Garmin Forerunner 235 watch review

Although I have been running for a few years I have not had a decent running watch. I had a Xiaomi Miband 2, but that only counted steps and could check my heart rate if I was standing still. I have got by with phone apps, but you cannot constantly monitor those when the phone is strapped to your arm. I actually went without any watch when the strap on the Miband broke, but decided a proper sports watch could be useful for my training. I looked at various makes and models, but it seemed that a lot of people I knew went for Garmin. They seem to be well made and are supported by most apps. Garmin do a vast range of models in a price range that goes from under £100 to way over £500. I really just want it for running and some cycling. I did not need music storage on the watch as I would still use my phone for that. The Forerunner 235 and 45 seemed to have very similar specifications. The 235 was on offer at Argos, but seems to have gone back up again now. I had it as my birthday present.

This watch is really a technical marvel compared to what we had just a few years ago. My last smartwatch was a Pebble which was cool, but lacked the GPS and heart rate monitor this has. You can select from a vast range of watchfaces. I wanted one that made the time nice and clear, but this also shows my heart rate and steps. I am not too bothered about my number of steps. You access everything with the five buttons. It does not have a touchscreen.

There is a sensor on the back that uses light to measure your heart rate. It does this at intervals and I think it does it continuously when you select this screen or are exercising. A chest sensor will give a more accurate reading, but this may be good enough for us amateurs.

You can configure various options for the watch. I turned off the periodic prompts to move if I was sitting too long and enabled the backlight when I move the watch up to look at it.

To start an activity you press the top right button a couple of times, but there are various options for type of activity (run, run indoors, cycle and other). You can also select exercise programmes if you have set them up. Outdoors it picks up a GPS signal in seconds and you are ready to go. You can set what data you want visible over several screens. The watch with vibrate at preset intervals to give you details on the last kilometre or whatever distance you set. If you have your phone running the app you get verbal updates too.

The app gives many more options. You can set up training programmes with intervals. The prompts for these when you are running are not great as it does not tell you what the next interval should be. I will look into whether that is a set-up issue.

I have not played too much with the data the app gives me as I have opted to use Strava as my main logging app. That is partly because it is more social and I know plenty of people using it. You can configure the Garmin Connect app to automatically synchronise activities to Strava and that seems to happen within minutes after I finish a run. I am posting my runs on Steem with @exhaust that picks up the data from Strava automatically.

Getting notifications from various apps on the watch is useful and you can control which apps do this. My main issue tends to be my eyesight when it comes to reading these. I really need new glasses, but they should be readable for most people. Some notifications have options to do some form of response.

I am very happy with this watch so far. A charge lasts at least a week with several runs. The USB charger uses a clip to attach to the watch. I have just left it overnight, but it should only take a few hours. I have not been wearing the watch at night as I am not bothered about tracking my sleep. I do not know how tough the watch is really. You can buy stick-on protectors for the screen to reduce the risk of scratches. The band is comfortable for me. It is a big watch, but not very heavy. It is waterproof enough for swimming, but I have not done that with it yet.

I hope this review is useful to someone and I will try to answer any questions you may have.

Run free!