Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS - 2007 BCS

This is the second Forerunner 305 I have bought. The first one I stupidly left in a wet bag to be radiated by extremely hot sun in the north of Western Australia. The unit is one of the best sports accessories I've ever bought and love the real time data that it can provide me. It never really cuts out as did the 301 and does look better, although a long way to go to being worn as an everyday watch.

This thing is the bomb! I've had mine for almost two months and I absolutely love it. I only have a few minor gripes about it but nothing major enough to reduce the ranking. Positives: 1) Overall good tracking, this depends a lot on the user and how patient he/she can be while waiting for a good satellite lock. The less you move around while it's searching, the better. 2) Options galore to track your training progress and evaluate your workout. I would recommend signing up with motionbased.com and using their free service; they have a more detailed workout summary than the software that comes in the box. For a fee you can get even more details, but I have not tried this. 3) Wireless HR monitor seems to be very accurate and is a great addition to help with training.
Negatives: Few and minor 1) As with any GPS unit, the 305 will not track as well in dense foliage, on cloudy days, or if you move around a lot while it's trying to get a satellite lock; this is to be expected. 2) It’s too bad the technology isn't developed enough yet so that they could make these things a little smaller. It would be great to wear it when not working out, but it is simply too huge. 3) The elevation tracking is not super accurate. I'm told that this is pretty much always the case when altitude is measured by GPS and not barometric pressure (like Suunto does). The readings I've seen are always in the ballpark, but I'll usually have spikes and drops of +/- 200ft even when I run on a level track. Again, I don't think this is unusual for a GPS of this size.
Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to track their progress when training and analyze their workouts. It has yet to disappoint me.

While the Forerunner 305 may be quite useful for training, it does not have many features that make it useful for navigation. The 305 lacks a display of latitude and longitude. The only way to see your current GPS coordinates is to set a way point. It would be nice to be able to change the display of the coordinates. It only shows the lat/long in minutes/seconds, not in decimal or UTM. Also, it would be nice to be able to see topo lines on the map display, or to be able to upload small sections of top maps from their software.

I have used the Garmin 201 for running for several years. It has been very useful but the GPS performance was poor under trees and in other semi-obstructed areas. The new 305 has superior GPS tracking in all of the areas that I could not get reception in before. I have not received a "weak GPS signal" yet. The heart rate monitor works flawlessly and the chest strap is comfortable. There are many more useful features to learn, use, and enjoy than the previous models.

In my opinion, however, the ergonomics of the new case design missed the boat. The display is smaller and actually tilts away slightly making it necessary to fully pronate the forearm and abduct the shoulder to get a good view. Some of the lettering ends up being very small. The wristband is small and does not stay under the restraining loop. The buttons, which I thought were just right on the last models, are much stiffer and more difficult to operate when running. This may have been necessary because they moved some of the buttons to the sides of the case where there could be inadvertent pressure on them.

In summary, this watch performs its primary mission very well. I hope they can get the case design right the third time around.