GPS Navigation Eguipment

2011 Garmin Forerunner 610 GPS Watch Review

Another important thing about Forerunner 610 is the fact that the watch has a much more slender profile and the backing is made of a much more anatomical shape, Forerunner 610 is probably the best fitting Garmin ever.This watch truly has the most slender profile of any GPS watch ever made. From base to top the Forerunner 610 measured 1.4 centimeters while the Garmin Forerunner 410 measured 1.6 centimeters. The Forerunner 610 is also heavier at 3 ounces, compared with 2.5 ounces for the 410 model(the weight difference is attributable to the steel cased backside of the 610 which should add greater durability to this watch over the 410).The 1inch LCD inch screen is clear to read with a good backlight, operated with a button on the top-right of the face.

Unlike the older Forerunner 310XT, the Forerunner 610 is waterproof rated at IPX7, meaning it can withstand being submerged for 30 minutes at a depth of 1m, but you should not forget that it is not intended for swimming.

Garmin Forerunner 610 – features

The Forerunner 610 can keep track of pace, distance and, with an optional heart monitor, heart rate. It will deliver vibration alerts ,when audible ones can’t be heard. Forerunner 610 houses ”Training Effect” and “Virtual Racer” features, for tracking workout intensity and beating your own personal bests. Among other advanced features is the Where To option, which allows you to pinpoint and save up to 100 locations, from a parked car or a friend’s house, and return them using a bearing and distance. It’s not exactly turn-by-turn navigation, but it’s a function lacking in most sport watches. And one any distance runner who has gotten lost on a run before would welcome.The Garmin Connect online service provides access to additional functions, including an online fitness community and tools for logging run metrics and plotting them in charts and illustrations.

The Forerunner 610 has 50 different training fields that you can choose from when you are customizing the watches’ training screens in each of the two sport modes., which is by far the most amount of choice out of any GPS watch on the market at the moment.

Forerunner 610 – Auto Pause and Auto Lap features

 

Anyone who has used any of the previous Forerunner models will be familiar with the Auto Pause and Auto Lap features. Auto pause is great if you run in places where there are lots of road crossings as the watch automatically pauses until you start running above a certain speed.

The “Auto Lap” feature is very useful in training, as you can set the watch to automatically lap after a certain regular time or distance interval.

Forerunner 610  – Heart Rate Training

 

The new style heart rate monitor has a smaller sensor unit and more flexible straps, which make it much better fitting, that why running with the new style monitor is almost a pleasure and you will ofter forget that you are wearing it. The Forerunner 610 also calculates the amount of calories that you have burnt over the course of a training session and displays this figure on the watch as a live training field. The watch uses both your profile data and your heart rate to give a better indication of your calorie usage than most other watches on the market. This feature will help you to control your body weight and to monitor your energy levels. Every time you train to a certain level of calories the watch will vibrate or beep to alert you that you have reached that level.So this feature reminds you when you need to take in gels or food on long distance events.

Forerunner 610 review – Virtual Trainer

Another interesting feature of the Forerunner 610 is the “Virtual Trainer”. This feature allows you to race against a virtual figure on the watch that you can pre set to race at a certain pace. When activated, a new screen can be seen along with the other training pages, that details how far behind or in-front of the virtual trainer you are.

Garmin Forerunner 610 - GPS

The Forerunner 610 uses a GPS sensor to track and record your movements when out training. The Forerunner 610 contains the SIRFSTAR IV chip set which is the most advanced chip set to date and drastically reduces the amount of time it takes for the watch to lock on to satellites when you pull it out of power save mode and enter into training mode. Garmin Forerunner 610 can take up to 30 seconds to gain a satellite signal.

Garmin Forerunner 610 - software

The Garmin Forerunner 610 syncs wirelessly and uploads data to your PC through the bundled Garmin ANT+ wireless USB dongle The Garmin Training Centre application lets you view your activity against a map, create custom work-outs to carry out, and look through a huge number of graphs and figures and statistics.It even works with Google Earth, so you can share or show off your routes and data with others. You can also use the Garmin Forerunner 610 and ANT+ dongle to upload data to the Garmin Connect+ website were you will find a wide range of logs, listings, goal settings and analysis that the service offers. The Forerunner 610 and Garmin Connect+ offers more data than you could reasonably need.

Garmin Forerunner 610 review: Battery life

Battery life is excellent at four weeks on watch mode and eight hours in training mode with GPS turned on.Even if  the battery is lasting  longer than the 410′s, it did take nearly twice as long to charge at almost three hours.If you want to save the battery you can put the GPS watch in “sleeping mode” by holding  down the Power/Light button on the top-right of the watch.The Forerunner 610 comes with an AC adaptor that clips into two electrical contacts on the back of the watch, with magnets to hold the charging plate secure.

Conclusion

The Garmin Forerunner 610 is a watch that’s fits you very well if you are the kind of person that wants to find out every last detail about your exercise routine: it’s  filled with useful features and statistics-tracking gizmos.

The Garmin Forerunner 610 is an outstanding device,it’s versatile, responsive, accurate and well-designed. This great product comes with a price that matches the watch performance, the Forerunner 610 is aimed at the high end of the market. Runners on a budget should opt for the Garmin Forerunner 201. In our opinion  this is simply the best GPS sport watch on the market today.

Read more Forerunner reviews at www.forerunnerreview.net

About the Author

Hy, I’m John, I’m an amateur runner passionate by Technology and especially by Garmin Forerunner GPS watches.I love running, biking, skiing and watching motor sport competitions.

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