Garmin Forerunner 630 / 635 – thoughts, opinion and comment

Garmin-Forerunner-630
FULL CONTENT UPDATED OCTOBER 2015

This is Garmin’s best running watch. Well, it’s the most fully-featured one. It’s not cheap.

Garmin Forerunner 630 Review
Garmin Forerunner 630

My first hands-on look at the 630 (here) and the current recommendation is: Great watch but wait until the new year for a likely much lower price and likely bug fixes OR, for Garminphiles, consider the 230/235 which have VERY similar features at a lower price point.

Hardware – The colour touchscreen screen is better than the 620. The battery life, at 17 exercise-hours, is significantly better. The aesthetics are better. It’s now also a plausible day-to-day watch and activity tracker with nice Bluetooth and wifi connectivity. Resolution is marginally improved on the 620 at 215×180 vs 180×180 pixels.

Audio – Music playback and audio training prompts.

GPS – Now supports GLONASS too and energy-saving through ULTRATRAC. Will a Garmin Forerunner finally be able to properly show instant pace?

Over and above the hardware improvements, what’s new?

Source-Garmin-R-Daish-via-the5krunnerLactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR/AnT) – The Garmin Forerunner 630 includes a guided test to determine your LTHR and apparently also determines if it can estimate LTHR as you run. There’s more LTHR information here on the sporttracks blog. In a non-lab test, it’s the average HR for the last 20 minutes of a 30 minute flat out run. That LTHR is then used to work out your HR training zones. If you do HR Zone based training then this is a MUCH better way than using guesses of your supposed max and resting heart rates, IMO. Many runners/triathletes have used LTHR for YEARS.

Stress Score – This is more innovative and useful. Using Heart Rate Variability data this measure gives an indication of your readiness to run. I’m not yet sure if this is a waking test or pre-training test. Either way, it could be useful; although to compare like-with-like, a waking HRV test would be best IMO.

Source-Garmin-R-Daish-via-the5krunnerPerformance Condition – As you run, your instantaneous ‘fitness level’ is compared to that of your average ‘fitness level’. This comparison indicates your performance readiness. “Maybe you’re not quite up to that 9th interval?” – that kind of thing. Looks genuinely interesting.

VO2max – is again touted on the 630, as it is with some other models. It was on the 620. It’s great for comparison to a degree and great to track and predict your progress. But the question I always ask is “what are you going to do with it?”. Is it a trophy to wave in front of your mates? If you are going to use it for VDOT-based training efforts then maybe there’s some use there. You might wonder if vVO2max is a better measure and, like me, if you’ve had lab tests done you might find a notable discrepancy.

ConnectIQ – Is new to the Garmin Forerunner 630. This will give access to custom WATCH FACES and DATA FIELDS. Whilst not new to Garmin, any element of being able to adapt to your precise requirements must be good. We’ve had ConnectIQ on other Garmin watches for over a year now and whilst many are interesting and undoubtedly useful to some, my general opinion is that more needs to come from the developers. My ‘early adopter’ status of ConnectIQ was somewhat tarnished by some ‘apps’ seeming to ‘mess up’ the watch’s performance elsewhere. I don’t use ConnectIQ anymore though no doubt will return to it at some point as it continues to mature.

Source-Garmin-R-Daish-via-the5krunnerAdvanced Running Dynamics – This is an extension to the existing running dynamics. The existing running dynamics are cadence, vertical oscillation and ground contact time.

So are the extra ADVANCED running dynamics useful? They are Ground Contact Time Balance (GCTb), Stride Length (SL) and Vertical Ratio (VR).

GCTb measures asymmetry in your GCT. This has some post-session analysis use. If your technique is asymmetric then generally you would want to address that through balancing the symmetry of your flexibility and strength in your body OR understanding any other causal factors such as a short leg, twisted hip or curved spine – all of which are not as uncommon as you might think.

SL is a basic measure that some other watches have had for years and that can be derived from distance travelled and cadence. It probably has similar usefulness in training to GCT. You can do a few drills and see how they change your SL and you can monitor changes to SL over time. Once you have your GCT as low as possible and your cadence as optimal as possible then the only way to get faster is to increase your stride length! Strength and flexibility is the way to go.

VR IS a measure of the efficiency with a ratio of VO to SL.

So really the new ADVANCED metrics are simply a breakdown of the existing GCT over each foot and two derived ratios – SL & VR.

HR Recording – Presumably the new HRM4-RUN strap caches data like the HRM-SWIM/HRM-TRI? Nope!! But it does do the extra stuff with LTHR and 6x Running Dynamics. On the watch, HR data can now be recorded per second.

Source-Garmin-R-Daish-via-the5krunnerAesthetics – Hooray. I’d actually wear this one socially!

ImagesFull official product images gallery here.

Other – As well as a few trivial bits and bobs like metronome functionality, back-to-start, finish-time estimator and yet another activity tracker, those above are the majorly interesting ones. Oh yes and it supports footpods too. Tests over the next few weeks should see how accurate that is with instant pace…or not.

Uninteresting features – VIRB control, find my phone, 200 hours of activity data,

Garmin Forerunner 630
Garmin Forerunner 630

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18 thoughts on “Garmin Forerunner 630 / 635 – thoughts, opinion and comment

  1. I see Garmin is offering $50 mail in rebates on the 620. I would suspect the 630 is coming sooner rather than later.

  2. I most certainly agree with your prediction of either activity sport profiles or a Garmin 320 as currently the two major competitors (Suunto Ambit 3S and Polar M400) are multisport watches, only without power meter support and swim support.
    Looking at the new HRM, could the new design perhaps reduce drag in the water and thus combat the slipping issue many HRMs encounter whilst pool swimming?

    1. Not sure there will be a water based hrm. there are rumours. the suunto pod is MUCH smaller so yes drag could be reduced. however the suunto one still slips.

  3. I saw the first prototype of FR 630 and must to say it’s beautiful and thin. It hasn’t round display as FR 620 but it’s slightly cut on top, bottom and sides. Your release prediction is right – September 2015. Actually, we’ll not see 635 version on September but FR 230/235 is coming. Of course, all of them support connect iq.

      1. this specific post was actually written post there being a leak. I had released a post previously that was pretty close (https://the5krunner.com/2015/10/26/old-post-garmin-forerunner-630-635-thoughts-opinion-comment-and-predictions/). Will there be a 635. Yes. the 235 and 230 and 630 all share very very similar firmware (look at the firmware relase notes for each..they are the same). the 235 is the optical one. so I thin kthere will be a 635 but am not sure. if garmin think they will make money out of it then there will be one. I would guess in spring (pre running season) perhaps announced a month before or after a 930XT. in my opinion 🙂

  4. Actually, none of the 600 models or 900 models will have Optical HR. It will remain only in the 200 level watches (i.e. 225). The reason for this is for the accuracy of the Recovery Adviser, VO2max, and Race Predictor need more HR data than the Optical HR can provide. It needs the EKG information supplied only by a chest strap. That’s why you saw Garmin only release Optical HR in the 225 and there was no corresponding 625 or 925.

  5. I REALLY hope that the next iteration in the 6XX series has UltraTrac mode like the 920XT or a significantly better battery for ultra running. The 920XT just feels too big to be swinging around for 14 – 24+ hours. My 620 (which I love) only lasts about 8 – 9 hours. Any more insight on this front?

    1. no insight, sorry. You’re part of a relatively small market as an ultra runner…so you MAY be unlucky or LUCKY. battery life will be longer IMO. 920 IS bigish as you say but it’s light

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