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Garmin Forerunner 645 Music review: Better without the music
An invigorating playlist can be a runner's best friend, but for some, the Linkin Park jams aren't worth the discomfort of strapping a phone to your arm. That's why fitness-watch makers are adding audio playback directly into their products. This includes Garmin, which is giving the Forerunner 645 a musical makeover (creatively named the Forerunner 645 Music). For $50 more than the original, the new model lets you play your own tracks (or playlists from select streaming services) wirelessly to Bluetooth headphones.
Garmin's latest smartwatch can play music during your run
Yes, you can listen to music on a smartwatch without keeping your phone nearby, but that usually means settling for relatively simple fitness tracking. Garmin may have a solution that eliminates those compromises, however -- it just introduced the Forerunner 645 Music, a GPS running watch that (surprise) stores up to 500 songs for playback over Bluetooth earphones. You can track your runs (or bike rides, or swims) and the detailed stats to match while listening to tunes you've saved either from your computer or from streaming services like iHeartRadio.
The Apple Watch Nike+ is a running watch I might actually use
I've been wearing the original Apple Watch every day for the past eight months, but never as a running watch. As much as I enjoy the device for its notifications, slick Activity app and stylish design, I would never, ever trust it on a training run. My hangup, and many runners' hangup, has been the lack of a GPS radio. Without that crucial bit of technology, the distance tracking is off -- and no, running with your iPhone on your person to triangulate your location isn't the same. Needless to say, if your distance tracking is inaccurate, your average pace will be inaccurate, and to a runner, even a casual one, that is bad news indeed. So until now, I've been sticking with my trusty Garmin Forerunner watch, even as I continue to use the Apple Watch for everyday step-tracking. With the newest-gen Apple Watch, though, I might be willing to reconsider.
Garmin's latest running watch tracks your suffering
Garmin's latest running watch can track multiple sports, measure your heart rate and even give you a "suffer score," but the price might make you gasp. The Forerunner 735XT now occupies the top of the company's run tracker lineup next to the two-year-old 920XT with the same $450 price. For that substantial sum, you do get a lot: it packs the company's Elevate heart rate monitor and is the first sports tracker with Strava's Suffer Score. That app measures your heart rate compared to a baseline, so casual or serious athletes can see how much they're pushing it.
Garmin Forerunner 15 review: sports watch first, fitness tracker second
As the reviews editor for this tech blog, I often get asked which fitness tracker I own. And I tell people: I don't need one, silly; I run marathons. Maybe that sounds snotty, but it's true: During training season, at least, I'm probably more active than most people buying a fitness band. And besides, I already own a running watch to track my time, distance and pace. That doesn't mean I can't use a little extra motivation, though. My activity slowed to a crawl this winter, precisely because I was burned out from all those long training runs. (The frigid weather didn't help either.) At one point, I didn't exercise for nearly two weeks. I gained back the weight I lost last year, and my muscle mass shrank. It now hurts to do squats. Even so, asking me to wear another device is a tough sell -- especially when it means my stats are getting spread across different services. For people like me, there's the Garmin Forerunner 15, a sports watch that doubles as a fitness tracker. Like other running watches, including those made by Garmin, the Forerunner 15 tracks your distance, pace and time. It's offered with an optional heart rate monitor, and has a handy run-walk setting. But it also tracks your activity between workouts, telling you how many steps you've taken and how many calories you've burned. It issues not-so-subtle reminders to move, lest you spend too much time in your cubicle. At the same time, it doesn't do everything a standalone fitness tracker would: It doesn't automatically monitor your sleep habits, and you can't log your food intake directly from the app. Priced at $170 ($200 with the heart rate monitor), it costs more than your typical fitness tracker, but it's cheap for a running watch. So is it a good deal? That all depends on your priorities.
IRL: Sony NEX-C3, Garmin Forerunner 110 and the Elgato Turbo.264 HD
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. It's been a hectic week, what with Amazon trotting out a little something you may have been expecting (along with a few things you weren't). We won't lie: some of us now know what we're getting our friends and family for the holidays, but gadgets we may or may not be purchasing doesn't cut the mustard for IRL, now does it? Until we pull the trigger, we'll keep on talking up and dressing down the stuff we're already using. This week, Jose from Engadget Spanish takes his newly minted NEX-C3 on vacation, Dana outgrows her Forerunner 110 and Darren shows you just how your hands-on video sausages get made.
Garmin intros the Forerunner 610, its first touchscreen GPS watch for runners (video)
Over the years, Garmin's beefed up its line of Forerunner GPS watches, offering something for everybody with graphs and even a dash o' pink. But the new, slimmed-down Forerunner 610 is the first to feature a touchscreen that you can tap to flip menus instead of feeling around for a host of bantam buttons. For your $350, it'll display distance, time elapsed, and pace all on one screen, though you can add other metrics, such as heart rate. The 610 is also the first in the line with a run / walk alert, which keeps Auto Lap and other features active even when it detects you're walking. As always, you can upload your runs to the web in excruciating detail, but this watch jumps on the social bandwagon with "Virtual Racer," a Nike Running-esque community where you can compare your stats with strangers' (or just try to best your own PRs, if you don't play like that). After logging some epic runs with the touchscreen Nano, we'd be curious to see how responsive the display is after your fingers become sweaty, though Garmin promises it'll work well through sweat, rain, and touchscreen-friendly gloves. It's available now on Garmin's site, though we suggest you hardcore runners check out DC Rainmaker's review below: it's everything you wanted to know about the 610 but were afraid to ask, including comparison shots with other Forerunners and a glove test.
