Forums >Gears and Wears>Garmin 205 or 305
This won't help you if you want to track changes in pace as you run, etc., but of course then we're getting into the ol' Bells And Whistles.
"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain."
Jack Kerouac
My 205 just kicked the bucket, I think I drowned it in sweat. Nice timing with an upcoming marathon, so I just ordered a replacement from amazon.com for $128.97 with free shipping. Less expensive than my original, that's the cheapest I can recall seeing it. I don't think I would ever bother wearing the heart rate strap, so the extra money for the 305 wouldn't be worth it for me. That one's cheap on amazon at the moment too though.
My 205 just kicked the bucket, I think I drowned it in sweat. Nice timing with an upcoming marathon, so I just ordered a replacement from amazon.com for $128.97 with free shipping. Less expensive than my original, that's the cheapest I can recall seeing it.
I don't think I would ever bother wearing the heart rate strap, so the extra money for the 305 wouldn't be worth it for me. That one's cheap on amazon at the moment too though.
Go to Garmins website and look at the support page. You can send it into Garmin for a non-waranttee replacement for about 70 which includes the return shipping. I smashed the screen onmy 301 and Garmin sent me a refurbished replacement for 60 dollars, no questions asked.
Or, you can send me your dead 205 and I'll send it in.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
2014 Goals:
Stay healthy
Enjoy life
Just set up one of the screens so that it has only 3 fields instead of 4. Make HR the top one. Or better yet, set a screen to show only one field and put HR on that one. It'll look like a friggin' billboard on your wrist. (This is all via Settings-->General-->Data Fields--> Main 1, Main 2, or Running [the 3 screens you can toggle between]) As for the 205/305 discussion, the cost difference is about 20~30 bucks. If you think you'll never ever use HRM, or an add-on like the running footpod or the bike cadence sensor, get the 205. If you think you might ever wanna at least tinker with HR, spend a few extra bucks and get the 305.
Just set up one of the screens so that it has only 3 fields instead of 4. Make HR the top one. Or better yet, set a screen to show only one field and put HR on that one. It'll look like a friggin' billboard on your wrist. (This is all via Settings-->General-->Data Fields--> Main 1, Main 2, or Running [the 3 screens you can toggle between])
As for the 205/305 discussion, the cost difference is about 20~30 bucks. If you think you'll never ever use HRM, or an add-on like the running footpod or the bike cadence sensor, get the 205. If you think you might ever wanna at least tinker with HR, spend a few extra bucks and get the 305.
Or get the 305 and sell the HR monitor on ebay and make a buck or two. I think the HR monitor as an accesory is about 60 dollars and go for around 45 on ebay.
Personally, I would get the 305 if it were my decision. I would want the expandability of the 305's accessories. You may not be interested in a HR monitor, foot pod and cadence sensor right now, but in the future you get into HR training or biking and you would have the Garmin you need already.
So if you have it auto lap every mile when it hits a mile it vibrates and then pops up the pace for that mile. Really nice if you like to run with headphones on.
Nice feature.
I've got a fever...
The footpod has come in surprisingly handy for me. At first, I thought it was kind of douchey because a) you don't really need to know your cadence and b) if you run on a treadmill, the treadmill keeps track of time and distance. But once I started occasionally running on a 1/12-mi indoor track, I quickly realized that Garmin+footpod was a hellava lot easier than counting laps.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
the 305 comes with a heart rate monitor (which I'm not interested in to begin with)
We're around the same age, so you and I probably both remember a time when we did not feel like we needed a TV remote control.
I bought a 205 first because I did not need a HRM, but now I have a 405. The HRM is one of my favorite features. This is because I'm a geek and like to measure the living crap out of everything. Its so nice to hit the start button, run, then upload tons of data to RA. I don't look at the watch all that much while running, but I like to look back on measureable progress: "Hey, here's where I went!" "Here's my HR on that stupid hill!". "Look, I can go a minute/mile faster at the same HR than I could a year ago (well, maybe)". Real fun stuff.
For what it's worth, my friends and I have the 205, 305, and 405. We're buying another friend one and we decided the 205 was best for him. If you don't care about the HRM, you may as well go 205.
P.S. I use the 405. It looks nice and has a pretty quick satellite connection, but the touch bezel goes insane when any amount of moisture (sweat or weather) gets on it. I do not recommend the 405. I'm not sure why they ever thought a touch-sensitive bezel was a good idea. Manual buttons are far superior. I basically have to lock the bezel during my workout and then clean/dry my watch after the run to use the bezel.
For what it's worth, my friends and I have the 205, 305, and 405. We're buying another friend one and we decided the 205 was best for him. If you don't care about the HRM, you may as well go 205. P.S. I use the 405. It looks nice and has a pretty quick satellite connection, but the touch bezel goes insane when any amount of moisture (sweat or weather) gets on it. I do not recommend the 405. I'm not sure why they ever thought a touch-sensitive bezel was a good idea. Manual buttons are far superior. I basically have to lock the bezel during my workout and then clean/dry my watch after the run to use the bezel.
I lock the 405 bezel too. Mine would rarely screw up, maybe only in rain with a wet long sleeve touching it. The bezel is rather twitchy, though. You also need to be careful about trying to unlock the screen (2-button salute) during a run because you might end up inadvertently stopping the timer.
I have it set to cycle fast thru several screens, so I can always look at it and immediately see some screen other than the one i want to read!
Also, the wireless upload is somewhat mysterious. It used to timeout or otherwise fail to upload from time to time. It is working okay these days. They have improved the software over time (there was a lot of room for improvement) so that I don't need to set it to 'force upload' as often anymore.
What scares me the most about the 405 is that I fear that the non-replaceable battery will give out before I'm ready to upgrade. Also, since you can't actually turn a 405 'off', you need to be pretty meticulous about keeping it charged up. Battery life will last long enough even for my marathon times, but I keep thinking the battery life will deteriorate and I'll be SOL.
The 305 has a much bigger display, and can show 4 values per screen, as opposed to 3 per screen on the 405. I would be able to read the 205/305 a lot easier than the 405.
I'd be happy with a 305.
Santa came early for me this year.
My 305 arrived this morning - apparently 5 mins after i left for my run!!
Lots of features to wade through - might be Xmas before i have the hang of it!!
I dont do many mles at the moment, but each time i go out i have a number i want to get to, i wanted to be able to run anywhere and know how far i have gone, rather than do the run and find out when I map it that i was a half or quarter ile short of my target.