Forums >Gears and Wears>Garmin Forerunner 610 review
Bumping this to see if anyone has anything new to add. 305 Seems to be dying and I am looking to upgrade.
My 305 is still working but I have a giftcard earmarked towards GPS watch and am trying to decide between the 310 and the 610.
SMART Approach
I have them both. If you love the 305 stick with it.
Advantages of 610
* size - huge advantage over 305
* HR monitor. It is far better-fits better, feels better, requires less moisture and never is erratic
* touch screen
* vibration feature each mile
* accuracy around buildings/tunnels
* downloading features but I don't do much of this so don't care
* charging cradle is magnetic - pretty cool
* can use as a watch also for daily wear - just needs charging a bit more often
Disadvantages
* Only 3 views on the screen vs 4
* Battery life is less
* touch screen - takes a while to get use to especially scrolling up and down
* cost
I have noticed GPS accuracy almost identical when not around buildings/tunnels.
As mentioned, unless you have an issue with the size or HR monitor, stick with the 305. They are both great!
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Disadvantages * Only 3 views on the screen vs 4
I may not understand what you mean because there are so many screens but I think you can change it so you have 4 views on the main screen. I changed mine to show distance, time, overall pace and lap pace. (I only see time and pace in the lap view, though. Haven't tried to change that but would like to see distance, too, for that).
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Fight The Future
One other advantage of the 610. The screen is way much easier to read, both during the day and at night. Great for us aging people that have to squint and bring reading glasses when using the 305.
Not sure if the 610 does this, but a very annoying feature of the 110 is the power save mode. If you turn on the GPS and are waiting more than a couple of minutes at the start line, the darn thing goes back to being a watch and has to reacquire satellites, granted that only takes under a minute, but if you have started the race, its annoying to fiddle with the buttons. Does anyone know how to change that power save time setting to a more reasonable time like 10 minutes or turn it off altogether.
Thanks for your input!
What do you do estimate the battery power to be? The longest mine has every gotten is 5 hours before it started beeping at me. Last Saturday it started beeping at 2 1/2 hours and that is why I think it is on its way out.
Sara
MM #2929
The 610 does this, too. I looked in the settings and I don't think you can change it. I agree that it's annoying.
Thanks for your input! What do you do estimate the battery power to be? The longest mine has every gotten is 5 hours before it started beeping at me. Last Saturday it started beeping at 2 1/2 hours and that is why I think it is on its way out.
If you wear as a watch you may need to recharge every couple days. If you shut it off each work out, it will last longer. I run 4 days a week and 25 or so miles and don't think I can get through whole week (maybe). So once a week is not a big deal and easy to charge.
Hmnn. I need to look at the manual closer. That would be cool as I am always having to tap it to look at HR.
Try tapping the blue squiggly lines and then do Setup/Training Pages/Timer Page. Then, tap the little wrench to the right and select "4". Then, go back and select the categories you want in each field. Or, read the manual if that doesn't make sense.
I just told my daughter yesterday that I need to get some bifocals for running just so I can read my watch and I'm very, very young...
Thank you. Will try!
jfa
Maybe I'm just unlucky but I have been testing my second FR610 following battery failure on my old trusty FR305. I had power problems with the first 610 because it powered itself on and would sit idle all day draining the battery. The satellite reception was also an issue. I run a lot of straight courses right by the beach so there's no reason for the signal to drop. After arranging for a replacement (about 10 business days) I pitched in the $90 to replace the 305. Well , I have been running with one on each wrist and this 610 has reception problems as well as problems connecting to the pc through the ant stick and other random stuff. It's too bad because I like the smaller size, the looks ,and it took a while to get the touch of the touch screen,but the bigger display is nice. Today I ran 20 miles . The 305 recorded it accurately ( familiar course) the 605 apperaed to be redcording it but after data transfer, it shows only 1.1 miles on it.
Going to try and get $$ refund from Garmin for the 610 or exchange for a car or boat GPS. I'll stick with the 305 from now on.
The same thing happens with the 410. My 305 just died so picked up a 410 and this same thing happened at a race I ran on Sunday..such a pain in the ass..anyways I found this in the manual.. you can disable power save mode while you are in training mode by doing the following:
go to menu and choose training...then choose options...then choose timeout and select off
I've got a fever...
One thing I've done to combat this with my 305 is to only show two items on the screen. If I'm even bothering to wear the Garmin, I really only want/need to see pace and distance most of the time, so that's what's on screen one.
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