I bought the Forerunner in late February 2010 and installed the current software and firmware. For the last 6 months I used the 205. There are a lot of reviews written for the Forerunner 405 already, so first a few things I noticed that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere, and if you already have a 205 or 305 you might be interested to know:
(1) The 405 no longer has the "other" sport mode. Now it's just running and biking modes. There's no fast way to switch between sports like there was on the older models. Switching sports requires navigating through a few levels of menu.
(2) The 205 (and 305) had two display screen pages, and a third page dedicated to the sport mode for each of the running, biking, and "other" sport, and that screen would only be accessible if the watch was in that mode. This was useful for example if you wanted to see speed units in bike mode and pace units in running mode. Now, there are three non sport-specific pages, each of which is available in any sport mode, or disabled. That way, you can have a page with speed units and another page with pace units, but both pages are always there for both modes unless you turn one of them off. This makes things a little less convenient.
(3) The 405 cannot be operated while connected to the charger. Battery power only. Probably not an issue for most people but I suppose someone might want to have the option to have the watch run on external power in a lab setting or maybe a long bike ride using solar power or something. Not with the 405.
(4) There is no user setting to control how the device distributes waypoints, and the way 405 does it is mysterious.
(5) upper and lower pace/speed limits are not available on the fly. This functionality is now only available with pre-programmed (advanced) workouts.
(6) The ANT+ interface is a little bit slower and less user-controllable. Transfers happen automatically and in a background process on your computer called the ANT+ agent. (new) data is downloaded from the watch on to the agent and held there, from where it can be accessed by a third party like Garmin Training Center, Sport tracks, etc. If for some reason the transfer fails (like you walk out of the room while it's happening), you have the option to force a re-send via a menu on the watch. If you want to send data to the watch such as workouts, courses etc, whatever software you use sends it to the ANT+ agent, where its held in a queue until the next time the watch is nearby to receive it. This stuff simpler in theory but it requires more things to work correctly and you have very little control over what's happening except to plug or unplug the ANT+ dongle.
I did a 17 mile run yesterday with both the 205 and the 405 on my wrists. The 405 initially locked on to the GPS satellites significantly faster but once the connection is established the reception doesn't seem that much different. The route I ran included several tunnels that go under the street. When going through these tunnels, the 205 tends to lose signal and register crazy instantaneous paces like 3/mile. This can be annoying if you have it set to keep you in a certain pace zone, and it starts beeping at you to slow down. The 405 also lost signal just about as often, but in different tunnels! But overall, the 405 is more reasonable about it and doesn't give weird readings when it loses signal. Both watches gave the same distance within 0.1 mile, so no complaint there.
I don't see the problem with the bezel that a lot of people complain about. It works fine. Sliding your finger on the bezel is only used for scrolling through menus, so unless you're programming your watch while running it's not an issue. Otherwise, you tap on the bezel to switch display pages or turn on the backlight, or tap and hold to change modes. Even in the highest sensitivity setting, you'd really have to put your finger on the bezel and hold it there deliberately to enter a menu and do anything drastic. Starting and stopping the timer is done with the side buttons. I don't even see a need to lock the bezel.
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Price : $299.95
Availability : N/A
Overviews
GARMIN Forerunner 405 ANT S Green GPS Enabled Sports Watch. Garmin International is pleased to announce the new Forerunner 405 GPS enabled sports watch. This sleek sports watch tells you how far, how fast and when you are in your heart rate zone. The Forerunner 405 can be used indoors or out, when you are outdoors you can use the built in high sensitivity GPS receiver for your training, plus with the new touch bezel you can scroll through menus on the run. While indoors you will be able to use the ANT plus Sport wireless technology to connect to an optional foot pod to measure speed and distance when indoors. Users can upload data to Garmin Connect a new web based application which lets users analyze data with interactive graphs that chart their pace, time, distance and heart rate. The Forerunner 405 will be offered in two different colors black or green.
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Customer Review
love it - pipparina -
I wasn't sure how well this would work since I live in NYC and didn't think the satellite reception would be great. But so far I love this watch. Only once did it mispace me for the first mile of a run. It has been pretty accurate with mileage, I've found it easy to use and has helped my training.
My other running watch is the polar 625x. I have the foot pod for mileage/pacing. It is not nearly as accurate as this, and any time I use a new running shoe, I have to recalibrate. So this is now my main training watch.
garmin 405 - Guy M Sugino - WAILUKU, HI, US
Easy to use, ability to adjust data fields and customize to your preference.
Very accurate. downloading data with ANT stick to view inofrmation on workouts at Garmin website very helpful.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Apr 15, 2010 16:26:10
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