Garmin Forerunner 15 – Review

On April 21, 2016
1 Comment

The running watches, activity watches, GPS watches…it’s all very overwhelming. My choice was made easy because I didn’t want to be forced to pair anything up with my phone. One – because I don’t have a Smart Phone, iPhone or whatever. Two – even if I did, I don’t want to be bothered by incoming text and phone notifications on my watch. And the data sent to your phone from your watch is so small and hard to read. I like to bring it up on one of those old school computer monitors and see it nice and big and all at once. This post may contain affiliate links where I may make a very small profit at no additional cost to you.

I ended up going with the Garmin Forerunner 15. Let’s talk refurbished for a moment. People are so scared of refurbished items. Depending on where you are getting it from, whether you trust it or not, if they have any extending guarantee’s, you probably have a reason to shy away from refurb items. Garmin and Amazon are very trusted sources. This watch is offered by Garmin as Certified Refurbished and it’s backed by a 1 year warranty.

Size & Color
I am wearing the size Small. If you are used to wearing a watch, it won’t feel like any big deal. If you are not, it won’t take much to get used to. It’s extremely lightweight and you don’t realize it’s there most of the time.

     Size Small: Black/Green, Teal/White, Violet/White
watch size: 1.58″ x 2.05″ x .62″
display size: .81″ x .77″
                      weighs: 1.3 oz.
   Size Large: Black/Green, Red/Black
watch size: 1.79″ x 2.25″ x .62″
display size: .98″ x .94″
weighs: 1.5 oz

Easy & Simple
Before I hit all the features. This watch is very user friendly. It’s simple and easy to use. It’s uncluttered and uncomplicated. For the average person, it’s perfect! I give the watch a huge thumbs up. I figured I wouldn’t pay much attention to the daily activity tracking, but I found I like it just as much as I do using it for running and walking. I found no flaws or problems. All features function exactly as they are supposed to. I love the watch ! Glad I chose this one.

Overview

Personal Records – Watch yourself improve, it tells you when you set a new fastest mile or longest run to date.
Activity Tracking – tracks distance, pace, heart rate, calories and sleep.
Heart Rate Monitor – Use with a heart rate monitor to track your heart rate and zone data for any fitness activity. (I do not have)
Foot Pot Pairing – Record your distance while running indoors and review your cadence later on Garmin Connect. (I do not have)
Garmin Connect – Upload to see your runs on a map. Save, plan and activities.

Motivation by the Mile
It has an auto lap function that automatically alerts you when you complete each mile, giving you a beep and back lit screen that flashes your time for that mile. When you complete your run and save it, you’ll see a summary of how you did, including your total time, distance, average pace and calories. It even lets you know when you achieve a personal record, like your fastest mile or longest run to date.

Train Indoors or Out
For outdoor runs, the GPS accurately records your time, pace and distance. To track distance and pace when you hit the treadmill or an indoor track, just pair it with the optional foot pod, which attaches to the laces of your shoe.

Battery Life is Great – Water Rating
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery will last up to 5 weeks in watch/activity tracking mode or 8 hours when using it with GPS on your outdoor runs. It also has a water rating of 5 ATM (50 meters), which means it resists rain and sweat and can even go for a swim with you.

Garmin Connect
This is the free simple connection to your Mac or PC that allows you to upload your activities online. You can see your run on a map, get all the detail from each mile and see daily summary of your activities. You can customize it to what you like to view most on your dashboard. You can also join online challenges and earn virtual badges for extra motivation.

It’s very cool to be able to pull up the map of your run or walk and view all the stats about it. I won’t be sharing photo’s of that feature for privacy reasons, so that psycho stalkers don’t have that easy route to my front door. Oh wait, I only have 1 reader any way. Hey Mom !

Just to show you 2 examples of what you can view. These are the expanded views. Your dashboard gives you a quick snapshot of all your activities.

Your steps per day. I set my own goal for 10,000 steps per day. Green days, I met my goal. Blue days, I was too lazy. You can change your goal at any time. It will also auto set your goal for you, based on your daily steps if you want it to.

Sleep Monitoring

Monitors total sleep and periods of movement or restful sleep. I showed you one of my good sleep nights. Otherwise these usually show under an hour of deep sleep, only 5-6 hours total with lots of purple awake times in there. I would probably keel over if it ever logged more than 0 for a nap. Not likely to happen in this lifetime.

Running Features

History: holds 7 activities. Once uploaded, you’ll have them forever. Once device is full, your oldest data is overwritten.
Virtual Pacer: compares current pace to target.
Personal Records.
Run and Walk Intervals. (My favorite!)
Auto Pause: pauses and resumes timer based on speed. (Such as stopping for traffic or traffic lights)
Auto Lap: automatically starts a new lap.
Calculates calories burned.
Customize display screen(s).
Shock Resistant.

One day, I would love to upgrade to one of them that has the cycling, swimming, golfing, running and walking options. Especially the feature to create your workouts online at Garmin Connect and send them to your watch, then it will prompt you through your workout. How cool would that be? Who am I kidding, that would probably require phones and apps and be way too fancy-schmancy for this old school girl.

Apparently it’s time to end this review and Move !