Customer Ratings & Reviews

I like this Garmin watch. It pairs nicely with my Garmin Ant+ heart rate chest strap. I bought it in Manhattan, New York City while on vacation in December. I got it on sale for $130. The watch has quite a few features that I still need to discover. It has great battery life too. I just wish the screen was brighter like the Samsung Gear S3. Overall a great watch. I would definitely recommend buying this watch.

After the Apple Watch and then the Gear s3 I finally found a keeper!! Battery life is great! Get all notifications. Two things that I love about it are it tracks your heart rate and sleep very accurate. Still playing with it!

I decided to buy this watch because it had more options than most others. For example it detects stride length and strides per minute which was really good to know when trying to increase SPM. The battery life was great which was really nice! Notifications were also handy.

Love the Forerunner 235. GPS connects quickly, and is accurate. Battery seems pretty long lasting when not in GPS mode. Love that the HRM is part of the watch, and not a chest strap. Easy to use. Only problem is that it is very big on small wrists, and the optic sensor is uncomfortable against my wrist bones. But if I wear the face against my inner wrist, it is fine. Love the fount of information that is at my fingertips.

Before purchasing the FR235, I had a FR15 as my starting out GPS watch. It worked well for what I wanted it to do (track distance). The downside for the FR15 was that the distance wasn't always accurate (I ran a marathon recently and it said I did 26.6 miles), GPS took forever to sync, and it didn't track HR. To supplement the HR I had bought a HR monitor online, but lost it within 3-4 months (I tend to lose things once in a while). After getting the FR235, it was a major, major improvement. The GPS synced within seconds, distance was near accurate (~ +/- .02mi, which is great, 1-2x have gotten a slip up where it cuts a big corner), and it had built in HR. Added perks were bluetooth syncing, watch interfaces (Back to the Future is the best one!), continuous HR, HR zones timing (how long you've been in which zone, and phone notifications (i.e. calls [can answer from watch], texts, emails, etc), I could even find my phone if I'm within range, and it has a great battery life (including several runs, it can last at least a week or two!). The only downsides to the watch are: HR takes some time to catch up at the beginning of a run, hard to find a good positioning on wrist for the HR to check properly (I have mine tight for runs to get better accuracy), and watch will randomly dis/connect from phone even when phone is 10-20 feet away (beeping can be annoying especially during work). I understand that HR won't always be accurate so it isn't a complete letdown; it's still a good estimation of heart rate. Haven't tried wearing it to sleep as it feels uncomfortable to wear and makes it harder to fall asleep for me. And don't know how I feel about it swimming (heard it is a possibility). Again this is a great watch if you're at least an intermediate runner and want to look at more statistics for running and need more accuracy from GPS tracking. If not interested in lots of statistics, then I would recommend a less expensive watch with less features (like Vivosmart HR).

I am a 30-40 mile per week runner training for my 2nd Marathon and I was looking for a Running Watch with GPS, Heart Rate monitor, and great battery life. This watch is perfect for me! It provides all the basic functions you expect with decent battery life. I don't utilize the phone notifications much, but it is nice to know who is texting you while running. I would highly recommend this watch to any runner.

I got this Garmin to replace my old Forerunner 225 that was dying (took forever to get GPS sync). This model is a bit more streamlined, has easy-to-read display and the wrist-based HR function seems to be as accurate as the old chest strap of the old model. I like the battery life and the GPS sync is super fast, so I'm pretty happy with this overall.

Battery life, GPS accuracy and lock time, Heart Rate monitor and last but not the least Garmin Connect App is great. I can get away with one charge for the entire week that includes 3 5k run tracking. Smart notifications are basic, has lot of room for improvement - but that is not what I bought this for

This watch does everything I need it to and more. I was mainly looking for a running watch but this watch provides more info than just that. The previous running watch I owned was a Nike+ GPS sports watch. This one is much lighter, GPS signal is ready much faster, no shoe pod needed for cloudy days, no heart rate strap needed Overall very please with this watch. Pros: Lightweight- light on the wrist. The strap is soft and comfortable Good battery life- After 30 miles a week plus other workouts I will still have about 30% battery life left Garmin Connect app integrates with Strava and MyFitnessPal Programmable workouts with audible queues Cons: Battery indicator does not show percentage- Can probably be fixed by downloading a new watch face from the Garmin IQ store Some of the menus are difficult to navigate

I was a former owner of an Apple Watch Sport. I liked the watched, but it had too many features that I did not use nor need (e.g. receiving notifications, all the apps...). I wanted to downsize to something that included GPS, would track my workouts with maps, count steps, and provide me with detailed feedback on my runs. I read reviews of several watches and found that this Garmin watch would meet my needs the best. PROS: - The battery life is amazing. I charge it once every 8 or 9 days. I do 3-4 runs a week and the battery has yet to run out in under a week. Today I charged it after 10 days and it was still at ~20% capacity. That's amazing! - It's waterproof. I don't have to take it off when I take a shower. - It counts steps accurately. - It finds GPS signal quickly. - The Garmin Connect app is great. It was easy to sync with and it updates my data between the watch and the app often. It shows tons of data (heart rate, weight, runs, calories, steps, sleep...) and you can customize what data you want to see. - It tracks your sleep and HR. - When running you can change the screen on your watch to show you data about your current run, data about your current lap (I love this!), your HR, your HR zone, or you can make a custom screen with several data points on it. - You can join challenges with other people. - You can sync with MyFitnessPal - It can receive notifications from your phone. It would let me know when I received a text or call. I disabled this feature cause I didn't need it. - It has a move alert: if you've been inactive for too long, it'll buzz/beep at you to get moving. There is so much I love about this watch. I rarely take it off and it's been so much more motivating to me to improve my running.

Overall great product. The charge lasts a week easily and recharges quickly. The heart rate is about as accurate as you can get for a wrist based HR monitor. The band is comfortable. The sensor may get irritating sometimes if the watch is too tight.

This is the first GPS watch I have owned, and made the decision to go with the Garmin 235 based on reviews here, REI, and what friends were using. Prior to getting the watch, I was using my phone to track runs, and rides on Strava, and started to be a pain running with my phone all the time. I have been using this watch for about a month now, and am really happy with the purchase. It was simple to set it up through the Garmin app, and syncs with my phone without any issues. It took a little bit of time to understand how the widgets, and different watch faces, etc work, but pretty easy once you go through a couple of trials. I also appreciate how simple this watch is, and seems function focused. Gives you just what you need to track your exercise - no music, games, apps, colors, etc. I have owned a bunch of Timex Ironman watches, and this is kind of modern version of that classic. I like that you can get set notifications for texts, emails, when paired with a phone - which is not something I wanted, but happy to have that function to avoid looking at my phone all the time. On runs, the watch finds GPS signal almost immediately. Its super helpful to have different data reporting while running like avg pace, lap pace splits, HR avg, distance, time, etc. Makes it very easy to adjust pace on the run, and vary your workout. Also, syncs with Strava app immediately - no issues loading activities. Garmin also has their own app that allows you so see all your exercise/living data. Garmin's app seems a little bit much, with sleep info, and all kinds of health metrics, but interesting to see what its analyzing and your overall living stats. From what I have read the chest strap heart rate monitors are more accurate then the wrist, but I can't really say. I have a had a few runs where I was going very easy and the HR was reading as near my max. I adjusted the tightness of the band and moved around on my wrist, and reading varied. Battery life is good, and I go a few days between charging. Really nice to be able to track with the watch when outside of cell range and not kill the phone battery... Really happy I bought this watch, and imagine I would buy this version again in the future when its time to replace it.

I bought this watch after my Garmin Forerunner 10 stopped holding a charge. I chose this watch over the forerunner 35 because I am running my first marathon in 8 months and I liked the look of the round face on the 235 over the 35, especially if I decided to use it as an activity tracker in addition to a running watch. I absolutely love this watch! I wear it 24/7. So far I've only used the activity tracker for runs, though I will look at the heart rate while in cross fit classes. I know I haven't unleashed all the potential of the watch yet, but I am looking forward to using it more when I get into my marathon training.

Love the Forerunner 235. It's got all the features you need in a running watch (HRM, GPS, VO2 max) as well as some great "smart watch" features such as notification mirroring. The battery last for ~4 days with daily workouts and Bluetooth enabled. I highly recommed this watch but will say newer models 7xx and 9xx series offer a few more features for not too much more money. My only gripe with the 235 is the plastic construction. It definitely does not feel cheap and I have yet to have any breakage issues but I can't help be wary with something that gets knocked around as much as a watch.

If you're looking for a general fitness band, you're better off with a Fitbit or Apple Watch. But if you're serious about running or biking, this is the watch to get. The battery life is phenomenal, the GPS is more accurate than that of my iPhone 7, and you can use the watch even with sweaty hands (because it is not a touchscreen). You can even link your Garmin account with Strava if you prefer to have your data there. My one recommendation is to get a screen protector, as I think the screen is plastic. I found a good tempered glass one on Amazon for around $15.

This watch is everything that I'm looking for in a running watch: quick to pick up the GPS signal, accurate distance tracking & heart rate, and additional workout types available (both pre-loaded and available at Garmin Connect, great battery life. I switched to this after a couple years doing battle with the FitBit Ionic and am already much happier with this watch than any other that I have owned.

Excellent GPS Running Watch. Super easy to use. Long lasting charge. Great motivating information to track your progress

Battery life id really good. Very quick charge time considering you can easily get 5 days between charges. Very light and comfortable especially since you wear it 24 x 7. Can install different watch faces to make it more 'work appropriate.' Love that it's waterproof but I haven't tested this. Plus - Garmin Connect had all of my run history from my old school 305. I had the Microsoft Band 2 which worked great, but had poor battery. This is the exact opposite. You just get notifications - not full emails which is fine by me.

Both my teens (who are avid runners) now wear this. Never had any problems. My son utilizes the altitude and heart rate readings constantly to train. What I like is not having to ask them what they have run. I just look at their accounts to find out to make sure they are following coaches instructions on their own time. Invaluable, especially if you hate to write down workouts or are wondering at what point you started to feel bad during a run.

The strap fits great and is comfortable. The presets are convenient for cycling and running. The fact that it turns off GPS for indoor settings without me having to do it manually each time is great. I only have to choose the type of workout and everything is set for indoor or outdoor. The recovery advisor and VO2Max are features that made this watch a worthy buy. The HR monitor seems pretty accurate and shows 4hrs of HR data on the watch. Battery life is better than I expect. With all the data being tracked and the syncing to the GarminConnect app on my phone (my old watch only synced 2 times a day), I expected a much shorter battery life. but, it last longer that my 225. Upgrading from the Forerunner 225, which has simple and easy navigation, the navigation on the 235 was a bit awkward. Not the smoothest navigation in my opinion, but I am comparing it to the 225. Overall, great watch. I dont use most of the advanced features yet (downloads, watch faces, and IQ apps) but my favorite features are the Race predictor, recovery advisor, HR accuracy, calendar on the watch, and VO2Max.