Garmin Forerunner 220
Based on 231 reviews left my actual users of the gadget, the product enjoys a rating of 4.4 out of
Design
The Forerunner 220 has all the features found in a sports watch. The diameter of its face is 1.75 inches with a red circles around the perimeter. The right side of the watch has two buttons namely Run and Back. The right side has three buttons. One button is pressed to switch on the display back light and the other two buttons are pressed to configure the menu settings.
Usability
For longer runs, the watch doesn’t cause any discomfort because of its light weight that is 1.45 ounces. The Forerunner 220 has a 5-star rating as far as tolerance for pressure under water is concerned. The watch will work fine even if you go 150 feet underwater with the watch on your wrist.
Using the watch is quite easy because it has many buttons to configure the watch. You won’t find it hard to use any function of the device. Battery life and GPS connecting speed could be better.
Performance
After you cross each mille, you will hear a beep and buzz from the Forerunner 220, and for a while, you will see your pace for the previous mile.
The gadget will get a GPS signal within a minute, but if the battery is too low, the watch may have a hard time catching GPS signals. For the most part, the gadget uses its accelerometer in case of a low battery.
After a run, you can go back and check your workout history, such as overall stats, speed and so on. To give you motivation, the watch will sound a beep and show a little award on the screen each time you broke a record you set. It’s a pretty cool feature.
You can go to the Garmin’s website to download a training calendar of workouts and training. For interval training, the watch does have an option. You will be amazed to know that the watch lets you store approximately an activity data of 200 hours.
Value
As far as value for the money is concerned, this gadget is best in the market. At $250, it is an ideal choice with all the required features if you want to use it while doing workouts or jogging. However, you may have to pay an additional amount of $50 should you want to go for the heart rate monitor as well. So, the Garmin Forerunner 220 price tag won’t hurt your wallet.
Although the device is small, it will show you all you need to know as to our body while running or doing workouts in the gym. If running is your hobby, I highly recommend that you get this gadget and you won’t regret your decision. The measurements are accurate but not absolutely accurate.
Other Features Of The Gadget
App
The Garmin Forerunner 220 uses an app that is available for both Android and iOS. All you have to do is sign up for free or use your Facebook user name and password to login and then pair the watch with the application.
The display of the app has 7 sections, namely Badges, Personal Records, Workouts, Courses, Sleep, Activities and Steps.
To review detailed information about your average pace, calories burned, cadence, elevation, and calories burned for instance. There is an option to share your runs on social media sites or email them to your friends.
Heart Rate Monitor
For additional information, you can sync your Forerunner with a food pod or a heart rate sensor. All you have to do is go to the Add Sensor menu on your watch, select Heart Rate Monitor and switch on the Mio Link. Your watch will connect with the heart rate monitor almost instantly, and you will see a green heart on the home screen.
Battery Life
As far as Garmin’s opinion is concerned, the Forerunner 220 can last as many as 6 weeks if you only use the watch mode, but will last as many as 10 hours if you activate the GPS mode. And from our experience, the watch gives about the same battery life.
For recharging the watch, you need to connect a proprietary clip with 4 metal contracts to the backside of the gadget. The other USB plug will go into the USB port of your PC or laptop. Once the battery is fully charged, you are ready to use it for weeks.