Garmin Forerunner 201 Review

The Garmin Forerunner 201 is a new innovation from world renowned Garmin.

The Forerunner 201 provides athletes with an easy-to-read display, an ergonomic wristband, and integrated GPS sensor that provides to the athelete the precise speed, distance, and pace data.

The Forerunner has a compact and lightweight design, and combines this with an extremely accurate training assistant allowing you to track your performance effortlessly.

What Garmin have done here is to take a personal trainer which includes being able to track your speed on a lap, distance and time and incorporate this with GPS technology so you not only receive accurate data when training outside, but it's like having a personal trainer running alongside for the training session.

As soon as you take the Forerunner out of the box, the only thing you have to do is thread the strap onto the Forerunner, give the batteries a little charge by placing the Forerunning into it's innovitive docking station, and once the batteries have a little charge, you can then take it out for a run.

Garmin have not only given you access to all of the essential data that you may require when in a training session, but they have also created a Virtual Partner. This means if you are training alone, you always have a virtual trainer. This great feature allows you to set your training goals by configuring your Virtual Partner's pace and workout distance, and you can then run alongside your Virtual Partner on-screen and see whether you are ahead or behind which is a great way to gauge your fitness.

Core Features

  • GPS sensor provides precise latitude, longitude, and altitude data for exact location information.
  • Mark specific locations, and then look-up and navigate to these points using an electronic map.
  • Retrace your steps to a starting point or reverse your normal route for routine variation.
  • Amount of calories burned can be tracked and calculated over the course of a workout.
  • Lap history—such as lap time, lap distance, and average pace—can be stored for up to two years.
  • Performance data can be automatically archived and calculated to provide an accurate record.
  • Automated stopwatch provides auto-lap and auto-pause features.
  • Lap timer indicates when a certain speed is reached or when you've fallen below a pre-set level.
  • Pace whistle sounds alert when you begin traveling slower or faster than your desired pace.
  • Distance whistle sounds when you reach a specified duration or distance in your workout.
  • Download free Garmin software to transfer data from your Forerunner 201 to your PC for storage and analysis

Box Contents
When you open up the box you'll find the following items:-

  • Forerunner 201
  • Wrist Strap
  • Extension strap (if you have larger wrists)
  • AC desktop charger with serial interface

Controlling the Forerunner 201
The Forerunner 201 has 6 buttons, a Power button which doubles up as a backlight, a mode button to switch between mode functions, a reset lap button, a start/stop stopwatch button and an up and down button to move between features.

Using the Forerunner 201

Welcome Screen
When you switch the Forerunner 201 on, the first thing you will always be greeted with is a welcome screen . This tells you how many hours battery life it thinks you have left.

This is an essential feature, it's pointless going out on your run with less than an hours battery life because you won't be able to either record your training session, or work with the Virtual Trainer.

Knowing how much battery power you have remaining is a good essential feature that Garmin have thought about.

 

Timer Mode
There are two main modes on the Forerunner, the Menu Mode and the Timer Mode. The Timer Mode displays a stop watch screen which gives you the current time since pressing the start button, the speed you are averaging and the distance you are travelling.

This is one of the main screens you will live in as this is where you will start and finish your training session, and also be able to check how long you have been running for, at what speed you have been running and the distance travelled.

Menu Mode
The Menu Mode screen gives you your personal trainer information. From here you can go into various screens like the History screen to find out what yoru previous attempts have been like, the Training Assistant which lets you set goals and targets, the Navigation screen which allows you to say plot a course using GPS Satellites across country.

Say if you wanted to get from a start location to a finish location, but didn't mind which route you took, then you can navigate back to this (like with a regular GPS Receiver) easily. Finally you have a Settings screen which allows you to customise the Forerunner 201.

 

History
The history function provides a wealth of information to the athelete and organises the daily workouts into a layered fashion which is easy to retrieve. History can be retrieved in two ways:-

  • by Day
  • by Week

By selecting either will allow you to drill down and examine the data, so for instance if you wanted to examine data for a particular day, you can retrieve this data by selecting the Day option.

Virtual Trainer
Garmin have included what they call the Virtual Trainer which is a trainer you configure your expected goals and targets with, and you then try to achieve this when you perform your training session. The main features you can set under the Virtual Trainer are:-

  • Distance
  • Speed

This will also let you configure a pace/speed alert when you want to know when you have reached either your fastest pace or speed or your slowest pace or speed. When you reach this target, the Forerunner will alarm to notify you of this.

Navigation
Garmin have included a navigation option so you can set your start and finish locations along with waypoints along the way.

The Forerunner will remember locations/waypoints via the Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates when you select the Mark Location option.

Each location is saved starting at 001 and incrementing by one for each location you want to save allowing up to 100 locations to be saved on the Forerunner.

The Forerunner has a breadcrumb style TrackBack feature which allows you to see where you have been and to re-trace your steps.

Technical Specification
The Forerunner 201 comes with the following specifications:-

  • Waterproofing
    • The Forerunner 201 is completely waterproof to the current IEC Standard 529 IPX7 and can withstand immersion in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes.
  • Battery
    • The ForeRunner 201 comes with a built-in Lithium-ion rechargeable battery which will last up to a maximum of 15 hours on a full charge. Charge time will tape up to 2 hours to complete a full charge cycle.
  • GPS Technology
    • The Forerunner 201 boasts a 12 Satellite All-In-View GPS Receiver built on Garmin's renowned technology and comprises of a built in patch antenna.

Performance

The Forerunner is an extremely useful tool for the athelete, whether you are want to just go out for a run and record your statistics, or whether you want to carry out a full-on training session. The Forerunner can be used by experienced atheletes or beginners just wanting to increase their fitness level and is extremely easy to use. The GPS Satellite Receiver built into the Forerunner obtains a fix quite quickly and is on par with other Garmin GPS Receivers in being able to hold a fix and more importantly being able to re-acquire a fix when you do lose it.

Conclusion

The Forerunner is a good buy whether you want to just increase your personal fitness, or are an experienced athelete wanting to push youself to your limit and beyond.