Review on 🏃 Garmin Forerunner 405 with Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) and USB Connectivity: Stay Fit and Connected by Adam Vang

*UPDATE* After nine months of use the battery died and the clock completely jammed. The warranty is one year so I received a refurbished replacement and Garmin support was helpful but this is an upgrade and should have lasted longer than nine months. The replacement device has worked flawlessly so far, but my rating has dropped from four to three stars. Most of my activities include outdoor rowing and indoor rowing (heart rate only). For now that's my take - Battery: I wear this watch every day, all day and charge it about every three days to be on the safe side. When I charge it usually has half of its life left just before it plugs into the charger (even after a day or two of 5-8 miles). I put my watch charger next to my phone charger. There is a "sleep mode" that the watch defaults to when not in "learning mode". This "sleep" still shows the time, and when you press the start button, the date shows for a few minutes before just resetting the time to the default. At the end of your workout, if you press "stop" and hold the "reset" button for three seconds (which saves the workout), you'll save all your data and extend battery life. My guess is that the GPS drains the battery the most (much like your cell phone). Software: Most of the low scores are related to software, and most appear to be related to Apple compatibility. Apple people are probably used to compatibility issues. On the MS operating system, I've had no problems whatsoever with the software and actually find the wireless data transfer and web reporting fantastic. I set up an RSS feed for my runs and shared it with my friends. I've also set up an RSS feed for other runners in my zip code to see what the competition is up to: this requires users to share their runs, which is entirely optional). Check out the general steps here: [.] Touch Wheel: I was ready to clear my thoughts about using the touch wheel up until my long run last Sunday when it was foggy raining. The touch wheel doesn't like rain. I noticed that the watch kept beeping (I could hear it a bit through the music). After that I checked the screen a few more times and the screen would beep and switch between different menus without me doing anything. The water on the touch wheel seems to give the watch the impression that you are constantly touching it. I did 10 miles but was worried the battery would die from all the extra screen changes, or worse the watch would stop recording my mileage. It tracked my run accurately, although I had some issues with the timer stopping at the end of a run and since the screen remained unresponsive for a few minutes after my run, I couldn't confirm that the timer was stopped. All my data was safe after I wiped the watch, it was used normally again. I ran 5km in the dry yesterday and the watch worked like new (no residue). GPS signal. I've run this watch in the mountainous wooded areas of Virginia and the Florida suburbs and haven't had any GPS signal strength issues. Bracelet: A watch is a watch like a bracelet – by that I mean that the rigid part of the watch is not limited to a round face like in traditional watches. The hardened (inflexible) part of the watch forms the letter "C", similar to a women's bracelet, then the bracelet takes up the second half of the circumference of your wrist. If you have a very large wrist I can see that this will be a problem for you. Otherwise, the tape makes a fairly stable impression. Training and Tracking: After each mile, the watch will beep and display your pace for that mile. There is also an option to set up a pace monitor to measure your progress as you run. For example, you can set a pace of 7:15 per mile, and while you run, the watch will display two "figures" representing you and a pace of 7:15. It will also tell you how many minutes and seconds you are ahead or behind that pace. Pros: Very accurate, great training device, elegant compared to all other everyday wear options, great web software, easy wireless data transfer, heart rate sync. simply, the battery life surprised me. Cons: expensive, touch wheel almost useless in the rain