Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my review for the garmin 235 but all the functions here applies to the 230 as well so I posted this: TLDR: Additional functions make this a worthwhile buy. GPS is quick, watch is reliable for running - we already know that. Read other reviews if you want to know about these things(DCRAINMAKER website goes into extensive details). I'm going to focus on the extras: 1. GLONASS - This is the GPS satellite owned by russians. It complements the GPS we already know and use. Your phone, your car GPS or the previous garmin 225/220/620 does not have this. GPS fix is almost instantaneous even in tall buildings because of this. 2. Find my phone - If I lost my phone somehwere you can use the phone to locate it by pressing a button! It's like a keyfinder - your phone will ring loud if you use this. 3. Support for mapmyrun, mapmyfitness, strava, nike plus, and other software - Just set it and as soon as your phone synchronizes with the watch, it will be automatically uploaded. No need to connect to a computer. It is simultaneous - similar to just having the app open when you run. 4. Smart notifications - I don't want a smartwatch, I just want something that will notify me. This is perfect - from snapchat, facebook messenger, anything that your phone alerts you, it will show it. You can also set it to just notify you of phone calls only. You cannot reply back. 5. Connect IQ Support - what is this? It's basically an app store for garmin watches. Things I have found useful: -WATCH FACE - a lot of apps to change the watch face like a smartwatch, I use a normal analog face. -FINDMYCAR - You can mark where you parked, come back to it later with an arrow pointing to the direction of your car and how far it is! -COMPASS - I found this useful when navigating/hiking/simple walking or exploring the city. Simple points N S E W. -dwMAP - if you go online, you can plan a course for yourself and you can follow this route while running or hiking. 6. Calendar and weather sync - Once connected to the phone, you will know how the weather and your schedule looks like during the day. 7. VO2 max - It is the ultimate measure of cardiovascular fitness. I interpret this myself in the laboratory and this is an estimate. I have found it very near my actual VO2 max. This is very useful if you wanna push yourself and see if you've improved - even more than just a HR function. (For the 230, you must use an external HR monitor to have this) 8. Recovery advisor - I'm not sure how they came about this algorithm, I'm in healthcare and I've never heard of a recovery "time" to run or hike again. I take it with a grain of salt but maybe to some people it is still very useful. Gives you the number of hours before you can work out again. As a rule to myself, I push myself every 48 hours anyway. (For the 230, you must use an external HR monitor to have this) 9. Activity/step tracker- I have been using fitbit for a while but I'd like to say that this took it a step further!!! You can set how long your steps are(different people have different strides) and it will determine the number of steps you made for the day. This is more accurate than fitbit. It also determines the number of steps you need based on your age and activity level(it's not always 10000 daily), which makes sense. It has a MOVE! alarm if you don't move in an hour. 10. Sleep monitor - It has deep sleep and light sleep. Just set a typical time you sleep and wake up once then it will determine when you sleep. 11. Silent alarm - you can set as many alarms as you can. Vibration and sound/Vibration alone. It is very good and vibrates pretty good! So far these are the things I have discovered. I have owned this thing for a week. I will add as I use it. If you have any questions, just feel free to comment/ask. I got my garmin 235(again similar to 230 without the HR) watch from road runner sports because amazon ran out of stock.