Customer Reviews:
 I'm amazed with this.... October 5, 2008
WOW!! I was wondering if I should get the 305 or the new 405. I read probably all the reviews on both and finally decided for the 305. I just did my first run with it yesterday... only 7 miles but, I'm amazed by the size and reception.
I'm in East Africa and thought about the reception. I have to go under two bridges and over them in my route... Never lost the signal.
As soon as I opened the package and turn it on, even inside my house, I got the gps signal. It was so easy to set up and understand how to use it.
The 305 was a little big at first but, I wear in my wrist and felt like my old timex expedition... not a problem!!
I haven't use the HR monitor yet, but it seems great. My wife has the Garmin 50 and we can both run with the HR after they are sync with their watches. It makes the run easier and more enjoyable!!!
Great product, great buy... fun to run with!!
No more getting lost in the mountains! October 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Got a 305 from my wife for my 62nd birthday. I am daily mountain runner and an electrical engineer, so this is a perfect present!. First a word about some of the complaints listed by other posters:
Setup is very easy, although there are lots of variables and preferences to set, you only do it once, and the whole idea of this thing is detailed metrics on your workout. Battery life is right at the claimed 8 hours. The heart rate monitor is excellent, and looks and works suspiciously like my Polar. I took it on many test runs in the mountains of Albuquerque while also carrying my Garmin Etrex, and the two matched very well except as noted below. Running an official 10k course, the mileage was within 1/10 mile. On very twisty runs, or urban courses where GPS can be marginal at times, the accuracy drops a bit, but not bad.
The Trace back feature is wonderful. Even on hairpin mountain trails the strobe points the way home in very tight real time. Surprisingly the compass is not as quick and sometimes takes many seconds to swing after a turn; the Etrex is much quicker.This leads to my only two complaints
1) There is no MOB (man overboard) button that sets a waypoint at current position and references the compass to it on GO TO in a single stroke. It takes several button pushes to get there. This is something I do in any new location, like my hotel on a business trip, so a one button Home reference would be nice.
2) The Trace Back function doesn't really tell you if you totally miss a turn. The strobe points back to the correct direction for about 100 yards and then defaults to pointing at the trail end location. I'd like to hear a "wrong way dummy" alarm.
The included software for post-run analysis is a real kick and works well. No more cheating and excuses.
Overall, the device is great. It's a fun and useful workout tool, and a magnificent piece of engineering design.
 Garmin's policy on product life is a joke October 2, 2008
I've been a 305 user for the last 3 years. 2 friends of mine and myself bought 3 devices to use them in our Marathon training programs. Another friend of mine had already bought the 205 model (the same as the 305, but w/o the heart rate monitor). Now, after 3 years of use, all 4 are not working AT ALL, because of dead batteries. The joke is that you cannot replace them. When they die, you simply throw your 305 to the garbage. Furthermore, during these 3 years, one always had problems with long races, ultras or trail marathons that would last over 7-8 hours. As I read, Garmin is still using the same philosophy for other similar products, like the Garmin Edge 305HR (bike) or the new 405.
It's a pitty that such an anti-ecological policy prevails, for a product that, otherwise, is very good for outdoor sports, running, biking even skiing (but not triathlon). I hope that Garmin changes policy, cause until then they have lost 4 customers.
 Garmin Forerunner 305 September 30, 2008
Shipping took longer than expected but received product as advertised. I've used the Garmin 305 for 3 weeks now and so far has worked well. Would recommend to someone looking for GPS unit for running.
Does everything I wanted September 30, 2008
I wanted to be able to get my mileage from my trail runs, and also heart rate information from my runs for training purposes. I like the product, it give me everything I wanted. The only drawback is the www.motionbased.com link that you can use free as part of this, only gives you access to the last 10 activities on your list. To see all your activities in this interface is to pay a costly monthly, or yearly fee. I really would like a more in depth software (running log) that incorporates the data from the Garmin, shoe mileage, report capabilities etc. that I only have to pay for one time (I'm a tight scotsman, and hate to pay monthly).
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