Forerunner 30 review: the simplest running smart health watch

Forerunner 30 overview: a GPS smart watch for everyone

The essentials and ease of use at a low price

Released in September 2017, the Forerunner 30 is an entry-level GPS running watch that should appeal to occasional or even regular runners. Admittedly, it does not offer the functionality of the recent Forerunner 230 or 235 displayed at less than € 200 and more complete, but this is precisely the goal here of Garmin: to offer a watch that is as refined as possible, even cheaper, and still offering the essentials in a compact and light package. This is the end of the puzzle of sophisticated watches, expensive and embedding functions that are used little or not. The superfluous has been swept away for a rather successful watch at less than 150 €!
The Forerunner 30 is the ideal partner for those who want to stay in shape, monitoring their physical condition (VO2max function), follow their progress and share their exploits on the networks without taking the lead.

Fonctionnalities

Mainly designed for running, the latest from Garmin is designed to support the sportsman in his activities. It tracks the heart rate, assesses progress (physical condition), records the route taken (with display of the trace on its Smartphone or PC) and monitors activity 7 days a week (number of steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, intensive minutes of the day, sleep analysis).
After the outing, it is possible to transfer the data from the GPS watch to PC or Smartphone, display personalized graphics, share its statistics with the Garmin user community (Garmin IQ) or even contact runners in the whole world.
Although intended for indoor (treadmill) and outdoor running, it can be used for other sports such as cycling or swimming. Garmin only offers a running profile, however.
With an optical wrist heart rate sensor (Garmin Elevate ™ system), a GPS and an accelerometer (for indoor sports), the Forerunner 30 has everything you need for sports monitoring . In particular, it assesses the current physical condition and the progress made thanks to an estimate of VO2max.

It also allows you to define goals (distance, number of steps, calories burned, etc.), detects the type of movement (cycling, walking, running, other sport) thanks to the Garmin Move IQ ™ system and encourages you to move in case inactivity via vibration alerts.
The watch has a few other useful functions such as an alarm clock, a stopwatch, the auto pause (recording pause in case of pause) and auto lap (marking a lap) functions. She also records personal records.
smart health connected to a Smartphone, it can notify phone calls and SMS or even allows friends to follow his training and real route on their phone or from a PC smart health connected to the Internet. Garmin offers this possibility on all its new watch models (LiveTrack system). Just invite your friends on networks or by email.

24/7 activity monitoring

The Forerunner 30 is equipped with an activity tracker. The latter permanently records daily activity: number of steps taken, distance traveled, quality of sleep. Its optical heart rate sensor on the wrist measures the pulse in real time to deduce the calories expended by activities of daily life (shopping, cleaning, gardening, etc.) and counting the intensive minutes of the day. This function and the programming of objectives is useful if one wishes to apply the WHO recommendations which are to perform 10,000 per day to stay healthy! Learn more about activity tracking and the smart health connected bracelet.

Difference from the Forerunner 35

Garmin had already released its Forerunner 35 in late 2016, a slightly more complete watch, also more expensive. With this new model released a year later, the brand wanted to offer an even cheaper and easier to use watch. The VO2max function has however been retained, it is an asset for monitoring progress.
Find out more: Forerunner 30 vs 35, what differences?
 

Characteristics of the Forerunner 30

The Forerunner 30 is an ultra-light watch (37 g!), Relatively thin (13.3 mm) and offered with a silicone strap which is available in 3 colors (gray, blue, turquoise or purple). It has a chemically reinforced glass and is waterproof up to 5 ATM, therefore intended for swimming but without diving.
On the display side, the screen is square and the monochrome display in 218 x 218 px, which gives more than correct accuracy and up to 3 data can be displayed at the same time. The screen has an anti-reflective (transflective) system for easy reading even in the sun,
Garmin announces an autonomy of 8 hours in GPS mode and 5 days in watch mode.

⁽¹⁾ : autonomy in watch mode and GPS mode
 

Our opinion on the Garmin Forerunner 30

Garmin’s idea with the Forerunner 30 is to offer a watch for everyone that is even simpler to use and less expensive than the Forerunner 35. On the other hand, the watch is clearly designed for running only. This is also the only profile offered by Garmin on this watch which, moreover, does not interface with any sensor (cadence, textile belt, etc.) and cannot make a heart rate reading underwater.
Garmin has however maintained the essential functions (GPS, HR optical on the wrist, VO2max measurement, activity monitoring, smart health connected functions and PC or Smartphone interface). It will therefore appeal to fans of running with a limited budget or neophytes in technology looking for ease of use with all the same advanced functions.

It is obvious that in terms of functionality and for a slightly higher price, we prefer the Forerunner 230 (without optical sensor) at less than 200 € or the Forerunner 235 (with optical sensor), a little more expensive. But it’s all about budget here and ease of use. For athletes running music and / or wishing to see their route displayed on the watch, we recommend the Tom Tom Runner 3 which is equipped with an mp3 player with bluetooth wireless transmission.
In terms of autonomy, we are a bit tight with only 5 days in watch mode and 8 hours in GPS mode compared to 9 days and 13 hours respectively for the Forerunner 35. We cannot even say that Garmin made this choice to lighten his watch since the two have exactly the same weight! It is more of an economy to reduce the price to the maximum.
The functions and widgets on the Forerunner 30 have been reduced to what is strictly necessary, which is both good for simplicity but a disadvantage if you are looking for precision, in particular:

• Taking a heart rate: this model of watch does not allow the use of a cardio-thoracic belt, which is a disadvantage if one wishes to have reliable data. The optical sensor is indeed less precise than a chest belt and not very usable in interval training. In addition, it does not work in water. Swimmers will therefore not be able to benefit from the heart rate reading and associated measures.
• GPS: the GLONASS system is not supported. Even if this is not a major disadvantage, having the GLONASS can make the difference in places where satellite reception is less good.
• Memory : relatively small, it can only store 7 activities. You will therefore have to empty your watch regularly so as not to be taken aback.

Garmin has however preserved the VO2max evaluation function, wishing to highlight performance monitoring and the physical condition Review, useful tools for motivating oneself to play sports!

Where to buy the Forerunner 30?

The Forerunner 30 is available on the Internet (see below) and in sports stores. We offer it to our partners. Take advantage of our discount coupons.