Another good Garmin product, but with several issues:

Issue #1 : Heart rate monitoring accuracy is unfortunately hit or Miss. Running with my Forerunner 35 my heart rate is not accurate, it is usually 15-20 BPM low. Compared to my Forerunner 25 with a Garmin chest strap my history on my regular 5-8 mile run is quite different. On a Treadmill my Forerunner 25 + Chest Strap compares closely to a professional heart rate monitor with a cuff, the difference is nearly always less than 3 BPM, the model 35 difference is 8-15 BPM lower than the professional HRM. I have also run wearing both the 25 (with Garmin chest strap) and the 35 on the same runs and have seen those same differences.

Issue #2: battery life is quite short, usually about 3 days with an hour run each day is about the limit before it's recharge time. This is in sharp contrast to My Forerunner 25 which can easily go 8-10 days with a one hour run each day and 3-4 weeks with no running. The best I can get from the 35 with no runs is maybe 5-6 days.

Issue #3 : the Forerunner 35 is far more fragile than the 25. The first day I wore it I somehow chipped the side of the case, two weeks later while running I caught my toe on a raised piece of sidewalk and took a tumble; while I wasn't hurt, the band snapped and the Watch face was damaged, suffering a crack across the screen and a chunk broken out of the corner of the display when it landed about 20 feet away. It still functions but the GPS uptake time has greatly increased.

So in summary, the 35 is good but the screen is easily damaged. The model 25 has a wide bezel to protect the screen while the model 35 does not, this leaves the model 35 screen completely unprotected if you take a fall, the heart rate is inaccurate by at least 10%. But it does have a wide range of functions and the gps seams accurate. A What I won't do is wear it as my day-to-day watch, as I do with my older model 25. The 35 is pretty expensive and just too easy to damage for daily use.

Update: May 20, my Garmin 35 has pretty much given up. Today, during my morning run I noticed that the screen is now only half visible, the other half is completely black, and both the GPS and Bluetooth seem to have quit as well. I can only assume that the fall I had in late January caused severe damage internally and now the watch is done. I've reverted to using my Garmin 25 with chest strap, the model 35 is now wiped out, I won't replace it.

This review needs an update. Like some others I had some issues, most were caused by a fall that chipped the screen and caused functional problems. I called Garmin and explained I had damaged the watch and Garmin replaced it at no charge. The replacement looked new and Functioned properly. During my conversation it's the Garmin representative he gave me some hints to get the best from it, i detail these below because I had never seen them elsewhere.

1. Heart rate monitor responds poorly, often "sticking" at some obviously wrong count. I.e. showing 8 bpm when I'm running an 8 min pace and my hr should be about 160+.

2. Slow/incorrect response doing intervals and other similar response problems.

There were problems with the initial GPS uptake at new locations as well so I called Garmin support and talked with a very helpful tech savvy guy who was able to cure all of the complaints in just a few minutes.

First, make sure the "Garmin Connect" app is on your phone, Bluetooth is enabled and the FR35 and phone are paired. Wait until they sync. Next fully charge the watch then shutdown the watch by holding the top left button on the watch until "Shutdown" is displayed then select yes and the watch will shutdown and the screen will blank.

Shutdown fully powers off the watch. Now leave it powered off for at least 12 hours then take it outside where you have a clear view of the Eastern sky and press the same button used to shutdown the watch briefly, this and the 12 hour shutdown will have the watch restart all of its OS components, reconnect all GPS components and reset clocking as well as doing some internal house keeping by clearing out stale files and freeing up operating memory. All this is kind of like rebooting Windows, cures a bunch of problems.

Now that the watch has been restarted and settled down, go wash you're hands, especially the place on your wrist where the back of the watch will be, also clean the back of the watch as well. Now go for a run, you'll probably find that the problems you had before are gone. That's how it was with my watch. Now it's my habit to reboot before every run and the last six months have been completely trouble free.

This is my 4th Forerunner in 20 years"¦the last one bit the dust during a bike crash. I considered upgrading to a fancier model, with music and an auto pause maybe, and just decided that simpler is better for me. This watch is idiot proof. You're only using 4 buttons (and really only 2 mostly). It's super easy to start, does a great job of tracking mileage and routes and you can easily view your workouts afterwards. Love the breakdown of HR zones and ESPECIALLY love than an accurate HR is viewable with one touch of a button throughout my day. I always encourage my personal training clients to buy a Garmin versus an Apple Watch when specifically needing a FITNESS watch. No unnecessary junk. I find it comfortable enough to wear at night, but it took a few days initially to get used to. Very accurate on runs and bike rides but I find it's not QUITE as accurate in the "Cardio" mode if I'm on the stair master, for example. Other than that, highly recommend!

While I was in the military from 1895 till 2005 I was in excellent shape. I was doing about 4 hrs of progressive weight training/week and getting 7.5 hrs/week of very high intensity cardio. When I retired, I was probably in the best physical condition of my life, at 6% body fat. I was 51, then. After I retired, for the first few of years, I maintained a gym membership and kept up my training. By 2010, I was working in my consulting business, and I began teaching part time at a local university. More time on my ass and less time in the gym. In 2013, I began teaching full time, and I became almost totally sedentary. About the only exercise I was getting was walking across campus between classes. Just before Christmas, I calculated my body fat percentage using the Navy method. At 5'8" and 178 lbs I found myself to be 29% body fat and obese! That did it for me. I realized I had to start to get back into shape, and I realized that it would be a lot harder now at 65 than it was when I was in my 20s.

I have never been much of a distance runner/jogger. In the Navy, I ran my 3 miles a year for my two physical readiness tests, and that was about all the running I actually did (even though I was a sprinter in college). It also occurred to me that I probably just couldn't jump on a Stairmaster, and workout at 175 bpm heart rate for 90 min, either. So, with the recommendation of my internist, I decided to start increasing my activity by walking. We live in a subdivision on a street that is an oval of exactly 1/2 mile in length (I drove around it eight times and it really is exactly 1/2 mile). I started walking around my street on Dec 26. I started going around twice (i mile), then I increased the distance by a lap a day, until I was up to 10 laps on Jan 3 (I took Jan 1 off). Since then I had been walking between 8 and 10 laps daily, trying to increase my pace as I went. Somehow, I knew I wasn't getting enough feedback from just the mileage/time calculations. Back when I was working out in gyms, I always wore a chest strap, with one of the more advanced Polar watches. Now that it is over 10 years later, I explored more modern technology, in the age of FitBit and Apple Watches.

Actual review starts here: One of the first decisions I made about getting an exercise watch, was that it would need to have GPS, since I have resigned myself to a walking regimen until I get my weight under control, and I regain some of my cardiovascular endurance. I also wanted a watch that used ANT + as its transmission system, because I knew that at some time I would want to add a chest strap for more accurate heart rate measurements (I purchased a Powr Labs strap that arrived today, more about that coming up). I also wanted the watch to be water resistant enough to allow me to swim (This is south Florida, and in the summer, it is a lot easier to do laps in a pool than it is to even walk, and by Summer, I will probably need to change to an activity that will allow me to increase my heart rate above the aerobic zone). The final thing was that the watch needed to be easy to read in a number of different lighting conditions. As I was purusing the various devices here at Amazon, I was immediately struck by the Garmin watch. Ergonomically it appeared to fit exactly the way I would want a watch to fit (I haven't worn a watch in over 20 years), and the way the contrast is set to make the LCD display easier to read with more intense light, it appeared to be perfect for outdoor use in Florida. After reading a number of reviews, that suggested it was a good watch (but not great) at $200, I figured that for under $100 it was probably more than enough to satisfy my needs.

The watch came the other day, and I spent about two hours reading the manual and playing with the features. I took the watch outside, selected the "Walk" activity and the watch set the time and date through the GPS signal (None of the Polars I had previously owned did anything like that, and the most annoying thing about those watches was setting date and time). Yesterday was my first day actually using the watch. Before I left for school, I did four laps around my street, and sure enough, the watch registered 4.1 miles ( I stopped it after walking up my driveway). It also had my HR average at 122 bpm, which seemed reasonable to me. At school, the class I taught yesterday was in the library, which is about a half mile from the building in which I have an office. Since "walking" is to be my fitness thing, I walked to and from class from my office building. After I got home, I walked another two laps around my street. After dinner, I synched the watch to my iPhone. After the synch, all of the activities I did since I began wearing the watch were displayed. I guess I'm still fascinated by the GPS thing, and when I tapped each of the saved exercises, I was treated to a GPS map of my actual walking path. The repeated oval around my street wasn't too interesting, but at school I took two different paths to and from the library, and it was very cool to see them clearly defined on the map display.

Today is my day off from school, so this morning I set out walk my 10 laps around my street oval. Just before I left the house, the Amazon Prime truck arrived dropping off Powr Labs ANT + chest strap. I took some time to synch the strap to the watch, and then set out on my walk. I walked eight laps, then paused to remove the strap so that I could proceed with just the watch measuring my HR, so I could make some "in the ballpark" comparisons. After two more laps, I went into the house and synched the watch to the iPhone. Of course, I got the same boring GPS map of the "circle" on which I live, but the thing I was most interested in was how close the average HR measurements were between the watch and the chest strap. For the chest strap, the eight lap HR average was 130 bpm (I try to walk at a little over 3.5 mph pace), and the two lap average for the watch alone was 132 bpm. As far as I can tell, the physiological variables were probably more noisy than the actual differences between the measurements, and, at least for my wrist physiology, the watch is probably "close enough for Government work".

So, in conclusion, all I can say is that I really love this watch. It does way more than I really need it to, and things I need it to do it does exceptionally well. If you are a competing tri-athlete, you may need something more powerful and complicated, but for me, and I'm sure the many people who want to invest in a product that will help get them off there asses, for the cost, there really isn't a lot that competes well with the Garmin Forerunner 35.

After extensive research about different running watch and fitness tracker manufacturers and models, I wore the Garmin Forerunner 35 and the Fitbit Charge 3 on the same wrist for several days and conducted a detailed comparative analysis of their data (think spreadsheets with multiple tabs and graphs). The metrics I looked at included daily resting heart rate, steps, calories, distance, and sleep. I also examined activity data, i.e., distance, average heart rate, average pace, and calories during my runs and dog walks.

At the end of the day, the two fitness trackers gave fairly consistent data, with variance usually at or below 5%, an acceptable margin all things considered. However, after this experience, and despite LOVING the Forerunner 35's built-in GPS (which the Charge 3 lacks), I chose to go with the Fitbit for three reasons:

1) The Fitbit has more frequent heart rate sampling -- the sensors measure it every 5 seconds while resting, compared to what appeared to be measurements every minute(?) for the Garmin. I realized this because I noticed that the Fitbit's green LEDs were always on, but they were frequently off (not flashing) on the Garmin and would only come on periodically. Presumably this is to save battery life on the Forerunner.

Practically speaking, this meant that stats over a longer period of time (such as average heart rate during a 45-minute run, or resting heart rate for the day) were fairly comparable between the two. But if I wanted to get my current heart rate at a glance, the Fitbit was usually spot on as soon as I looked at the device, whereas the Garmin was sometimes 30 bpm too high or too low. (I am fairly in tune with my resting heart rate so know the Fitbit was accurate in these cases and the Garmin was off -- especially because once the Garmin told me it was 42 bpm, and I know my resting heart rate is more in the high 50s.)

Once the Forerunner realized I was trying to look at heart rate data, it would start flashing its LEDs and the number would then either decrease or increase to pretty much match what the Fitbit was showing me from the get-go. This is a minor issue that wouldn't compromise the integrity of heart rate data in the long run -- after all, relative trends over time are what these sorts of devices are best for -- but I got annoyed by seeing incorrect numbers and having to wait 10-15 seconds for the Forerunner to adjust.

2) The Forerunner's sleep tracking wasn't as accurate as the Fitbit. I think this comes down to an issue of sensor sensitivity and/or how algorithms interpret the sensor data on the back end. Basically, the Forerunner was consistently telling me that I was getting anywhere from 20-45 minutes more sleep than the Fitbit every night. I have a good sense of knowing how I feel with N hours of sleep, and I think the Forerunner was overestimating.

Further evidence for this hypothesis is that one night, I got up around 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom and check on my dog. The next morning, this few minutes of "awake" time and the steps I took were reflected in my Fitbit data, but not the Garmin data. Basically, the Forerunner somehow missed that I woke up, got out of bed and walked to the bathroom down the hall, walked to the living room, and walked back to bed. The missing steps are not important to me, but how did the device not catch on to the fact that I was awake? Surely it should've picked up on that based on my heart rate and movement.

3) The Garmin's step counting was overzealous. The Forerunner 35 consistently told me I was doing more steps per day than the Charge 3, sometimes only by 200-300 steps but other times by 800-900 steps. That's an almost 10% margin if you're aiming for 10,000 steps per day.

I'm guessing one reason for this is that the Fitbit allows you to adjust settings in the app for wear on your dominant vs. non-dominant wrist, the former resulting in algorithms that err on the side of excluding movements that may not be steps. Garmin's devices do not appear to have this setting, meaning they are probably overcounting by interpreting some non-step movements as steps.

4) I'm a fairly petite person (5'2", 120 lbs) and the Forerunner 35 was a bit too big for my taste. The screen's length pretty much occupied the entirety of my wrist width, and it was pretty thick too. I occasionally had trouble pulling my sleeves up if my clothes were fitted, such as with long-sleeved base layers -- which I would wear while running, precisely when I wanted to see the watch. Obviously an issue of preference, but I found it mildly annoying.

In conclusion, I would say that none of these is a deal breaker if what you really want out of the Forerunner is a decent GPS running watch. Its built-in GPS is truly wonderful, the auto-lap feature is super convenient, and the customizable data fields for workouts are fantastically brilliant. It's uber functional without any superfluous or overly complicated frills, and I especially love that it has the day of the week and date shown on its always-on display. Battery life is competitive, especially for a GPS watch. However, when push comes to shove, I personally prefer more reliable data. I couldn't keep using it and raising an eyebrow every time the information the device gave me didn't match what I know about my own body.

I've had this watch for about a month and a half now, and I love it!!! I had the Forerunner 15 (which is also a great watch) before this, and I like the 35 even better! It is definitely slimmer than the 15 and looks more like a smart watch than just a GPS watch. It is not touch screen - it has the same 4 buttons as the 15, and the interface is similar. The 35 has a bigger face and the time is displayed in white with the background black which makes it easier to read in the dark (it does still have a backlight button like the 15). I wear my watch all day, but not at night. It's supposed to do sleep tracking if you wear it while you sleep, but it bothers me to have something on my wrist while I sleep, so I haven't tested that feature. I think the step tracking is accurate - it seems comparable to what my 15 was calculating. The GPS is very accurate - within .05 of a mile I would say. If I'm running on a measured course, it usually is a bit under what the course is supposed to be, but that's probably because I'm running as close to the inside as possible making the distance I actually ran a bit shorter than what the course is supposed to be. The 35 offers several features that the 15 does not have: smartphone notifications, bluetooth connectivity, displaying the weather, and heart rate. Starting with the smartphone notifications: it is pretty simple to set this us - just connect via bluetooth through the garmin connect app (I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 and it was easy to set up and works well). There is a setting where you can set which apps you get notifications from and you can set it to beep or vibrate or both. I have mine set to vibrate and it works perfectly. You can NOT send messages from the watch - it ONLY READS notifications. If you want to send messages or make calls from your watch, this is not the watch for you. However, you can answer/reject a phone call from your watch. This has been surprisingly useful - if my phone is in my bag, across the room, or somewhere else, I can answer the call from my wrist then look for the phone so I don't miss the call. Also, I keep my phone on silent all the time, so its nice to know when I get a message and not disturb others. There is a do not disturb mode - the watch won't vibrate/beep which comes in handy sometimes. On to bluetooth connectivity: You don't have to plug in your watch to sync it with garmin connect! It will automatically sync with your phone when bluetooth is enabled! I didn't think that this would be a big deal, but now that I have it, I don't think I'll buy another watch without it - its just so convenient. Weather: It will display the weather, but you have to have the GPS on your phone turned on (I don't leave the GPS on my phone on, so I don't use the weather feature). I set it up at first and turned on the GPS just to see what it looked like, and its pretty nice - it gives you hourly temperatures and rain chances. Heart rate monitor: I think I like the idea that it has a hr monitor more than I actually look at it. There is an option to turn the hr monitor off if you want (I assume it would save battery). It calculates your average resting hr which is nice (I haven't tested its accuracy, but the numbers seem right). It also gets your hr during a run/workout which is nice, but I rarely look at it. One final feature that may be the best thing about this watch - it does "find my phone." You have to have it connected up by bluetooth and be in range (which is surprisingly far and can even go through a wall/door). When you select find my phone on the watch, it makes your phone ring (even if its on silent), vibrate, and the flash for the camera blinks. I haven't tried it with my phone turned off, but I don't think that would work since it has to be bluetooth connected. I almost forgot about music control! This is a great feature that lets you play/pause/skip. I don't use it because I don't listen to music when I run, but it works well - I played with it when I first go it. Overall, I love this watch and highly recommend it!

Pros:
Accurate GPS
HR Monitor
Phone notifications/answer calls
Bluetooth connectivity - automatically syncs
"find my phone"
control music from it
Interface and overall look of the watch is much sleeker than the previous forerunner models which have a very sporty look

Cons:
Can't send a text from the watch
Have to have your phone's GPS turned on the use the weather feature

There is nothing that the watch does poorly, the cons are just features that would be nice if it had them.
Another quick note: Battery Life - It has not been an issue for me. I charge my watch every night, but it usually still has 2/3 bars of battery when I plug it in. I run every morning for 30-75 minutes with the GPS on which is the primary loss of battery. If I don't run, it stays at 3 bars the whole day. I think the HR Monitor can drain the battery too, so if you wanted you could turn that off.