Review Garmin Forerunner 310XT
Description Review Compare Garmin Forerunner Heart Rate Monitor Buyer Guide Compare Price
The goods : Big display easier to read than Dr. Suess. Came up clocking like Flava Flav even after an hour spent submerged underwater. Vibrating alerts will leave you feeling informed. Links up with power meters, cadence sensors, heart rate monitors, and footpods to track just about every kind of performance metric short of medals won. Mac compatible (at last!).
The bads: Somewhat basic heart rate monitoring. Expensive, but look at it as an investment in your health; triple bypass surgery costs a lot more.
Garmin's newest wrist-top fitness watch is a 50-megaton blast forward that combines the best of the company's past two Forerunner models — the 305 and 405 — but easily laps both on almost all counts.
Like its predecessors, the 310XT uses GPS to track your runs and rides, but it adds so much more to the equation that it feels like a breakthrough device rather than an upgrade.
Triathletes in particular will love this watch — it's certainly the best triathlon timekeeper we've yet tested. Not only does it sync up with your ANT+ power meter to display watts as you roll along on the bike, but the auto-multisport mode also lets you switch from one sport to the next by hitting the lap button, and it times your transitions to boot. And this wrist mounted wonder isn't some aqua-phobic wussy either: The new waterproof body can stand up to steady dunking, you can also take it swimming, kayaking, surfing and rowing without fear of turning it into a brick.
Garmin has shrunk the guts of this baby enough that it looks almost like a standard, if very odd, watch. Metrosexuals might give it a pass, but soul-sucking hipsters could probably get away with wearing it in public.
Setup is dead simple. When you first fire it up the watch walks you though a series of questions, and inputs all of your basic data. We did have a bit of trouble getting it to recognize our heart-rate strap initially, but resolved that within a few minutes without having to make a call to tech support or engage in an extraordinary amount of cursing.
In addition to the heart rate monitors and power meters, it will also sync up with Garmin cadence sensors to track your bike crank's RPMs, and to footpods if you want to measure your running cadence on a treadmill or the trail. If you fancy racing in both on road and Xterra events, you'll be pleased with the multiple presets for different bikes, allowing you to have one weight setup for your mountain bike and another for your road rig. Overall the interface is easy to use and intuitive, although it takes a little more tinkering and RTFMing than other Forerunner models.
When it comes to performance tracking, the new 310XT is so strong we expected it to fail a drug test. It tracks just about every fraction of workout data you'll need to know, gives you instant feedback and keeps a history file on the watch that can also upload to Garmin Connect (more on that in a bit).
Power, calories, heart rate, speed, distance, elevation: You name it, they're all there. It can also help make your workouts more effective. You can easily set up custom interval workouts right in the watch. A vibrating alarm lets you know when you've gone certain distances or drop out of heart rate or speed zones. The tactile feedback is fantastic, not only because it keeps you from having to glance at the watch, but also because it means you can wear headphones and still stay informed, or receive alerts on a group run without bugging your pals.
But when you do want to peep, you can customize the display with up to four data fields for each screen, and swap between multiple screen presets so you can keep your top tier data like speed, heart rate, time and distance on one screen. Then swap to another for secondary metrics like elevation, grade and calories burned.
Because each sport supports up for four screens, this means you can keep track of at least 16 metrics for each sport — making you the biggest nerd in the race if not the fastest competitor. New features like in-watch heart rate graphing, power tracking, and nautical speed and distance tracking are also impressive.
The watch can be charged up either with a wall plug, or by connecting it to your computer's USB port. A progressive meter indicates the amount of charge when the watch is turned off — a nice feature that lets you know if you've got enough juice to hit the road for a few hours or not. Garmin claims the watch will take you through a heart-stopping 20 hours of training on a single charge. We were too pooped to work out that long, but we did manage to squeak in more than six hours of activity with a lot of button pushing and still left the battery 64 percent full.
One thing we couldn't test was what happens when you get home. This Forerunner is designed to wirelessly sync your workouts with the Garmin Connect website. However, we couldn't test data uploading as the Garmin Connect website isn't set up to receive data from 310XT model Forerunners yet (unless you're behind the Garmin corporate firewall, that is). We'll check back when it's up and running, and update this review as necessary to reflect that.
This Forerunner is the king of training tools, and among the best heart-rate, speed and distance tracking wrist tops we've seen in the past several years. For most athletes simply seeking a personal best, the Forerunner 310XT will take you there in stride.
Compare Garmin Forerunner for Athletes
Description Review Compare Garmin Forerunner Heart Rate Monitor Buyer Guide Compare Price
Starting with the Forerunner
305 Garmin finally started producing GPS-enabled watches that
didn't make you look like a total goof while tracking your pace and
vitals, but these still weren't timepieces you'd be comfortable
wearing to the office or even a bar. Then came the Forerunner
50, which had the perfect watch-like form factor, but
unfortunately, no GPS. So fans of this line will be pleased to learn
that Garmin has somehow been able to shoehorn a satellite receiver
into a casing not much bigger than the 50's and dubbed it the
Forerunner
405. Besides monitoring and logging speed, distance, heart rate
and location, the 405 also features a touch-sensitive bezel for
controlling its various functions, as well as the same proprietary
ANT+Sport wireless syncing technology as the GPS-less 50. Available
in either black or green. However, Calorie computation of Forerunner
405 is based on speed and distance. The new Forerunner
405CX has an improved method of calorie computation based on your
heart rate that is more accurate than previous.
Garmin enhances Forerunner
305 to Forerunner
310XT by improving waterproof to 50m and compute calories based
on your heart rate like Forerunner
405. However, It looks like Forerunner
305 so that it is more suitable for swimmer.
Take the highly popular Forerunner
50 and make it better. The Forerunner
60 is a fitness watch with automatic PC sync, gym equipment
compatible (ANT + compatible devices), wireless heart rate monitor,
coin cell battery, Virtual Partner
|
Features
|
Forerunner
305
|
Forerunner
50
|
Forerunner
405
|
Forerunner
405CX
|
Forerunner
310XT
|
Forerunner
60
|
|
Color Option:
|
No
Option
|
No
Option
|
Black,
Green
|
No
Option
|
No
Option
|
Male: Black,
Red
Female: Black,
Lilac
|
|
Unit dimensions, WxHxD:
|
2.1" x 2.7" x 0.7"
(5.33 x 6.86 x 1.78 cm)
|
1.7" x 2.3" x 0.8"
(4.2 x 5.8 x 2.0 cm)
|
1.88" x 2.78" x 0.646"
(4.8 x 7.1 x 1.6 cm)
|
1.88" x 2.78" x 0.646"
(4.8 x 7.1 x 1.6 cm)
|
2.1" x 2.2" x 0.8"
(5.4 x 5.6 x 1.9 cm)
|
Men's:2.2" x 1.5" x 0.5"
(5.6 x 3.8 x 1.3
cm)
Women's:2.0" x 0.5" x 0.6"
(5.2 x 3.8 x 1.4
cm)
|
|
Display size, WxH:
|
1.3" x 0.8" (3.3 x 2.0 cm)
|
0.9" x 0.7" (2.4 x 1.8 cm)
|
1.06"(2.7 cm) diameter
|
1.06"
(2.7 cm) diameter
|
1.3" x 0.8"
(3.3 x 2.0 cm)
|
0.8" x 1.1" (2.0 x 2.8 cm)
|
|
Display resolution, WxH:
|
160 x 100 pixels
|
NA
|
124 x 95 pixels
|
124 x 95 pixels
|
160 x 100 pixels
|
56 x 31 pixels
|
|
Weight:
|
2.72 oz (77 g)
|
1.5 oz (42.5 g)
|
2.11 oz (60 g)
|
2.11 oz (60 g)
|
2.5 oz (72 g)
|
men's: 1.6 oz (44 g);
women's: 1.4 oz (41 g)
|
|
Battery:
|
rechargeable lithium-ion
|
coin cell battery (CR2032)
|
rechargeable lithium-ion
|
rechargeable lithium-ion
|
rechargeable lithium-ion
|
coin cell battery (CR2032)
|
|
Battery life:
|
10 hours, typical
|
12 months
|
2 weeks in power save mode; 8 hours in training mode
|
2 weeks in power save mode; 8 hours in training mode
|
20 hours training, typical
|
12 months
|
|
Water resistant:
|
yes(IPX7)
|
yes(IPX7)
|
yes(IPX7)
|
yes(IPX7) 1m for short time
|
yes(50m)
|
yes(50m)
|
|
GPS-enabled:
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
High-sensitivity receiver (search for GPS signals very quickly)
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
RoHS version available (environmentally material):
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Basemap: world map or country map
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
|
Ability to add maps:
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
|
Accepts basemap data cards:
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
|
Lap history in memory: such as lap time, lap distance, and
average pace
|
1000 laps
|
100 laps or up to 7 hours of data
|
1000 laps
|
1000 laps
|
1000 laps
|
100 laps or up to 15 hours of data
|
|
Number of waypoints / favorites / locations in memory:
|
100
|
0(sports watch is not GPS-enabled)
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
0(sports watch is not GPS-enabled)
|
|
Heart rate monitor:
|
yes
|
yes
(some versions)
|
yes(some versions)
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Bike
speed/cadence sensor:
|
yes (some versions)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
|
Foot
pod: to give speed, pace, distance, and calories burnt while
running
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (optional)
|
yes (some
versions)
|
|
Automatic sync (automatically transfers data to your computer):
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Garmin Connect™ compatible (online community where you
analyze, categorize and share data):
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Garmin Training Center® software compatible:
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Virtual Partner® (train against a digital person to see if
you are ahead or behind your goal :
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Courses (compete against previous workouts):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Auto Pause® (pauses and resumes timer based on speed):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Auto Lap® (automatically starts a new lap): The default lap
distance is 1.00 mile but can customize it
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Auto Scroll (cycles through data pages during workout):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Multi-sport (changes sport mode with a press of a button):
|
yes
|
no
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Advanced workouts (create custom, goal-oriented workouts):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
|
Simple workouts (input time, distance and calorie goals):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
no
|
|
Pace alert (triggers alarm if you vary from preset pace):
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes (for advanced workouts only)
|
yes (for advanced workouts only)
|
yes (for advanced workouts only)
|
yes
|
|
Time/distance alert (triggers alarm when you reach goal):
|
yes
|
no
|
yes (for advanced workouts only)
|
yes (for advanced workouts only)
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Interval training (set up exercise and rest intervals):
|
yes
|
yes (alarms only)
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Heart rate-based calorie computation (compute calories based on
your heart rate which is better than based on speed and distance)
|
no (calories based on speed / dist)
|
no (calories based on speed / dist)
|
no (calories based on speed / dist)
|
yes
|
yes
|
no (calories based on speed / dist)
|
|
Customizable screen(s):
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
Barometric altimeter : measures the atmospheric pressure
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
|
Unit-to-unit transfer (shares data wirelessly with similar
units):
|
no
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
no
|
|
Power meter compatible (displays power data from compatible 3rd
party ANT+Sport™-enabled power meters):
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
no
|
|
Sport Watch look like:
|
no
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
no
|
yes
|
|
Additional:
|
NA
|
Watch functions include time of day (12/24h), dual time zone,
calendar (day/date), daily alarm.
Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center are currently
compatible with Windows® 2000 or later. Mac® compatibility
coming 3rd Quarter, 2008.
|
Watch functions include dual time, date and alarm.
Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center are currently
compatible with Windows® 2000 or later. Mac® compatibility
coming 3rd Quarter, 2008.
|
Watch functions include dual time, date and alarm.
Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center are compatible with
Windows® 2000 or later and Intel-based Mac running OS 10.4 or
later with Safari.
|
NA
|
Watch functions include time of day (12/24h), dual time zone,
calendar (day/date), daily alarm.
Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center are compatible with
Windows® 2000 or later and Intel-based Mac running OS 10.4.11
or later with Safari.
|