基本上, 您最會用到的是下面幾個元件, 最上面的是心率感測帶, 配好合用的插頭的充電器, 錶本身及最下面那個 Ant 電腦連接器

一旦你開啟電源後，你就可以選擇你做哪些運動（按住模式按鈕幾秒鐘）。這個設計相當的方便, 經由快速鍵可以省去以前要操作一堆目錄的方式.  採用 SiRF 的快速定位晶片, 要比前版各機種要快得多.

假如, 您己經準備好要上路跑個幾圈了.  只要按下 start 即可問始.

310XT 不但有聲音提示，還有震動提示，只要您熟悉其各種提示後，即使在吵雜的環境下，不用傾聽也能知道它所傳出的震動提示。當您開跑時，310XT 的顯示會開始調適與計算速度，並以聲音與震動提示您。 

當您放慢速度時，310XT 會提示您現在速度正在放慢，這是根據您自己在 310XT 中設定的 ZONE 值而定的，您還可以依速度，心率各自設定高低區域讓 310XT在偵測到這些區域時提示您。

- 虛擬伙伴: 這個功能在早期的 Forerunner 系列產品中就有了。借由顯示器上的一個小小的跑者圖示，虛擬一個與您一起跑步的伙伴，這個伙伴會根據所設定的運動訓練計劃表的數值，借由這個方法，您可以比對一下您現在的速度與距離是不是落後或超前以便於隨時調整您的步伐。

上圖是設置一個使用者的參數, 您可以設置十個名稱與內容不同的參數檔. 右圖是所建立的訓練計劃表, 若您隨便設置的話, 310XT 會在偵測到不合理的設置情況時提醒您.

310XT 使用 SiRF 的高感度 GPS 晶片, 在樹蔭濃密的小徑依然能定位, 若您經過高架道路下時, 即使完全收不到 GPS 訊號, 它也會自動在下一筆可以定位的點位之間連結, 讓航跡可以連續. 下圖所示;

上圖右, 310XT 的按鈕, 右側上面一對上下標記的按鈕, 請參考說明書所列的操作指示. 操作上是精確實用的, 要比一些感應式的方式 (Forerunner 405) 要清楚得多.

上表是當您每按下一個 start 動作的記錄:

單車運動;

單車運動是 310XT 的強項之一, Garmin 為了將 310XT 固定在單車上也設計了專用的固定座:

對單車運動而言, 自動暫停記錄的功能很實用, 這個功能是根據速度來啟閉 310XT 的記錄功能. 當單車停止時, 310XT 自動停止記錄, 再開始騎乘則回復記錄. 速度的依據是可以設定的.

310XT 能記錄的項目有:  速度, 高程, 心率, 距離.  踏頻 (需加裝 SGC-10), 功率 (功率計) ..隨後可以配合各種相容的軟體進行運動分

下面左圖是將一台 305 固定在泳帽上, 右圖則是將 310 戴在手上, 由於 GPS 在水下收訊不良, 可以看到航跡組成變得不平滑, 想必是間歇性的定位不良所產生的漂移

訓練註記:

對於多項運動的切換, 310XT 提供了一個不錯的混合模式, 經過設定, 您可以單鍵在各種運動模式切換.

記錄飛行的航線:(註: 速度為 524MPH)

Geotagging photos:

相關附件:

就如同所有 Garmin 運動專用型 GPS 設備, 310XT 相容於各種 Garmin運動用附件. 包括較早期的型號.  310XT 可相容於許多 ANT+ 無線協定的設備.  ANT+ 是一種超低功耗的無線電數位網路設備專用協定, 310XT 使用它與各種附件如 心率帶, 單車踏頻傳感器, 單車功率率等等設備通訊. 理論上, 310XT 應可以和任何使用 Ant+ 協定的設備配對使用, 無論是不是 Garmin 所產製的. Ant+ 使用預先規劃 8 組信道的協定,

踏頻/輪速傳感器:

310XT 隨貨所附上的心率帶以外, 單車踏頻輪速傳感器 SGC10 是大多數人主要選購的附件. 它主要的功能除了將您的踏踩節奏傳送到 310XT 之外, 在 GPS 收訊不良的地方自動由輪速中取得車速. 有些人會在室內使用單車練習台, 這時 310XT 就能經由輪速取得速度了.

有一點請注意一下, 310XT 預設的運動模式為跑步, 您必需按住 Mode 鈕一秒, 將運動模式切換到單車模式才能收到 SGC10 的訊號, 在顯示下方也會顯示一個單車圖示, 同時虛擬伙伴也會變成一個騎乘單車的圖示了

心率傳感器:

隨 310XT 所附上的心率傳感器比之前 305 所附的要小, 輕, 佩帶也較舒適, 不過這兩種傳感器是相容的

步幅傳感器 Foot pod (for running indoors):

Foot Pod 也是有新款, 如下圖右款為新款, 它要比前款小得多, 約是一半大小吧.

I’ve found that typically the foot pods are within about 1-2% distance-wise on my treadmill runs.  So if the treadmill says 1.00 miles, the foot pod may say .98 to 1.02 miles – well within the margin of error of the treadmill itself (yes, they aren’t perfect).  Also, one interesting change is that the new ones don’t require you to remember to turn them on/off to save battery (which is a quick user-replaceable item when the time comes).  They just automagically do it – which is nice.

One other item to note is that the foot pod measures running cadence (turnover) as well.  This is true of both indoor and outdoor works (even when the GPS is used).  Here’s what that looks like on a graph

Power devices (cycling wattage):

One of the huge draws to the 310XT for the cycling/triathlete crowd is the ability for the 310XT to accept power meter devices.  These are devices that measure a cyclists true effort of work as they exert energy to move the bike.  I wrote an introductory piece to cycling with power here.

The 310XT is compatible with virtually any ANT+ Power Meter.  This includes models such as the Power Tap, SRM and Quarq Cinqo.  And, over the past few weeks at major bike shows, numerous other ANT+ power meters have been announced which will hit the market over the next 6-12 months.  So expect this space to grow pretty significantly.

An example of one type of power meter is the Quarq Cinqo that I have, pictured below:

Further complicating the issue is how the 310XT works with Smart Recording.  Here’s a little snippet from a Garmin engineer on how it works:

“During smart recording the power during these intervals is accumulated. When a point is dropped the accumulated power is divided by the time to get an average power over that time interval. The definition of smart recording includes many variables with power being one of the items that can trigger the code to drop a point (after the accumulated power has reached a threshold). Turning and distance are other variables that can affect when a point should be dropped in smart recording.”

Now, what’s interesting here is that the Garmin 310XT actually automatically goes into 1-second recording mode when a power meter is attached (thanks Lisa for pointing this out!), and if you go and check out the TCX files, you can see the 1-second increment in times:

And that’s all before we even get into features like zero averaging…which I’ll leave alone for today.

In summary, while the 310XT is good ‘functional’ as a power meter recording device, it’s really not ideal as of today when compared to the 705 or other power meter devices.  The good news here is that Garmin has added these features to the 705 line, which means that perhaps we’ll see them added to the 310XT line as well in the future (via free software upgrades, like the 705).  And again, if you don’t have a power meter, then this whole section is moot for ya.

Quick release kit/Cycling Mount:

The quick release kit is targeted at triathletes that want to be able to quickly remove the 310XT from the bike and take it with them on the run.  Now, you could do this all with the default wrist strap – but if you’re in the aero position for 5+ hours on an Ironman, the angle of your wrist makes it difficult to see the display at all times.  So for both cyclists and triathletes, the quick release kit offers an easy way to mount it on your bike.

The kit comes with basically three major pieces:

1) A new wrist strap (kinda flimsy)
2) A mounting piece for your bike (not flimsy)
3) A new clip for the back of the Garmin unit

The only minor complaint I have about the quick release kit is that I found during transition in a race, it can be a bit hard to quickly pop on/off if you’re a bit rushed.  In addition, I think I prefer the orange wrist strap over the thinner but more flimsy feeling black one that’s included in the kit.  Here’s it attached to both my triathlon bike, and my road bike (I included tons of mounting pictures in the gallery at the end):

Note: I’ve included a bunch more photos of the mounting bracket and mounting options for both tri and road bikes within the gallery at the end.

The Fabric Strap (well…sorta):

In the past the quick release kit actually included a fabric strap (for the 305).  This was probably the least known secret of the Forerunner 305 series, as the fabric strap was ten times better than the plastic strap.  But, there doesn’t yet appear to be a fabric strap directly available for the 310XT.  That said, after some curiosity I tried out the new 405/405CX fabric strap, and it kinda sorta works.  By kinda sorta I mean that it’s clearly not designed for it, but could be used in a pinch.  That said, I found it pops off quite easily (even if you use the right pins), so I wouldn’t really recommend it.  But I wanted to include it here for now, since I know someone would be curious.  You can see in the below photos how the strap is about a third of an inch too long, and bunches up below my wrist:

The Tanita BC-1000 scale is a wireless ANT+ scale that synchronizes to both your 310XT as well as your computer – wirelessly sending your weight, body fat and other health related details right over just like red rover.  I reviewed this scale recently and have now updated this review (the 310XT) to include details about it, since it’s one of the few devices that can interact with the BC-1000.

The Garmin 310XT acts as a data repository for the scale data, which is then transferred to your computer when you sync the 310XT with the little USB stick.  Finally, that data is in turn sent to both Garmin Connect, and also the Healthy Edge software that comes with the scale.

You first need to enable pairing between the BC-1000 and the Garmin 310XT via the menu system, but it’s quick and only takes a secon

Once it’s found the scale, the scale will start blinking.  Simply step on the scale and your weight information is automatically transmitted to the 310XT within about 2-3 seconds.  Super quick.

From there on your next synchronization it will go ahead and automatically sync that data to your computer and in turn to Garmin Connect:

Summary of Accessories:

Here’s a quick table of all the accessories offered (or that work with) the Garmin 310XT:

Software Options:

Wireless synchronization (Garmin ANT+ Agent):

The first software component that’s required with the 310XT is the wireless synchronization piece.  Unlike the 305, this watch doesn’t actually sync with a USB cable (that’s only for charging now).  Instead it uses ANT+ wireless technology to synchronize.  You plug-in the little USB dongle into your USB port, and you’re good to go.

This in turn connects to the Garmin ANT+ agent software, which controls synchronization between your 310XT and your computer (as well as any other ANT+ devices, like the 405).  The software has made some major improvements since I first reviewed it when the 405 came out, with a steady stream of updates over the past 18 months.  The wireless experience is now basically seamless without any of the hiccups of the past, even on the newly released Windows 7.  Initial setup is easy and only takes a few moments:

Now, one interesting thing is that many ‘advanced users’ may want to access the TCX files directly.  These are the files that can be loaded into applications like WKO+ and Training Peaks.  One semi-undocumented feature is that all of these files are actually in a simple folder in your user profile, located here

C:\Users\rainmaker\Application Data\Garmin\Devices\3629010465\History
(XP/2000 users just replace “Users” with “Documents and Settings”, also note your Device ID will differ from mine)

Macintosh HD\Users\username\Library\App Support\Garmin\Devices\<unit id>\

Pretty cool, huh?

That reminds me…Mac software.  The Garmin ANT+ Agent works just fine on a Mac, so you’ll be able to upload to Garmin Connect (below), without issue.

Garmin Connect:

Garmin Connect is essentially a web-based application that allows you to view your workouts, share them with others, and store them for late retrieval.  Garmin Connect first launched when the Edge 705 and Forerunner 405 came out.  And it was pretty rough at that point (and for quite a while afterwards).  But Garmin has made a bunch of good strides with it, especially since transitioning everything over from Motionbased.com into Garmin Connect. 

When you wirelessly sync your watch, one of the options is to send the data to Garmin Connect automatically.  This is the easiest option, and it’s what I do.

On the left hand side you’ll see your activities, which you can click on to display more information about each activity.  You’ll see you can also share any given activity with friends (or the whole world, as I have done below).

You can also click to display splits for each activity:

Next up is the ability to see it all in a simple calendar format.  This is useful if you’re trying to understand how your training flows from week to week:

Finally, you can generate reports, create goals and even track items like your weight and generate reporting based on that.

Now while Garmin Connect has made great strides as an all purpose workout tool and putting it in the category of ‘good’, I still think it has a ways to go with respect to being a ‘great tool’.  For example, when you look at swim workouts, the distance is in miles – not meters or yards.  Nobody enters in swim workouts in miles.

Also, I find that the site is fairly slow in general.  That said, as an all around workout planner I think it hits the target for the vast majority of the population.

Garmin Training Center

Garmin Training Center (GTC) is Garmin’s old-school style tool for placing data on the Garmin devices.  It also allows you to download data from it.  But, the reality is this tool isn’t being updated any more by Garmin aside from critical changes needed to support new devices.  And the reasons are plentiful – the tool is fairly antiquated and almost all of the functionality is on Garmin Connect, with the exception of loading workouts into the watch.

 So, while you will probably install GTC, it’s unlikely you’ll use it much.  That said, if you’re interested in learning how to download workouts to your watch – read through this post I wrote a bit back.  It goes through how to download workouts to all the major watches (and the 310XT works identically to the 305 in this respect).

Training Peaks:

One of the most common application used by endurance athletes and coaches is Training Peaks.  Training Peaks is in many ways similar to Garmin Connect – with the exception that it’s designed to allow coaches and athletes to interactively review and analyze workouts.  I use Training Peaks to upload my workouts daily so that my coach can then review and comment on them.  They have both a free version, and paid versions.

From the above you can see the summary of the highlighted section at the bottom of the screen.  As you can see, for detailed analysis of data – such as power data, TP is extremely helpful.  The above is a screenshot of the same bike race as the earlier screenshot in the Power Meters section from Garmin Connect – you can see the significant differences in detail offered.

Training Peaks also has a pretty useful dashboard that you can customize to display pods of data:

Sport Tracks:

Last but not least…Sport Tracks.  Sport Tracks is another non-Garmin option available to users of the 310XT.  It leverages the ANT+ Agent noted above to pull workouts into it.  Sport Tracks is completely free and put together by a huge community of sports enthusiasts, designed to support the maximum number of devices – including the Garmin 310XT.  Below is the main page of Sport Tracks.

 Sport Tracks also allows you to generate customized reports 18 different ways to Sunday:

 Go give it a shot though.  If you like the ability to endlessly analyze your data – I’d highly recommend Sport Tracks.

Summary:

In summary, the Forerunner 310XT is a significant jump forward from the 305.  In my opinion it offers compelling new features, while at the same time polishing much of the user interface of the 305.  However, let’s go through a quick list of pro’s and con’s, before getting to the all important question of 310XT vs 305:

Pro’s/Cons:

No review would be complete without this all important section, so let’s get on with it bubbling down many many pages of detailed information into about a dozen lines of text:

First up, the pro’s:

- Ability to last 20 hours
- Ability to stay underwater for extended periods of time
- Ability to connect to ANT+ Power Meters
- Smaller form factor (size)
- Wirelessly sync’s to computer (though, some also see this as a con)
- Cleaned up user interface
- Much faster satellite reception

And then the con’s:

- Waterproofing is more form than function
- HR, pace and distance don’t really work in the water
- More than double the price of the Garmin Forerunner 305
- Common power features missing
- No more fabric strap (though I see this likely changing)

But now the question everyone’s been waiting for – do you choice the 310XT or 305?  The answer is…it depends.

See, it depends on how you’re going to use it.  If you’re going to be solely using it for running and going less than 10 hours at a time, then there honestly isn’t a reason aside from cosmetics to purchase the 310XT over the 305 (or for that matter, instead of the 405/405CX – which are geared for runners).  That said, check out my almost as long Garmin 305 review (updated just earlier this summer) to help get an idea of the features there.

But if you’re a cyclist, triathlete or multisport person, then you need to dig deeper into the ‘depends’ question.  In particular – the following three items:

1) If you’re a cyclist/triathlete who uses power meters, then the 310XT, 500 and 705 are your only choices, as those are the only current Garmin devices that can do ANT+ power meters.

2) If you’re a swimmer then I highly recommend looking at the 310XT merely from the convenience of not having to worry about the waterproofing.  While I’m a huge fan of the 305 in your swim cap, it is susceptible to water damage for prolonged periods.  The 310XT removes that worry from my life.

3) If you’re a runner who needs 10-20 hours of battery life, then the 310XT gives you that.  Same goes for competitors in an Ironman needing more than 10 hours of battery life on one watch.  Sure you can use accessories to extend that duration, but honestly, that’s kinda a pain long-term.

So with that, will I buy one?  The answer is simple: Yes. 

Even with having the Edge 500/705 for cycling with power, I like having the ability to switch to the 310XT when it seems appropriate.  Further, I’ve found it’s so much easier to take it along on swims now that I don’t have to worry and fret about whether or not it will survive that aquatic adventure.  Finally I’ve found the device just far more polished than the 305 – even despite many of the fumbles with initial firmware revisions on the 310XT.

Hopefully you found this review useful.  At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device.

Found this review useful?  Here’s the super easy no-pain way you can help support future reviews!  Read on…

The reviews generally take 20-40 hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love).  Also, as you probably noticed by looking below, I take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s a lot of details in there as well.  So if you found this review helpful in your purchasing decision, you can support future reviews like this by using any of the Amazon links (accessories or the units themselves).   As noted earlier, there are two versions available of the Garmin 310XT – one without the HR strap, and one with the Premium HR strap.  They go for basically $350ish respectively (obviously if you plan to buy the HR strap, you’ll save money and buy the bundle).

Here’s the quick table of all the accessories offered (or that work with) the Garmin 310XT: