I was in the REI flagship store in Seattle last night for our monthly club meeting and on the way to the meeting room I stopped at the counter where they have all the GPS units. I asked the sales guy if he knew the availability date for the new 310XT. He looked it up and showed me the screen. Everything I had seen elsewhere said a vague ‘Summer 2009’. The screen showed an April 29 arrival date into their distribution centers. Even though it was not yet on the website, the device could be backordered (which I did), so with any luck I’ll have one for my first open water swims and race in May.
The question though, is that the one with the HRM or without? I saw what you did about availability for the 310XT in May, but that was just for the watch. .if you wanted the one with the Heart Rate Monitor, that would be July. …
At least according to www.trisports.com
Does Polar have a patent on the single button for start and lap? Hopefully the start/stop button requires a longer push to stop the 310XT or else many triathletes will find that their 310XT stopped during the race because they actually hit the stop button by accident. The start/stop button is the only weak point I see with the product.
I just got off the phone with REI customer service about this. They confirmed that I did order the version with the HR monitor, and further gave me a delivery date of May 10 to an REI store near my house. It’s not the first time they’ve gotten Garmin stuff before others - I recall when the Edge 605 / 705 came out, I think they got it earlier as well.