Garmin Forerunner 201 Waterproof Running GPS
by Garmin
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Our Price: $299.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $99.95 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Forerunner 201 Waterproof Running GPS
Customer Review: Great for running. Better than Timex S&D
Summary: 5 Stars
I run about 50-miles a week and have used the Timex S&D watch for about 2-3 years now. I really liked that, but the Forerunner is a much better tool. It's lighter, has a bigger display, and the data download is excellent. There *is* logbook software, and it's just OK. I use TrainingPeaks anyway.
This stands out because of its size (one-piece) and download/upload. You use this in conjunction with MotionBased Software (free) or another provider. You upload your workouts (very simple) and it will Literally overlay your run on a number of different types of maps: Topo, Street, Satellite, etc. It's incredible. I couldn't believe how accurate this was on a satellite map of my town. It was absolutely amazing.
For workout data junkies, you can click anywhere on your route and see your speed, the time, and it even includes weather conditions that it downloads from the nearest weather station. So, you automatically save routes for future use. It's excellent.
POSITIVES:
Lightweight, data download, large numbers, versatile display and data functions, L-ION BATTERY that lasts forever (Timex requires rechargable batteries). As accurate as any other GPS device... except with this one, if it misreads (sometimes these things mysteriously add distance to your workout), you can look at the map or data download and see where things went wrong and correct with an estimate.
-Automatic lap timer (you can set it to lap at a certain distance, so you don't have to... I set it for every mile or at a certain interval)
NEGATIVES:
The serial port connection is a drawback, workaround: Go to Radio Shack and buy a USB-to-Serial Connector and it's a piece of cake. No big deal. Interval timer and some other features are a nice idea but relatively useless for those who do those in the middle of a workout. Buttons take some getting used-to. They're all along the bottom, but they thought enough to raise the Start/Stop and Lap buttons so that they can be pressed without looking.
It ain't perfect, but DANG it's close. It's the best thing I've seen, but it OCCASIONALLY will screw up the data in a small section of a run, usually after a lot of turnarounds.
Customer Review: Greatest invention since the Running Shoe
Summary: 5 Stars
I wonder if this simple to use, lightweight, reliable device wouldn't have been better named the "Liberator". If you, like me, have ever done marathon training you know how frustrating it can be sticking to well marked, pre-measured trails for your training runs...and then, even when marked, having to undergo those mental calculations for each split.... Buy this device and leave those cares behind! For good. Seriously.This is not your typical pedometer or other cheesy gimicky product promising to measure your speed or distance. This is the real deal. Second by second reports on your pace, distance traveled, altitude (or grade, your choice), etc. Configurable alarms. This has it all...and no more (i.e. no other extraneous functionality that would just confuse/complicate things).
Unlike some Garmin products I have used before which have a pretty steep learning curve this product is simple to use too. Very intuitive and easy to setup.
Having never tried the Timex Bodylink system which espouses to do the same thing, I can't comment on a comparison, here, except to note the obvious: price. $124 for this thing is a steal!! Contrast this with the several hundred bones you'll have to shell out for the Timex.
Other reviewers have hit on a couple of the opportunities for improvement: serial vs. USB, heavy charger, outdoor only, etc. These are valid nits...but really trivial compared to the freedom you'll experience the moment you take your first long run with this device. I'm sure future release will address these nit (and I wouldn't be surprise if some integration with a Heart Rate Monitor isn't in the works). But trust me don't wait for these improvements get this now and your runs will never be the same.
By the way, you could really say goodbye to daily entries in your logbook as well. This thing does it for you (and stores it for several years). It then summarizes your mileage by week, month etc...as well as other key parameters (avg speed, etc.) This is all done within the watch to...no need to upload to the logging/analysis software for your desktop which will be available for free from Garmin in Jan.
Customer Review: Doesn't receive GPS signals in cities
Summary: 3 Stars
The unit is great, but it's too finicky about picking up GPS signals.
While I'm running around Cambridge/Boston, MA, it NEVER picks up a signal.
Okay, maybe that's understandable in an urban area. But it doesn't pick up
a signal on the bridges between Cambridge and Boston, either. These are
long bridges, particularly the Harvard bridge, with no suspension
structure, nothing above the road except clear blue sky, but no GPS signal
picked up during the four minutes or so it takes to run across them.
Conversely, it picked up a signal just fine when I mistakenly left it
turned on while in my back-pack, in my house, in Woburn, MA, a suburban
area. Go figure.
How do car-mounted GPS units work in cities? Do they rely more upon the
car's known speed/direction to use dead-reckoning along the road? Or did
Garmin make compromises in the GPS signal handling in this unit to make it
fit on a wrist?
Other (minor) issues:
The manual is badly written. For every option, it explicitly spells out
the required button presses in painful details. The unit actually handles
menus very consistently: two buttons to scroll through the options; one
button to select the highlighted option (which may take you to a child
sub-menu); one button to back-out of a menu, to go to the parent menu. The
manual should have described this menu navigation scheme once, and then not
repeated it for every option, instead using the space to describe the
options in a little more detail.
The unit certainly knows the current date and time, as it's encoded in the
GPS signal, and it can be set to display the current time, but there's no
way to make it display the current date. That would have been useful.
It would be nice to turn off the GPS capabilities temporarily, for example
when you're in your basement den reviewing your past runs, and don't want
to be bothered by the warnings about a weak GPS signal.
Customer Review: Two tries - not a fan
Summary: 2 Stars
I have ordered two Garmins now and tried to put them to use for my runs. The first unit I ordered locked up right out of the box. I returned it for a new one. The second one was highly problematic right out of the box. I upgraded the software for free on the Garmin website and it got much better. However, after miles of experimentation, I've decided that the Forerunner is not the right device for me. Really, it's because of the nature of GPS. Any time I hit heavier shade along my favorite path, the signal goes out. Smoothing helps me keep some of my assumed data, but I still lose more than I am comfortable with. Second, I do not like how inaccurate the pace measurement is. I don't even know why they have the main screen, the "real time" pace is so inaccurate it's completely useless. After way too many hours of online research, I finally found a way to get more accurate pace as I run. I had to set the custom screen for lap pace, average run pace and distance. I then set the autolap for .25 miles. So the average lap pace recalculated every .25 miles and was the most accurate of any reading I obtained to date. But I still worried that if I ever ran fartlke or tempo or did varying speed work of any kind, I'd never really know at the moment how fast I was running. That was very frustrating for me. However, it's the nature of this unit, it only checks your position every 10 seconds or so and if the satellite signal is weak while it's checking, your pace data is basically junk.
I'm sorry to return this item and sorry it isn't going to work for me. I have spent hours troubleshooting and now know more about GPS than I ever cared to! The features on the Forerunner are very cool, but I think for my money, I would have preferred less features and a stronger antennae!
Basically, if you like real time pace and you run in the shade (which really we should all be doing whenever possible!), this device isn't going to be nearly as accurate as advertised!
Customer Review: Long Distance Running Tool
Summary: 4 Stars
I took the Garmin Forerunner 201 for a run yesterday morning. 15 miles starting from the Zero Marker at Houston's Memorial Park and trotting down Memorial Drive to Sabine and back again (see map http://www.harra.org/images/allenpkwy.gif)
I have calculated the distance for this route as has every other distance runner here in Houston and the Garmin Forerunner 201 seems to be true to the mileage.
I used the manual lap button to gauge the distance of each segment I already knew the mileage for, and the Forerunner was correct in each area but one. I somehow lost about a mile along the way. The Garmin displayed an amazingly accurate 4.74 miles for the first loop (see Map Legend for Allen Parkway Hike and Bike trail) and a staggeringly wrong 3.37 miles for my second time around the same loop.
This could be due to human error because I kept fooling with the modes during the second loop and might have inadvertently pressed a pause button or something. I've also heard that being near downtown can affect GPS... so I can blame this on the Enron building or solar winds.
I also found the pacing per mile to fluctuate wildly but after reading other reviews it seems this can be tweaked with the "Pace Smoothing" option. I'm still not sure if I should set it to "Most" or "Least" so any input here would be great.
Overall, the Forerunner 201 seems to be a perfect match for someone who will tread off the beaten path while remaining in view of the sky for the GPS to work. Thankfully you won't get lost in the mileage calculations because this "watch" will do it all for you. I plan on testing it out further as I continue training and hope to follow up this review with more data to see if the Garmin Forerunner 201 lives up to what it claims it can do.
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars - because it dropped a mile on my first long run test and the pace calculations were crazy
Happy Miles