Gear review - Epson Runsense SF-810 GPS Watch

Go ahead - call me a Meb junkie.

Not only do I run for Skechers Performance Division, but once I heard that Meb was reppin' an Epson running watch, I knew that I had to check it out.

But it's not only about being a fanboy ... my up-to-recently trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 had been supplying me with all the signs that it was about ready to give up the ghost, even after having replaced the battery in it.  Having been nearly bulletproof for several years I felt like it really owed me nothing and so I was legitimately on the hunt for its successor.

Enter the Runsense SF-810.

Let the unboxing begin ...!

 

My thanks go out [legal disclosure] to the Epson America marketing department for providing me with this watch for review, and in particular to Jason for his assistance in connecting me with the Epson team.

I have to admit that having read some of the reviews that others had posted about the SF-810 (including some friends of mine) after having gotten their hot little hands on this item first I was prepared for a less-than-stellar first foray from Epson into the running tech market.  However, keeping an open mind I will say that even the initial touch-and-feel survey of the physical hardware made me think that this was a quite a decently constructed piece of equipment.  Nothing about its physical design or crafting communicated anything less than quality workmanship to me, and so the first impression was a good one.

The SF-810 employs a straight-forward four-button navigation system like many digital watches, and you'll find no complaints from me about that.  I've known too many other people who have fumbled and struggled with the sensitivity and responsiveness of touchscreen watch displays that I'm happy to stick with something a little more 'manual'.  In terms of setting up the device to suit my personal configuration preferences there was ample direction provided between the quick-start paper instruction manual included in the box and the online Epson video library.

After having now put the SF-810 through its paces for over a month, here are my impressions of what's working and what's improvable:

Pros:

• GPS acquistion - Yes!  No more having to wait two or three minutes to figure out where on the planet you are actually located!  I found that this watch is quite quick to lock on the appropriate satellites, which means that the workout can start pretty much as soon as I'm ready.
• Distance tracking accuracy - I think that this watch is actually more accurate than my late Forerunner 305.  In the last half-marathon that I ran the watch auto-lap pinged pretty much exactly at each kilometre sign marker!
• Integrated heart rate monitor - The optical HRM is a nice feature, and I definitely appreciate being able to track that metric without constricting my ribcage with the band that has to be paired with most running watches.
• Workout stop/start - I like that I'm able to close out a workout and start a new one without having to upload the information off of the device.  That was always something that frustrated me about the 305, as I could 'stop' a workout but even if I powered down the device and then powered it up again any new press of the 'start' button would effectively recommence the previous workout.
• Battery life - It's touted to be 20 hours between charges, which would make it about double the projected life of my previous watch.  So far I've not come close to running it dry while only letting it sit in its charging dock for as long as it takes to upload data - I'm hoping to use it for a planned 100-miler this fall so we'll see just how far/long it will go.
• Quick upload - Speaking of upload, the Epson Run Connect desktop software fires up super-instanteously when the watch is snapped into it's dock.  I don't have a data plan for my phone so I've not used the Run Connect mobile app (which some reviewers have really disliked), so I've no complaints.  Plus I do like the fact that the Run Connect interface easily communicates with Strava.

Cons:

• Heart rate tracking accuracy - Huh ... maybe I'm truly more out of shape than I think that I am, but to hit 211 beats per minute at least once a week during a medium intensity run?  Just not sure that these readings are as bang-on as they could be, and tracking does have a habit of cutting out in the middle of a workout.  I may need to slide the watch a little bit further up my arm than I'm used to to maintain solid contact between the optical sensor and my skin.
• Relentless auto-lap feature - Generally speaking I like knowing my pace per kilometre for each kilometre I've run; however, when I deliberately press the 'lap' button not only would I expect that that would trigger tracking for a new lap, but that the auto-lap on-the-kilometre would not override the new lap's starting point!  Yessir, it seems that if I want to run an 800m interval and hit the lap button at 4.7km into my run then I'll still have a lap split at 5km (so 300m into the interval) and then will have to add in the additional 500m that follows.  It would be nice if the use of the lap button triggered a new kilometre count.
• GPX file configuration - Even though there's the ability to stop and start a new workout, I noticed an interesting downside to how the data is captured.  The other week I ran trails with a group and then stopped the workout, got in my car, drove a short distance and then got out and continued my evening workout.  While the Epson Runsense view website tracked the actual time spent in workout mode correctly, when it pushed the data to Strava it actually included the distance that I'd driven (and at the rate of speed that I'd traveled) as part of my run.  Now I'd like to say that I averaged 1:52/km for my workout but that simply wasn't the case ... so something funky must have been communicated in the GPX data when it was transferred to Strava.

Here's the video review:

 
All in all I've got to say that I'm pretty happy with the look, feel and functionality of the SF-810 and think that Epson has got a solid product on their hands.  It may take some time to woo die-hard users of Garmin, Suunto or Polar tech but honestly I think that it's definitely a competitive piece of hardware.  I'm going to happily keep on using it and will be looking forward to where Epson goes next in the world of running devices!

Disclosure:  I received this product from Epson America at their expense but was not obliged to provide anything but an objective review.  All opinions expressed (however poorly) are my own!

Gear review - Epson Runsense SF-810 GPS Watch