Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor

Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS Receiver With Heart Rate Monitor 

Design
The 305's design is a radical departure from Garmin's previous generation of wrist mounted GPS devices, which reached a pinnacle with the Garmin Forerunner 301. While the 301 delivered accurate heart rate monitoring, good performance tracking, and decent GPS reception, it didn't quite deliver in the design department. The form factor was bulky and wearing it wasn't much different than duct taping a full-sized GPS device to your wrist.
Not so with the 305. Garmin's engineers obviously burned the midnight oil and have come up with a waterproof design that, while certainly not as small as a sports watch, feels just as comfortable.




The curved casing allows the unit's antenna to face the sky when you're running, while the widescreen display is perfectly positioned for viewing when you need it. And the display certainly deserves a few kudos. While it's smaller than the display found on previous Forerunners, its resolution is far higher, offering incredible clarity and crispness.
Garmin has smartly given the 305 a simple button layout and the buttons have a nice tactile feel with good pressure response. The right side houses the menu selection and enter buttons, while the left houses a power/backlight button and a mode button. This simple and elegant solution is a big improvement over the sometimes confusing button functionality of previous Forerunners.
GPS Performance
The big news about the Forerunner 305 is that it features an integrated, high-sensitivity SiRFstar III GPS receiver. What does this mean? It means that the 305's ability to both track, and maintain a lock on, your position is better than anything before it. After an intial battery charge, the tester had the 305 on his wrist and was tracking speed and distance with GPS satellites within 3 minutes. The next time we used the 305, satellite acquisition was nearly instantaneous. A run through dense trees didn't faze the unit either; tracking remained true and steady. Performance on a bike was equally impressive. Whatever witchcraft has been cooked up by the designers of the SiRF technology, we like it!

• High-Sensitivity, Watch-Like GPS Receiver That Provides Exceptional Signal Reception
• 1 Piece Training Assistant That Provides Athletes With Precise Speed, Distance & Pace Data
• Includes Training Center Software, Which Allows Users To Download Workout Data For A Detailed Analysis
• Used For Multiple Sports Such As Cycling, Cross- Country Skiing & Windsurfing
• Data Acquired May Also Be Analyzed With Motionbased, Which Provides Online Mapping & Route Sharing