Looking for new/good GPS running/Tri watch

rnickster

rnickster

rnickster

Associate
Joined
4 Mar 2007
Posts
409
Location
Manchester
Hi all,

had a mare with running watches. Had a NIKE+ Tom Tom watch which was great for running at home, picked up GPS instantly but only if i regularly plugged it into the computer. So for Duathlon it was no good because when you take it away from normal location it takes an age to find GPS. Sold it

Bought a Garmin 620, used it a few times but it was terribly inaccurate. Sent it back to the shop.

Bought a second hand Forerunner 810 which is just as accurate as the Nike+ but takes an age to find GPS. Currently stuck with this but its driving me mad some days waiting outside for it to find signal.

My Edge 810 unit finds GPS the second I take my bike outside. So its not the area, but seems to be the device.

A lot of the newer Garmin watches have the same issue as the 620 in that they are now using a cheapo GPS unit which is not accurate. At least this is what I have read/found online.

I'm looking at the Fenix watches but hear they have quite inaccurate GPS sensors...

thoughts?
 
I have the Forerunner 920XT and can't say I've noticed any GPS issues? I had one fail due to a barometer issue but that screwed up altitude, but GPS wise it's been fine. What do you mean by inaccurate GPS? Mine has the option to run on GLONASS but so does the Fenix 3 :confused:

Can't go wrong with either if you ask me.
 
I've been looking at the TomTom Spark GPS watch recently as this can also be used for Bluetooth music.

Anyone got any experience of this and how accurate the GPS is?

This could be a good option for you.
 
I previously owned the 620 and now own the 630. I never had any huge issues with GPS accuracy on the 620, although found that it didn't really cope that well with running under trees or in built up areas with narrow streets (the latter is forgivable).

I find the 630 copes much better with the tree situation, whether it's because the GPS unit is improved or the fact that that you can use both GPS and GLONASS at the same time I'm not sure, but I've yet to experience any issues so far. It still struggles a little with the transition from wide open spaces to narrow spaces between tall buildings, but that's just a general issue that I think you're going to experience with all GPS units.

Overall I find the 630 much improved from the 620, it's much slicker in operation (for example the wifi upload was a little temperamental on the 620, but I've experienced no such issues on the 630) and feels a lot nicer to use. Assuming you use the watch regularly and sync runs according I find that it picks up satellites in under 10 seconds. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

As an aside early version of the 620 suffered with poor GPS accuracy which was fixed with a later software update, not sure how early your version was. See here for what appears relatively comprehensive data (if you think you can rely on it) - you can see a big jump from bottom left to top right post v3.30.
 
I'm temped to upgrade my old FR405 to a 630. After looking at one at the Marathon Expo its a lot smaller than I expected.

Personally never had any accuracy issues with my 405, at Parkrun it usually beeps for 5km within 2 or 3m of the finish line.

The time it takes to find satellite varies from about 10 seconds to 2 minuets. Its normally no longer than 30-40seconds. It seems to take longer when I'm away from home.
 
I use the FR630 for running and cycling using speed/cadence & hrm sensors. It works perfectly for my needs and this was an upgrade to my old Nike+ watch. It does have 2 issues that may or may not bother you...

  • The screen looks somewhat dull, nothing like the photos online. I suspect that the (always on) screen is dull to increase battery life as this is excellent.
  • The back of the watch must be in contact with your skin for the touch screen to work. Using a bike mount is slightly annoying, but I made a work-around that involves tin foil for contact to the rear of the watch.
Overall in terms of features its a far better watch than the Nike+. I ran with both when I first got it and found the GPS accuracy was more or less the same as each other.
 
I find my garmin 610 under reads the total running distance when compared to my phone or a map (sportrouteplanner.com) but when you get to race day the courses are always longer, not so important for short races but for a marathon you can easily be doing 0.3-0.4miles more than the 26.2m
 
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