garmin.com £209.99(watch only) £239.99(watch + heart rate monitor)
Other runners that have had the FR10 have all commented on the clearness of the screen. The watch does have nice, large, clear digits and a great backlight that makes the watch easy to read especially in the dark
The charging clip really is a good design which continues to get smaller and better in my opinion, this watch has a spring loaded clip that attaches to the four metal contacts on the back of the watch as can be seen below
The watch is really easy to use, just pressing the red button as seen on the photo above, starts the process of the watch searching for satellites (which I seem to find quite a lot quicker than I did with the FR10) The photo below show a bar above RUN which gradually fills up as the watch acquires more satellites, a full green bar and your ready to go
So as I go into the menu I have, options for
TRAINING. In here I can access and begin My Workouts (which I have created and added from Garmin connect) I can also access my Training Calendar (also downloaded from Garmin Connect) and I can also edit and set up quick interval sessions without needing to create online and download. Intervals can be set a time/distance/open so you can work regular intervals such as 5mins, 800metres, sessions requiring varying set intervals need to be configured online. You can also set whether to record a warm up and cool down in addition to your workout. I like to use the interval session whenever I can as the results give a great set of data showing how far I covered in each interval, or how quickly I completed the distance, very useful indeed.
HISTORY. This menu option as it says gives access to stored runs within the watch, so you can keep a check of how you did over recent runs, each run stored has data for distance, time taken, pace, calories used, cadence and lap distance/time details (if connecte average heart rate and maximum heart rate) all useful in that post race comparison with running parters. Within this section is also a Totals section which shows the total miles/running time for the week and month.
RECORDS. Does exactly as it says, this is where all your running records are displayed for 1mile/5k/10k/hm/marathon. longest runs distance and time. The watch also gives you notice if any of theses are beaten at the end of any run.
SETTINGS. This screen allows setting up of sensors such as footpod or heart rate monitors, also here connections to Bluetooth devices can be set up such as connections to phones to upload activities to Garmin connect apps. Here you also set up your personal profile for accurate measurements height/weight/gender/age and here also you set up heart rate zones for training. Also as you would expect are general settings which allow time setting, alarm setting, colour settings, and units settings. Here you also setup your in run screens, the watch allows 2 screens to be set up containing 3 fields on each screen which can be put together in any combination using (timer, lap time, distance, lap distance,pace, average pace, lap pace, speed, cadence, calories, heart rate, average heart rate, heart rate zone and elevation) so a really customisable watch for all running needs.
When out on a run I found the watch really easy to use with just a quick tap on the menu up/down button to change between my chosen data screens. A quick tap on the power button gives a brief backlight which can be altered in its duration.
A tap on the red button starts/pauses and stops the run whilst a tap on the lap button ends the current lap and starts the next, unless auto lap is configured to either a set time or distance. On completion of the run you can save or discard the run details. The feature I particularly like on this watch is the ability to upload my runs via Bluetooth to the Garmin Connect app on my phone, saving time not needing to connect to my computer after every run.
Uploading my runs to the app gives me access to a wide range of details such as route, time and distance as well as many other details as can be seen on the screen below, the number crunchers dream.
A useful feature of the watch is the ability to extend the sleep function giving you longer to start your run and not requiring constant button pressing to prevent standby, very useful as a number of times I have missed recording full runs as I have attempted to start runs only to find the watch gone into standby and needing to find signals again.
The watch also give audible beeps and vibrates to signal upcoming standby, lap completion and alerts including pace warning, heart rate warning and walk/run indicators.
The watch can also auto pause, however, this I find is not as accurate as the FR10 and as a result have now turned this off, with the watch taking longer to restart after an auto pause, leading to a few discrepancies in results in comparison to partners results.
The watch has a good battery life also on average I complete approximately 2-3hours running per week and charge the watch weekly, it never drops below 40%, no problem for the long distance runners, plenty for a 5-6 hour marathon ay struggle with an ultra run.
Garmin also say that the watch is waterproof which certainly does seem to be the case, and apparently can be used whilst swimming( I have not tried this) however, there is no claim that this watch can record distance whilst swimming, and research on the internet does show that the 220 is of no use to the swimmer in recording distance. The 220 also has no cycling settings which I believe is on the 620. Therefore, this is a watch based with the runner in mind.
The watch also has an internal accelerometer that can be used to analyse running cadence and also allows you to look at average stride length very useful in looking at how different conditions affect running styles. This also calibrates the watch enabling accurate recording whilst training without satellite signals, for example when using a treadmill giving more accurate results.
The 220 also records elevation whereas this function was missing from the FR10.
Pros
Easy to read
Comfortable
Good connectivity (Bluetooth ant+)
Waterproof
Programmable
Mid range pricing
Cons
Auto pause not too accurate
no swim/cycle mode
In general a highly recommended watch for the runner that wants to take their running to next level giving plenty of options to analyse data and to set up training sessions.
