Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

** UPDATE May 2017 (1 yr, 3 mo): Watch is still working strong! No noticeable issues or decrease in GPS sensitivity. I've ran with this watch at least 3 times a week since I got it and I don't regret it at all. Battery life is still amazing, screen and backlight still works, no tears on the bands. The apps and info screens on the Garmin store are getting much better, including a race screen with all types of info you could possibly want with race finish time predictor (and you can tell it to round up/down with race mile markers in the cases where the course is slightly longer). Over the past year I've used it for: 4 half-marathons and a ton of 5k-10ks relay road race a 8.5 hr hike (there's an app that can make a map on the watch) lap swimming in a pool biking *************************** Great addition to a runner's arsenal! And a month later... After much deliberation, I decided to go in and buy one of these watches (FR 230, Purple) since started training for my first half marathon. I decided to ignore people's complaints about the terrible screen and poor battery (two comments I highly disagree with), and I'm really happy I did. And then I decided to write a review due to the lack of reviews and photos on small-wristed women, and the fact that as of Feburary 2016 I couldn't find one store that stocked these watches to try it on. You can see in my picture, the size comparison to a Fitbit Charge. Pros: - Screen. THIS IS NOT A SMARTWATCH. Many people who hate the screen are expecting everything out of this watch, but honestly I love it. It's like an eInk screen akin to that of a kindle, but with color. Works GREAT is any normal daylight/working light conditions. I rarely need to use the backlight and I've never had issues ever seeing anything on the screen, even in bright sun. Sure, the colors don't look as vibrant as on a phone or apple/galaxy/moto smartwatch, but what you lose in color vibrancy, you earn in battery life. - Battery. This thing can hold it's own. A weekend of wearing it through two separate GPS-tracked runs (2.5hr total), and keeping it constantly connected via Bluetooth to my phone left the battery at 80%. I tracked my whole half marathon with it, set on smart recording with bluetooth connection, and the battery was only 20% less. I've noticed that the total percentage when fully charged has decreased (now it's maxed out at 97%), but I'm not sure if this is actually because the battery capacity is decreasing. - Weight. The watch does look big (the same size as the FR220/5 so if you can find one , but it's really quite light! About the same weight as a Fitbit charge, but quite a deal bulkier. I have mixed feelings about using this as an everyday watch, since my Charge really sits on my wrist without me noticing it as much. - GPS. It found GPS satellites almost instantly while I was sitting in my living room of my house. Have never had issues finding GPS, even when my phone took minutes to lock on. - Activity Tracker. Honestly this was pretty low on my Pros list because the step count system seems to be exactly the same as that of the fitbit. The only bad mark I'd give it is that on the Garmin app, you can't just set your walking or running stride length like you can on the Fitbit dash, but you have to fill out the amount of steps you can walk to get to a certain distance. Kind of counter intuitive because that math is super simple to just do yourself. - Notifications. Seem to work just fine. On my S6+, I don't seem to need to have the app open or running, I just need to approve the app to intercept my notifications, and it sends it right over. Whenever I have my bluetooth on both the watch and the phone, they pair instantly (except in one instance it locked up and I had to restart the watch). - Wireless sync. After I set up my MapMyRun and Runkeeper accounts to my garmin account, the second I'm done with the run, all the info is automatically uploaded. No hassle. Cons: A couple bugs with the phone connecting sometimes, but this usually only happens when the app on the phone crashed. Sometimes the "Find my Phone" feature also bugs out and doesn't stop chiming and flashing until the bluetooth connection is ended or the phone restarted.