I haven't seen one in the stores yet, maybe I'll head to REI tomorrow to check it out. I like what I've read and the new style of the 405, excited to hear your impressions. I'll add it to the gear section this weekend.

I've played with one a bit -- it looks pretty neat. One of my running buddies has been using it for a while and hasn't used his 305 since. It does seem to function fine as a normal watch as well.

He finds the downside that you have to plug it in to the computer to charge it, but use a wireless method to download data. He feels that since you have to plug in to charge it is a bit silly to have the wireless download.

If you are a long-course racer or triathlete the other issues are battery life and that it is really geared to runners (not run/bike/swim combos).

I should get my hands on one today at the race expo. Garmin sponsors the race and has pace groups in the race. I bet they will all have Garmin 405 on them during the half marathon tomorrow. I should be running with one group for at least 8 miles I'll post report back here. But I assume the watch is awesome for runners and not as good for triathletes given the waterproof rating. The do not recommend to submerge it for more than 30 minutes so apart from battery life of about 8 hours for training mode it may be a bad idea to swim with it in long course tri where your swim exceeds the 30 minutes they claim.

None of the Forerunners are safe for swimming. The IPX7 waterproof rating they give basically means it should be ok if you drop it in water and grab it, or in a bit of rain.

Oh well I got a unit at the expo and will run with it tomorrow. Just got it setup. Much nicer form than the 305. Only two buttons and 4 positions on the bezel. Each bezel position brings you to one mode: Menu, GPS, training, time/date. First impression - pretty nice build, the numbers are very easy to read (compared to Polar RS800), many things are configurable, virtual partner is something I'm going to use tomorrow to hit my target time. Functions seem similar to 305, but I'm new Garmin user so I see them as quite new to me. Watch is little thicker and bigger than RS800. Probably more like S625X, but looking more like a watch. I'm not going to run with it today, but I may take it for a short walk to get more familiar with it. I'm going to look like super geek tomorrow - Polar and Garmin. I can not take the risk of relying only on Garmin in this race. I'll post more details tomorrow after I had first real run with the unit.

And yes the manual states that the unit is not to be used while swimming. So not a unit for swim portion of triathlon.

More details and watch review posted on my blog if you are interested.

http://runtotri.blogspot.com/2008/04/garmin-405-review-video.html

http://runtotri.blogspot.com/2008/04/garmin-405-first-impressions.html

Jan

Thanks for making the video kxux! Thats an awesome review. I've been pretty happy with the 305 but the 405 looks awesome. If only they could give it 15 hour battery life and make it fully waterproof, then you would have the perfect multisport computer!

The advance from the 301 -> 305 -> 405 has been pretty amazing. I can't wait to see what they come up with next! (probably continue to make it smaller, make the screen more detailed, maybe fuller GPS like the 705 and other such things that don't improve it's battery life or swim capability)

Man, that would be awesome to have a totally waterproof garmin. I've swam with mine before, but I was pretty scared the whole time that I was going to mess it up.

I don't really like the smaller screen on the 405. I like having 4 data fields, especially when I'm biking, and I just don't think that would be very easy to see.

I personally think that the best part about the 405 coming out is that it should lower the price of the 305 quite a bit. The 405 sounds like a great watch for runners, but leaves a little to be desired for the multisport athletes. It will be interesting to see how technology develops in this industry over the next few years.