Garmin Forerunner 405 Wireless GPS-Enabled Sport Watch with USB ANT Stick and Heart Rate Monitor (Black)

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: $282.61

Amazon Price: $166.98

The Garmin Forerunner 405, while admittedly a high end product, is a feature rich and sleek looking training gadget that can surely catch anyone’s fancy.

But questions arise as to how does the design help your training and if you can actually use these features.

Out of the box, the most noticeable Garmin Forerunner 405 features are the:

• Sport watch
• Auto Lap®
• Time/distance alerts

At its core, the Garmin Forerunner 405 is a sports watch. It can give you the features that you need when running from block to block or at your local park. The Garmin Forerunner 405 would provide you with the necessary tools to track the usual data.

The auto lap feature automatically starts a new lap as your run, and the time/distance alert provides you with an alarm whenever you reach your goals. Used in conjunction with each other, these features of the Garmin Forerunner 405 gives you your time, lap splits, lap times, distance and overall pace that would help in determining whether you had a good training or not.

Of course if you are happy with those features then you can simply select lower end models. The Garmin Forerunner 405 shines when you delve into its more advanced functions.

More advanced features of the Garmin Forerunner 405 include:

• Faster satellite uplink time
• Intuitive Controls
• A host of compatible accessories
• Easy connectivity between devices and computers

The quick satellite uplink of the Garmin Forerunner 405 truly stands out. Now you don’t have to wait long hours when using satellite guidance for its data. With it faster tracking of waypoints, routes, or even measuring just how you are doing at a specific area or place in your usual training route becomes much easier. The improved GPS system can truly help you analyze your data more precisely.

Another thing that’s good with the Garmin Forerunner 405 is its host of wide ranging compatible accessories. There is the Foot Pod for tracking speed distance and cadence when indoors, or even bike speed or cadence sensors if you fancy yourself as an indoor cyclist.

The Garmin Forerunner 405 is also proud of having:

• Intuitive interface to set watch while training
• Compact and lightweight construction
• Easy connectivity with computers

What makes the Forerunner 405 more amazing is that it is quite easy to use. Aside from its lightweight and compact design, Garmin has also made the Forerunner 405 much more intuitive.

They have included 2 buttons on the side of the Forerunner 405 that users can easily press to adjust the necessary settings. Users would not have to fiddle around much when trying to customize their training.

After all the training that you do, the Garmin Forerunner 405 also shines in synchronizing data to your computer. As long as it recognizes a connected “USB ANT stick “  to a PC it would automatically transmit your workout data to the PC.

This makes it much easier to store, share, and analyze your training data to find out your areas of improvement.

Conclusion:

Given all the functionality of the Garmin Forerunner 405, you would be able to see how it is a great fit for runners who truly take their training seriously and are not too shy about spending for the additional benefits.

While a bit higher in price compared to the other Garmin models, the added features, improved capability, and more lightweight and compact build that can truly advance your training makes spending that additional money worth it.

Buy/More Info

Related posts:

1. Garmin Forerunner 405 Black GPS Enabled Sports Watch HRM Factory Refurbished
2. Garmin Forerunner 205/305/405 – Top Running Watch 2009
3. Garmin Forerunner 205 Review

Polar RS400 Heart Rate Monitor Watch

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: $269.95

Amazon Price: $179.50

Forget about trying to force yourself to get into an unsuitable fitness program! The Polar RS400 Heart Rate Monitor Watch take cares of that by finding that perfect training intensity for your body.

The RS400 features its Polar OwnOptimizer capability. The Polar OwnOptimizer allows this heart rate monitor watch to m determine whether you are under training or over training based on your heart rate, pace, and calories burned and. It measures and analyzes your training results and provides you with visual and aural clues for you to know how effective the runner’s training program is.

With all these data available to you through the Polar RS400, finding ways to ensure successful running training becomes much easier for anyone.

Product Features

• Material:
• Band Type:
• Altimeter: No
• Barometer: No
• Compass: No
• Stopwatch: Yes
• Chronograph: Yes
• Thermometer: No
• Heart Rate Monitor: Yes
• PC Compatible: Yes
• Waterproof: Yes, up to 50m
• Backlight / Electroluminescent: Yes
• Alarms: Yes, with snooze
• Size: Medium
• Recommended Use: Running, aerobic activities
• Weight:
• Warranty: 2 Years

Buy/More Info

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Just the kind of HRM I was looking for
I have been using RS 400 for over a month and completely satisfied with its performance. While I was already excited about its features, when I was researching for a good running computer within my price range, I was a little concerned about some of the negative reviews regarding its infra-red connectivity. The first time I tried downloading data, I did have trouble, but I realized, I was holding it in my hand and my hand was not steady, so I then took the watch off, and placed it on the table close to the USB infrared reader and it has been able to always get the data quickly after that. Other than that, the recording features where you can record your data at 1s, 5s, 60s etc. are great as I’d like to do a lot of interval training and would want to see my heart rate change almost close to real time. The Polar Personal Trainer software that comes free with it is also a big bonus as I can personalize my target zones based on VO2 max values and find out the distribution of my workout in various VO2 max percentages. I also like the fact that it calculates my calorie expenditure by taking VO2 max into account, as well as heart rate, gender, age and weight, unlike the other monitors that just use gender, weight excluding VO2 max, thereby giving my more accurate representation of the calories I am burning. When I compare it to the calories burned shown by my treadmill, bike or elliptical trainer, they show a lot higher number of calories burned almost 20-30% difference. Therefore, I think it is a much more reliable tool even if you just want to lose weight. I would definitely recommend this product to any serious runner or even a casual person, who wants more accurate estimate of their calorie expenditure during a workout.

2 Stars Good heart rate monitor, battery life issue, tough to change the battery
As a hear rate monitor this unit is really good and I like the software that comes with it (this is my third model of Polar monitors). But this is a replacement RS400 because the first one ran through batteries very quickly (to be fair I loved this watch when I first got it and I gave the first unit 5 stars in my review, albeit that was only after about a month of usage). The first battery lasted about four months, the second one four weeks. I don’t suspect this is normal behavior though, it could just be a defect in the unit…or, as I have read on some of the Polar message boards, the watch is designed such that the side buttons are very easily pushed in when setting the watch down on its side such that it could be getting turned on inadvertently and running the battery down. My guess is that it is the latter rather than being a defect. Now I make sure not to put the watch down on its side to prevent this from happening. The watch is also designed so that, theoretically, you can change the battery yourself but the back is made of such soft plastic that it is almost impossible to open it without destroying the battery cover. This is very annoying. My last Polar was great because it had a metal back with small screws that were easy to pop out, change the battery, and pop back in. My guess is you have to have a special jewelers tool to get this back off without damaging the plastic. The conclusion I have come to is that I think this design is just a poor design. They need to go back to the screw on metal backs (e.g. 625Xi) and redesign the buttons to prevent the watch being accidentally turned on and draining the battery. I would recommend you look at a different Polar model as there are other designs that appear to be better and less likely to suffer from these issues.

4 Stars A Good midrange heart monitor.
i’ve upgraded from one of Polar’s eco models to the RS400. So far after three months or so it has worked great. large enough numbers to see ok and backlighting as well. i’m pleased so far. i recommend this product.

5 Stars Great for Triathelon Training
Rock solid – to upload data to your computer via infrared follow these steps 1. make sure your computer recognized your ira port then

2. click on connect from the watch

3. then go to polar desktop software and transfer

follow those step and it rocks.

4 Stars EXERCISE WATCH
THE NUMBERS ARE NOT AS BIG AS I SUPPOSED. I STILL HAVE TO USE GLASSES TO READ THEM WILL EXCERSISING, WAS NOT THE CASE WITH A NIKE TRIAX C8 THAT I USED IN THE PAST. ALL OTHER IS EXCENENT

Buy/More Info

Related posts:

1. Polar RS100 Black Running Series Heart Rate Monitor
2. Polar RS200 Running Heart Rate Monitor
3. Polar RS400sd Heart Rate Monitor Watch with Free IRDA USB 2 0 Interface