Product Review: Garmin Forerunner 620

Garmin Forerunner 620 Product Review

This is my product review of the Garmin Forerunner 620.  I won't cover all the GPS watch's functions but I will try to cover what I feel are the most important features.  Friendly disclosure: I bought this watch with my own money; it was not sent to me by Garmin to try for a product review nor was I paid any money for this review.  To be honest I'm really not interested in doing product reviews on a regular basis for different manufacturers.  I will only review products I purchase myself that I feel others might benefit from.

I purchased this watch directly from Garmin through their website.  As of the publishing of this blogpost, the GPS watch retails for $399.99 for just the watch and $449.99 for the watch and HRM (Heart Rate Monitor).  The watch is eligible for free shipping if you choose the least expensive shipping option.  This watch is perhaps best for an intermediate to maybe even an advanced runner more interested in the advanced features this watch provides.  Many of the extra vitals are even available during a run.

I have used a Forerunner 110 since August of 2012 and so I will make frequent comparisons between the two watches.  The FR110 is a great watch in itself, especially for beginners.  I am still using my FR110 for regular workouts so I can track things like my heart rate, calorie count, and duration of my workout.

Satellite Acquisition

This watch is very fast in acquiring satellites.  It generally only takes a minute (or two at most).  This seems to be much faster than my FR110.  This was a pleasant surprise as like other runners I have forgotten to "wake up" my watch before starting a run and so I have at times started recording a route a quarter mile into my run.

Charging and Battery Usage

Compared to my Forerunner 110, charging is much easier to work with.  There is a magnet system that allows the USB cradle to firmly attach to the back of the watch.  This is much better than the clip that the FR110 uses (and was a constant struggle to establish a good connection).

The manual states that the battery is good for about 6 hours of use.  After running a half marathon in about 2-1/2 hours, the battery had been depleted to about 55% meaning I had roughly 3 more hours of use.

Bluetooth Connect

The watch has the capability to connect via Bluetooth wireless protocol to transmit activities to Garmin Connect, receive workouts & courses, and LiveTrack.  LiveTrack works using a smartphone app on your iPhone or Android device.  I personally have an Android device (Motorola DROID RAZR M) but sadly the Garmin app does not support the Forerunner 620 and so I was never able to test LiveTrack. Currently the Garmin Connect™ Mobile for Android only supports the Garmin Edge 510 or 810. LiveTrack is very useful for races to allow friends and family track your progress in real time.

WiFi Connect

Like with the Bluetooth connectivity, the watch can connect via wireless to a pre-configured WiFi network to upload activities to Garmin Connect, receive workouts & courses, and software updates.  At first I thought I wasn't able to get the wireless update to work but I later found out that I somehow had a second account created and my watch has been uploading the files to the wrong profile.  I haven't figured out to get this fixed and so I might try reviewing the site for support and if that doesn't work I'll try engaging the Garmin Customer Service to see if they might be able to help.

Splits/Laps

The watch is configurable on the distance you want to have your distance split.  The 2.30 software version has this turned on with the distance set at a mile.  After I got the 2.50 update I can't remember if it was turned off however it was set for a ridiculous distance (99.95 miles?).  A feature I found very nice is that the watch vibrates for each split.  With the distance being configurable you can set it to smaller distances which is useful if you want to perform some type of exercise like fartleks or intervals.

The FR620 allows you to set the lap to as low as 0.25 miles and from there you can increase the distance by 0.05 mile increments all the way up to 99.95 miles.  The FR110 allows you to set the lap for 0.25 miles to 1.0 miles in 0.25 increments to 1.50 miles to 2.0 miles to 3.1 miles.

Auto Pause

The auto-pause is really nice feature if you don't want to manually start/stop your watch whenever you resume running from whatever break you might have taken.  What this basically does is if the watch detects that you have not moved from a location for a period of time it will automatically pause your watch for you.  I have my watch set for 8 seconds.

Touch Screen & Swipe

The FR620 has a touch screen that opens up the watch to functionality outside of the four main buttons - Back-light, Start/Stop, Wireless Connect, & Clock.  I had to be pretty firm with the touch screen, more so than I might be with my smartphone.  You can use the swipe on the watch while wearing running cloves in case you are running in colder temperatures.

While in the middle of a run I accidentally reset my watch.  I wanted to review some of the stats and pressed the middle of the watch face which saved my run.

The 2.50 Software Update

After I had the watch for a week, Garmin released a software update from 2.30 to 2.50.  The only problem with the update that I had is that it turned off the split setting and so when I went for my next run I didn't get my splits for each mile.  I love the see how my runs go by the mile based on the terrain.  The watch now scrolls between the different screens which is very nice.  If I were to make one recommendation for future software releases is to keep the splits at a mile, which I believe was a factory default in 2.30.  I got it corrected, which helped me get more familiar with how the watch's menu structure.