Garmin fitness watch with heart rate monitor
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| Garmin fitness watch with heart rate monitor |
Let me start by saying that I am an extremely picky consumer when it comes to evaluating a purchase. I do a lot of research before I pull the trigger on buying.
The FR70 delivers great functionality and performance in a watch that can be worn on a daily basis. The menus are very user-friendly and the display is large and easy to read. The form factor of the watch is very well built and feels comfortable on the wrist. I wear this watch as my everyday timepiece and have enjoyed it.
This watch has a timer, dual alarms, and a very useful interval feature among many others. The interval functionality is something I can foresee using very much and have not seen on other exercise watches that I reviewed. It allows for a user to program the amount of time or distance of active exercise along with the amount of time or distance for rest along with the quantifier of intervals or sets that you will be performing in a workout. It even allows for you to mix the criteria. For example, you can program that you would like to run a mile (using the footpad to track the distance) and then rest for 2 minutes and perform this set five times. Additionally, you can program a warm-up and cool down at the beginning and end of the workout.
The one thing that prevented me from giving this watch a full five stars is the difficulty in pushing the buttons on the side and top of the watch. I have only had the watch since Christmas (9 days) so perhaps the buttons will break-in and become easier to push in the future. I guess the benefit of this is that the buttons should not get accidentally pushed.
One other item that was troublesome is that the strap has a rubber notch on the top of the loop that the end of the strap fits in. This notch, makes the watch strap very difficult to pull the strap out when you want to take your watch off. The fix I found for this that works very well is to rotate the loop 180 degrees so the rubber notch is on the back side of the strap. This fix works well and I feel it will prevent the strap from wearing down in the future.
I previously owned the FR50 and was very happy with its functionality; however, the strap broke from repeated exposure to Chlorine. This was a concern to me when researching the FR70. Much like the FR50, the design of the FR70 incorporates the watch straps into the watch body itself. This is worrisome because when the straps on my FR50 broke, it basically rendered the watch useless. I contacted Garmin about fixing the broken straps on the FR50, they stated that it would be 60 dollars to get the watch refurbished. I did not want to invest this amount of money into a 3-year-old device so I began to look for a new watch at this point. Other reviews of the FR70 stated that the material the FR70 straps are made of is supposed to be more durable but only time will tell. I already had purchased the foot pod and bicycle pod, so it made sense to stick with a Garmin product. That being said, after reading up on the new Suunto Quest and Polar offerings as well as touching and feeling those devices at my local sporting good store, I would have made a change if I felt the functionality of the FR70 was not equal to the other watches on the market. In fact, I feel the FR70 excels in the menus and functions that are offered.
I have only owned this watch for 9 days. Thus far, I am happy with my Christmas present and look forward to using this watch more.
