Sports & Fitness Archive

Forerunner 230/235 Are the audio alerts on the 235 loud enough?

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Are the audio alerts on the 235 loud enough?

Former Member over 9 years ago

I had a chance to look at the new 235 yesterday and was impressed by what Garmin has managed to pack into such a small device.

One thing that worried me though was the volume of the beeps as i was pressing the buttons. My 220 is nice an clear, but the 235 seemed a bit "dull", shall we say.

The alert volume is important to me because i do a lot of interval work and don't want to have to keep looking down at the watch to know when my current interval is done. The alerts allow me to focus on the run and not my watch.

I'm worried that with even a little bit of background noise my next interval etc will be easy to miss.

QUESTION: For those with the 235 and use your watch for such things, do you find the volume sufficient? Or does my impression that it's kind of quiet match your experience.

Thanks!

0 R_Tellis over 9 years ago

I find it good enough. Maybe not as loud as the 220, but louder than the 225 it also has vibrate which helps as well.

Running on the sidewalk of a busy road and a 10 mile wind I had no problems today, and the vibrate was strong enough to get my attention while listening to music on the treadmill yesterday.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

235 audio alerts are not loud enough

The Forerunner 235 audio alerts I receive are significantly lower in volume than the volume of my previous Forerunner 220, to the degree I cannot perform workouts I used to do with the 220 that require frequent work/recovery intervals. The is true even during relatively quiet AM track workouts. The vibration that signals the start of the interval is not enough notification; the countdown beeps are needed to anticipate the next interval and quickly change pace. When running with a (faster) friend, I can hear his 220 (my old watch) from 10 yards away when I cannot hear the 235 watch on my wrist. This is my second 235 (the first one had other issues). The low volume remains and appears to be a design deficiency not a watch defect.

0 rtperna over 9 years ago

My 235 actually starts beeping and buzzing as I get close to the end of an interval, and then goes fully nuts when you need to go to the next interval. It's very hard to miss, you'd have to be running through a construction zone to miss both the beeping and buzzing. Really great watch, BTW.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

compared to my 620 the beeps of the 235 are a lot lower in volume.
so weak that i even thought there were no beeps saying my interval was coming to an end.

very dissapointing!
I hope it's a software thing, and Garmin increases the volume in a next update.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

Compared to my old FR 410, I can barely hear the beeps at all. With the 410, I'd hear the beeps about 75% of the time....with the 235 I hear them about 10% of the time. Honestly though, the vibration is about 100 times more noticeable than the beeps ever were. The only bummer is when running intervals, I hardly ever hear the beeps leading into the next segment.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

I only notice the buzz/vibration... it is enough gor me.

So I would say the sound is low but it is of no issue

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

its definitely on the soft side and previous models where much louder
sometimes when running near traffic or in large groups i miss the audio alert completely but the vibration gets my attention.

...i certainly wouldnt rely on the alarm to wake me up.

0 Former Member over 9 years ago

6915

Is Garmin aware and can & will it be fixed?
(if not, is there a topic where we can place this as a request?)