[TECH] Experinece With New Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS watch.

My review of the new Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS watch.

Experience and credit to him.

I started playing with GPS devices this summer. I thought a GPS device could help me go faster and farther by providing distance and pace feedback during my walks and for analyzing my performance after the walk.

I first tried a couple GPS apps on my Android smartphone. Using something I already had (the smartphone) and thereby avoiding getting a special device appealed to the minimalist in me.

My experiments with the GPS apps confirmed the general usefulness of GPS tracking. But, I found it too awkward to fish the phone out of my pocket or water-bottle holder and unlock the phone just to check my pace or distance.

A GPS watch seemed so much easier to use than a smartphone.

So, this summer I started looking at GPS watches.

I quickly discovered that there was a lot to consider.

Many entry levels watches were introduced last year, such as the Soleus GPS 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 watches, Timex Marathon GPS watch, and New Balance GPS Runner watch.

And, there are many fuller-featured watches to look at, such as the Garmin Forerunner 210, 410, 610, etc. watches, and the Timex Ironman Run Trainer GPS watch.

The watches have a range of features and price points.

Again, a lot to consider.

Ultimately, I decided to purchase a Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch.

Form & Fit

To me, the Forerunner 10 seems only slightly larger than my normal watch. Indeed, while wearing the watch, I do not notice any difference between the Forerunner 10 and my normal watch.

The Forerunner 10 is lighter than I expected. It is very light. I do not notice the watch at all when wearing it.

I think the watch looks fine and I have been wearing the watch as an everyday watch with no problems.

Ease of Use

The Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch is Garmin’s entry level GPS watch. Garmin’s advertising pretty clearly indicates that this watch was designed to be simple to use.

My experience so far is that Garmin has succeeded very well in meeting this goal as the Garmin is incredibly easy to figure out how to use. Once you understand what each button is for and how the menu system works, it is easy to figure out how to use the watch without the manual.

Also, the information displayed on the watch screen is very clear and easy to read and understand. For the most part, the menu hierarchy is well laid out and clear.

There was one hiccup in setting up the watch, however.

When I initially tried to have the watch automatically set the time using GPS, the resulting time was off by one hour. I spent a few minutes trying to get this to work, and then ultimately ended up setting the time manually.

This was one of the first things I did with the watch, and really did get things off on the wrong foot. I mean, if the GPS software can’t set the time correctly it really makes you wonder if the folks at Garmin will get the harder things right.

Of course, when I checked Google, I found out that a firmware update would solve the problem, which it did. To be fair, the process of updating the firmware was easy and went smoothly. Problem solved.

Note: Luckily I was able to update the firmware before Garmin Connect (the Garmin website) went down after Christmas. I assume that resulted from all the people who received Garmin watches as gifts (including quite a few Forerunner 10’s imagine).

Really, it is hard to imagine how the Q/A folks at Garmin could have possibly missed this during their testing.

But, once I got the time straightened out, it was smooth sailing.

Basic Operation

Using the Forerunner 10 to track a run is very simple. Press the little runner button (the one in the upper right corner), and the watch gets a GPS fix. In my experience, this takes about 5-20 seconds — not long enough to really cause any issues.

After the watches gets a GPS fix, it waits until you press the runner button again, which starts the stop watch and the distance tracker.

The watch displays two items at once. By default, it displays elapsed time and distance. You can access other information such as current pace and calories by pressing the down arrow button (lower right corner of the watch).

You are able to configure the watch to display two of the following three items—elapsed time, current pace, and calories—on the main screen of the watch.

To pause the stop watch and distance tracking, you press the runner button again. In response to this, you are prompted to either resume, save the run, or discard the information for the current run.

If you save the run, you can later upload the run data to your computer and Garmin Connect using the provided USB cable. Uploading works smoothly.

Here is what the first page of data looks like:

I will discuss Garmin Connect in a future post.

You charge the watch using the USB cable.

Overall, the basic operation of the watch is extremely straightforward.

Features

The Garmin Forerunner 10 supports several features. These include:

• Basic Watch Features - The Forerunner 10 includes basic watch functionality such as clock, date, and alarm functions, which all work as expected.
• Auto-lap - When the auto-lap feature is enabled, the watch will automatically save lap information after each mile you travel; the watch will also beep and display your time for traveling that mile. The watch display is automatically backlit during this time.
  It appears that there is no configurability for this feature other than turning it on or off. For example, there is no way to disable the audible alert or the backlighting during the auto-lap alert.
  Also, you cannot change the distance when such lap data will be captured, unlike other entry-level GPS watches. However, given the next two features, I don’t that the lack of a configurable auto-lap function is much of a drawback.
• Virtual Pacer - To use this feature, you enter a target pace, ranging from 4:00 minutes per miles/km to 14:55 minutes per mile/km. Then, during GPS tracking, the watch will provide an alert (both audible and visual, with backlighting) whenever your current pace drops below or goes above the target pace and whenever you get back on pace.
  In general, I found this feature to work well. The only issue I had is that I could not tell if I was above, below, or on pace based on the audible alert alone—I had to look at the watch in order to figure that out. The backlighting is turned on during the alert so that you can read the alert in the dark without having to press the light button.
  However, doing this is very inconvenient when you are trying to walk fast using bent arms (like race walkers do). I wish the audible tones used for each of the three situations were audibly distinct so that you can tell if you are above, below, or on pace based solely on the audible alarms.
  Also, I was not able to find any way to either disable this feature or change the target pace during a given GPS tracking session. You appear to only be able to disable the virtual partner or change the target pace after a GPS tracking session is complete.
  Overall, I really like this feature, and, aside from the issue just noted, I think it is well implemented.
• Run/Walk Timer - This feature enables you to use the Forerunner 10 as your run/walk timer when using run/walk training program such as the Jeff Galloway Run/Walk/Run program.
  You enter times for the run interval and the walk interval in 30 second increments. Then, the watch alerts you by beeping three seconds before the end of each interval and displays a visible alert with backlighting at the end of each interval. These run and walk timers continually repeat while GPS tracking is occurring.
  There are a few drawbacks with the way this feature is implemented.
  There appears to be no way to disable the backlighting that occurs as a part of each visible alert. When you are using shorting run/walk timers (for example, a 30 second/30 second ratio), you will be using the backlighting quite a bit. I noticed that when I used a 0:30/0:30 ratio, I got a low battery warning from the watch after only 2 hours and 46 minutes of operation (starting from what I believe was a nearly fully charged watch).
  Moreover, it would be nice to be able to specify intervals in smaller increments — at least for shorter durations. For example, I could imagine that this feature could be configured to enable you to increment in 10 second or 15 second increments when you are under 2 minutes and then switch back to 30 second increments above 2 minutes.
  Also, as with the Virtual Pacer feature, there appears to be no way to disable the run/walk timer or change the run/walk ratio during a given GPS tracking session.
  However, overall, I think this feature is implemented correctly. I especially like how the audible alerts that are provided at the end of each run or walk interval beep for only three seconds — in contrast to the 10 seconds of beeping that occurs with my regular non-GPS Timex Ironman watch.

Battery Life

In general I am quite satisfied with this watch. My only real concern is with the battery life. Garmin indicates that you will get up to 5 hours of GPS tracking with the watch (and a lot more time when you use it only as a regular watch).

For longer walks (e.g., > 20 miles), the battery in the Forerunner 10 will not provide enough time for GPS tracking when you are traveling at speeds of 4-5.5 miles per hour.

During two of my daily walks, the battery bar on the battery gauge has gone all the way down—that is, there was no more dark bar left in the battery gauge and I received a textual low battery warning. During these two walks, I was using the run/walk timer set for 30 seconds running/30 seconds walking. I got the low battery warning at around the 2:46 mark (2 hours, 46 minutes).

I should say that in both cases I was able to finish my run/walk as I had intended (going for about 3 hours) and the GPS worked fine and I did not receive any further battery warnings (which was nice).

I think the run/walk alerts going off every 30 seconds (with the associated audio and backlighting) uses up the battery faster than normal. It would be nice if you could disable the backlighting for run/walk alerts in order to preserve the battery. Also, it would be nice if you could disable the run/walk timer altogether during a GPS tracking session, without have to stop and save the current one and then start a new one.

If you read Jeff Galloway’s materials closely, he does recommend, in some situations, shorter intervals than you might expect. For example, see this post about the idea of doing 0:30/0:30 intervals. Thus, I think support for shorter intervals — both setting them and disabling backlighting to preserve the battery — would be useful for a segment of the population that would be interested in this watch

I do note that when I switched the run/walk ratio to 30 seconds running and 1:30 for walking, I did not get a low battery warning and I had half a battery left after a 3 hour run/walk.

Given how light the watch is, it seems like Garmin might have been able to add more battery life to the watch. I would definitely be interested in a more expensive version of this watch that has a longer battery (for example, at least 8 hours worth) and that otherwise has the same features.

That said, I do wonder how much the battery life will really impact me. So far the watch has not ran out of power during a walk. I do wonder what will happen when that occurs. Does the watch save the data it has tracked up to that point or does it just shut off and lose all of the data for the current session? I sure hope it is the former.

It seems to me that the rest of the design of this watch incorporates many wise trade offs.

Perhaps the battery life in this watch reflects Garmin’s considerable experience in this space.

Maybe Garmin’s data indicate that someone who would be drawn to the bundle of features provided by this watch most likely would “only" need 5 hours of battery life.

Perhaps the battery life of this watch was selected using a network capacity planning approach, where most non-critical networks are designed to handle “average" usage, not “peak" usage.

By looking at this issue this way, I was able to get comfortable with the 5 hour battery life. In general, I select options that handle average usage, not peak usage.

When we remodeled our house, we did not add a single square foot of new space to our house. Instead, we totally changed the layout of our first floor.

For example, we went from have two dinning spaces (an informal dining area attached to our kitchen and a separate formal dining room) to only one dining space that is a part of our kitchen. This new dining space is optimized for our normal, day-to-day dining experience with the capacity to seat up to 8 people at once.

When we entertain (which we did several times during the holidays), we add two additional tables to the end of our day-to-day dining table and extend those two tables into our main first-floor living space. In that way, we can seat up to 15 people at the extended table. This approach has worked great.

Getting back to the review, since really long walks (> 20 miles) are still relatively infrequent and special for me, maybe I don’t need to ensure that my “every day" GPS watch can handle these special walks.

For example, since I typically bring my smartphone on such longer walks, perhaps it will be okay to use the GPS apps on my smartphone for those “special" longer walks, while continuing to use the Forerunner 10 for my regular walks. I will have to see how that works out since I do not typically do many long walks in the winter (when many of the trails I normally walk on are turned into groomed cross country trails).

Anyway, I am not going to get too wrapped around the axle over the battery in this watch until I am consistently running out of battery during my walks. When that occurs, I will likely have a better idea of what features are important to me and should be in a good position to replace the watch if necessary.

Conclusion

Overall, this watch is well-executed. It is easy to use. The features meet or exceed my expectations, though I can think of some tweaks I would like to see via firmware updates. I do not regret purchasing the watch.

If the watch had a longer-life battery, I think this watch would be nearly perfect for my needs. As it stands, this watch works great for my daily walks, which are usually around 3 hours long.