Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS Running Watch Review

Here's My Take On The Forerunner 205, Hope It Helps!

The Garmin Forerunner 205 is nearly identical to the Garmin Forerunner 305.  They're the same exact family of Running RGPS Watches.  The main difference to you as a normal person is that the 305's red and comes with a heart monitor that it syncs with.  If you don't care about monitoring your heart rate, stick with the Fore Runner 205, it's a fantastic GPS Watch for runners, bikers, hikers and really just about anyone!  

So, with that little tidbit out of the way, what's there to know about the 205?  We'll, it's a sturdy little GPS Watch that fits comfortably on your wrist and has nice little switch-based button controls that allow easy use while you're in the field.  I mention this because some units have pressure based controls or touch controls that are really annoying to try and use while you're jogging, sweating, biking or what have you.  Once you get your initial screens set up on the 205 you'll find that cycling through menus and doing things is pretty easy.

To get it out of the way up front, I'll go through some of the specs of the Garmin Forerunner 205 and comment on them in groups.  Let's start with the dimensions and basics:

• Unit dimensions, WxHxD: 2.1" x 2.7" x 0.7" (5.33 x 6.86 x 1.78 cm)
• Display size, WxH: 1.3" x 0.8" (3.3 x 2.0 cm)
• Display resolution, WxH: 160 x 100 pixels
• Weight: 2.72 oz (77 g)
• Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
• Battery life: 10 hours, typical
• Water resistant: yes (IPX7)

What all this means is that the base of the unit will just about fit in the partially closed palm of a typical adult male's hand.  It's not super low-profile, but it's very light and it's definitely comfortable to wear for hours on end.  It will catch on bag straps as you remove a backpack or it might catch on the occasional weed or tree if you brush by one, but the fastenings are pretty sturdy and I've never broken a GPS watch strap or anything else.  The unit comes with an extra watch strap replacement for one side (for larger wrists), so even if you do break one you'll have a spare :)  

The battery life sounds about right based on my use.  In fact, I'd say I've been out on the trail for maybe even a little longer than 10 hours and haven't had problems.  I ran into one friend who had a unit that seemed to have crappy battery life, but I have at least 10 friends that use the Garmin 205 and 305 and no one else has had this issue.  Just make sure you pop it back in the cradle after use and you shouldn't ever have to worry.

Water Resistance is very important, of course, because you're going to be out sweating and possibly even swimming with the 205.  I only knew one friend who had issues with a short in the connector - there's a set of contacts on the underbelly of the unit's base that transfer data when it's in the cradle.  For some reason, his 305 would reset when he kept it on exposed skin, so he wore it over an armband and eventually had it replaced free of charge by the dealer.  Never had another problem after that.

And then functionality:

• Lap history: 1000 laps
• Waypoints/favorites/locations: 100
• Routes: 50
• Basemap: no
• Ability to add maps: no
• Accepts data cards: no
• Heart rate monitor: no
• Bike speed/cadence sensor: no
• Foot pod: no

So, basically, the Garmin Forerunner 205 will hold a pretty nice amount of data for a little watch.  You can use its internal Garmin Training Center Software to monitor your performance and waypoints and tracks or you can use other applications, like combining GPSBabel and Google Earth to Download Coordinates From Your GPS.  Either way, you can store up to 100 waypoints, 50 routes and 1,000 laps and that means you'll rarely need to empty your Forerunner.  As you can see, one of the main differences between the 205 and 305 is made clear here: the 205 won't sync with heart monitors, footpods & cadence sensors.  If you ever plan to use these, you should stick with the 305.  I ended up with a 305 because it's what I could get in a hurry on the way to the airport, but I don't use any of these products and would have been happy with a 205.