My Garmin ForeRunner 301 bit the big one a few weeks ago.

Tried and tried to locate a new ForeRunner 305, but no luck.

The reviews I've read all panned the 500 big time.

Wound up ordering a 310XT just because it seemed tb the only game
in town that offered auto pause on the laps.

Seems like the target audience for these things are triathletes -
and the wrist form factor makes a certain amount of sense in that
context.

But for non-wrist use (paddling a surf ski....) it's kind of
dysfunctional bc the fields on the screen are too small tb read
at any distance and the distortion introduced by a drop of water
on the screen wipes out too much data.


The Question:

Is a larger screen size out of the question marketing-wise? Is
there any hope for 310XT functionality in a larger package?

--
PeteCresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:

> My Garmin ForeRunner 301 bit the big one a few weeks ago.
>
> Tried and tried to locate a new ForeRunner 305, but no luck.

If you really liked the 301, go the Garmin site[1] and RMA[2] your unit.
Ask for a refurb 301. Worst case, you end up getting something
else at a discount. Best case, you get a refurbed 301.

1. http://www.garmin.com
2. http://www8.garmin.com/support/outofwarranty.html

Per William Burrow:
>If you really liked the 301, go the Garmin site[1] and RMA[2] your unit.
>Ask for a refurb 301. Worst case, you end up getting something
>else at a discount. Best case, you get a refurbed 301.

301 disappeared, so that's not an option.

Tangentially, I was looking at various Amazon and eBay offers for
"Refurbished" 305's... but wimped bc I couldn't figure out how
"Refurbished" was different from "Used"... particularly the
battery's life expectancy.

FWIW, I got a 310XT. In retrospect, I should have gotten a
refurbed 305 and been prepared to send it in for battery
replacement.

It would be incorrect to say I was disappointed with the 310XT -
bc I knew what I was getting in to.

But "frustrated" might fit.... they have almost the same screen
area to work with as with a 301 - but chose to make the fonts so
much smaller that they're unreadable from 5' away (as is the case
when using it for paddle workouts).

They even made the fonts on the two-field screen *smaller* than
the larger font on the three-field screen.

Heaven forbid, they would have made the one-field screen's font
fill the screen....
--
PeteCresswell