile app to match) are unacceptable. Garmin needs some big changes in their I.T./engineering departments.
The 235 is my second Garmin watch. My first, the 610, was great but suffered from the legendary charging issues that are so well documented on the internet. When the solution to a problem is to place your watch in a freezer to charge it, you can’t blame the problem on user error. I recall the first time I emailed Garmin about it and the customer service rep replied something like “I have never heard of this issue before…” Must have been his first day on the job.
Here’s the thing. All day heart rare, heart rate that doesn’t lock onto cadence, reasonably accurate calorie estimates, reasonably accurate sleep records, etc… these are all things that Fitbit has managed to do. If they can do it, Garmin can too.
I have went as far as filing a Better Business Bureau complaint. I don’t expect a satisfactory outcome from it, but negative BBB.org complaints do make a difference — they get the attention of executives. I encourage anyone else that is unsatisfied this their $330 watch to file one as well. It’ll take you 5 minutes.
What do you suggest to those of us who have been very happy with the 235 do? I’ve had mine since mid-Dec and have not had any issues that concern me. I’m completely satisfied with mine.
Mike, we go run and enjoy :-). That being said, I do wonder if there may be radical variances in their production, haven’t done a swap test but my friends one works well other than every 6 and a half minutes just has a HR drop out?? I’ve seen this on many of his runs, it’s bizarre.
Hi ll,
I have been looking for buying a smartwatch especially want to pick one from 230/235/630; obviously FR230 is clear winner among 230 and 235 – there are lots of issues with HRM and battery life etc. Now my questions are:
1. Is it possible to sync my workout to phone [no wifi service/ no data plan in my playground] using smart-bluetooth? Which means, data should be kept temporarily in the watch and can sync to Garmin servers when I reach home, after I connect to internet?
2. when the prices of 230 / 630 will reduce?
3. Issues with firmware resolved?
Thanks in advnce
—- My apologies, I did not write my questions properly. Let me try again, you can delete my previous post and even edit this post if necessary ———
I have been looking for buying a smartwatch especially want to pick one from 230/235/630; obviously FR230 is clear winner among 230 and 235. However, with FR 235 there are a few issues with HRM and battery life etc. Now my questions are:
1. Is it possible to sync my workout to phone [no wifi service/ no data plan in my playground] using smart-bluetooth in the absence of internet connection?
Note: This requires Garmin Connect app to work offline. Looks likes GC cannot even operate without internet. Then my question is – what is the merit in adding communication capabilities, especially wifi to the devices [that adds about $150 to the cost], especially we know wifi drains out battery faster. FR235 has wifi capability and FR230 does not. For me, I finish my workout in our playground [it is huge facility, with running track, gym, pool and showers] and relax in a small pub later where we do not have wifi at all. I would love to see some gadget where I can see all charts etc without having to use internet.
2. Issues with firmware resolved? sincere there are few posts earlier on this. How FR230 is impacted?
Thanks in advnce
@David22: Since when did the FR235 have Wi-Fi connectivity? Not to my knowledge.
Anyway, as with TomTom MySports – and I suppose Fitbit, etc. which I don’t know much about – all the Garmin Connect user data is ‘in the cloud’, and the apps (on Android, iOS and Windows Phone) are merely user interfaces. The ‘secret’ to allowing access on different devices, platforms and apps (including browsers) to one’s data is to keep it centrally stored outside of the app’s local storage.
I don’t personally agree with the trend to put all user data – for mail, documents, media and everything else, not just fitness and workout data – in the cloud per se, but it is no surprise that capability providers largely ignore the cost and/or challenge of Internet access to the individual user, and leave it to him/her to join the dots and bridge the gap if he/she desires the utility and benefit of having access to the information services and user data where and when required. Not that it is so unaffordable or difficult to arrange mobile Internet access these days, and I suppose it’s a given that if you’re syncing your watch with a smartphone handset (that runs Garmin Connect Mobile) while out and about, you already have the hardware capability to connect to the Internet in your hands, and all you need do is pay for access instead of regarding the utility to review your workouts in the playground or at the pub as ‘naturally’ or necessarily free of costs to the user.
Instead of paying for that viewer gadget you love to see – which conceivably can be produced if there’s a market for such, and can entice you to spend hundreds of dollars to acquire yet another non-general purpose computing device that does little else – why not just factor the access service charges into the total cost of ownership? It’s not as if such a gadget would hold much resale value, or provide other utility anyway.
As for issues with the FR230 firmware, I’m sure there will always be defects and shortcomings that remain until end-of-support and end-of-life dates of the product line. Which specific issue(s) are you critically concerned about, and which other issues are you prepared to accept and live with? Missing out-of-zone alerts for custom workouts have been fixed in firmware v4.10, but as far as I’m aware, (for example) battery power drain while the watch is switched off is not. If you want to wait for every noted issue to be resolved, I’m afraid you’ll just have to give the product a miss.
Thanks a lot for clarifying, much appreciated. Your detailed notes provided me the background and intentions of the big companies. I take some of your lines as direct advise – “why not just factor the access service charges into the total cost of ownership”.
For me $250 itself is a good substantial investment, as I am not from the first world. On top of that, costs towards mobile data plans are recurrent in nature, which should be paid regularly. Hence, the ownership cost continues to grow over the time. I have never used wifi in public places, no data plans on my mobile either. When I get into some offices, I just connect to wifi on my mobile; even to check my emails. Now you can understand my background; specifically in terms of financial status.
“when did the FR235 have Wi-Fi connectivity? Not to my knowledge.” I agree, I got it wrong while reading about this. So, just the HRM [which has lots issues with accuracy and battery life] is adding up to the cost? May be its ability to read 2nd gen running metrics from HRM-Tri or whatever?
I am not convinced on putting the money on gadgets ‘with additional communication capability’ when such capabilities cannot be used regularly in real life – at least for me.
Vivosmart with a simple HRM can do the trick for me. I just want to experience the use of a good gadget, as many of my clients are using. I am a part-time fitness trainer and have seen my client with several gadgets; and even their struggle. Most folks, particularly young folks come to gym with these gadgets and their attention is only on the gadget (and not on the workouts). I never owned any so far. Do not have high or regular income either. Only last year I got a smart phone as a gift from one of my clients; who was successful in building up to 6-pack under my guidance.
Thanks for your time.
David
Just to clarify, if you purchased an FR 230, all of the functions that you would use during a run will be available to you (pace, distance, time, calories, etc, etc) and you will get great use from the watch regardless of internet accessibility. The FR 230 does not need any access to the internet to work for workout tracking.
However, once a run (or activity) is complete, if you have a mobile phone, you can download that information wirelessly to your mobile phone via Bluetooth and view the metrics in full on the phone with the Garmin Connect Mobile application.
If you have access to WiFi on your phone, (even if it’s only at work), you can then get the phone application to wirelessly upload your workouts to the net and then view that same information on any internet connected device with a browser.
Lastly, you can connect the FR 230 directly to your home computer (or laptop) via the USB charger. If your home computer has internet access, then you can also upload your workout data to the net that way with the Garmin Express application. It should be noted that you have to connect to the charger to charge your watch and also to install firmware upgrades. (You do not need internet access to charge).
To use the FR 230 you do not require internet access at all. It’s a stand alone device. It’s just that if you do have internet, you can upload your workouts and then view them on a phone or computer.
Hope this helps
Greg
@David22: No, the FR235 does not read Running Dynamics from Garmin’s chest strap sensors. Here’s Garmin’s authoritative product comparison between the FR230 and the FR235: link to buy.garmin.com
Price, inclusion of a built-in optical heart rate monitor (sensor hardware, as well as user-accessible capability), weight (due the HR sensor), battery life (due power consumption by the oHRM), and I suppose available colours are the only discernible differences.
The FR235 is a indeed good gadget, and I personally am quite pleased with my purchase of one, but that doesn’t mean it works in isolation (without an Internet-connected computer and/or smartphone) to satisfy all of one’s fitness training IT requirements. If you did not already have a computer and/or smartphone handset, then the total cost of ownership for your fitness information systems needs to account for the costs of acquisition, maintenance and depreciation of the computer and/or handset. Equally, if you did not already have an Internet access service subscription at home, then you’d also need to factor it in. The price of the watch is merely the incremental cost, if you already have the other components of the information system architecture as sunk costs and ongoing personal/operational IT expenses (with or without the sports watch).
Since you have a smartphone (which I assume has GPS and accelerometer hardware), you already have a gadget capable of tracking running routes, pace, etc., and all you need are compatible sensors for heart rate, cadence, power, motion analysis, temperature, etc. to augment the workout session data. By not having or using a watch with its own on-board memory, an app running on your phone will have to receive data from the sensors in real-time, and so there should be no question of whether an Internet connection is required for the workout activity data to be displayed or reviewed.
Something like a Wahoo TICKR RUN chest strap monitor (which also ‘comes with’ smartphone apps by Wahoo for Android and iOS devices) would fit your use case better – and far cheaper – than a GPS sports watch doubling as a 24×7 activity tracker and/or ‘smart watch’ (for transferring event notifications, calendar, music control, etc. from the phone to your wrist).
I have had the heart rate drop out experience — hovering in the mid 50’s and 60’s when it should be between 110 and 120 for a brisk walk. I also have had it lock on to cadence. Given that some commenters have not had these experiences, maybe I should bring back to REI for a third unit and see if I get a good one.
Hi Guys – esp. Greg and ASmugDill:
1. Thanks for your posts. Great help indeed.
2. Thanks for suggesting Wahoo Trickerx – we have heard about it. Questions: a) will it require internet to upload data on to wahoo app? b) Can we use only BT smart phone and wahoo alone; without internet? c)Can we see historical data that we uploaded onto wahoo app without internet? in other words, is the data sitting on phone or not?
As you see, I could not come online for 2 good days; now I have very little window only; as I came to airport to drop somebody – using the wifi here; but have to leave now.
3. Yes, wrist based HRMs are not working at all; most guys having problems here with all models. They are simply useless. Some HRM watches will work only if you press hard /tight on your hand to make very close contact. Some chest wraps need some special gels otherwise they do not work. IMHO, garmin old type chest wrap HRMs are the best; nobody has any problem here.
Looks like we have to be very careful when we buy. Too many gadgets out there.
Thanks guys in advance; you all have been great!
2. a) No – b) Yes – c) Yes
ASmugDill,
Thanks for the clarification. Wahoo is a good choice too. FR235 is a kind of all in one solution. However, there are issues. Our kids are now talking about ‘onboard memory’ of these watches. Apparently there Garmin has some iq apps that collect information from sensors and crunch data; and not all watches may not have enough space to download these apps. The biggest challenge my kids facing is – current review websites, including this DCRainMaker do not show ‘on-board memory’ spec.
For example, specifically for ————Forerunner 230
1. What is the total on-board memory? how much is normally used?
2. How much free space is available for apps?
,
So I feel is – next big thing is – ‘Smart fitness watches, with more and more onboard memory; just like RAM
David,
Sorry, but I don’t quite know what to make of your reply. Should I approach it as if we were having a discussion as fellows with suitably deep technical understanding of IT solution implementation, or do I err on the side of thinking “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing” and that your main concerns are somewhat misguided? So, please excuse me if I fail to find an appropriate middle ground in formulating my reply below.
How is the FR235 even remotely a viable “all in one solution”, when reviewing your workout activity offline is a Use Case in your core requirements, and the device only has a 16-colour, 215×180-pixel display? (FR230 has that same limitation, of course.)
I’m not sure how you (and/or your “kids” – are you talking about your offspring or your clients?) concluded that not being able to get information on on-board memory capacity for each model from consumer product review web sites are the “biggest challenge” they face. Was it implied that you (and/or they) have ascertained that applications for doing exactly what they need for workout/sensor data acquisition and processing – with or without post-workout review – have already been developed in Connect IQ, and are available for download from the Connect IQ Store today? If not, are they confident that between their applicable coding competence and the (limited) capabilities provided by the Connect IQ API, it is unquestionably feasible to achieve the data processing and presentation they want, as long as there is sufficient total memory on the watch?
Garmin indicates in the product specifications published on its web sites that the FR230/235 has memory for 200 hours of activity data. What that amounts to in bytes is unclear and, to a large extent, irrelevant. The FR230/235 has 16 slots for user-downloadable Connect IQ apps – including widgets, data screens and watch faces – and the total memory available for their object code is 512KB.
That last figure is not particularly meaningful to prospective FR230/235 buyers, because no single Connect IQ app published and available for download from the store is going to be larger, as far as “the biggest challenge” goes. (Obviously, that limit has to be considered if your “kids” are prospective app developers looking to do their own thing, but I’ll take a punt they aren’t.)
You cannot reasonably expect to find out how much memory is available to an Connect IQ app at run-time, from either consumer/user reviews of a running watch, or Garmin’s published product specifications among its marketing collateral for the model. Reviews aren’t likely to discuss what is not developed and made available by the manufacturer itself. They also aren’t likely to explore whether (third-party) Connect IQ apps has read access the up-to-200 hours of activity data held on the watch for analysis afterwards, before the activity data storage capacity is cleared for reuse after syncing with Garmin Connect.
A key expectation these days is that post-workout reviews and analysis are done in an app running on a phone, or tablet, or computer, or ‘in the cloud’ accessed inside a browser. What the user can conceivably do to extend the capabilities of the watch itself is of little concern to the vast majority of readers in the intended audience of reviews. For example, the Heart Rate widget and Notifications widgets are actually Connect IQ widgets, developed and provided by Garmin out-of-the-box on the FR230/235, and do not take up any of the 16 slots; you might expect these widgets to be featured in product reviews. On the other hand, dwMap which (purportedly) lets you view and follow a route map on your watch is developed by a third party, and not a feature or capability of the product on offer from Garmin. Review sites just aren’t likely to find, download and install such apps as part of the hands-on testing of a new watch model, even if the apps’ intended purposes are considered highly desirable and/or relevant in niches.
So using the 235 with no foot pod or HRM strap will it still record cadence? If so, is the cadence speedometer like gauge screen available like on the 920XT?
Yes, the FR235 will record cadence data gathered by its internal accelerometer for running. I don’t know the answer to your second question, and in any case, you could develop your own (or engage/pay/persuade someone to develop for you) cadence gauge as a Connect IQ data screen if there isn’t one already.
ASmugDill:
Thanks for your response. But really, this post is above my comprehension as it is too technical. Sorry for my half-baked questions, as I am always in hurry to type up as time on internet is very limited for me; both financially and logistically. Let me clarify:
1. I am a retired nurse, now surviving as part time fitness trainer and also assist senior physiotherapists. Have no knowledge in tech gadgets, except using them. My best gadget is a chinese smartphone, which doubles as a computer [for me, it is doing the same job as my office computer once did in the hospital five years ago] except that this phone is ultra small and portable.
2.”and/or your “kids” – are you talking about your offspring or your clients?” Sorry for the confusion. Yes, I am referring to my clients. Have clients who seek training – all shapes, genders, sizes. Especially age profile varies from 15 years to 70 years. Some of them are ultra rich; some are on the opposite side of the spectrum. We are located on one of smaller islands in the Caribbean. I did ‘produced’ some best sport personalities thus far – but we leave out that aspect for now.
3. The ‘apps’ I am talking is – they are from Garmin Connect IQ. such as ‘watch faces’. Some of the apps may assist budding athletes in improving; as they would show race time.
4. I personally do not recommend using any fitness gadget; as in the past we have had great sport personalities, who did not have to depend on these gadgets. Then these gadgets came only during last 5 or 10 years. We have some young Olympic medalists who never have had an opportunity to use these due to financial or other reasons.
5. World is changing. My clients give different reasons for why they want to buy. For me it is becoming important to get equipped with knowledge and terminology; as my clients get assured that I know ‘fitness related matters’. For young brains it is hard to distinguish between zones of knowledge; whether it belongs to ‘fitness’ or ‘technology’. For example, a 14 year old girl is asking at what heart rate she needs to train and wants to know the number of the zone. Let us say, I provide some answer; then the next question is – ‘what is the best gadget? best model?’ etc. I am being bombarded daily with these questions.
6. Coming to my last post – the biggest question (or discussion of my clients) is – “how many iq apps can be installed on a Garmin FR630 or FR 235”? What is the limit? How much memory? If more apps are installed, will the gadget gets slowed down? will there be any lag on HR readings? May be DCRain may consider adding something to the ‘comparison calc’ to explain how many apps each can take; memory left etc.
7. Our clients do hate one thing. When they read reviews [be it amazon; or DCRain or whatever] about a third of buyers clearly have problems with technical issues. They feel that manufacturers are only interested in selling garbage. We have some additional problems, since we are from an island – we can never return any item once purchased and shipped. The shipping costs and taxes in our island nation are prohibitively expensive. But the fact is a majority of our kids end up as US citizens as they are the best swimmers or runners or whatever.
Hence, are my posts. To be able to stay in the game of ‘life survival’; yes, it is better I invest in a gadget to ‘understand and experience’ and modern world and terminology. My job is not just to train all clients for ‘fitness’; but to keep a few of clients in ‘competitive segment’ of the sports.
David,
While reviewers and/or commenters on blogs can proffer technical data about particular products, it takes interpretation to extract or derive information that is relevant to particular concerns or decisions; and then, it takes far more to gain a level of knowledge that equips you to advise others how to use data to properly inform decision-making. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect individual reviewers – however prolific, professional and respected they are – to address every concern in product reviews that every potential reader may have.
I greatly admire Ray for being active in answering questions about a reviewed product in the comments section, sometimes even when several months have passed since the product was originally reviewed (and that’s almost how long some products get to remain current before being superseded). However, in general reviewing products is neither an interactive endeavour nor an tailored information service, and it’s difficult for anyone to tell you all you need know so you can advise your clients offline.
Back on the topic of Connect IQ apps, what exactly do you want to compare the FR230/235 against? Only (some) Garmin devices use the Connect IQ platform, so you cannot realistically compare relevant metrics against TomTom, Suunto or Polar devices. If you just want to compare the metrics between Garmin models, that’s OK, but then you have to contend with the fact that not all Connect IQ apps are available for all Connect IQ-equipped models; for example, the develop of an app may decide to only support the Vivoactive but not the FR230/235, or vice versa. If you and your clients want to know whether a particular selection of apps will run, and/or whether particular custom activity metrics or computation features are available, on a device model, your due diligence has to go beyond perusing a handful of entries on a product data sheet.
As I stated previously, on the FR230/235 the user can install up to 16 Connect IQ apps (including widgets, data screens and watch faces) that are available from the Connect IQ store, and in total the downloadable code cannot exceed 512KB. However, you then have to find out whether the custom data screen (for example) is available for the model; and then, you don’t know the size of the app just by browsing apps.garmin.com, and in any case the size can easily change from one version to the next. You also don’t know with certainty if the app that promises to calculate a particular metric works quite right, in the current version or the next, and so on.
So, no, I don’t think “the biggest challenge” is simply finding the figures of 16 slots and 512KB (which I didn’t know before, but I went looking on the Garmin Connect IQ discussion forum).
As for manufacturers releasing consumer electronics with imperfect firmware, and (often unfulfilled) promises and/or expectations that improved firmware will be available for download over the Internet at the users’ cost some time in the foreseeable future, that is unfortunately the prevalent modus operandi in the industry in this day and age. Furthermore, as more and more services (e.g. Garmin Connect) that users have to rely on are delivered out of ‘the cloud’, even if there is no intrinsic defect in the gadget in your hand, features and functionality can still be compromised or broken later down the line by changes to the servers outside of your visibility and control. Hate it if you will, as many of us do, but you cannot avoid it if you’re going acquire in-market technology at all.
Dear Ray
Thank you for your fantastic reviews, I have a question on the Garmin FR235 for you please:
I’m running the Paris Marathon in a couple of weeks (3/4/16) and heard that the tunnels cause havoc with GPS watches in terms of distance / pace / average. I also understand that the Garmin 235 I will be using has got a built in activity monitor / step tracker, will that just take over from the GPS in tunnels and carry on ‘accurately’ measuring distance / speed etc? As this is my first marathon I just want to make sure that I can rely on my watch’s pace / finish time screens.
Best regards
Chris
Chris,
A little earlier today, I thought I’d do a little experiment and track my walk to the shop as a Run, to see if I can find an answer to your question.
It appears that when the FR235 loses GPS signal, it will assume the user is continuing at the last known pace – with *minor* adjustments based on cadence from the accelerometer – until it is able to reacquire a GPS signal. That might not be so bad when you’re actually running at relatively stable pace, but in my ‘experiment’, every time I was standing in a queue (when cadence is effectively nil) waiting to be served, the watch assumed I was still walking at the last known pace. I spent about 20 minutes in an underground supermarket, and the watch kept telling me my pace was 11’48”/km, and tallied over 1km of distance travelled while I was queuing at the checkout.
So, my conclusion is that while your FR235 will not assume you aren’t moving at all if it cannot track your displacement over time by GPS, in the absence of a GPS signal the watch will not rely on cadence information from the accelerometer as the primary determinant of pace using a function ?(?) or ?(?,?) that it could have theoretically assembled using historical data from either the current Run only or the most recent ? Runs, where ? is cadence and ? is heart rate.
Sorry, I only just noticed that while my post immediately above rendered properly in Safari on my Mac, some characters are missing when viewed on the iPad. The last paragraph should read,
“…in the absence of a GPS signal the watch will not rely on cadence information from the accelerometer as the primary determinant of pace using a function F(x) or F(x,y) that it could have theoretically assembled using historical data from either the current Run only or the most recent n Runs, where x is cadence and y is heart rate.”
Hi! How did the 230 and the 235 compare in calculating all day calorie burn? Does the optical HR sensor play a part in calculating calories burned during day to day activities better or the same?
I think that the makers attitude to the customer is important when choosing a GPS watch. Recently I bought my first GPS watch, a 235. I used Connect Classic as I found it better for me than Modern in several ways and then a couple of days ago it disappeared. It seems that Garmin have removed it. I opened a thread in the Connect forum asking for reinstatement and gave several reasons why it was better for me hoping that others would join me. Garmin removed it. It seems that others opened threads and had their opinions suppressed as well. Garmin now appear to have relented (due to great demand?) and are allowing pro Classic users their say but I am still unhappy that Garmin chose to suppress my opinion because it was not what they wanted to hear. Searching the internet there seems to be a large number of people who prefer Classic but Garmin do not seem to care. I know that there are others such as Strava but it is Garmin’s attitude to me that matters.
@Phil: For a moment I thought you were referring to Ray Maker where you wrote “the makers attitude”!
Garmin, as with other manufacturers of wearable gadgets, are in the business of pushing products to the market, as opposed to providing personal, tailored fitness monitoring services (which is what many consumers ultimately want – ya know, the whole “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole,” thing). They’re not there to ‘care’ about people, except insofar as doing enough to make customers out of people and get sales revenue. If on-paper product specifications and headline technical features are what sells watches in the market – far more so than the everyday user experience once activity data is transferred off the watches on onto some online platform – then that is what they ‘care‘ about.
The only ‘respect’ an individual customer warrants from a technology vendor is as a revenue source due his/her discretionary spending, and not a person with preferences or aspirations worth accommodating or supporting even if no differential in dollars spent is at stake; it isn’t personal. Everything else is just lip service from Marketing teams.
I don’t expect TomTom, Suunto or Polar to be any different to Garmin in that regard, either.
ASmugDill = AFanBoy = AGarminApologist
I love my 235. I just played a soccer game and my 235 said my average activity heartrate was -11bpm. I love a watch that tells me I’m adding years to my life. I discovered Garmin also makes circus mirrors and many other reality distortion devices. Super cool.
That’s pretty crazy. Do you have a link to the activity file on Garmin Connect? Would love to see the negative HR (never seen that before).
@Mark I.: I’m hardly a fan of the Garmin brand, the FR235 is the only Garmin product I have, and I’ve bluntly pointed out several issues with the product on the Garmin discussion forum. However, as a consumer myself, I’m certainly not a fan of Joe Consumer mentality of, “I want, therefore I should get,” especially with features and performance of consumer technology products. I won’t stand for illegal or improper commercial behaviour on the part of companies, and I’m always happy to call out defects and failures to meet published standards or specifications, but I’m equally keen to expressly demonstrate a lack of moral support for my fellow consumers (and/or Internet denizens) who expect too much for too little (or nothing). Giving ‘people’ as much of what they want as possible is not an implicitly agreed objective in society.
I’ve often been accused of being a fanboy or a shill actively defending Apple, Microsoft, Telstra, Vodafone, Garmin, TomTom, etc. when they’re competitors against each other in their respective industries, and all I was doing was to *not* stand with Joe Consumer, but argue to put him back in his place with logic, facts and reality checks, and have no sympathy or regard for how he feels. I really wouldn’t care if any of those corporations go broke or fall into obscurity, and they matter as little to me as the faceless fellow consumer does.
The customer is not always right, but he/she can choose to walk away leaving both sides empty-handed, that’s all. If you’re not happy with a product or a vendor, then don’t buy. I don’t care if the vendor gets your money, and I don’t care if you can’t get any satisfaction in the market, either. What’s there to apologise for or defend?
Hi ASmugDill,
Sorry about the “maker” confusion, perhaps I should have used the word “producer”. I love Ray’s reviews, they are amazing.
i’m a 60 year old runner who has only basic computer skills but I was able to use Connect Classic within a couple of minutes. I am still struggling with several things in Modern after a couple of days (for instance getting the map on a printout, not just the red line of the course and rescaleing the graphs). I think I’ll be using the Connect forum a lot when i cool down.
Phil
Just received my Forerunner 235. After setting the watch up I realized that the backlight does not work. Just wanted to see if anybody else had this problem? Could this be a simple setting/software problem or did I receive a broken watch?
Thanks…
I found a quirk, on the screen where it estimates your 5k 10k and marathons it shows my 5k at about 21min but my record on the watch is about 19.50min.
the way I observed it, estimation is based on VO2max and probably some user variables: weight,age, etc..
I recently noticed that my Vo2max dropped and so the estimate times increased.
Regarding the FR230 battery life… I know it claims 16hr but if I am using the notification feature (linking to my phone to get any notifications) or controlling my music via the watch, do you know if 16hr is still the case?
I need a watch that will last at least 7hr for a run so dont want to invest in this watch with advanced features if i would have to turn them off on a long run…?
Thanks
Hi, I have a FR230 and havent had any problems and the battery life is just fine. I wear it daily, have it set for GPS and Glonas, it is constantly connected to my phone via blue tooth and I get all the notifications on my watch that I do on my phone, so text, calendar reminders, phone calls (notification of an incoming call or message) etc. I dont have the sounds on, but set to buzz on my wrist when any notifications occur. Its great, I often dont hear the phone, but can always feel the buzz on my wrist – I dont have to get my phone out to see, it displays on the watch. When running the alerts or laps I also have set buzz on my wrist. I dont use the watch to control the music, though its a natty idea I did find it cumbersome to remember which button to press, if I wanted to change a tune, whilst running. I have wired headphones and use those to control the music instead. Ive had no problems with the back light or brightness – I can read the screen just fine in daylight and at night, when I get any kind of notification, the screen lights up, so I can still read it. My phone does need to be near for this to happen though. I find I dont have to have the app running on my phone once its all connected. The reason I switch the phone app off is because my phone battery is rubbish and having the app open does drain the phone (its a 2 yr old phone, so not latest technology). Im a leisure runner, not serious at all – this is my first watch and I love it – I do all the things listed above, oh and its set to monitor my activity, run 3 times a week and charge it probably once a week (maybe, its not frequent anyway). I downloaded a watch face that also showed the percentage of battery charge – I find this useful to judge when to charge the battery. I am still finding different features that are useful to me. I appreciate everyone wants something different from their watch, but this meets most of what I want, which is excellent. Im fascinated by the sleep monitor – though Im not sure how useful it is other than to make me feel rubbish because I apparently have little to no deep sleep! Who knows – but Im not about to take that bit seriously. Anyway, bottom line is, Ive read a lot of negative comments on these watches and I am sure they are valid, but wanted to balance some of them with a positive experience. I hope it helps.
Thank you so much for that comment. Defo helped make the decision to get this watch. Hopefully it works as well for me as it has for you. Good to know that I don’t need to have the app running in the background as my phone is also pretty bad battery wise!
HI, Just one thing I noticed. If you switch your phone off and on again, even though the watch is still showing as connected via blue tooth, you do have to re-open the phone app to get it to reconnect again. Once reconnected in that way you can close the phone app – everything will then continue to work as previously.
Toby, re your backlight question… Mine worked perfectly, including the automatic wrist twist setting… Then about 2 weeks ago the wrist twist light on stopped working. Garmin advised me to do a Master reset, which I did 2 hours ago…. it seems to be working again. The manual backlight on/off has never give any trouble.
An update on my 17 & 19 Feb 2016 comments re very erratic and dropped HR readings and problems in Gym & indoor cycling where there was total inaccuracy (inaccuracy throughout whilst training with weights etc). Garmin beat around the bush for ages and in the end the Retailer offered to replace the FR235. The 2nd FR235 was better but did the same thing…. Finally Garmin sent me a Chest Strap HR monitor. The problem stopped there and the FR235 works perfectly with the chest strap HRM. So I still have the convenience of the wrist HR sensor and just put the chest strap on when training. Suits me fine.
I couldn’t agree more with your post. My watch doesn’t work that great when I’m cycling indoors or water jogging (injury ;( ) but I’m ok with it as long as it works on my runs. If I want more accurate I will buy a chest strap. For the ones complaining about it not working my thought had always been “buy a chest strap then” now the convience of the wrist HRM is nice but not always accurate. So adapt it and make it work for you. I’m glad you said it
Can anyone tell me if the FR 230 is compatible with ANT HRM straps. I was given a very old one by Suunto and it fails to pair with the watch. Some quick searches on ANT and ANT+ compatibility didn’t clarify if ANT+ is backwards compatible to ANT. Before I invest a large amount of time trying to get it to work, I thought I might just ask the question.
No. It must be ANT+.
Awesome, thanks for the clarification.
If you’re willing to buy this watch buy it from here
(eBay Link zapped due to being SPAM)
its a very smart watch at a good price
It’s damn rude of you to spam DCRainmaker’s blog, especially when Ray himself has provided shopping links to readers, who can help support this site while paying identical or lower effective prices than what you’re pushing.
Thanks for the amazing review!
Regarding the workout, it is possible to create a cycling workout or it is just running workout?
You can create custom Bike workouts as well
Hi, Can you please upload some guide to how to upload custom bike workouts? I’m really interested in this feature
Bit of a odd question here. Can you turn the color screen off and just have black and grey/white display?
There is no user-selectable option to display everything in grayscale. The Heart Rate Gauge data screen (for tracked activities) and Heart Rate widget (for 24×7 tracking) will always be presented in colour. On the other hand, you can change the colours for certain things, such as the colour of the activity profile icon and aspects of the watch faces.
The two customisable data screens for tracked activities and the 24×7 watch face can be easily made black-and-white only. Is there some other screen of particular concern to you?
Does it have a trail backtrack option?
Kc, are you talking about basic back-to-start navigation, or literally backtracking along the way you travelled?
For example, if you ran 0.5km due west, 1.0km due north, 0.5km due east, then 0.4km due south along the perimeter of a rectangular park, are you expecting the option you described to simply tell you your starting point is 0.6km due south, irrespective of whether there is a straight path that leads you back there? Or, do you mean going back the way you came, and expect the watch to tell you to go 0.4km due north, 0.5km due west, 1.0km due south, then 0.5km due east?
The FR230/235 has the back-to-start navigation feature out-of-the-box for GPS-tracked activities; see link to dcrainmaker.com (and find “navigation functionality” in your browser to get to the relevant part quickly).
Can I plug my 235 cord into an adapter and charge it by means of an electric socket? Or is this going to be to strong for the watch?
No problems. USB will automatically pull the required power, so it won’t overpower it.
Thanks!
I’ve had the 235 for a while now, and so far, it has worked for me. I’ve done about 20 runs, all with GPS + GLONASS, and everytime it has recorded the GPS spot on. Then, for no apparent reason, it stopped recording GPS, so now there is no map in Garmin Connect. GPS was ready before starting the run. This has happened on the last two runs.
The only thing I changed in settings, was setting auto pause to “When stopped”. This worked fine for a couple of runs, and had no impact on GPS recording.
Has anyone else experienced this?
\Soeren
The issue has been reported by other users on the Garmin discussion forum and acknowledged by Garmin there previously. link to forums.garmin.com
Thanks. Spent quite a while on that forum, and never came across that thread.
Seems like the good old “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” fixed it for some users.
I updated the device to 4.10 (even though I was reluctant to do so), and restarted it. Let’s see if my map turns up on my next run.
Besides this one issue, I am satisfied with the watch.
\Soeren
I’ve had a few instances where my watch randomly restarts itself and I lose the last 6 hours of so of heart rate and steps… Has anyone else experienced this?
Also, does the storage on the watch ever get full and do I have to erase the data? if I erase the history from my watch, will it also delete the data from my app?
Garmin’s product page for the FR235 (link to buy.garmin.com) states that it has the capacity to store 200 hours of activity data in memory, so yes, it can get full. However it gets cleared after every instance of syncing with Garmin Connect, so in practice it would be unlikely the on-board memory gets so full that you have to clear it manually outside of syncing (e.g. with a hard reset of the watch).
Once the activity data has been transferred to Garmin Connect, it doesn’t get deleted no matter what you do on/to the watch. However, you should note that the Garmin Connect Mobile app does not store the data locally.
I believe that if the onboard memory DOES fill up, it begins overwriting the oldest activities first.
I read that Garmin 235 tracks “running”, “cycling” and “other.” What does “other” track? I’m most interested in running distance accuracy and I’m thinking this is a good bet for that; however, I would like to track my strength training, as well. (particularly heart rate, calories, and how long the workout was)
Please let me know what “other” tracks.
Thanks!
The “other” profile records anything you want, GPS being optional. I use it for workouts all the time, however the optical HRM for this I have found next to useless, so for calorie tracking, don’t get too excited. I love my 235 over all the other Garmin’s I’ve had (910,920,220,225), for running strap free it’s great but I still use the strap for gym workouts, you have too otherwise the info is so bad it makes you laugh. I actually do things in reverse, I wear the HR strap but leave the watch on the bench near by, don’t like weights near my watch :-)
Dear DC Rainmaker:
I own a Garmin Forerunner 225. I was wondering if it’s worthwhile to trade it up for a percentage off the Garmin Forerunner 235 when Garmin gives me the okay to do so.
Do you think it is worthwhile to do so? All the best and thank you.
Good evening,
I just updated my FR235 FW to 4.1 this past weekend, and charged it full. Now it’s Tuesday evening and my watch is already at 34%. This seems like an unusually high drain compared to previous firmware. Anyone else experiencing poor battery life with new FW?
Other than that I love this watch!
The bug of not having an indoor cycling mode is not really a bug now, at least not on my 235. I went to Settings > Activity Profiles > Bike Indoor and changed it from Hide to Show. Now it comes up as an option when I hit the up arrow to select an activity.
I was able to pair a cadence sensor just fine, and also noticed the optical HRM was ok when I was in the drops but got confused when I sat up.
Thanks for reviews Ray. I would appreciate advice from some of your posters that have been using the 230 and 235.
I have been using a Fitbit Charge HR for activity tracking and find it great for showing trends. I have recently decided to do a Parkrun once a month (timed 5k). Being a novice runner my pace is all over the place but my times are reducing. I want either a 230 or 235 to help improve my running. I intend to use it for training and park runs only and will continue to use the Fitbit as it is unobtrusive. Is monitoring heart rate useful during runs or is pace more relevant? If the former I will get the 235. My inclination is to go for the 230 based on battery life. Any views appreciated.
Hi Ray
I read the review of 235 and taking account that I bought one some days ago. I found an anoying bug that every time I use the heart rate widget It starts with a frequency of 71/72 bpm and after a while ( amost one minute) changes to the actual heart rate (for example in resting 48-50 bpm). Seeking garmin forums, I found that apparently It is a problem that is happening to many people. Do you know something about it?. Could you use your magic powers to contact Garmin people and ask about this problem?
I am a big fan of your reviews. Thanks for your time and expertise in every post!!!
It’s an annoying bug for sure. Funny thing is, after owning my 235 for several months now, this particular issue doesn’t bother me any more. Would be nice if Garmin would address it though.
Checking the Garmin Connect data, this bug also “Create” spikes in HR Data and indirectly in burned calories. Every time that you open the HR widget, wrong data es saved. Do you have the same behavior?
Yes, I don’t check it that often, but when I do, it creates a spike in the daily HR data.
I’m looking to purchase my first GPS watch this year. Will mostly use it for running only – I run between 15-20 times a month – not that vast of distances (avg. between 3-6 miles per run). Will start training for my first half-marathon later this year, however (so run distances will increase). Was looking between the FR230 and the soon to be released Vivoactive HR since they’re at the same price point. Besides the difference between HR monitoring (which I can’t decide if I’m interested in or not – is there a huge benefit for a guy like me?) would there be a better watch to purchase between the two? I also play golf – so the Vivoactive HR is intriguing, but I don’t know how useful it would be for me in the long run…
Right now, I basically use the Nike+ Running app to track my runs (and get training plans from). Any help or thoughts would be appreciated – I’m pretty much at a standstill on choosing between the two…
How does the 235 compare to the 220 in terms of picking up a gps signal? My 220 is terrible and can take 10+minutes.
Thanks
Jen
From my experience over the past six weeks, the FR235 is usually – but not always – reasonably quick to get a lock on a usable GPS signal. I live among tall buildings downtown, and if I put the watch in Run mode as I leave the building (without actually starting the timer yet), I generally get the ‘GPS is ready’ message within a minute or two while walking (100–200 metres) up the street towards the park where I usually start my runs. That’s with syncing my watch every day, so that the GPS cache data is always fresh. The longest I’ve seen the FR235 take is four to five minutes, after I did a hard reset on the watch (and then synced it to get up-to-date GPS cache data loaded). Other times I’ve been surprised by how quick it is. Once I even managed to get a GPS lock while indoors when visiting my partner’s parents who live in suburbia, when I didn’t think GPS watches are capable of that.
Thanks for your reply, very helpful. Sounds better and faster than the 220. For syncing your watch everyday – do you plug into the computer and or can do use the app on your phone? I wonder if this is part of problem.
Thanks again for your help!
Jen, I have not used the 220, so I cannot make a direct comparison. However, my 235 acquires a satellite signal within about 10-30 seconds on most days. Sometimes less than 10 seconds. It does take longer when traveling, at least for the first time the GPS is used. Even then, it is way under a minute. I often start an activity next to a reasonably tall building, and it acquires the GPS lock pretty quickly. Of course, this is a regular route and the GPS constellation cache is probably kept up-to-date.
This is what Garmin has to say about syncing GPS cache data: link to support.garmin.com
I sync my FR235 with the Garmin Connect Mobile app for Windows Phone every day; I bring my mobile handset (for music and reachability) whenever I go running, and keeping the two devices connected wirelessly so I can receive notifications on the watch while I run is handy.
Other than that, I generally connect the FR235 by USB cable to my Mac (on which Garmin Express is running) a couple of times a week, but sometimes several times a day when I’m experimenting with this feature or that in the Garmin ecosystem.
I have the Forerunner 235. I think the electronics are great although I have the following comments:
1. I got no reply when asking about increasing the font size in the Garmin forum. I don’t think this feature is supported; ?Unless you have good eyesight readining notifications is close to impossible.
2. It does not work with Microsoft HealthVault. I use this app considerably I would ave liked to be able to integrate with it.
3. My favourite activity is Walking. The default settings only includes running and cycling (and variations). There is a hiking app but it does not offer the same functionality as the default.
Hope this helps.
I also use my 235 for walking. I use the Hiking IQ App for that, but like you, I wish there was an alternative that allowed the use of more typical fields, like the default activities. You can always record a walk using the Outdoor Run activity, and then change the activity type to walking in Garmin Connect. A workaround, I know, but always an option.
Check out the IQ app called GenCorder. I also use my watch for daily dog walks as well as running and riding. I really didn’t like the built-in apps because it required me to reclassify the activity as a walk instead of a run. I initially tried hiking IQ app and it was ok but not quite right. It still required switching the activity type from hiking to walking after the fact. I finally found GenCorder and it’s perfect. You can customize the data fields and set the “default” activity. Mine is set to walking and my dog knows when she hears those beeps each morning that it’s time to go for a walk. Highly recommend it.
Hmm, downloading the GenCorder TRIAL app. Nowhere do I see what it actually costs for a functional version. :(
It would be great if someone did a review of this app. For me it would be important that I can still see the time in large letters as my vision is anything but 20/20. In fact I asked whether it would be possible to increase the font size of notifications on the google forums but did not get a reply :-(
It was $12 US when I got the Pro version. Very much worth it.
Just download the free version and give it a try. At worst it takes 5 mins of your time.
I cant see this GenCorder app in ConnectIQ store, can someone please send a link?
Hi Ray,
Thanks for the awesome review!
I got my unit yesterday and I noticed that the charging clip has quite a grip. So much so that the glass face moves ever so slightly when the clip is in place.
Is this normal? Does the glass face have a bit of tolerance to movement?
No, That can’t be right. I just checked mine and there is no movement, I even squeezed very firmly on one edge and there is no movement at all.
I’d be concerned as to long term waterproofing issues so would as Garmin to exchange the unit.
Agree with Kevin – definitely not normal (and not good).
Awesome review and comparison! Helped to make my decision for purchase, and I will bookmark your page for further reference. You are the runners info-god!
thanks for the terrific review(s). I have been searching for a reliable optical heart rate monitor to free me from chest straps and the 235 works great.
Is anyone else having a problem with most of the features being inaccurate on the 235? Recovery and predicted race times are off, as well as the VO2 doesn’t seem to be real accurate either? I love having the features but if they aren’t accurate readings are they really beneficial?
Yep. I sent back my first one, and my new one is doing (o NOT doing) the same thing. Hoping software updates will get us closer to HR and calorie count based on it – accuracy.
By off, do you mean high or low. Is it under or over estimating your race times. I’ve noticed it change significantly over time as it gathers more information as to my fitness. The training effect also changed with use.
Will the watch strap fit the Forerunner 225? They have way cooler colours in the 235.
I remember reading and seeing a photo somewhere – probably on the Garmin discussions forum – of someone putting a FR225 watch band onto a FR235 successfully, even though it doesn’t fit perfectly.
Given that Garmin makes FR235 watch bands in at least twelve colour combinations (Lava Red*, Pink*, Solar Flare*, Frost Blue*, Black-Grey*, Marsala, and Nike Volt), and the FR230 watch bands are perfectly compatible with the FR235 size-wise, personally I think there is enough choice as is.
* Produced in reversed colours as well
These are photos of FR235 variants I’ve collected from Garmin’s sites in different markets and Nike’s site (for the Nike Volt variant):
Oops!
I have noticed that my RHR seems suspiciously low.
Often my low in the last four hours of resting Is about 55 but my RHR always shows 45-47.
Does the watch average out my HR including my sleep?
Trying to figure out if there is something wrong with my unit or if I simply do not understand how my RHR is being measured.
Hi Bianca, Ray and all the others
I have the same suspicion regarding my RHR. My 235 is right now saying that my RHR is 32 and I find that hard to believe. I exercise around three times a week and sometimes quite hard but I’m far from an athlete.
Regards
Niclas
See link to drive.google.com – it certainly looks to me that Garmin is including the user’s HR while (as far as the tracking device is concerned) sleeping in its calculation of Resting HR.
When I look at my RHR history on Garmin connect it seems that it takes another value than what is displayed on the unit. My RHR on Garmin connect for yesterday (when the above picture is taken) is recorded as 40 and not 32.
Hi again,
I have reported the above to Garmin support. They said they know about this problem and that they have forwarded this to their developer team.
Hopefully there will be a fix coming sometime soon.