Appearance
First the watch is much smaller than most GPS watches which is the primary reason why I bought it. I was getting annoyed by the size of my FR 305 and wanted something smaller that I could wear as an everyday watch as well. I'm not really a fan of the colors though. I wish they offered black in the smaller women's version or maybe a white or light blue but I ended up going with the sporty green which isn't too bad.
Features
Since it's a GPS watch it's going to take some time finding satellites. On avarage about 3 minutes but on cloudy/overcast days it can take much longer. However if you start at the same spot as your last run, it can take less than 1 minute. I do like the auto pause feature and really comes in handy at intersections. The run/walk feature is nice too but I wish the beep was a bit louder. If I'm running on the sidewalk along side a busy road or listening to music, I can barely hear it. I have yet to really use the virtual pacer feature so I can't really comment on that.
You can customize two screens with two data fields each (time, distance, pace and calories). I usually have screen 1 set to time and distance and screen 2 set to pace and distance. It's water resistent up to 50 meter which is great to know that you can wear it in a heavy down pour, in the shower or even in the pool. Some will say it doesn't give you your overall average pace and well it does, sort of. If you pause in the middle of a run and let it scroll through the screens, it will show you your current average pace. Obviously you wouldn't want to do this in a race but can come in handy in training. When you save a run, it will give you your time, distance, average pace and mile splits which I really like. If you achieve a new PR, it will tell you that as well.
Website Sync
If you use DailyMile, you will be sadden that DailyMile does not support this watch so you will have to enter your runs manually. It does however sync nicely with Garmin Connect, MapMyRun and RunningAhead.com. I haven't tested it on any other websites.
Battery Life
I'm finding the battery life to be between 4-5 hours of GPS use. I find that when I use the run/walk feature, battery life is closer to 4 hours. If you run more than 2 hours, just make sure the watch is fully charged or you may find yourself with a dead watch in the later part of your run. I usually charge after every run since it charges the sametime it syncs so I haven't really had an issue with the battery life.
Overall Thoughts
If you're looking for a basic GPS watch then this is a great watch! It's the smallest GPS watch I've found and feels just like a regular wrist watch. I would recommend it to those who prefer shorter distances due to the 5 hour battery life.
Have a product you would like me to try and give an unbiased review of? Email me at running@ericamelton.com and let me know.
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