Feature Requests and Suggested Improvements

How about adding an active calories breakdown to the watch for the day similar to that in GC?

I think it comes down to this: the design fault is in eschewing a third status for “I don't know”, but ill-advisedly taking a Boolean approach to reporting whether the user is asleep. There will always be times when the device just cannot determine with a reasonable level of confidence whether its registered user – who may not be even wearing the device at the time – is asleep, even if (the availability of) heart rate data and battery charging connection status are used to provide some level of sanity-checking.

TomTom Spark, from my first-hand experience (on which I posted evidence on the TomTom discussion forum, but I won't link to from here).

I just bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 235, after returning my TomTom Spark Cardio+Music to the store, and I certainly hope the former will perform better in so many ways and is more sophisticated in how it guesses whether I'm asleep without the use of EEG sensors. However, it's unreasonable to expect it won't ever be wrong; you're simply expressing a preference for your device to err on the side of under-reporting, mishap or no.

<EDIT>
I attached the charging cable to my FR235 at 01:45 today, and only remembered to disconnect it this morning at around 11:05. The snapshots in Garmin Connect is now showing I was sleeping that entire time (but nothing before and after). Hmmm.

May I ask why you returned the TomTom Spark Cardio? How did the OHR work for you on that one?

Asking because I'm thinking of buying it instead of the FR235 as I'm not happy/convinced with it's OHR so far ;)

Cadence threshold as auto-pause criterion

It would make more sense and be more reliable, in my opinion, to rely on accelerometer data to detect if the user is moving, at least for running/walking, so having it as an option for the auto-pause criterion would be great. “When Stopped” and pace-based auto-pause – both of which rely on GPS – isn't working very well for me, when I'm waiting at the traffic lights to cross the road in the city; the tall buildings interfere with GPS reading accuracy. A couple of times yesterday the auto-pause didn't kick in for a minute while I stood still on the street corner, and only decided I was stationary when I was halfway across the narrow intersection.

Oh, and coming from using TomTom MySports, I have to say not having an iPad (or ‘universal’ for iOS) version of Garmin Connect Mobile that works properly – observing screen orientation at every screen, for starters, and taking advantage of the available screen real estate to partition the display as concurrent viewports for summary statistics, course map, and selected details – was a rude shock. I really miss being able to trace the course map on my tablet with my finger and have the instantaneous stats for the moving point being shown in the details viewport. I can sorta do it in my iPad's browser on the Garmin Connect web site, but particularly in landscape mode, with the course map being directly above the four charts, I cannot see every stat for a point at a glance; also, the map tends to get moved in the course map viewport when I trace the course with my finger.

May I ask why you returned the TomTom Spark Cardio?

The unit I had was too unreliable (possibly defective), and crashed too many times during my runs losing my activity data in the process. Given what I've learnt about the product in three weeks – with more focus on what it does but fails to do well, instead of desirable features that aren't provided – I decided not to accept another unit for exchange or give it another shot.

How did the OHR work for you on that one?

Generally OK, sometimes take a bit long at the start of a run to ‘warm up’ to sensible readings, and on the odd occasion stayed 30-40bpm too low for the entire 10-15 minute tracked activity. No better or worse than the FR235, from what little experience I have with the FR235 so far; yesterday the FR235 was reporting my heart rate 30-40bpm too low for ten minutes of semi-brisk walking, and took me multiple attempts at ‘cleaning’ and repositioning – in spite of having cleaned my skin as well as the sensor, before putting the watch on and stepping out – to get a sane reading before I could start my run.

Probably unlikely to be fixed... but...

When doing press-ups etc. it often has my heart rate dropping right now to levels far lower than my heart rate goes even when sleeping. This completely ruins the RHR figures. It would be useful to be able to delete segments of the heart rate for occasions like this!

Please allow us to adjust the alarm settings in connect mobile... I work in shifts and need to change the alarm alot of times...

Probably unlikely to be fixed... but...

When doing press-ups etc. it often has my heart rate dropping right now to levels far lower than my heart rate goes even when sleeping. This completely ruins the RHR figures. It would be useful to be able to delete segments of the heart rate for occasions like this!

Obvious question that i'm sure you've considered, but in pressing are you lifting the watch at one edge a little off your skin so that light is leaking in and confusing the sensor?

As an exercise, perhaps try tightening the watch a lot so it's really firm against your skin, the do a really gentle up-press holding the watch in pace with your other finger and see if that helps. May not be a long-term solution (especially if a tight watch is uncomfortable), but at least you might know where the problem is coming from.

As someone who gets very good results with wrist oHRM while running and cycling I can say that it truly is next to useless for things like push ups and chin ups no matter how tightly it's cinched down.

It would be good if Garmin add sleep hours in activity statistics window. Now I have to get up, unload the data in order to see how I slept. I think better just look to a watch in morning. :)

As someone who gets very good results with wrist oHRM while running and cycling I can say that it truly is next to useless for things like push ups and chin ups no matter how tightly it's cinched down.

For the experience I've had with different OHR (Fitbit Charge HR, TomTom Spark, Microsoft Band 2 and now Forerunner 235), they all perform more less ok in low HR or a steady one, but when it comes to intervals and muscle training they all fail. From my perspective, it is still very useful to have the OHR for running and daily activity tracking in general and just put a chest strap whenever you want a more accurate measurement or are planning to do some HIIT training. Hopefully this technology will improve in the future so no chest strap is needed!