Garmin 405 initial review
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at
1:48 am
Initial user review of the Garmin 405. Size comparison with Polar S625X, RS800 and Suunto T6. First observations after few days with the new watch.
Tagged with: garmin • initial • Review
Filed under: Garmin Video Reviews
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hello!
does anyone know how to set up a time ration alarm on the garmin 405?
If you are triathlete and are set on Garmin I would suggest to wait for the 310xt to be released. It is water resistant and designed for swimming. None of the 205, 305 and 405 models are fit for swimming and Garmin states that in the manual (at least the one for 405).
As I said before I sold the 405 about a year ago and now use Polar RS800cx and Suunto T6c. Very happy with Polar, quite happy with the T6c.
Sorry had to post it in 3 replies due to limits here.
The 405 is great watch with two exceptions that you need to decide if you can live with:
-> the bezel interface
-> the battery life which requires recharging few times a week or once every 2 weeks if you do not use GPS
Otherwise the watch is great for running or cycling and does great job. Especially the virtual partner is a great function that other units do not have.
I did not have problem with sweat per se (or I did not observe it as sweat issue). But I had general issues with the way the watch is controlled – the bezel interface works well when you are stationary, but try changing something mid-run or while on the bike. It compares to making a phone call or texting while driving.
did you have a problem with sweating on the bezel? i am thinking about getting the 405 but i heard bad things that the 405 does not work while running if you sweat too much?
I guess what you meant to say is that Garmin messed-up the first release and fixed the initial 405 problems? I would not blame people that shelled their hard earned cash and then were disappointed when the watch did not perform to their expectation. In any case good to hear that Garmin addressed the issues.
I think the problem with alot of people is that they bought the 405 right when it came out. I just got mine today, I am a runner by the way, and I love it. Its accurate and does everything I need, the bezel works with water on it.
dont buy the 405 its not waterproof
really? i was planning to get one, what was so bad about it?
I’ll leave that to people that still own it. Mine ended up on eBay about after 2 months of use.
how about watching it in action?… really testing it instead of spending hours comparing it against the thickness of other units.
Simon,
I sold the 405 a while ago, but yes the unit shows the current running pace or biking speed as well as average for the entire session and/or lap. You can customize the display to show you the units you need and supports both metric and imperial units.
Hi Jan! Great video review.
I was just wondering if the 405 showed while you’re running your current speed like most GPS units do. If so does it show in kms/hr or miles/hr?
Thank you…
Well there are trade offs – you can get the GPS unit on-board and then charge the watch every few days It gives you about 8 hours of exercise with GPS. Or you can use external unit like Polar G3 or Timex GPS unit and that one gives you more time and flexibility. Also the RS800cx is much, much smaller than the Forerunner 405. But some people prefer Garmin. I’m not one of them. But ultimately the decision is yours
– you will be running with it…
Thanks. I appreciate the reply. I was hoping to have the GPS ‘on board’ instead of the extra sensor. I have the Timex bodylink with gps pod and like it but would like to have a single unit.
Thanks
I have heard about people having issues with the touch bezel when it got wet from sweat or in rainy weather. The bezel is the biggest downfall of this HRM – it looks nice and works great in your living room, but using it while running is totally another story. It takes quite some concentration to get what you need when you are moving.
If you need mapping feature look also at the RS800cx with G3 sensor that provides watch that does not need to be charged weekly and does the mapping.
Hi canuhead,
I actually sold the unit a while ago as it is not really useful for triathlon training. It can not be used in the pool or open water. Now I use Polar RS800cx and Suuto T6c in my training. They both have their pluses. I like Polar for training and Suunto for racing.
Hello Jan,
Thanks for the review. I have heard that when you get sweaty that the bezel controls are hard to control. Have you had anything like this happen? Anything else you are not thrilled with? Thanks.
Thank you Jan! This video helped me in my buying decision.
thank you for the informations.
it was just what i was looking for
Great information. Thanks for your help and ignore the negative comments – you will never be able to please everyone.
Thanks for al the infos, very interesting indeed.
Wow, some miserable people on here… thanks for the review Musiljan, helped me decide to get a 405 and after a week and the first few runs I’m very glad that I did
dobra anglictina…
Maybe I’m not in this to get viewers – did you think of that? I’m not commercial station. All I did was publish initial review for people that are interested and linked it from my blog. That is all.
If you want more detailed feature walk throughs serach some place else. They are not here. And I’m not recording any more as the watch is long gone.