Archive for November, 2007

Garmin GPS Forerunner 305

Monday, November 12th, 2007
Garmin GPS 305 ForeRunner Personal Trainer

Dimensions: 4×4x4 inches, 1.3 pounds
Part Number: 010-00467-00
Measures: heart rate, speed, distance, pace, altitude
Online mapping & route sharing
AutoPause / AutoLap
Waterproof
MotionBased compatible
USB Interface
Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Personal Trainer

The Garmin GPS Forerunner 305 is a compact physical-activity monitor and personal trainer packed as a hand-wrist watch. This Garmin utility is an Amazon #1 Best Seller in the Sports & Fitness GPS department.

The following contain information on this product as well as handpicked reviews from online forums, blogs and stores’ customer reviews.

 

Lowest price found at Amazon.com: $ 205.48

Note that Garmin 305 ForeRunner and the Garmin 305 Edge are two related yet different products. The Edge is specialized for use on bikes where as the Forerunner requires an additional part to mount and fit on bike’s handles.

 

 

Videos describing and reviewing the Garmin GPS 305

 

Lowest price found at Amazon.com: $ 205.48

 

What TheyThought

Many people had good things to say on this product. You can find some general enthusiasm about the 305 in these places: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and this one from the official Garmin blog.

A few improvements in this version of the Garmin product are worth stressing:

Improved Accuracy: Inspector Gadget copared the 305 to her Nike+iPod GPS sprots shoe and found the shoe to be as high as 20% off mark from the 305. See here as well.

Improved Sattelite Reception Under Trees and Buildings: See here and here.

Easy to use: See here.

 

Hate posts on this product are scarce and not so easy to spot.
Here are some we found and thought are worth citing:Buldgy : Here and here.

Altitude Problems : Here and here.

Bad Customer Support : Here and here.

Reset Problem : Here here and in the comments here.

Battery Issues : Here and a very crafty post by Chriss Bennet on how to supply power to the unit on the road.

No Mac OS compatibility

No use Indoor : Running on a treadmil can’t be monitored with the 305. A special add on needs to be purchased for that. This is probably the only place where the Nike+ option wins over the GPS measurement devices.

 

 

Lowest price found at Amazon.com: $ 205.48

 

Review Hubs:

4.25/5 by over 300 people at Amazon.com
4.5/5 by 13 reviews at Buy.com
4/5 by 18 people at ePinions
7.2/10 by 12 people at CNet
3.7/5 by 3 reviewers at BestBuy

Gizmodo.com


Price

Amazon.com $ 205.48
Buy.com $ 214.99
BestBuy.com $ 299.99
Garmin.com $ 323.06 (suggested retail price)