Garmin today unveiled its latest GPS running watch. The Forerunner 225 is the first Garmin watch to include a wrist-based heart rate monitor. Partner Mio is providing the optical sensor that eliminates the need for a separate heart rate strap.
“After more than 10 years of developing GPS running watches we are very excited to team up with Mio to introduce our first device featuring wrist-based heart rate,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Getting and understanding your heart rate is more comfortable and easier than ever with the Forerunner 225’s real time results on a colorful gauge – allowing runners to evaluate and adjust effort quickly so they can focus on their run.”
The same Mio heart monitoring technology is already in use in devices such as the Mio Fuse and the TomTom Runner Cardio. Using similar technology as the Apple Watch, it is presumably also susceptible to wrist tattoos.
Garmin Forerunner 225 specifications:
- Display: 1.0-inch colour display (180×180 pixels)
- Sensors: GPS, accelerometer, heart rate monitor
- Battery: Li-ion
- Dimensions: 48 × 48 × 16 millimeters
- Weight: 54 grams
- Colours: Black and red
- Other: Water resistant to 5ATM (50m)
Heart rate information is displayed on the watch’s display using a gauge. The gray, blue, green, orange and red areas show you at a glance whether you in the warm-up, easy, aerobic, threshold or maximum heart rate zone. These zones are preset based on the user’s age-based max heart rate estimate but can also be managed through Garmin Connect. The Forerunner 225 can also display beats per minute in real time, and much like many other wearables, a range of additional details including distance run, pace, elapsed time, steps taken and the date and time.
Runners can also create custom workouts with vibration alerts for time, distance, calories and heart rate to better suit their training. Completed run data can be automatically uploaded to the Garmin Connect Mobile app on a paired smartphone for post-run analysis.
The Garmin Forerunner will also track your daily activities including steps, distance, calories burned, and sleep. It will also remind you stay active should it detect that you are not doing so.
The Garmin Forerunner 225 is expected to begin shipping later this quarter (before the end of June). The black and red watch will sell for US$299.99 (about CA$360). Garmin is now taking pre-orders.
Source : Garmin