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1. Anthony Waraksa "Tony"

   January 20, 2012

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   25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

   
   my opinion changed as I learned how to use this watch., October 17, 2011

   By 

   Anthony Waraksa “Tony” (RTP, North Carolina) –
   
     

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   This review is from: GSI Quality GPS Navigation Sports Wrist Watch With Heart Rate Monitor, Chest Strap And Compass – Measures Burned Calories And Fat, Speed, Altitude And Distance, USB Data Upload Link – For Training, Exercise, Running, Jogging, Etc. (Electronics)

   After one week:

   First, to set the stage: I had been an avid user of the Timex heart rate monitor watches. I am hardly an elite runner, simply needing the PRM to keep my pulse rate in the right range and for the timing function of the watch to remind me to turn back to home after 20 minutes. The Timex does that very well.After three years the buttons on this watch are not operating as smoothly as they once had. It is time to replace it.

   I planned on another Timex, but who can resist all of the bells and whistles this watch provides at a small increase in price?

   It seems to do heart rate better than the Timex. The Timex would often report a pulse of 90 after I had been running long enough so that I knew it was at least 140. This watch does a better monitoring job. The stopwatch works well enough. The compass function actually works too — the GPS chip knows the direction you’ve been running and it’s happy to tell you.

   Initial satellite reception on turn on is slow — the receiver actually is turned on manually. I turned off the receiver for a few minutes, turned it on again and it found the satellites very quickly.

   There had been some complaints about the Garmin Forerunner 305 (?) having a limited battery life. A full charge on this watch lasts at least days, probably longer.

   I ran a known 2.91 mile trail, the watch reported it as 2.7. It was a deeply wooded trail, but even if reception was poor connecting the dots on a trail that was one big loop should not have resulted in that big an error. It could be the watch was not set up correctly.

   I also can’t connect this thing to the mapping function on the computer and there are other functions I simply am not able to invoke — the instructions could be a lot more clear!

   I’ll spend another week playing with this — that probably means 3 or 4 more runs — and if I can’t figure out the correct way to do mapping and get a little more confidence in its GPS functions and some of the other features it will have to go back and I’ll revert to the Timex again.

   Oh, the other thing is this watch is just about 2 inches in diameter and about .75 inches thick. I could wear the Timex as an informal watch without having people ask about it: this one is hard not to notice. If I can make all of the features work that would be a small disadvantage.

   Here’s hoping it turns out to be a keeper! I’ll update this in a week or two. Note to other purchasers: please post your findings and whatever tricks you’ve learned to better use this watch here.

   Update 10/26/11

   First, about the GPS function. The trail known to be 2.91 miles long mentioned above that the watch claims is a 2.74 mile loop is wooded. It may be there are areas where the watch loses its GPS function. I today ran a known 5k route, largely open, and the watch reported it as 3.09 miles — close enough!

   It took some doing but I was able to get the watch to talk to the computer press mode (the D button) to stopwatch, press A to start the timing, press A again to stop it when done and then press B to carry the information to memory. It can then be downloaded to the computer. The trail shape and route shows correctly but is not overlaid onto a map. I have not figured out how to show a pulse rate v distance chart on the computer either.

   Update 10/30/11

   I upped this to a 4 star rating — if the learning curve was not as steep it’d be 5 stars. The watch does all I wanted it to (heart rate, timing). It downloads to the computer (finally), the compass function is pretty nice, especially if you’re out on a trail and want confirmation as to which trail branch is the best way back to the car. The recorded distances, which I questioned earlier, are pretty much what I expect now, I was misusing some of the functions. (see the learning curve comment above).

   Getting the GPS determined route to overlay onto a map — Google or otherwise — can probably be done, but I have not figured out how to do that yet.

   The price of this watch on Amazon when compared to the more basic HRM watches offered by Timex makes this a great value. The extra features for me are well worth the few extra dollars.

   I hope some other users who have figured out how to use all the functions tell us about their experiences. For me, however, the packaging the watch came in goes to the recycling bin, it is not going back to Amazon.

   11/4 update
   So after owning this thing for a while the pain of the learning curve is fading and I now have this interacting with maps too. I now like it 5 stars worth.

   It seems to be more responsive than the Timex it’s replacing to heart rates. The extra functions, like way point navigation, are simply a lot of fun.

   The watch has about 10 hours of battery life when the GPS function is turned on, and an unknown…

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