Garmin Forerunner 405

Reviewed by Matt Russ

I was very excited when I first reviewed the design of the new Garmin Forerunner 405. I have been using it’s predecessor, the Forerunner 305, both personally and professionally to coach my athletes. The 305 gives coach and athlete an enormous amount of post-workout data to review, and the 405 promised to improve upon an already good piece of hardware.

The Good

Although the 305 is not heavy, it is bulkier than the average heart rate monitor. The 405 is an improvement in size; about the size and weight of a dive watch which is pretty amazing for a GPS. It also seems more robust, the strap is comfortable, and the clasp will not come undone. The 405 eliminates a few of the buttons and uses a touch-sensitive bezel in their place. This is relatively easy to use once you get used to it but I actually prefer the buttons, especially in cold weather, as the bezel did not always respond to my touch. I like the charging mechanism which uses a simple clip that attaches to two points on the back of the watch and plugs into your USB port. A wall charger is available. The heart rate strap uses a replaceable battery versus the sealed straps that must be delivered back to the factory a la Polar.

The satellites locked on to the 405 VERY quickly and stayed locked. I never once lost satellite reception even in heavy tree cover on the trail. The 405 gave me good, consistent data throughout my workout and uploaded easily to the Garmin Training Center software after via wireless connection (just plug the USB receiver in).

The Training Center software that comes with the 405 has been consistently improved upon and is simple and easy to use.

The Bad

I thought by eliminating some of the points for water to enter (buttons/USB port) that the 405 would be waterproof, a drawback of the 305. But the 405 is still spec’d the same- water-resistant for 3 meters up to 30 minutes. One advantage of the Suunto and Polar brand heart rate monitors is that they are waterproof. If you are a triathlete who desires one device for lap counting, or, more importantly for racing, this is disappointing. I have had my athletes review their open water sighting/tracking using the 305 and it works fabulously as a training tool. Although I have not received any feedback on water entering the 305, the contact points for charging and data transfer can corrode, especially in salt water.

Configuring the 405 takes some time and patience. The 305 has a LOT of features, but the 405 is a bit over the top. To me, a technical device needs to be functional, durable, and simple. There are so many features and data fields crammed into the 405 I wonder if half of them are necessary or even utilized (sunrise?). I find most athletes gravitate toward the same 3-4 features such as heart rate, distance, pace, and time. It would make more sense to allow you the user to configure the device using the Training Center software then update the firmware on the device, eliminating all those extraneous fields you must endlessly scroll through.

The 405 uses the ANT+ wireless protocol which conceivably allows other ANT+ devices to talk to one another; such as the new Power Tap ANT+ power meters. The 405 is not Power Tap-compatible though making me wonder why they went this route with the 405. In order for this technology to be useful, different devices from different manufacturers have to be designed to work and play well with each other; which in my experience has not functioned very amicably yet. Garmin is still getting the kinks worked out of pairing their Edge 705 to a Power Tap. Using ANT+ is a step in the right direction, though and the 405 allows users to share their workouts and routes wirelessly between devices.

Although a cadence sensor can be added as well as cycling metrics, I don’t think the 405 would function well as a cycle computer. The screen is too small to read multiple metrics clearly; slightly smaller than the 305. There is also no multi-sport mode which was perhaps my favorite feature of the 305. It allowed you to switch from running to cycling modes, or time transitions, by simply pressing the lap button- great stuff for the ever growing multi-sport population.

The Ugly

The 405 uses a non-replaceable lithium ion battery with up to 8 hours battery life. Personally my 305 has been great, but I have noticed the battery life slowly degrades over time. I have also had athletes report a short battery life, as little as 2 hours, for their 305 right out of the box which required replacement of the unit. I do wonder how long the battery life span is as $299 is a lot to pay for a disposable device. After a full charge and one use of 2 hours duration, my 405 demo unit was completely dead the next morning- battery life ZERO. The 405 is supposed to automatically switch to power save mode preserving the charge for up to two weeks.

To me, the main drawback to the 405 is that it is not compatible with the expanding pool of Mac users or Training Peaks, the most popular online coaching and training software. Although Mac compatibility is supposedly forthcoming, I did hear this refrain for a long time with the 305. This is a deal breaker for me.

Although the 405 is another step forward in GPS-based training technology, it is not the solution I had hoped. I would still recommend the 305 for a multi-sport athlete or cyclist desiring a smaller device than the Edge series cycle computers. I do believe the 405 is a better device for self-coached runners (assuming they use a PC). I noticed the price of the 405 had come down to $299 matching that of the 305. This makes sense as the 405 is another option; not necessarily a better one.

Matt Russ has coached and trained athletes up to the professional level, domestically and internationally, for over 15 years. He currently holds an Expert license from USA Triathlon, an Elite license from USA Cycling, and is a licensed USA Track and Field Coach. Matt is Head Coach and owner of The Sport Factory, and works with athletes of all levels full time. He is a free lance author and his articles are regularly featured in a variety of magazines and websites. Visit www.thesportfactory.com for more information or email him at coachmatt@thesportfactory.com