Review of the Garmin ForeRunner 405

I should also note that I ran both the Garmin software and Google Earth under VMWare Fusion on my Mac laptop with no problems, as native Garmin support for this model is not complete as of this review. Garmin has a central page of Macintosh software and support, which is quite nice of them.From those pictures, you can see just how much data the 405 is capturing: It's quite amazing, really. I also really like that you don't have to cable it up to download data: just walk within range of your PC running the Ant+ agent and voila! Data downloaded. A lot of work undoubtedly went into that feature, and the result is quite convenient to use.If you want to look at the data yourself, I've uploaded a copy of the shoe online to my webserver here. (25KB)Wearing the 405 is pretty comfortable although it stands above the wrist quite a bit, and due to the rigid shape, it's not something you'd wear for long periods of time. It's probably the most stylish GPS my gifts jewelry I've seen, though. Up close the bitmapped display and white LED backlights give it away, but overall its pretty unobtrusive. The high-contrast LCD and large font make reading the display quite easy, even when you're jogging. The Garmin software and website allow you to do all sorts of advanced training, including features like sharing workouts, exercise versus a remote or virtual competitor, pace alerts, etc, etc. It's quite the training system, especially when you consider the price.MSRP of the ForeRunner is $300, and they're available online for slightly less. Adding the heart rate monitor is another $50, the bike sensor is $60, and the foot pod is $110.Overall I was extremely impressed with the 405. As an exercise system I've seen nothing even close, and the cost is quite reasonable for what it does. The touch bezel and wireless inte***ce are more advanced than the Suunto X9i, and the improved GPS reception is pretty darn good. ncluded software, you can define all sorts of workouts to download to the shoes online, and have it alert you if you're over and under your pace. In combination with the optional sensors, I can easily see the 405 being the tool of choice for really hard-core runners. Unfortunately, I'm not, so my review of this is necessarily a bit lacking. I did try it out, though, so I do have some data to show you.For this test, I captured an urban walk in San Diego. The first two pictures are from the Garmin software, which, while it lacks fancy graphics, excels at data analysis. Here's their map view:  And here's their customizable graph window beneath it, showing speed on one axis and elevation on the other: There are also text displays and analysis tools galore; as I said this is really designed for the serious runner. You can also view the data in Google Earth via a menu selection, a very nice touch: Here I've zoomed into the only place on the route with bad data, a short section where I walked between two six-story-plus buildings that blocked its view of the sky: I was on the south side of the street, so you can see my position drifted north until the view returned.