At a Glance: Quick Ratings
Heart Rate Functions
Fitness / Sport Features
Ease of Use
Battery Life
Where To Get It
A Deep Dive Into The Garmin Forerunner 210
The Garmin Forerunner 210 GPS runners watch with optional Heart Rate Monitor. It’s an easy-to-use GPS-enabled sport watch that will accurately record your run time, average pace, distance and calories burned.
For runners who want more training capabilities, it lets you create customised interval sessions and see your pace for each interval. The Forerunner 210 has been reviewed by Tristan Haskins
Video Review
Anyone who runs or cycles to keep fit. The key user may be a recreationally competitive runner ~ 5K’s, 10K’s half and full marathon – or possibly a club cyclist with primary interest in heart rate training and speed and distance (no pedal cadence support).
You want to be able to configure your OWN personal heart rate zones, you want to be able to set heart rate zone alerts and you might want to set up an interval sessions.
You don’t want to swim wearing it (for that you need the Garmin Forerunner 920XT or Vivoactive) – if this sounds like you, then the Garmin Forerunner 210 is for you… if you want to keep it SIMPLE.. heart rate, pace, distance, speed and calories – then consider the Garmin Forerunner 110 – if you want TOTAL control – we’d recommend the Vivoactive or 920XT.
The Garmin Forerunner 110 has proven to be massively popular due to two main reason 1) Size and 2) Ease of use. The 210 continues on from where the Garmin Forerunner 110 left of. Small and VERY EASY to use – with addition of INTERVAL settings – time or distance based – and 5 x heart rate zones (user can adapt these precisely to their own needs).
The next model up is the Garmin Forerunner 220 with colour display. The 220 also features a built-in accelerometer that tracks distance and pace when you’re running on an indoor track or treadmill.
It also features a Bluetooth connection allowing you connect with your Smartphone (and Garmin APP) and stay connected with automatic uploads to Garmin Connect for live tracking, social media sharing.
The 630 is also a great option. Read more in our Forerunner 630 review.
Track every minute of HR & Speed / Distance
An easy-to-use GPS-enabled sport watch that will accurately records your time, average pace, distance and calories burned. For runners who want more training capabilities, the Forerunner 210 lets you create customized interval sessions and see your pace for each interval.
It also comes with our premium soft strap heart rate monitor with cusomizable heart rate zones and alerts. Once your workout’s done, you can upload to Garmin Connect™ to analyze, store and share your data, see the route you travelled on a map and even create goals. Track every minute and every mile with the Forerunner 210HR.
The 210 gives for training indoors or outdoors. It tracks your heart rate and pace for every minute and every mile. The Garmin Forerunner 210 GPS-enabled sport watch will accurately record how far, how fast and how hard you worked.
Hopefully by now you will know if the Forerunner 210 is for you. It’s still a very popular GPS sports watch for runners and available for less than £120 from Amazon.
We don’t expect them to be around much longer, so if you want one, and not the newer 220, then we’d recommend buying it ASAP.
Note > this model was replaced by the Forerunner 220 (Sept 2021) and then again by the Forerunner 230 (Oct 2021).
Specification from Garmin Website
Easy to Use
Garmin made the Forerunner 210 simple to use. Garmin’s objective was to have it working straight out of the box. All you need to do is charge it, take it outside to find GPS satellites and answer a few setup questions. After that, just press start and take off. Once you’re done, press stop.
Follow Your Heart
It comes with the Garmin premium soft strap heart rate monitor to display your heart rate in beats per minute. The Garmin Forerunner 210 has five heart rate zones, autoset or user can customize based on your exact zones. The Garmin Forerunner 210 provides heart rate-based calorie computations so you can more accurately track your calories burned. With the Garmin Forerunner 210, you can set up heart rate alerts to notify you when you are above or below your targets.
Take it Further
The Forerunner 110 was PERFECT for runners who wanted things kept to a bar minimum – the Garmin Forerunner 210 is for runners who want more training capabilities. The Garmin Forerunner 210 lets you create customized interval sessions and see your pace for each interval. You also have the choice of using the Garmin Forerunner 210 with the Garmin micro foot pod. If you’ve used the foot pod, post session, you will later be able to see your leg cadence, or steps per minute via the upload to Garmin Connect.
Outdoors or In
Garmin took the easy-to-use operations of the Garmin Forerunner 110 and added indoor capabilities – this makes the Garmin Forerunner 210 the perfect sport watch for those who like options. During outdoor runs, the Garmin Forerunner 210 uses GPS to accurately record your time, pace and distance. If you want to track the same data at the gym, add the Garmin foot pod (optional accessory) onto your shoe. Using advanced accelerometer technology, the foot pod collects and sends precise data about your movements, gathering distance and speed data that is 98% accurate for most users, without calibration.
The Garmin Forerunner range uses ANT+ ~ so for even more options, the Garmin Forerunner 210 can also interface with certain ANT+ indoor fitness equipment. This allows you to track and store data from a treadmill run or an indoor cycling workout. This capability helps you bridge the gap between your indoor and outdoor fitness activities so you can continually track your progress.
Fast and Accurate
The 210 features HotFix satellite prediction, which means it locks satellites quickly so you can be out the door and on with your run in no time. The Garmin Forerunner 210 has a high-sensitivity GPS receiver to stay locked onto satellites, even near tall buildings or under tree cover !!
Store, Analyze and Share
Whether you’re training for a race or launching a healthier lifestyle, you’ll love the motivation that comes from reviewing your workouts online. For indoor activities when the GPS isn’t in use, you won’t see mapping in Garmin Connect, but you’ll still have a record of your workout data. Tracking your data is simple with Garmin Connect website for free data analysis and sharing. Just upload to Garmin Connect from your PC or Mac, then see the route you travelled on a map, view a summary of your workout data, create goals and more.
Key Features
- Easy to use
- High sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix
- Heart rate training: tracks heart beats per minute and allows for customizable heart rate zones and alerts
- Compatible with foot pod: measure speed, distance and runners cadence indoor and outdoor
- Interval Training: set up customized interval sessions and automatically see your pace for each interval
- Firstbeat advanced heart rate-based calorie computation
- ANT+ interoperability ~ Garmin Forerunner 210 heart rate monitor uses ANT+ wireless technology
- Garmin Connect PC + MAC download to store and share your training experiences
- Records position, speed/pace, distance and calorie data
- Water resistant up to 1m (IPX7) [to you and me this means it is shower proof, fine if it plops in a big puddle – it can get wet – but NOT for swimming]
- Automatic time zone
- Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery: up to 8 hours battery life in training mode, up to 3 weeks in power save mode
- Weight: 1.8 oz. (52 g)
- Easy to use — no calibration required. Just turn it on and go
- Expected speed and distance accuracy in excess of 97%
- Display resolution: 52 x 30 pixels W x H
- MAC compatibility – The Garmin Forerunner 210 is 100% MAC compliant – both Intel based and PowerPC based MACs. Customers may need to download latest versions FREE from garmin.com
What’s In The Box?
- Garmin Forerunner 210
- Garmin Premium heart rate monitor
- AC charger
- Charging/Data clip
- Garmin Forerunner 210 Manuals
