Garmin Forerunner 735XT Multi-Sport Watch

By Adeesh Sharma

The Garmin Forerunner 735XT is a little bulky, thanks to it being a multi-sport watch. We got the black and grey watch for review which looks pretty bland. However, this watch is for serious athletes, especially those who want to track performance across multiple sports during the same day. This is a watch that shall help athletes push their fitness regimes and help them do a lot more with their smart wearables. Beyond that you might not be too comfortable wearing it for other daily chores, least of all sleeping during night.

Key features and design

The Forerunner 735XT has three buttons on the left hand side which include the power on/off on the top left and the up and down scroll buttons below it. On the right you have the select button (that lets you start or stop an activity) on the top while the ‘back’ button is below it. Setting up the watch initially is a bit confusing but you gradually get a hang of it through regular use.

The Forerunner 735XT is a more compact version of its larger Forerunner 920XT triathlon watch with an added optical heart rate sensor and software modifications. We used the unit over the past two weeks in our daily physical routine and as a smartwatch over the rest of the day to check out its various features and benefits.

When you unbox the device, you get the USB charging clip and instruction manual alongwith the Forerunner 735XT. The clip is used for both charging as well as sync of workouts/data.  The watch is all plastic with high quality rubber straps that do not pinch your wrists even after wearing it for the entire day.

How it performed

As a smartwatch the device shows up alerts such as messages and calls instantly, and daily activity tracking also works well. The device has a large color dial and with the GPS on all the time, the battery life averages at around 14 hours. On occasional use and with intermittent GPS use, the battery lasts for a good 11 days. However, this is a multisport watch which is to be used for a multitude of sports: running, cycling and swimming, so if your needs are basic (limited to physical activity tracking) then there are several cheaper options available.

The multisport mode in this ‘multisport watch’ grants you the ability to do multiple sport types such as swim/bike/run as part of a single activity, just as you’d do in an actual triathlon. Where it fares better as compared to the other cheaper options is that while others can track your runs or bicycle rides, not many can track an entire race day.

A boon for multisport athletes

In a multisport mode session you can go into the sport menu and select triathlon. You can also create customized multisport modes by changing or adding other activities. Once your setup is done, the watch starts with your first activity, wherein it shall show you a sport icon. In the default triathlon mode you can repeat through each sport by pressing the lap button. When you press the lap button it changes to the next sport. You can’t use the lap button to record manual laps but you can setup auto-lap to record laps automatically.

You can also start any activity (not multisport) and do it as you normally would.  For instance, if you want to start a run session, you select it from the list of pre-defined sports and there you go. For example, start a run session.  Then, simply hold down the lower left button to transition to change sports to any of your pre-defined sports. You can do this multiple times in a day and the device wont record transition times while calculating your performance.

The benefit here is that you can actually record manual laps this way.  Also once your multisport activity is over, you can view it on the Garmin Connect app. You can view your performance across multiple sport activities separately.

Apart from the tabs related to your sports activities, there are health stats such as sleep, heart rate data, etc. During cycling the watch charts out the exact path you took thanks to the GPS feature. Having such a watch gives exact data on key parameters such as distance covered, calories burnt, heart rate status, alongwith an indepth analysis of your sports routines. The watch records ths speed at which you are cycling and also how well you are running or swimming. Regular monitoring helps you know exactly where you need to improve and what your average speed is. During sleep, it records your sleep time and wake-up time, while the app also shows your deep sleep vs light sleep data in detail.