Garmin Forerunner 15 Large, Black/Blue

Garmin Forerunner 15 Large, Black/Blue

• GPS Running Watch;
• Tracks Distance/Pace/Calories
• Heart Rate Monitor Optional
• Reminds You When It's Time to Move
• Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery; Save, Plan, Share Your Activities Online; Display Size : 0.98 x 0.94 inch (25 x 24 mm)

Buy Now : Garmin Forerunner 15 Large, Black/Blue

Brand : Garmin
Category : Electronics,GPS, Finders & Accessories,Sports & Handheld GPS
Rating : 4.4
Review Count : 1441
ChildASIN : B00JQF6F9A,B00JQF6FA4,B00JQF6HHU

Garmin Forerunner 15 Large, Black/Blue

• I just received this in the mail two days ago. I purchased a refurbished unit. Overall, I love it.The watch is in great shape. If someone had given this to me as a gift, I would have assumed that it was brand new; there are no noticeable imperfections to indicate otherwise. The color is vibrant and pretty. It\'s a little bigger than the average women\'s watch, but for a GPS watch that\'s to be expected and it\'s not so big that I feel silly wearing it in public throughout the day. Setup was fairly easy to figure out; after charging (I left it on the charger for about two hours while I went to a meeting) it only took about two or three minutes to have it totally functional.I was worried that it would give me a generic idea of calories burned based on an average height/weight. I\'m short and thin, so I burn fewer calories than the average person, and it\'s important to me that it\'s as accurate as it can be. Luckily, Garmin seems to share that value. It asked me to select a number of options during setup. If I remember correctly, it asked for the following: language preference (there were quite a few available),12-hour or 24-hour time, distance unit (miles or kilometers), gender (male/female - could be a turn off for trans* people, but I think it\'s for the purposes of calculating calories burned), height, weight, and birth year. You can go back and change these later in the user profile settings. One (slight) nuisance is that when you\'re scrolling through settings you can only scroll down, so if you miss the option you\'re going for you have to scroll through the entire menu again, but there isn\'t really another viable option for Garmin here. There are only four buttons on the watch, and the only one that doesn\'t have more than one function is the backlight button.Another concern for me was the length of the wrist strap. I was worried it wouldn\'t be snug enough, but the strap has a LOT of holes. It will snugly fit just about anyone, regardless of how big or small your wrist is. The loop that the extra bit of strap goes through hooks into the holes to hold them in place, too. I\'m not sure yet how helpful that feature actually is, though. It can be a little annoying when you\'re trying to take the watch off.Since it has a GPS, it automatically detected the time (and date) for me. That was cool. It also has a feature in settings for you to change the time if you need to. It comes equipped with an alarm, which I tested out just now. The sound of the alarm isn\'t very loud -- if you\'re a really deep sleeper, it might not wake you up. But if you need it to remind you to take pills or something along those lines during the day, that could be helpful. Once it goes off, you have to go back to settings to turn it back on again; it won\'t automatically repeat every day. For me, this isn\'t a problem because I use my iPhone for an alarm clock, but if you do want to use it for something that could get annoying. It does save the time that you last used, though; so if you set it for 10:30 once, the next time you go to set it, it will default to 10:30.I\'ve had the watch in \"activity tracking\" mode since I got it, and so far it seems to be pretty accurate. It\'s also interesting to see how your calories burned changes over the course of the day when you\'re not even really doing anything. I haven\'t had the opportunity to take it out for a \"real\" run yet -- I\'m waiting for it to warm up (it\'s been about 10 degrees F out where I live, and in a very hilly area I don\'t feel safe running on ice). However, I did take it with me last night for my run on the treadmill, and it seemed to pick up a close estimate to the distance I ran on the treadmill based on just my footsteps.I haven\'t had it long enough to comment on the battery life. I haven\'t used Garmin Connect, either, so I can\'t comment on that aspect.PROS- Colorful, sleek design- Easy setup- Accurate time/date based on location- Accurate activity tracking- Saves history for your activity and runs (not sure how many - I think up to 7)- Customized to the user- Snug fitCONS- Alarm is somewhat quiet- Scrolling can be a painI would definitely recommend this to a friend! I consider it an awesome investment. Hopefully, I\'ll be able to update this review in the spring when I\'ve been able to test out the run features somewhere warm.
• I have been running and/or biking with varying degrees of intensity for most of my life, but this device is my first experience with an \"activity tracker\" more sophisticated than a stopwatch (or lately my smart phone). As such I can\'t give a review with much context or comparisons with other products. What I can say is that I really like the features this product has to offer. The GPS is awesome. I like the auto-pause, which stops the timer when you stop moving, for instance while waiting for a stop light, and the \"lap\" timer, which beeps and shows a large, easy-to-read display of your latest mile (or km) time. I like the summary of your run it displays after you finish. The menus are pretty easy to navigate, and the buttons are large and easy to operate. One small detail I like is that the device turns on instantaneously with a push of the on/off button, but turn-off requires pressing the same button for several seconds, with an on-screen count down, which prevents accidentally turning the device off at the wrong time. There are more features than I\'ve mentioned of course, but I haven\'t really used them and/or they aren\'t important to me.It works fine for biking, especially (for my preference) if you choose to display speed instead of pace. However, if you are into counting calories, it displays them incorrectly for bike rides. I have read that if you upload your bike rides, which I haven\'t done, some statistics are recalculated (e.g. speed vs. pace) if you choose workout type as biking in the software, so maybe the estimated calories can be corrected. I will add that there is an available bike handlebar mount that works well, and fits my mountain bike\'s 31.8mm handlebar.If I have any complaints, one is that I would have liked more info in the included quick-start manual about the various settings. However, more is available online. I do believe the battery life is not really 8 hours, more like 5, but that isn\'t really an issue for me. It seems to take a long time to acquire the GPS signal when you start - 30 sec? - but that is really nitpicking.After a few workouts, I can tell this will be a good motivator. I need numbers to set goals, and this device gives me the basics I need - how fast and how far did I go, and how fast am I going now? I like the mile splits it shows you in a really easy-to-read display without having to fiddle with the watch, as well as the overall statistics it gives you at the end. If you want more sophisticated tracking of your progress and such, that seems to be available by uploading data, but if you\'re that advanced, you don\'t need this review. :)

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