Overall I like it and have replaced my Jawbone UP3 and Pebble Time with it. Battery life is way longer than I thought it would be (more than a week each charge thus far) and the Connect app on the phone and PC is better than the supporting apps that come with all of Garmin’s competitors.
I'm not running major distances but wanted something to replace the two devices on my wrists and the 235 works perfect. As a result I think of it as a smartwatch that has activity tracking and a running GPS, but it feels like it was designed as a running watch that inherits Garmin’s already-great activity tracking, however the smartwatch functionality is there and works well but feels like an afterthought or is still in development. My suggestion to Garmin for the smartwatch functionality is to look at Pebble; they have the basic functions of what a smartwatch should be figured out (apps, notifications, changeable watch faces, battery life etc.) and do it in a way that isn’t invasive or annoying. For example, an Apple watch or Android watch has way too much functionality and both have terrible battery life as a result. The Pebble on the other hand has the basic functionality but doesn’t over-do it, so the battery life is good and I know that I’ll have to go to my phone for most things beyond basic notifications, which I’m fine with as it’s a better UX on the phone vs a watch. The 235 feels more like the Pebble but there are some changes that could be made to make it even better, see below.
I do experience some of the ‘spikey’ heart rate readings that other customers are reporting online. Sometimes it will be far lower than I would expect given the activity and it will jump up to the correct level soon after, or the opposite where I’ll be inactive and the heart rate will read really high, only to fall back down shortly after to my normal resting heart rare. When running though it seems to be fairly accurate and consistent, the last run I did I kept it on a heart rate screen and noticed it didn’t have any wild jumps/falls during the whole run.
Previous devices used/owned:
• Pebble Time
• Various Android Wear watches
• Jawbone UP3
• Fitbit Flex
Phone I'm using: iPhone 6S, iOS 9.2
Suggestions to make it better:
Use GPS to figure out stride length for walking. My Wife’s fitbit and my 235 are fairly close in # of steps during our morning dog walk, but for some reason my distance is always 20% more. The instructions imply to measure my stride using a known distance and # of steps but since this has a GPS built in it would be awesome if it had the functionality to figure this out for me, maybe have me walk outside and use the GPS to measure distance and pedometer to count the steps and then do the basic math. Or, periodically ping the GPS when it senses continuous walking to figure this out dynamically.
Menus
o Move main settings menus out of the Activity function. This is my biggest annoyance by far, and slowed me down when setting it up as none of the instructions for setting up the Bluetooth connection to the phone tell you to go to the activity menu to access the watch’s options/settings menu. Ideally settings/options should be something I can access by scrolling up/down from the main time screen.
o Allow me to hold on the steps screen or heart rate screen in non-activity mode, instead it jumps back to the normal time screen after a minute or so.
Notifications
o Don’t re-notify me when I open my phone. Currently I get a notification when an email or text comes in (which is expected and desired behavior), and if I wait > 5m to read it on the phone, when I unlock my phone I get all the notifications on the watch all over again. In the morning this results in the watch buzzing on my wrist for 30+ seconds as it re-notifies me of all the overnight emails again, which is a weird UX as I’m looking at the phone as the watch buzzes with notifications. By comparison, Pebble notifies me when the email/text comes in and that’s it.
o Show the content of the text or subject of the email when the notification pops-up. Right now it just says who it’s from and I have to open the notification on the watch to view it. By comparison, Pebble will show me both on a lower-resolution screen.
Sleep tracking
o I don’t wear the watch at night and instead leave the watch on a countertop. Looking at the sleep pattern it tracks, it appears that notifications hitting the watch overnight are logged as restless sleep and or me waking up. A fix would be to ignore movement detected that overlaps with a notification coming in. Overall not a deal-breaker, it’s just weird
Bluetooth connection issues
o I have no problems synching whenever I’m in range, and it synchs quickly given the amount of data going back and forth.
o 95% of the time I try to use the watch’s app to check the weather or the calendar, it says “App Connection Required” on the watch. I’m not sure what I need to do different on the phone or the watch to enable these features 100% of the time. I don’t use this functionality when it does work, so it’s more annoying to see the error.
o As far as I can tell there isn’t a way to initiate a synch from the iOS app, instead I open the app and wait for it to do this on its own. I can initiate it from the watch but I’m holding the phone in my hand so I’d like to do it from there.
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Product information
| Product Dimensions | 0.5 x 1.8 x 1.8 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1.6 ounces |
| ASIN | B0160BC1FO |
| Item model number | 010-03717-54 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included) |
| Customer Reviews |
4.6 out of 5 stars |
| Best Sellers Rank | #135,445 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics) #76 in Running GPS Units #1,659 in Electronics & Gadgets |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| OS | iOS, Android |
| Connectivity technologies | Bluetooth |
| Special features | Bluetooth |
| Other display features | Wireless |
| Human Interface Input | Buttons |
| Scanner Resolution | 215 x 180 |
| Color | Black/Gray |
| Whats in the box | Forerunner 235^Charging/data cradle^Manuals |
| Department | unisex-adult |
| Manufacturer | Garmin |
| Date First Available | October 21, 2015 |
Warranty & Support
Product Warranty: For warranty information about this product, please click here [PDF ]
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From the manufacturer
Black and Gray
Elevate Wrist Heart Rate Technology
Forerunner 235 with Elevate heart rate technology measures heart rate at the wrist 24/7, giving you the option to run without a strap. Its colorful gauge identifies your heart rate zone and beats per minute in real time. Stay in the zone and race to your personal best with Elevate wrist heart rate technology.
GPS Running Watch with Wrist-based Heart Rate
Forerunner 235
Stay on pace for your next personal record with Forerunner 235, the GPS running watch with Elevate wrist heart rate technology and smart features. Includes activity tracking and connected features like automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, smart notifications and audio prompts, as well as customizable widgets, applications and watch faces from the Connect IQ store.
- Tracks distance, pace, time, heart rate and more
- Connected features: automatic uploads to Garmin Connect, live tracking, audio prompts, smart notifications and social media sharing
- Activity tracking counts daily steps, distance, calories and sleep
- Download data fields, watch faces, widgets and applications from Connect IQ
Connect IQ
Connect IQ is also home to custom watch faces, widgets, apps and data fields you can download for free.
Key Features
Smart Notifications
Displays email, call, text, social media and other alerts.
VO2 Max Estimate
Estimates the maximum volume of oxygen you can use during activity.
Weather Widget
You can also use the app’s wireless connectivity links to receive current weather conditions and forecasts.
Activity Tracking
Counts steps, calories and distance throughout the day, and the move bar with vibration alert motivates you to move when you’ve been sitting too long.
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| Customer Reviews |
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| Color Display | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced Workouts | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| VO2 max estimate | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recovery Advisor | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Step Counter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Virtual Pacer | ✓ | no data | no data | ✓ |
| Sleep Monitoring | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pace Alert | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Wrist-based heart rate | no data | no data | ✓ | no data |
| Connect IQ | no data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Good as a GPS running watch with some activity tracking.
As someone else mentioned, make sure you are buying this watch for the right reasons! I have been a dedicated Fitbit user for the past 3 years. I have had the Charge HR, the Surge and the Blaze. I was a runner through the Charge and Surge (GPS) but then had a knee injury and became a gym rat through the Blaze time period. My knee has been doing better and so I am pleased to say that I am back to running! I used the Garmin and Fitbit Blaze together through various days and workouts to compare them. I hope this review helps someone switching from a Blaze/Surge to a Garmin 235. I love having an activity tracker but I also love having a GPS running watch. I had the Surge but it was SO ugly, I got rid of it. So why did I need to move on from the Blaze? It is advertised as being able to connect to your phone for GPS. This was an epic fail for me and although Fitbit customer service was awesome and replaced it under warranty, the new unit still did not work on GPS. It had a lot of bluetooth problems including not connecting often so that I could access music controls. It also was not catching my heart rate correctly during high cardio and peak heart rate. Here are my thoughts on the Garmin: -The GPS is awesome! Not once have I had a single issue with the GPS. I ran with the Blaze and Garmin yesterday. The blaze (connected to GPS for a brief moment before it lost connection) gave me 2.35 miles while the Garmin gave me 2.2. I do like that the Blaze tells you how many steps you take on your run while the Garmin does not. -The music controls work well and always connect. This was VERY important to me and if the Garmin did not have this option, I would not have bought it. I do wish it showed the track name like the Blaze did though. -I like that you can customize your Garmin, but it can take some practice before you can figure out how to do that. It's also MUCH easier to download apps, widgets and watch faces connected to your computer than to your smart phone. I got TONS of error messages when trying to do it on my phone. Also like the Fitness Pal connection. -Heart rate seems pretty spot on. I have read lots of reviews here that say this product has a bad hrm, but I have found that to be untrue. Since I have had many fitbits with this feature and experience with Polar heart rate straps (they cut my skin so I had to stop using them), I believe that the heart rate monitor is pretty reliable. It does not show the heart beat moving like the Blaze does, but that's minor and it does take a minute to update. It did catch my peak heart rate where the Blaze had trouble. It showed my peak at 175 which is maybe 3-4 beats too high but much closer than my Blaze which said 164. -As for steps... this is where I am not sure of the reliability. I wore it with the Blaze yesterday and the Blaze gave me 12,499 while the Garmin gave me 10,823. On Friday, my work schedule is such that I don't usually get very many steps and the Garmin gave me 10,948 steps, so I became suspicious leading to me wearing both monitors together on Saturday. I am going to guess that the correct number is somewhere in between the two watches. Also, the Garmin does not let you know when you have reached your goal and that feature on the blaze was kind of cute. VO2 Max is cool but probably not very accurate. So is the recovery hours suggestion. -Love the weather and sunrise/sunset view. This helps me not need to look the info up on my phone. -This is a very attractive looking watch. I hate that Fitbit is stuck on the square watch face look and I will not go back to Fitbit until they try a round watch face that can pass for a regular watch like this one can! I have a very small wrist (around 5.5") and this strap is comically long on me. I wish they made small watch band sizes for women like me. But nothing is as comical looking as the hideous Surge was! Here is where I agree with the reviewer about making sure that you are buying this watch for the right reasons! The bad parts. I am a gear head and very good with gadgets. So I can only imagine being someone who is not. -On the first night I had my Garmin, I was 100% sure I was going to return it because the set up process was such a pain in the butt. The app absolutely sucks. If Garmin could hire a Fitbit software engineer to sort out their IOS app, I would be a happy camper. I got so many error messages and I still cannot figure out how to use the app very easily. That's where Fitbit has one up on Garmin. Information you want at your fingertips are easy to find, but on the Garmin, it often takes me a few minutes to find the info I want. I wish I could have all the data from the Garmin with the Fitbit app. -The menus on the watch are very difficult to figure out. If you asked me right now how to get to my stopwatch feature, I could not tell you how and I would have to google it. I also had to google various other steps to access other things on the watch. -I cannot tell when my Garmin is actually charging. I don't see any icon or any indicator that it is charging and I have to just come back in a few minutes to see if the percentage has changed. -Battery life. Well, needless to say it doesn't last very long. I charged it fully on Wednesday and then used it only during the day (turning it off at night) and it is Sunday now. It has 31% battery left. So that's around 48 hours so far with probably another 8 before I need to charge it again. I read some users saying that the battery life gets better as time goes on so we will see. -Sometimes I wonder if the HRM is working at all. My blaze was running/flashing at all times. Just now, I took my garmin off and it is not flashing at all. It takes about a minute or so before it turns back on. But when it is working, it's reliable. So all in all, be sure you are buying this for the right reasons. Don't expect it to be a gimmicky/cute activity tracker like a Fitbit. If you are looking for a good GPS running watch with some maybe reliable activity tracking, this is the watch for you. I was very sad to leave Fitbit and I will probably go back if they ever come out with a Surge 2 that is not square (hate that look) so I can use their awesome app and do challenges with my friends and coworkers.
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2016
- Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2016
