Garmin Forerunner 50 Water Resistant Running GPS With Heart Rate Monitor and Foot Pod
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $115.00 You Save: $84.99 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Forerunner 50 Water Resistant Running GPS With Heart Rate Monitor and Foot Pod
Customer Review: Very disappointed in this watch; stay away.
Summary: 1 Stars
This watch was "doomed" from the get-go since when I received it the ant-stick was missing out of the box. Amazon was GREAT in getting a replacement watch to me; thanks Amazon on the service!
Back to the watch....well, I ran into many of the same problems as others. Right away the foot pod AND heart strap did not sync. I went out and got new batteries and only the foot pod still sync'd....argh. I decided that I really just got it for monitoring my distances and pace so I figured I could "live" with not having the strap working - maybe there was something I was doing wrong.
Went on a couple of runs and I noticed that the foot pod definitely should be calibrated, but it didn't bother me that much since I was looking for rough estimates. Putting the pod on different shoes will cause different readings so be aware.
The ant-stick upload was just OK to me. Easy to setup, but I just didn't find the website that user-friendly or inviting.
Since the face of the watch only shows a single piece of data I found that I really needed more. Having the pace and lap time also shown would be helpful (and I understand that they are on higher end models). Working the buttons and history was just a nightmare for me. Note that I'm very patient when it comes to getting technology to work right, but the menu system is very poor in this watch; just way too cumbersome and not intuitive in the least bit.
I went back to the heart strap a week or so later and rechecked the battery, but it still wasn't working. But what made me decide to just dump this watch is while putting the watch in the synching mode which searches for all available pods/straps that are in close proximity it just decided to DELETE the previous synch I had with the footpod.
That was enough for me to just find another watch (decided to go the Polar route and see what that brings to the table) and give this watch to my Dad for basic time.....
I hope others have better success, but for me it was simply an $80 gift.
Customer Review: might be a good product...but software made me return it
Summary: 1 Stars
Hey,
Just a quick review. i bought this for around 120 or so when the price dropped, thinking i would get a deal on a pedometer, with heart monitor system for running. I consider myself fairly "tech-ey" meaning i can figure most electronic things out around the house. But this devide still baffled and frustrated me, especially from someone comeing from using the nike system with ipod.
here are the negatives:
1. hard to use at night...i think there is a light, but when i went to use it, it got into some split timer mode, which i couldnt turn off. just beeped at me every 2 minutes on my 5 mile run...trust me, this gets annoying when you are out of gas and just want your eqipment to work.
2. bad button configuration. there seem to be not enough buttons on the watch, so certain buttons do double duty, have double features, light doubles with plit timer (see above). NOT for night runners.
3. software is SOOOOO confusing. When you download the software, garming gives youa choice of an online tracking system or a desktop tracking system. While this is fine, each doftware had their own look, so i was not sure of which one i shoudl download. I come from nike's running community (with the ipod sensor in my nano) so i know those are usually useful, but Garmin's just had so little participation. Their forums directed me to a second party site...not even at Garmin.com.
On top of this, as of last month, 11/08 they only support PC. No Mac.
Bottom line: this is an entry level watch to track your progress on runs or biking. For runners, i HIGHLY recommend sticking with the Nike system, where sending run data is no more complicated than starting up itunes. It took me buying the Garmin to truly appreciate the cross platform support (mac and PC), user participation, and intuitiveness of the nike device. Both are about the same in terms of accuracy, so why not go with the one which actually has developers writing useful software for it?
save the frustration and avoid this thing
Customer Review: excellent product
Summary: 4 Stars
I needed a new heart rate monitor and the price of this package with the foot pod was too good to pass up. The heart rate monitor works flawlessly compared to my old Omron which never gave me a stable reading. I am now able to accurately monitor my recovery and tempo runs based on heart rate. The foot pod also works quite nicely, once calibrated. I am getting spot on mileage readings. I did encounter a problem when I used the foot pod on a different shoe (I rotate my running shoes). I was getting inaccurate pace and mileage readings on this other shoe. When I put the foot pod back on the shoe on which I initially calibrated the unit, my readings were once again accurate. Both shoes are Brooks, but the models are different. I researched this issue a bit and learned that small pod movements or changes in the angle on which it sits on your shoe can affect the way it measures the speed of your gate and thus impacts accuracy. So word to the wise, recalibrate when switching shoes!
One other thing about this system is the Garmin software and/or Garmin Connect website. This system's functionality is tied directly to Garmin's software and the Garmin Connect training log. The watch itself reads your workout data, but does little when it comes to reviewing the data. You must download your data in order to analyze heart rate, pace, intervals, cadence, etc. For those who want the watch to spit everything back out, you might look at another product. Otherwise familiarize yourself with Garmin's software or some of the other online running logs that now read Garmin data (I use both because I find Garmin Connect to be a bit limited) and maintain proper foot pod calibration and you should be well-pleased.
Customer Review: Great, basic watch for tracking runs
Summary: 5 Stars
I have this and the Forerunner 405 with GPS. To be honest, I bought this solely for the foot pod - purchasing this watch was only $10 more than buying the foot pod alone, which makes the Forerunner 50 a great deal. It also comes with an ANT+ stick ($40 from Garmin) and a heart rate monitor ($50 from Garmin). If you lose anything from one of the more expensive watches, it makes more sense to buy one of these. That said, to the review, and comparisons with the 405.
Pros of the Forerunner 50:
- No need to charge it! It runs on a normal watch battery, and appears to have a very long life.
- Pretty accurate once the foot pod is calibrated. Over a 6 mile run, it is within 2/10 of a mile. Not as accurate as the GPS watches, but still, if you want to measure yourself, this is a great way to do it.
- Slim design and easy to use. You can wear it with normal clothes and not look completely out of place, like with the MUCH larger GPS enabled models.
- Garmin connect software is pretty great. I can pop all my runs up, compare times, cadence, distance, and heart rate. For $100, this is a great feature.
Cons:
- No way to map out where you've run to track hills and such. Not that big of a deal.
- Have to calibrate it the first time - but seriously - 1 mile and it was calibrated. NOT a big deal.
In all, unless you're very serious about running and want to map everything out, this watch does 90% of what the more expensive GPS watches do at a fraction of the price. I love my 405, but won't slight this simpler model one bit.
Customer Review: My Experiences with the Garmin Forerunner 50
Summary: 3 Stars
The Garmin Forerunner 50 watch was the perfect heart rate monitor for the first three months. The heart rate monitor and foot pod components paired immediately with the watch, which made the setup incredibly simple. I was able to use the functional watch on a daily basis for about three months before I encountered my first problem-the watch stated that the battery was low. Upon this prompt, I purchased a new battery and attempted to fix the issue. However, installing the new battery was not an easy task-with multiple components that must be replaced in the proper order, and even more disheartening was the discovery that even with the new battery, the watch still did not work. After some research on the battery issue, I discovered that this was not the first instance in which a customer had a watch that stopped working even with a new battery. So, under the Garmin Warranty, I was able to send in the watch to be repaired-which happened to be about a three week process before my watch was back in my possession. My watch was like new again-I was able to use it on a regular basis. However, one month later, the watch stated that the battery was low, once again. So I replaced that battery, and ever since it seems as if the battery gets low every other month. The watch has been extremely problematic, however, it being my first and only heart rate monitor watch, I have become completely dependent on it familiarity and therefore, refuse to invest in a new one.