In-depth review: Garmin Forerunner 620

The new Garmin Forerunner 620 (FR 620) is a big jump up from the previous models of the Garmin line of GPS watches. It tracks everything you could imagine and more.

Firstly, the watch is smaller than it’s predecessor, the FR 610. The faces are almost the same size, but it’s both lighter and thinner. That’s not to say it’s small, but it’s not obstructive. It feels like a watch, not a telephone tied to your wrist, which has historically been the problem with many full-featured GPS watches.

The 620, like other new smart watches that have been hitting the market, is touchscreen based. Garmin has used touch screen tech in its watches for a few years now, but the 620 is the first incarnation that seems to integrate a touch screen with the functionality for a runner considered ahead of merely using the tech for the sake of it. The touchscreen on the previous FR 610 was sometimes unresponsive and clunky, and it had only a single physical button which caused problems when the screen was acting up. The new FR 620 has four physical buttons, which is a nice shift back, but also relies largely on the touchscreen, which scrolls beautifully. It’s smooth and responsive.

The watch tracks more data fields than you will know what to do with. A lot of them probably seem excessive to the average runner, such as vertical oscillation and ground contact time, but as you progress as a runner it will become very useful that the watch tracks these points. Cadence is something many might overlook, but it can be useful for refining your stride and staving off injury. With all the variables that the 620 tracks, you could spend days analyzing to data from a week’s worth of runs.

The one component that we would have liked to have seen in the 620 is a laser heart rate monitor built in to the underside of the watch. This new way to track heart rate can be found in some of the 620’s competitors, including the Adidas Smart Run watch. After seeing it in some of these new devices it’s become something we would love to see become standard in every sports watch maker’s flagship product. Not having to wear the chest strap to track heart rate makes for a more enjoyable run. That said, right now, the laser built-in heart rate monitor also comes with a size and weight trade-off, so if you either don’t use a heart rate monitor or don’t mind wearing one around your chest, the noticeable size and weight difference between the 620 and the Adidas Smart Run may sway you in the direction of the Garmin product.

Promotional photos of the watch boast a bright colour screen. It’s not quite as colourful as you would expect from the pictures. It more resembles a standard grey sports watch face, but thats’ not a bad thing. Few people will be overly worried about the colours on the screen, but if it was something that caught your eye you may be a touch disappointed. That said, the purple glow of the light on this watch is fantastic and is programmable, if you want to have it lit up for extended periods of time during low-light runs.

The watch uses new Bluetooth Smart technology to sync with your phone and allows live tracking through a link you provide to whoever is interested in tracking you. A few downsides that could be smoothed out are that this function requires you to take your phone with you on your run, as the live tracking program requires the telephone to tell the world where you are. In addition, it isn’t compatible with Android handsets at the moment, meaning it’s exclusive to iPhone users, although Garmin has noted that they plan to patch this further down the line.

Lost from the previous FR 610 is a cycling mode. Although most runners will be using the watch for their running, there are certainly some out there who will be affected by this. This isn’t a big deal, but it means you’ll likely shatter any previous PBs that were saved in the watch on your first ride.

The watch is waterproof up to 50m, which means you can swim with it on, but a lot of the data it tracks will be thrown off. Still, it will give you the basic returns of pace and distance.

Overall, at $420, The FR 620 has a premium price tag for a premium watch, but considering the bevy of features and impressively light construction, you aren’t shortchanged. You will be buying a device that tracks more than you could ever want to know about your runs and workouts. It’s simple and intuitive on the surface, but provides plenty of depth for someone who is interested in breaking down the numbers a bit further. Once again, Garmin have produced a go-to running watch.