Garmin Forerunner 15 review

[ajwyld]

About a month ago, I got a Garmin forerunner 15, and said I'd write a review, as its new. So here goes. I have no association with Garmin, other than as a customer. I bought my FR15 in Decathlon in France and paid the full retail price for it (150 Euros).

Background and reason for choice

I'd been dithering for some months about getting some kind of fitness tracker. I had originally decided on a Fitbit Force, but they never made it to market in Europe. Then I had a bad few runs with my phone's GPS, which had me thinking about an FR10. At that point, my beloved (who was supposed to be getting it as my birthday present) went shopping in Decathlon on what turned out to be the launch day for the FR15 in France. After a long heart to heart with the sales-guy he thought it was the ideal compromise, and suggested that I go for it.

I have a purple one in the smaller size. Although I have very small hands and wrists it is OK (although I wouldn't want it to be any bigger.

Likes

Nice and easy to use. There are only 4 buttons and all is pretty self-explanatory. Synchronization with the garmin connect site is nice and easy too. (Some people here dislike the new garmin site. Never having used the old one, I find the new one fine.)

The virtual pacer which is useful (set a pace then it warns you if you deviate - by more than 5% I think). I find I need to use the audio prompt - if it is on silent then the screen just flashes which isn't enough for me.

Run/walk lets you set intervals.

I use the activity tracker a lot more than I thought I would - basically i keep it on all the time. The goals are auto set (depending on your activity level) and it was genuinely illuminating and shocking to discover how sedentary I am on non-running days. You can programme it to give you a Move! prompt if you don't move around enough... even if you have done your day's steps, you will still get a Move! prompt if you stay sat down for a couple of hours.

Haven't tried using it swimming yet, but accidentally kept it on in the shower yesterday and it is still going strong, so waterproofing seems Ok.

Dislikes

The ability to set intervals longer than 10 minutes would be nice. Also the ability to set more than one value for each.

Overall

I'm very happy with it. It wasn't cheap, but I wear it all the time as a watch in any case (might not wear it with a ballgown or a really smart outfit but for every day its fine) and feel the price was OK for what it is.

[paul2014 Graduate]

Great write-up and it seems you are loving your new Garmin

[ajwyld Graduate in reply to paul2014]

Oh yes, seriously loving it. Have fallen for what my dh calls the "lure of the shiney".

[Hidden]

Sounds like you got the perfect match there!

With the 15 do you have the option of creating your own workouts on the Garmin website and then transferring them to the watch (could possibly help you to get around the longer intervals)?

I like the sound of the activity monitor as well ... not an option on mine ... boo ... hiss!!

And having whinged openly about the new Garmin website, I am getting used to it. Like most things that change, I'll appreciate it eventually. It certainly looks an awful lot more modern than it did. I think I have one of the watches that hasn't been completely transferred across yet which I think is the biggest bugbear behind my distaste. It hasn't stopped me from pouring over all of my data and analysing every step though

Have fun getting fully immersed in all of your activity data!!

[Wozgod Graduate]

+1 for the activity tracking. It is great at encouraging me to keep on the move on non-run days. The only drawback I have found so far is that my wife likes it so much she has asked me to buy her one too!

[ajwyld Graduate]

Just tried creating a workout and sending it to my device, but unfortunately the FR15 doesn't seem to be supported Oh well, will just have to use the alarm on my phone !