Hands-on with the Garmin Forerunner 235 (pictures)

The Forerunner 235 has a ton of features. It includes both GPS and GLONASS (the Russian alternative to GPS) for tracking pace and distance when running. It can also track your activities for things like steps, calories burned and sleep.

The watch is slim, lightweight and comfortable to wear.

It's also a lot smaller than its predecessor, the Forerunner 225, and has a slighty higher-res display.

On the back you will find an optical heart-rate sensor.

GPS recordings were accurate and the signal was acquired fast (even in New York City).

It measures your heart rate during workouts and throughout the day. You can even check the data right on the watch.

But the heart rate can fluctuate when doing a hard speed workout.

At the end of the day, the Forerunner 235 offers the best bang for your buck for both casual and serious runners.

The Forerunner 235 even has some smart features. It can display notifications from your iPhone and Android device. There's even a dedicated page to show your calander.

The watch also has access to an app store. Here you can download different apps, watch faces and widgets. The weather widget pictured here is built-in.