New Garmin Forerunner 305 - Sport watch?

Only a week ago we had a post on The winning GPS for sports - an article about what we would look for in a GPS sport watch for the near future.

Question: is something already in the pipeline?

Maybe, there is no official information available from Garmin, so this might be a rumour. But, the same thing happened to the pre-launch of the Forerunner 301 that was announced ahead of time from a Norwegian Garmin dealer. Now the same thing could have happened to the Forerunner 305 by an Italian Garmin dealer, so lets take this one seriously. 

Some of the reasons why this might be a reality:

1. Garmin has started to use better GPS chip sets from SiRF and this facilitates smaller sized batteries and improved GPS signal reception to fit a watch sized GPS.
   
   
2. Garmin Forerunner 201 and 301 are somewhat bulky and uncomfortable to wear compare to a Sport Watch from Timex, Polar or Nike.
   
   
3. Garmin has a reception problem on the Forerunner 201/301 series partly because of the GPS antenna location.  A trick has been to wear the Forerunner on the wrist toward the body to make the antenna face as much as possible in a horizontal level facing the sky.
   
   
4. Garmin has learned more about the sports market during the 2 years of selling the Forerunner 201/301 devices.

Of interest and why we think this is a real thing is if you look at the device design and particular the bend.  We think the antenna area is located in that smaller bended part with the Garmin name. This makes sense since you would like the antenna to face towards the sky while using it as a sport watch.

This antenna design is then an improvement from the Forerunner 201/301 antenna design.  Combinding this design with a better GPS chip set would enhance signal reception capabilities.

It’s also clear that the 2 large buttons on top are aimed at activity control (tracking) start/stop and lap function. This makes sense and will make the device more user friendly than the Forerunner 201/301 with smaller sized side buttons.

If this is the real deal, we would like to know more about:

1. GPS signal reception capabilities in cities and forest
2. USB or wireless data transfer
3. Size and weight
4. Is it comfortable to wear?
5. Price!
6. Battery and memory capacity
7. Does it come as a modular system with optional heart rate strap and cadence sensor?

Could this be a winner?

Well this is for sure:

The crew that designed this knows a lot about GPS technology combined with athlete demands on the design level.  In the end will the combination of price and performances tell us if this is a winner or not.

Have a nice day :-)

Gjermund

Comments

[Anthony]

It's announced that they will exhibit this together with the Edge cycle computer at the 2006 International CES expo in Las Vegas Jan 6th -8th.

http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/awards/innovations/rd_2006honorees.asp?category=89

[Gjermund]

Thanks Anthony,
this confirms that this is the real deal. We are awaiting the spec and later test results.

[josh]

Greetings! Fellow marathoner and ironman triathlete here... I actually don't mind the size of the 301 at all. I love how thin it is and the wide width of it doesn't bother me at all. With just buying up motionbased, Garmin is doing awesome.

Found your blog via Engadget. Looking forward to reading more of what you're planning on blogging about!

[Jan]

Can you please explain what this means "A trick has been to wear the Forerunner on the wrist toward the body to make the antenna face as much as possible in a horizontal level facing the sky."? In the Garmin material it was said that it should be worn like a normal watch for best reception...

[Gjermund]

Jan,

Good point, this is not clear;

- the existing Forerunner and Foretrex models have an antenna design with optimal GPS satellite signals reception when placed on the ground with the back down and the display towards the sky. This placement enhances satellite lock time and reduces the risk of lost signal reception during an activity. Such a placement is not practical during a walk or run and is worsened by the wrist location as the location platform for the device. Our testers have 2 years of experience with this design and eventually figured out that if you place the wrist strap about 90 degrees towards your self (left or right will be the same) it will be more in line with best possible satellite reception.
Now, this is not very comfy because of the small area on the side of your wrist combined with the hand bend. Then the best location will probably be on your forearm a little above your wrist. We have also experienced that wearing it on your upper arm just below your shoulder like an iPod or a Timex GPS also result in better reception signals, but then the display is hard to use.

[Doug CAmpbell]

I for one welcome the new 305. I've been living with the 201 for a little over a year (actually two of them...the first one broke). For best reception I was forced to wear it on the brim of a running hat. It worked but I felt like an idiot. I've tried other "lesser" running GPS (i.e Navman) but really like the features of the 201. I just want it smaller and to wear it like a watch and have it work. The 305 might be the answer.

[Mike]

BTW, I hope this time Garmin put in Mac support. 301 is impossible to log on even using Virtual PC. Their support is horrible and their aproach to Mac community was always very bad. Lets hope this time they were listening.

[Michael]

I asked Garmin to give me a statement about the Forerunner 305 in mid october because of a long list of issues with the 301.

But Garmin does not allow to give any informations because they became a public company traded on the stock exchange.

For all who want to see a list of my problems with the Forerunner 301, it can be downloaded at http://makeashorterlink.com/?W26335E3C

[Juan C Abaroa]

I own a fore runner 301
It's a great devise por the bike, I usually compare speed and distance with my bike´s regular computer, but when running it´s not accurate, I´ve run many times the same distance and almost always give a different distance (some times 10k instead of 9). I think Garmin should send or let us download a software to improve those reception problems, including when running and biking in the forest.

As they develop new products with those improvements just in one year, they accept that they sell a product with a lot of problems, wich I think isn´t correct.

Regards

Juan Abaroa
México

[Alex]

What about water proof? As a triathlete, i've been waiting for a version that you can wear in the water. Yeah, i know the forerunner 301 is supposed to be water resistant, but if you read the fine print it's "water resistant to 1 meter for 30 minutes".

Um...that's not gonna cut it for even novice triathletes.

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