Soleus 1.0 GPS Digital Sport Watch Review

So I purchased the Soleus 1.0 watch for my dad to use as he has started to do walks and wanted a way to measure his mileage. This watch looked to have all the basic functions that would be needed so I figured it would be perfect and the $99 dollar price tag wasn't too bad either.

Out of the box was the watch, a usb cord for charging only (does not sync data to PC), a set of instructions, and warrranty info.

FIRST RUN

I charged up the Soleus watch and headed out to the park for a test run leaving the instructions at home. I get to the park press down the little GPS button and notice its set to Km not miles and try to figure out how to change this and how to reset the time back to zero but got frustrated with it and gave up and strapped on my Forerunner 305 for a run. 

Once at home I pull out the instructions, that I had luckily not thrown away, and read exactly what to do. Once figuring out the correct buttons to press (which by no means is user friendly)  I set up my watch for the user (age,sex, height, weight) set my preferred unit of measurement (mi or km) and the distance I would like to set for each lap (0.50,1,2,3,4,5).

SECOND RUN

Run #2 with the watch went better after having figured the thing out. I found that once I pressed the GPS button to find the satellite it was found within a reasonable amount of time similar to my Garmin 305 about 2-3 minutes. The watch basically has three areas for displaying data, on top is your total time, middle is the distance, and the bottom data field depends on what data you would like to be set there. Which are speed(pace), calories burned, and clock(time). In order to switch between the data fields you press the view button and select what data you would like to know. Which could get annoying but is not really a big deal as the only data I'm really interested is my current pace although I would like to know my average pace per mile which it does give but only after you complete a lap that you have to set for 1 mile. I found the GPS readings to be as accurate as my Garmin 305 with no problems with pace jumping.

The look and feel of the watch is quite nice and it does remind of of the look of the Garmin 110. Its a pretty thick and compact watch with a nice design. I liked that it actually looked like a normal watch compared to the Garmin 305 that I'm currently using.  The strap of the watch is a bit stiff for my liking and does not really conform fully to my wrist although I probably could get used to it after a few more runs.

Overall: I'd say if you are willing to go through a bit of a learning curve before using it its a good basic GPS watch and a great deal for the money. But I will gladly stick to my Garmin 305 and hand this one over to my Dad.

Details

• GPS-enabled sport watch with high-sensitivity receiver
• Records and displays total time, lap splits, distance, speed, pace and calories burned
• 4 run data viewing options
• Chronograph with manual or auto lap splits, flashes completed lap time for 10 seconds
• Optional Auto Lap feature automatically records lap splits at selected units of .5, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 miles/km
• 100-lap, 30-hours and 30 run file memory
• Gender, age & weight based calorie computation
• Option to turn GPS off using 'Indoor' mode
• 10 second backlight with optional 'Night Mode'; backlight active from 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM based on T1 time zone
• 2 Time Zones; select from 106 cities worldwide covering all zones to auto set time with GPS active
• Optional manual time & date set with Daylight Savings
• Optional 12 or 24 hour time, miles or km distance
• 5 daily alarms
• Battery life: 8 hours with GPS active
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• USB charging cord; plug into USB port to charge watch (no computer data transfer capabilities)
• Water Resistant to 3 ATM (not for use while swimming)
• Display size: 1.0" x 1.0" (2.5cm x 2.5cm) diameter
• Unit dimensions: 1.75" x 2.5" x 0.75" (4.4 x 6.4 x 1.9 cm)
• Weight: 2.1oz (59.5g)
• Color: Black/Charcoal

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