review-o-rama
i have one and love it. i've not tried the garmin you have or listed, the last garmin i had was equipped with a silly 'ring of insanity' touch thing that would select everything except what you wanted and after running awhile would starting changing things on its own. that watch drove me crazy!
so i've had the nike watch since just after it was originally released. i've not had any problems to report, it just works. my nike+ profile is showing just short of 3300 miles most of which have been with the watch for background info. i guess i did have trouble getting it to sync once, but since it didn't seem to be recognized by the computer, i cleaned the usb tab, and it's work perfect since. i've run in rain, in snow, on a couple long cross country trails, all good. tap the screen for a split, or to turn on the light which is good enough for night/dark use with no problem. i also like that i can customize the display, change up what it shows based on what i'm training for or wanting to focus on, the rest of the info is easy to scroll through even when running. i count button pushes to keep track of where i'm at in the menu so can change easily without taking my eyes off the road. good stuff.
it does the things you mentioned out of the box with the exception of heart rate, which you need to purchase an additional Polar chest sensor for (not included with the watch). after you get the sensor, it's easy to pair up the watch with the HR sensor in settings. the only down side i'm aware of is that it will not give you a HR readout on the watch (no real time info) or at least won't on my original model, i don't know if the newer ones are the same. you can review your heart rate info on the Nike+ page after you sync up, it's part of the run data, route, splits, average, HR, etc.
the GPS is creepy accurate, i can tell on the map when i changed sides of the street. you can pair up the watch with the nike+ sensor that goes in/on your shoe for treadmill running, or deep trails when GPS might be blocked, it can use GPS/Sensor at the same time for more accurate results. i've been impressed the entire time with the accuracy. when you run with the watch, it uses the GPS data for calibration so that when you go inside with the shoe sensor, the results are real world. way more accurate than my ipod nano results anyway, even after several goes at calibration on the nano. nice touch that the watch calibrates itself is the bottom line.
as an example, not me and no connection,
THIS is the Amazon link to the HR sensor that works, same that i have. my watch came with a shoe sensor in the box, i don't know if they still include that or not. if not, you can check out the 'purchase together' bit for an idea of buying the HR and shoe sensor at the same time. i don't EVER run in nike shoes (give me Brooks or give me death!) but use a small sensor cover/case attached to my laces and it has always worked fine. just my two cents.
you need the 'Connect' software to sync the watch which can be download for free. i use both the PC/Mac versions, both work well. running the current Mac version on both 10.8 and 10.9 if that matters, running the PC version on 7, but i've not tried with 8 so have no idea if it works or not. it checks itself for updates at launch, and also checks for watch firmware updates which are applied automatically after you click 'ok'. all painless and easy so far.
the nike+ website has really been improved since i bought my watch. the old 'flash based' site was pure evil, the new site is much better, has an easy to use layout, and they continue to improve and add to it over time it seems. not perfect but does seem to have active development, they seem to respond to feedback/bug reports in a timely manner.
guess if i missed something let me know. i like mine, and if it died, i go buy another one if that helps. best of luck.
