Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Ronny Prather photo
1 Level
858 Review
54 Karma

Review on Garmin Forerunner 10 GPS Watch (Black/Red) by Ronny Prather

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Best Budget Watch with GPS

I bought this watch for my wife to replace the Soleus Fit (which replaced the old Garmin 205). Soleus Fit just wasn't easy enough for her. I wrote a separate review about this GPS watch. Forerunner 10 has a lot to offer. It's surprisingly easy to use. After using Soleus my wife was pleased with how easy it was to figure out. It also picks up a GPS signal quickly (faster than Soleus and the old 205). And data loading is also fast. What should you pay attention to. The clock is small, but the display still works great. My wife has found that the two-line display is easier to see than the three-line soleus display. Uploading to Strava requires no driver or software other than the Garmin Uploader plugin and can be done from within Strava. Soleus required a separate driver as well as the Soleus software to load it into Strava. However, the plugin no longer works with Firefox or Chrome, so IE or Safari is a must. And when it stops working with IE or Safari, there are rumors on the Garmin forums that the download has to be done through the Garmin Connect software. This requires another piece of software and two steps to download (open Garmin Connect, upload to Strava, view data in Strava. It's not a big deal if this happens, but it reduces the usability of this watch. so four stars instead of five) is because of that that the display consists of only two lines. By default, it shows distance and elapsed time, which is great for a lot of people. However, some want to see time, distance and pace on the same screen. Garmin does show pace, but only at the touch of a button - not a good thing when running. Being able to see three dates on one screen has its perks, but this watch doesn't. That's probably going to be negligible for anyone but the most serious of runners, who will probably end up buying a Garmin with a higher line anyway. Nonetheless, I've used both Soleus and Garmin, as well as the ability to display three dates on the same screen with Soleus see is something I appreciate more than I thought. Far from a serious runner. Also, this watch is great. They could make a great first watch with GPS and download all the areas that the Soleus Fit lacked due to their simplicity and the speed at which they pick up a signal. EDIT: Soleus only lost signal once while this Garmin loses GPS signal more times. And as others have said, the battery life is pretty bad on this one. Anything longer than three hours (like walking and wanting to have a GPS) is at risk. The Soleus can easily run for six or more hours without ever dropping battery life by 25%. Both are probably a compromise for the small size, but downgraded me to 3 stars.

Pros
  • Battery: Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery life: 5 weeks in sleep mode; 5 hours in training mode
Cons
  • Crumpled packaging