Garmin Forerunner 305 or 405

Lisapeep

Hi! I am intending to buy one of these GPS watches but have heard mixed advice on which to get. I was originally going to go for the 405 as it's the newer model and is smaller, which has gotta be a great advantage. But some people have told me that the controls on the 405 are very fiddley and difficult to use and also that the watch goes berserk in the rain. I've even heard of people selling their new 405s to go back to the 305.

Anyone have any opinions here? I wore my friends 305 once while training and it was so heavy on my arm, surely the smallness of the 405 is a big advantage?

Highway_To_Hell

I have been using a 405 for two months, it replaced my times Ironman. I find it a great watch, it picks up the GPS signal really quickly and keeps it. I find the controls easy to use once you get use to the bezel controls. the data uploads to my PC very easily and the data you get is great.

One area of concer is the battery life, on a full charge it will last about 8 hrs in active use which would be a problem if doing anything longer then a 1/2 IM.

I just got delivery of the Bike cadence unit but have not hooked it up yet so I cannot report on it yet.

I also had a problem with the watch having a mind of its own in the rain I solved this by locking the bezel controls.

copacetic

I have both and wouldn't go back to using the 305. The 405 is like a watch the 305 is like a PC on your wrist. Well not quite that bad but it is awkward.

The 405 bezel can be a little tempremental in the rain but I generally turn it on, set the screen I want then lock the bezel. Then it is fine.

Once you get used to them the controls are fine to use and make a reasonable amount of sense. Generally I just use the same mode over and over though, I don't feck around with it while out running, I just want to know how far/fast I have gone/am going.

No issues with the battery life for me, 8 hours active use is loads. Not sure why it wouldn't be enough for more than a 1/2 as mentioned above. and it goes into watch mode rather than off so is useful even when saving battery

Highway_To_Hell

copacetic wrote: »

Not sure why it wouldn't be enough for more than a 1/2 as mentioned above.

I was refering to a 1/2 Ironman not marathon I expect a 1/2 Ironman will take me around 6hrs full IM would be 12+hrs

Manone

I've been toying with the idea of buying the 405 and I was wondering what experiences people had buying them online as the usual frugality applies when trying to buy from bricks and mortar retailer in that they like to take shirt and all in Ireland.

Dabs.ie have a very reasonablty priced €269 compared to €370 irishfit.eu

copacetic

I got mine online, but got my 305 from the Guys in irishfit, give them a call and see what they can do on the price. They may be able to get a fair bit closer to the web price.

Highway_To_Hell

make sure you are comparing like with like and that both have the HRM included. I got mine in IrishFit and the price included the HRM plus I got a 10% discount. I noticed that some of the online prices list the HRM as an extra item adding €60 to the price.

Lisapeep

Highway_To_Hell wrote: »

I was refering to a 1/2 Ironman not marathon I expect a 1/2 Ironman will take me around 6hrs full IM would be 12+hrs

Thanks for the advice so far! I laughed when I read the above comment - I will never in a million years be doing an Ironman, let alone a half ironman. Think I'll probably go for the 405 - all sounds good so far!!

Krusty_Clown

Have a look at the Marathon/Triathlon forum, where there's a lot more info on the Forerunners.

lifian

Lisapeep wrote: »

Thanks for the advice so far! I laughed when I read the above comment - I will never in a million years be doing an Ironman, let alone a half ironman. Think I'll probably go for the 405 - all sounds good so far!!

Never say never!