Garmin Forerunner 620 review

Garmin Forerunner 620 Up and running

The Forerunner 620 is pretty easy to use and setup, thanks mostly to its touchscreen display. Navigating the menus and scrolling through workout summaries is made all the more simple when you can just tap and swipe your way around. The one downside to the screen is that it’s not quite as large as you’d imagine. There’s a bezel surrounding it, mainly to house the Back and Menu touch sensitive buttons, but it does mean that the watch casing somewhat dwarfs the screen.

That’s not to say the screen is small, because it isn’t, and Garmin also allows users to customise the display to suit their own needs. You can have up to four info screens active on the FR 620, and you can simply swipe between them while you’re running. You can also customise each aspect of each info screen. You can configure each screen with up to four fields of information, and even if you go for the full four, each field is still large enough to read at a glance. It’s this kind of user customisation that has won Garmin lots of supporters over the years.

Another nice touch that has become synonymous with Garmin running watches is vibrating alerts. It’s really handy to know when you’re hitting landmarks on your run, whether that be every 1km or 5km, or every five minutes or half an hour. So you can configure the FR 620 to vibrate every time you hit one of your landmarks or laps – it’s a simple feature, and one that we loved every bit as much in the TomTom Runner Cardio.

When the Forerunner 620 launched it received some criticism for being running specific. The previous Forerunner 610 also supported cycling, and would pair with Garmin’s ANT+ speed and cadence sensor, but the 620 didn’t have a cycling mode. A recent firmware update has resolved that issue now, though. So if you cycle as well as run, the Forerunner 620 could be a great multi-sport companion. You have to select what mode you want through the Activity Profiles setting. Here you can select Run or Ride – in Run mode you can pair the watch with the HRM and foot pod, and in Ride mode you can pair it with the HRM and a bike sensor.

Just make sure that you update your watch as soon as you take it out of the box to enable this new functionality. The current firmware version is 2.90, so you want to be running that or higher.

Garmin Forerunner 620 battery life

According to Garmin you’ll get 10-hours or usage from a full charge, but in our experience that’s a little optimistic. If you’re using the heart rate monitor, have the watch paired with your phone, and have LiveTrack running, battery life will take a big hit. We never found ourselves with a dead battery halfway through a run, but you might need to consider charging options if you’re heading off for a weekend of running, or if you’ve got an ultra-marathon scheduled.

You should get up to six-weeks out of a charge with the FR 620 in the low-power watch mode, but given you’ll probably be running at least a few times a week, it’s unlikely you’ll ever achieve that.

Garmin Forerunner 620 Conclusion

The Garmin Forerunner 620 isn’t cheap – it’s available from reputable online retailers for around £293, which is considerably less than the £359.99 MSRP, but still expensive. You do, however, get a lot for your money. The FR 620 is a hugely capable sports watch with more features than most runners will ever need. But if you’re really looking to take your training to the next level, the amount of insight and unique data supplied by the FR 620 will be invaluable.

The FR 620 is considerably cheaper without the bundled HRM, but a lot of the good stuff is baked into that little chest strap sensor, so you wouldn’t really want to be without it. The recent firmware update with its cycling mode adds yet more functionality to the FR 620’s already long list of features, so if you’re a keen cyclist and runner, it makes an even stronger case for itself.

As we said at the start of this review, if you don’t know what some of this watch’s features are, you’re probably not the target buyer. Yes, the Forerunner 620 is a fantastic watch for serious athletes, but for most recreational runners, we’d still recommend the TomTom Runner Cardio instead.