Garmin has a lot of experiences with smartwatches. In its
hands, a smartwatch can take a role as a personal instructor of professional
athlete. That's the basic concept brought by Garmin Forerunner line. Now,
Garmin wants to make its GPS smartwatches can attract the wider public.
From there Garmin creates three new GPS smartwatches: Garmin Forerunner 230, Forerunner 235, and Forerunner 630. All three are compatible
with the Garmin's Connect IQ platform, allowing users to replace the watch
face, install applications, and extra widgets.
All three are also able to communicate with the latest
version of Garmin Connect application which now looks more modern and fully
featured. The essential features such as controlling music, notification, or
share the exercising achievement data are all presented here.
In terms of hardware, the Forerunner 230 and Forerunner 235
are actually the same, only the Forerunner 235 has a heart rate sensor, whereas
the Forerunner 230 doesn't. This optical sensor is designed by Garmin itself,
it's capable of monitoring the heart rate simultaneously with the measurement
of other parameters.
When used in the training mode, Forerunner 235 can last up
to 11 hours, whereas the Forerunner 230 up to 16 hours. But if you only use
them for monitoring the regular daily activities and continuing the
notification, both are able to operate for more than a week. Both smartwatches
are also waterproof to a depth of 50 meters.
On the other hand, the Forerunner 630 is claimed as the most
advanced GPS smartwatch that has ever been made by Garmin. If you are a runner,
this is the smartwatch you need. It's not equipped with a heart rate sensor,
but it can monitor other variables such as step length, vertical ratio, lactic
acid limit, and much more.
Forerunner 230 is priced at $ 250, Forerunner 235 is offered
at a price of $ 330, and Forerunner 630 for $ 400. All three will go on sale in
the 4th quarter of this year as well.