Customer Reviews

Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS Receiver and Sports Watch

5 star:		(393)
4 star:		(151)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I've run 4 times a week with the Garmin 201 for the past 2 years so I was anxious to get the 205. After 10 runs with the 205 (some runs with both) here is my take on the new 205:

Pros:
- better form factor (although still big and same weight as the 201)
- Buttons are more intuitive (less guessing in the dark)
- More accurate - If I run the same run 3 times (e.g. a regular 6 miler) all 3 distances are within .02-.09... the 201 varied by as much as .3 miles. The 205 also appears to be more accurate according to "known distances"
- Less satellite drops compared to the 201 (although see the BIG con below!)
- The strap is rubber so it doesn't act as a sweat band (the 201 was harder to clean and smelled for weeks after a marathon)
- Better software

CONS:
- Fonts are smaller (especially on history and other screens)
- The strap is rubber and doesn't fit as well as the cloth/Velcro on the 201 (although the pro I think outweighs the con!)
- BIG CON: On one regular run along the bay in San Francisco (no hills, trees, or buildings) the 205 lost satellite in a "usual" area (common for my 201 to drop in the same place) one mile into the run, but the 205 never recovered during the whole run. So the 205 doesn't drop satellites as much, but when it does it might not recover - this is a fatal issue if it continues (note: the 201 drops often, but always recovers right away).

Overall I would still highly recommend the unit. I definitely prefer to run with the 205 instead of the 201. I will be watching the drop-recover issue carefully to see if others report a similar problem.

I wrote an extensive six-part review comparing the Garmin Forerunner 205 with my older Garmin Forerunner 201. Here is the URL to the first part and you can find links at the bottom to the other parts:[...]

If you don't want to read the full reviews then here is a summary of my likes and dislikes:

Likes

* Comfort and Form factor: Usage model is very important and while the 205 is big, it feels and wears like a wrist watch. The plastic strap is more comfortable than the 201's velco strap, and the unit also comes with an extension strap if you need to bundle up and wear it outside your clothing. Personally, I want to look at my watch for instant data (i.e. time, pace, distance, etc) and feedback so I'm unwilling to place a device on my upper arm even if I have to sacrifice accuracy. In terms of form factor, the lap and start/stop buttons are well placed and sized on the face of the watch.
* GPS Accuracy: The Garmin Forerunner 205's GPS receiver seemed much stronger. I can lock onto a signal inside my house next to a window, I haven't received one weak signal in a week over routes that caused my 201 trouble. And on my one run over a tree-covered, GPS signal-challenging course, the 205 came out a star, finally allowing me to measure a route that I was unable to with my 201. The GPS accuracy data field and the satellite acquisition screen are also cool bonuses.
* Customization: The 205 allows you to customize 2 main screens and a third activity specific (i.e. run, bike or other) one with 1 to 4 data fields per screen. This is very cool, especially for data-driven geeks like myself. Another great thing about all the Forerunners is you can customize screens and settings on the fly without interrupting your current activity.
* Real-Time Pacing: I'm not that interested in knowing how fast I'm going at a specific moment in time so never was a big fan of the "real-time" pacing feature of the 201. With that said, the 205 seemed to be more consistent and showed a tighter range of paces. It also seemed closer to how fast I felt I was going relevant to the current conditions (i.e. uphill, downhill, flat) than the 201, which showed a lot of variation and lag.
* USB Cradle: Charging and uploading via USB is a nice. Much faster than the 201's serial port.

Dislikes

* Display: The display of the 205 seems smaller and the history screens are dark and hard to read. I wish they didn't use the shading and just had the plain background.
* Real-time elevation: For me this isn't a big deal, but the "real-time" elevation reading lags on the 205. It seems to tie closely with GPS accuracy. For example, after I finish my runs I'll usually walk a little in my backyard to cool down. The real-time elevation reading will then "catch up" to the correct elevation.
* Buttons: My broken power button seems to be an anomaly so far since I haven't read of others with the same problem. With that said, the side buttons seems a bit stiff to me.
* Battery indicator: It just shows 4 vertical bars. I liked the feature on the 201 where it told you how many hours of charge were left when you powered it on.

Cool Stuff

* Tons of features: There are a lot of things the 205 can do such as import courses, advanced workouts, virtual partner and a bunch of other features that I need to explore

Wishlist

* Reduce form factor
* Color screen
* Increase battery life
* Improve waterproofing/water resistance
* Add wireless connectivity for uploading and downloading data and information over the air to PC or mobile service

I purchased the 205 to mainly get an idea as to how far I was running. This is my first training GPS device. I figured the circuit I ran was about 5k. To my pleasant surprise the 205 told me I was doing 3k more than I estimated so that was great news to me! But the 205 did not stop there. Read on....

If you are anything like me the runs I do at 5:30a on the weekdays are not as strong as the ones I do at 8a on the weekend. A couple hours of extra sleep seems to make a lot of difference. On Saturday I ran my 8k circuit at 8a and came in at a good time (for me). I saved the 8k circuit as a "course" in the 205. The Training Center software that comes with the 205 allows for fairly easy editing of the course adding in markers on when to turn, valleys/summits and saving the course back to the 205. This morning (5:30a) I started the 8k "course" in the 205. Straight away I could go to the navigation page and with the "virtual partner" function turned on there I was racing my(virtual)self! What fun! As expected I could not keep up with my(virtual)self and based on when my(virtual)self would start to break away I knew I had to put on more power. Without a doubt the virtual partner function is going to help me improve my early morning weekday runs. While I intellectually understood the benefit of the virtual partner function until I actually used it I didn't appreciate what difference this function will have on my training.

[Update Dec 2006: The virtual partner function has indeed improved my training. I have shaved 6 minutes off my 8k run since I bought the 205. Each time I make a new PR I save that as the course and work against that on subsequent runs. At worst I try and keep pace with myself. At best I beat myself!]

I find the 205 to have fairly good ability to get satellite signal. I can turn it on in our house (2 story with me on the ground floor) and get a signal. But overhead tree cover does seem to affect the current pace accuracy (see my nits below).

The integration with Google Earth and Maps is incredible. I can save the images as JPGs and post them to my blog so every one can see where I've been. Tres cool!

As I mentioned earlier the Training Center software that comes on the CD with the 205 is good. However, I would recommend going to Motion Based whose URL is provided in a flier that is packaged in the 205. I really like MB and you can check out other people's GPS data/times.

Now that I covered what was important to me there do seem to be some minor nits with the device that I noticed and I see other people have already commented on. The nits I would like to see corrected:

- the extensive menu navigation. There has to be a way to simplify the menu depth and make it a little more intuitive.

- current pace is negatively affected by overhead obstructions. On my 15k I run down a trail that has intermittent clearings and tree cover. Every time I ran into the tree cover and lost signal strength on the satellites the current pace dropped even though I'm fairly sure I was keeping an even pace with the music I was listening to. The 205 has a "pace alert" function that can alert you to when you slow down. Not very useful when every time I ran into tree cover the alert would sound. I eventually had to turn the pace alerts off as it was too inaccurate to be of any use. The overall average pace seems to be accurate.

[Update Dec 2006: As I travel a lot the only comment I have here is when I start up the 205 in a "new" city it takes a long time to lock into the satellites. Subsequent startups are fast so there must be some initialization process that is skipped on subsequent runs. I have run in San Francisco without GPS issues so not sure why others are having problems. ]

Overall, if you are on the fence about a GPS training device (as I was) then jump down and join the rest of us that are reaping the significant benefits of owning one. And the 205 works really well so I highly recommend it!

Oh, the reason I did not get the 305/HRM combo is because I get heat rash from wearing an HRM.

I have used the Garmin 205 for several months now and highly recommend it. Here in Arizona it acquires satellites generally in less than one minute, and I have never had any problem with it not holding onto the signals. Accuracy is amazing - I have checked it on local school tracks and it is right on target. I used the unit for the PF Chang half marathon last weekend in Phoenix, and it worked flawlessly - it was great to be able to check my average pace along the route, and it really helped me try to stay near my target time for the run.

Unlike some reviewers, I have had no battery issues - as suggested by Garmin, however, I usually charge my unit between significant runs, so it is always fully charged. The longest I have have tested it was in the half marathon, and it performed flawlessly for the 2 hours that it took me to finish.

The main screen can easily be reconfigured if you don't like the default screens - I have mine configured for elapsed time, average pace, and total distance. My for purposes, I like the average pace setting better than the instantaneous pace. The numbers are a bit hard for me to read in dark conditions, but I have difficulty reading my wrist watch in the dark while running as well. If you really need to see the numbers on the run in the dark, a brief pause or slow down under a street light generally does the trick.

For those reviewers who seem to be having problems with the unit, especially with erratic pace readings, I would suggest going to the Garmin website and downloading the Web Updater, then using this to update the software on your 205 to the latest version. It is very easy to do. Some of the pace issues are specifically addressed with the new software, smoothing out the data somewhat to make instaneous readings more consistent. You can also easily sign up for email updates should new, updated software become available.

Overall I highly recommend this unit. It performs much better than the Nike + iPod unit that I briefly tried. I highly recommend using it with the free MotionBased web site as well - you can see your runs plotted out on either a street map or a satellite map, or with a combination of both, and can also access other routes downloaded by other users that you might be interested in.

Overall, this is a really fun, well designed, easy to use device. It has added a fun element to my exercise, and I highly recommend it.

Having recently ran my first marathon (July 06 - SF) and half-marathon (Oct 06 - SJ) I was eagerly looking for something I could use outdoors to track all the essential data. I was very used to, and tired of, running on the treadmill to figure this out. I took a chance and got the Forerunner 205. I couldn't be more happier.

When I opened the package I immediately turned it on, indoors, and it found the satellites in about three minutes. Before I ran on it I took it with me to work, while driving, and tested the speed, distance and elevation to see how accurate it was. The speed was a little slow in catching up as I accelerated but it was always accurate once I was at an even pace. Top speed was correct. Once in the office I compared Yahoo Maps and Google Maps distance: their's said 5.4 and the 205 said 5.38. Elevation was off by about 10 ft.

Next up was my running. I took it out for a 4 mile run. The pace, again, fluctuated some as I was running, but that could be my own faulty running style. Elevation and speed seemed to be accurate though and was absolutely essential to maintaining a steady pace (which I wish I would have had for both the half and full marathon). Once I got back to the house I uploaded my history into the Garmin Training Center. This software is amazing. It breaks down your time, pace, average speed, max speed, calories burned, and elevation (descent and ascent) for your overall run and/or for each mile (if you set the Auto Lap to a mile). The mapping part of the software is amazingly accurate. I purposely would run a circle around a tree and cross over my out and back path to see if the 205 kept track of it, and it did! Every turn I made was recorded.

As a previous reviewer stated, the only time I noticed my speed wasn't accurate (it would say 0) is when I went under an overpass but it immediately started up just before I ran from under it. Also, as the same reviewer stated, at this exact time there was a spike in the data for that short section. Also, every time I turned the 205 on it found the satellites from 30 seconds to two minutes, but the one time I turned it on in the hills while driving it took about five minutes, which is still not too slow. I have since turned it on while driving, but not in the hills, and it found it very quickly.

With many marathons, half marathons and triathlons coming up this year I cannot wait to be running with my 205, something I cannot believe I ran without in the past. I would whole heartedly recommend the Garmin Forerunner 205 to any runner, biker or combination thereof. A definite recommend.

5 stars.

I recently purchased the Garmin Forerunner 205 and entered the world of GPS for the first time. My experience so far has been positive (I've logged 4 runs). The unit, while appearing a bit bulky, is surprisingly comfortable and you easily forget you are wearing it. The 205 is fairly user friendly. You can simply push the timer start and go right out of the box, or go much deeper into its capabilities and upload customized courses and workouts. I haven't gotten that in depth yet, but I love the autopause and autolap functions.
As far as performance, the 205 is extremely accurate in identifying location and distance travelled (I've verified against trail markers). I've used the 205 on tree covered trails and to my knowledge, have not lost signal.
On the negative side, I've found the elevation and current pace information to be extremely variable and of questionable reliability. However, this is not crucial information. The distance and time info. is very accurate and therefore you can always get good average pace information for any portion of your run that you want. If you want to keep looking down during your run to check your current pace, however, you will be disappointed.
I haven't explored the navigation functions much yet. While they are a bit rudimentary, the 205 should keep you from getting lost on a long run or a hike.
The software is fairly easy to use and the interface with the unit is good. I would like to see a little more functionality with the software. There isn't a great deal you can do to process your data once you've downloaded it.
Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase and I recommend the 205. $250 might seem like alot for a fancy timing device, but it really is much more than that and I find it to be a good motivational training tool. After a run, I can't wait to download the run data and view and compare it to other runs.

I had the 201 for a while, and love it; but I lost the charger, so I thought this would be a good time to upgrade, and get better reception in the trees. In my limited trials, it delivers as promised, and I have never lost signal. It is a great device except... I received the 205 and charged it up; then went through the set-up, and lost power a few times. By working with it, I found that it had a loose connection; by twisting it, or pressing the mode button it would power off. After a long wait time on hold with the customer support line, I was able to return and replace the device. They over-nighted the new 205, and that one worked for a few hours, but only when plugged into the charger (which makes it difficult to run very far). I still can't connect to the customer support line to get this one replaced.
In summary, this is a great device, but very poorly manufactured, and their customer support is to overwhelmed to handle their issues. I would wait for them to work out the manufacturing issues (as of June '06).

I just bought this yesterday and used it for walking and driving. The device can lock on inside building as long as there are no floors above you or you are near a window. The 201 had no chance of locking on indoor. I walked to the store and the path was near 3-4 story buildings and never lost the signal. The 201 couldn't handle that either. The USB is HUGE improvement to the serial port (what were they thinking!). The design is much more comfortable and looks more watchlike and can easily worn all day without discomfort. The software is a HUGE improvement over the last. It will also work with Google Earth and works well! I walked around INSIDE a mall in San Francisco (Stonestown) and kept the signal except on the ground floor inside a store. It would lock back on immediately when walking back into the walking area of the mall. The SIRFstarIII is amazing. Highly recommended for ANYONE who does anykind of activity. Its fun, informative and just plain a great GARMIN product. KUDOS, GARMIN.

When I bought this, I was still a little skeptical on whether or not GPS was ready for my use (I normally like to skip the 'early adopters' until they work out the bugs) but I have been blown away by what I can do with this.

Pros:
* Weight/formfactor - At first it felt uncomfortable, but after the first few runs I barely remembered that it was on my wrist.
* Accuracy - I went and drove two of my longer runs and they read between .1 - .2 miles.
* Data! - I LOVE coming back and analyzing all of the data. It'll graph the elevation vs. speed or pace, etc. It makes me very aware of what my weaknesses are in running.
* From motionbased.com, you can also look at other neat trails other people have found, download their trails and virtually 'race' them, or just let the watch tell you where to go.

Iffy:
* The program it comes with is a little clunky. It gets the job done, but it seems that there is so much more they could do with this (like what they do on the motionbased website)
* Speaking of motionbased.com (which Garmin just bought), it's a great website for sharing your trails and your training and for analyzing your runs, but they want you to pay $11/month if you want to keep up with your past runs (your last 10 runs are always free). It includes some nice 'course corrections' and the 'MB Gravity' feature, which fixes a lot of the errors in reading altitude. Because of this I'm keeping my runs on both motionbased and in the program they give you to try to get the best of both worlds.

Cons:
* Altitude. I really don't trust this. On some of my runs it reads 4X feet climbed than the MB Gravity feature reads. I run on mostly streets or trails that are NOT covered by trees and my GPS strength always reads 'excellent'.

Overall I'm extremely happy with this product (I've had it for a little under a month now). Anyone wavering on whether GPS devices are ready for mainstream - they are!

Overall the 205 is very good. I bought the Forerunner 101 when it first came out two years ago and returned it in 3 days because it could not keep a GPS signal in a typical surburban neighborhood. Howaver, after the two weeks of use the Forerunner 205 is a keeper.

I like the ability to plan a week of runs on the Training Center software, and load the workouts in advance into the 205. What's troublesome is getting to a day's workout. It's a long series of buttons. Mode, arrow button to Training, arrow to Advanced, select Today's, then select the workout I pre-loaded.

What it ought to do is find the satellites, chirp that the GPS is synced, and prompt directly to the day's workout list. That's pretty much what anyone would do every morning -- go right to the workout list.

I've tried some workout settings but what I'm really settling into is a stopwatch type workout that announces when I've reached a mile split. The workout is set to repeat a 1 mile distance for 22 miles, but most mornings I stop the workout after 6-8 miles. This workout allows me to head out random directions in the neighborhood and not focus on time most days.

Many stopwatches have a feature that when you press and hold the stop button you save the data separately. For example, if you complete your morning run you press, hold, save that day's data. Or if you do a warmup prior to a race, you save that warmup time separately.

It would be nice if press and hold the stop button on the 205 would save the workout and prompt for a new one to start. What you have to do is navigate all over again with at least 5 button presses back into the workout choices to stop the workout, then choose what's next. Too much navigation.

It would be nice if the Training Center software had a page of every single data display on the 205 at a glance. All it offers is a graph of distance, pace, elevation, and a few other things. There are 205 data displays like calorie total for a workout that are not available in the PC software.

I'd also like is the ability to choose sounds for types of alerts on the 205 -- like I can with my Garmin GPSmap 60CS. Some of the alerts are as long as cell phone ring tone, I really don't need to hear a 8-second multi-tone alert when I complete a routine mile lap, for example.

Again, the 205 is very good. I'm hoping for some software upgrades!