Latest news with #Forerunner965
Tom's Guide
7 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Garmin Forerunner 970 Review: my new favorite sports watch
The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the best Garmin watch for runners and triathletes, offering almost all of the key features of the Garmin Fenix 8 in a more affordable and lightweight package. It also introduces some new features to Garmin's range, such as running tolerance and economy estimates, and the upgraded design has a brighter AMOLED display than the Garmin Forerunner 965, plus a built-in flashlight and a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal screen. The drawbacks to the Forerunner 970 are its high price, especially as you need to pair it with the $169 Garmin HRM600 chest strap to unlock running economy measurements, and its relatively short battery life compared with the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 965. I've loved using the watch, and in my Garmin Forerunner 970 review, I'll run through my testing and how it compares to the best sports watches, but also say which rivals might offer better value. The Garmin Forerunner 970 launched in May 2025 and costs $749.99 / £629.99, a considerable jump in price from its predecessor, the Garmin Forerunner 965, which is $599 / £599 and often reduced to under $500. It comes in one size and three colors — black, white and grey/gold. When considering the price of the Forerunner 970, it's worth factoring in that some of its new features also require the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is $169.99 / £149.99. Forerunner 965 Forerunner 970 Price $599 $749 Case size 47.1 x 47.1 x 13.2mm 47 x 47 x 12.9mm Screen size 1.4 inches 1.4 inches Resolution 454 x 454 pixels 454 x 454 pixels Screen material Gorilla Glass Sapphire Crystal Weight 53g 56g GPS battery life 31 hours 26 hours Smartwatch battery life 23 days 15 days Touchscreen Yes Yes Speaker/Mic No Yes Built-in flashlight No Yes Heart rate sensor Elevate v4 Elevate v5 The Garmin Forerunner 970 has some notable design upgrades compared with the Forerunner 965, including, for the first time on a Forerunner watch, a built-in flashlight. This sits on top of the watch and has four brightness settings, plus a red mode. It's very useful day-to-day, even if you live a relatively unadventurous life like me — it would be invaluable for those who camp or are outdoors a lot at night. The other big upgrade is the sapphire crystal display, which is more scratch-resistant than the Gorilla glass used on the Forerunner 965 and other Forerunner models. As someone who scratched the Forerunner 965 during testing, having a sapphire screen gives peace of mind and also means you can avoid using screen protectors. The titanium bezel surrounding the screen also toughens up the watch, which is otherwise made of plastic. The 1.4-inch AMOLED screen is also brighter than the display on the Forerunner 965, notably so when you put the two watches side-by-side. It's clearer to read under bright sunlight as a result, though this bright screen does reduce the battery life on the Forerunner 970 compared with the 965. On the back of the watch is Garmin's Elevate v5 optical heart rate sensor, which is an upgrade on the v4 sensor on the Forerunner 965 and one of the most accurate wrist-based sensors I've tested in general — it's used on most Garmin watches released in the past couple of years. The Forerunner 970 uses this sensor to offer ECG measurements, which weren't available on the Forerunner 965. The new watch also has a mic and speaker, like the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 570 watches. While the Forerunner 970 doesn't offer the bright and distinctive designs you get on the Garmin Forerunner 570, it's a good-looking watch you can wear 24/7, and it's lightweight and comfortable to wear all the time. It is, however, a shame that it only comes in one size, unlike the Forerunner 570. Those with smaller wrists who'd like a smaller watch than the 47mm Forerunner 970, but still want all of Garmin's best features, only really have the Fenix 8 43mm as an option. The onboard sensors include a pulse oximeter and barometric altimeter, and the GPS chipset allows for multi-band tracking for extra accuracy. You can pair external sensors like cycling power meters via both Bluetooth and ANT+. With a water resistance rating of 5 ATM, the Forerunner 970 is suitable for pool and open-water swimming, but it is not a diveproof watch like the Fenix 8. The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the top Forerunner watch in the brand's range, so as you'd expect, it's fully laden with all of Garmin's top sports tracking and training analysis features. It offers all the sports modes and stats you could ever want, including being a golf watch, and extensive training load analysis, including heat and altitude acclimation, VO2 max and race time estimates, and a rating of your training readiness based on factors like sleep, stress and recent workouts. For the most part, the analysis is the same as on past top models from Garmin, like the Fenix 8, but the Forerunner 970 introduces some new features with a running economy rating, step speed loss measurements and running tolerance, which estimates the training load you can tolerate safely each week. To get the running economy and step speed loss measurements, you need to pair the Forerunner 970 with the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is a significant extra outlay. Step speed loss is a measurement of how much you slow down with each stride when running, when your foot hits the ground. A lower number is better because that means it takes less effort to speed back up with each stride. You also get a percentage measurement of step speed loss, which is more useful as you tend to lose more speed when running faster, but the percentage is comparable across speeds. This stat is one of several that feed into your running economy rating, which is unlocked after you do several runs with the watch and chest strap. Heart rate, speed and other running technique stats like ground contact time also feed into the economy measurement. Running economy is an important metric because the better your economy, the less effort or energy it costs you to run at a certain speed, which basically means you can run faster for longer. The value of Garmin's measurement will be if you can see your economy improving over time, which mostly comes about from structured training and more mileage in general, though genetic factors are also a big part of economy. It's an innovative addition to the watch and something I love as a keen runner, and it's definitely something I'll keep an eye on when marathon training in particular. The final new feature is running tolerance, which says how much running your body is able to handle in terms of miles or kilometers based on your training history. Not increasing your mileage by too much week-to-week is a golden rule for runners trying to avoid injury, and many judge their training load simply by the amount of miles they run each week. But tolerance goes a step further by accounting for the extra impact of faster, harder runs. For example, when I ran a 10K race wearing the Forerunner 970, the total distance was 10K, but the impact load was 15.2km, because it was an all-out effort. This is a helpful way to remind runners that runs can differ in the amount of impact they have on the body and give a total mileage for the week that adds in extra to account for harder runs, because doing too much fast running can also lead to injury. Given how well developed Garmin's tracking and analysis features are at this stage, I'm impressed that they've been able to introduce some genuinely useful new features to the Forerunner 970, and runners in particular benefit. It is a shame you have to use the HRM600 chest strap to get some of these features, not only because of the cost but also because many runners simply don't like wearing chest straps, particularly women, which is why Garmin made the HRM-Fit to attach to a sports bra. For most of my testing of the Forerunner 970, I had it paired to the HRM600 chest strap, so I couldn't gauge the accuracy of the optical sensor on the watch. But I did some runs just using the watch's heart rate sensor to check its accuracy against a different chest strap, and it was always on point. I've also used Garmin watches for many years, and the Elevate Gen5 sensor has been reliably accurate for me on any watch I've tested. If you don't want to invest in the HRM600 strap to use with the Forerunner 970, you will still get good heart rate measurements. The GPS accuracy was also excellent during my testing. I primarily used the watch in multi-band mode for the most accurate results, and the GPS tracks from the Forerunner 970 were always free of major errors when I checked them afterwards. The Forerunner 970 tracks all the usual daily activity stats like steps, calories, floors climbed and active minutes, and can also be set to notify you if you're sedentary for too long. It also tracks stress throughout the day and measures your 'Body Battery' energy levels, which are depleted by activity and topped up via sleep. The watch also sums up your day in a new Evening Report, which summarizes your activity and gives a sleep recommendation — whether you need more or less than usual. It also shows your suggested workouts for tomorrow and any calendar events. In the morning, you get a Morning Report, which shows similar stuff along with your sleep score from the night. You can customize both reports to include the info you want. When it comes to sleep tracking itself, you get a wealth of data on your night's rest, along with a rating out of 100, including sleep stages, your heart rate variability and a summary of any breathing variations. Garmin watches have a habit of overestimating time asleep in my experience, in that they often log periods where you're still (but awake) as light sleep. But the Forerunner 970's overall rating of my sleep each night was in line with how I felt, and it did encourage me to try and get better sleep by limiting alcohol and sticking to a regular bedtime. The big, bright AMOLED display on the Forerunner 970 is wonderful, but its battery life does suffer as a result. With the screen set to always-on, the watch lasted me four or five days on a charge, running every day, whereas the Forerunner 965 would last me seven days under the same conditions. When I set the screen to raise to wake outside of workouts it did extend the battery life to seven or eight days, but that's still less than I've become accustomed to with Garmin's 47mm models — the Fenix 8 47mm lasts me six or seven days with the screen always-on, so the brighter display is definitely having an impact on the Forerunner 970. If you're a triathlete or a cyclist regularly doing long rides, then the battery life will be even shorter. It's still just about long enough to not be an annoyance in how often you need to charge it, and the Forerunner 970 can track an individual activity for over 20 hours even in its most accurate GPS mode, but the drop-off in battery life compared with other Garmins is noticeable. While the Forerunner 970 can't match the features available on the best smartwatches, which offer cellular connectivity and far more fully-stocked app stores, it does have some useful smarts. These include the new mic and speaker, which you can use to issue voice commands like 'start a timer' or activate your phone's voice assistant. It also has music storage and can link up with streaming services, including Spotify, to store your playlists offline, and NFC payments through Garmin Pay. The ConnectIQ app store has a few useful apps and also offers extra data fields for certain sports and more watch faces — I always download my parkrun barcode to my watch through an app and add rolling pace to my running data fields. There are more smart features here than you get on other brands' sports watches, and you can customize the watch face extensively, but the Forerunner 970 is still not as smart as a device like the Apple Watch Ultra 2. Along with its handy flashlight, the Forerunner 970 has several safety features, including the ability to send alerts to an emergency contact either manually (by holding down the light button) or automatically if a fall is detected during outdoor activities. The LiveTrack feature also allows you to send your activity to others so they can follow it live or check in on you from time to time, if you're heading for dangerous areas. You can navigate those dangerous areas using the color maps on the Forerunner 970, which are routable maps that allow you to create routes on the watch itself — other brands have maps that can show routes on maps but can't create routes or re-route you using trails if you go wrong. Garmin's mapping and navigation tools also include ClimbPro, which breaks out the climbs and descents on your route so you can judge your efforts. I find this invaluable on climbs in particular, in that it encourages me to slow down early in a climb because I know how much more uphill there is to go. All sports watch brands and many smartwatches now offer maps and routes you can follow during activities, but Garmin's features remain the gold standard in this area and you get all its best tools on the Forerunner 970. The Garmin Forerunner 970 is an outstanding sports watch and the only one that can really better it is the Garmin Fenix 8, which offers a more durable metal design and longer battery life. However, the Forerunner 970 is cheaper and many will prefer the lighter, slimmer design, especially now that it includes a sapphire screen and built-in flashlight, features that were reserved for the Fenix line in the past. It is an upgrade on the Forerunner 965, although the older watch is now available for under $500 and still has most of the excellent sports tracking features of the Forerunner 970. If you don't mind missing out on the design upgrades on the Forerunner 970, the older watch is a better value. Other older Garmin watches that might offer better value include the Garmin Epix Pro range, which comes in three sizes and is often on sale now. It's a top watch with most of the sports tracking and navigation features of the Forerunner 970, with a Fenix-style metal design. Outside of Garmin's range, the competition is less fierce, in my opinion, unless you want a smartwatch like the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which doesn't match the battery life or sports and navigation features on the Forerunner 970. Coros, Polar and Suunto all have great AMOLED watches that are cheaper than the Forerunner 970, like the Suunto Race, Polar Vantage V3 and Coros Pace Pro, but none offer the same range of sports, navigation and smart features as the Garmin. If the price doesn't put you off, I'd say the Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8 are the best sports watches available, so your choice might be between the more rugged Fenix design and the lighter, sleeker Forerunner 970, which is also a little more affordable.
Tom's Guide
03-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
I wore the Garmin Forerunner 970 for over a week — here's 5 things I like and 3 things I don't
Ever since the Garmin Forerunner 935 converted me to using the best sports watches instead of a smartwatch, I've been a fan of the Garmin 9XX series. This line of watches usually offers all the features you get on the flagship Fenix models in a lightweight, mostly-plastic design that's smaller and also cheaper. As a keen runner the Garmin Forerunner 965 was often the watch I turned to when not testing something new. The Garmin Forerunner 970 is an impressive update to the line and adds some key features from the Garmin Fenix 8 as well as some completely new ones. I'm testing the watch now for our full review, which will take a few weeks to make sure every new feature is fully explored. But there are already some positives and negatives that have stood out to me after just over a week of use. Garmin promised a brighter display on the Forerunner 970 compared with the Forerunner 965, but didn't give details in terms of nits. Since the 965 was always bright enough for me, I didn't expect too much. In testing, however, the upgrade in brightness is very noticeable, especially during activities when the white stats on a black background are clearer on the Forerunner 970. It's also a clear upgrade when using the watch in bright sunlight. The Forerunner 965's screen is still bright enough, but the Forerunner 970's display has exceeded my expectations. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. One of the big new sports features on the Forerunner 970 is running tolerance, which estimates how many miles or kilometers you can/should run in a week based on your training history, with the aim of avoiding injury. This ties into established ideas about building your load gradually rather than suddenly doing a lot more running than your body might be able to handle. What I like about the feature is that it takes into account the type of runs you're doing. Instead of simply saying you ran 10 miles, it looks at those miles, and if you've been running quickly or on challenging, hilly terrain, it increases the load factor of that run, so it will get logged as 11 or 12 miles of "impact load." The Forerunner 970 will show the actual distance you've run, along with the impact load of those runs, and you can check this against your estimated tolerance to see if you're overdoing it. This is a useful feature for runners of all levels to ensure they're adding a safe amount of mileage each week if building, and also considering the impact of the harder runs on their plan correctly. One major reason to upgrade to the Garmin Fenix line from the Forerunner 965 is the sapphire crystal display available on the Fenix, which is more durable than the glass one used on the Forerunner. I scratched the Forerunner 965 without even realizing it during my testing. But having a sapphire screen on the Forerunner 970 gives peace of mind that you don't need to use a screen protector. Another big reason to upgrade to the Garmin Fenix 8 has been eliminated by the Forerunner 970 getting a built-in flashlight. That feature is just incredibly handy to have on your wrist. During the time I've been testing the watch I've had two sick kids to get up and see to during the night, so the flashlight has been in regular use. I've yet to unlock the running economy stats on the Forerunner 970, but you can see the new step speed loss measurement during each run if you pair the watch with the Garmin HRM600 chest strap. This measures how much you slow down when your foot hits the ground when running, with a lower value being better — lower braking force on each stride means you have to put less effort into speeding up again. I've been looking at this stat during runs and you can see how it changes when running at faster speeds — my step speed loss improves when I hit my marathon pace compared to easy run paces, for example. These step speed loss measurements feed into Garmin's running economy stats, but are interesting in their own right. The Forerunner 970 is not a cheap watch, and to unlock some of its most interesting new features like step speed loss and running economy measurements, you also need to buy the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is $169. This is a great, rechargeable chest strap, but incredibly expensive for a heart rate monitor — the Wahoo TRACKR heart rate monitor is $89, for comparison. It's a significant extra outlay just to get these running technique stats, especially as the Forerunner 970 has Garmin's Elevate Gen5 optical heart rate sensor, which has always been pretty accurate for me when testing it on various watches. The cost of the bright display on the Forerunner 970 is short battery life. It lasted me just over four days on my first charge with the screen always-on; the Forerunner 965 lasts me seven days reliably. You can increase the battery life considerably using the screen in raise-to-wake mode, but if you're regularly logging workouts using GPS and the always-on screen, the Forerunner 970 will still need regular charging. A small dislike this, but it would be great if there were more size options of the Forerunner 970, like there are with both the Forerunner 570 and Fenix 8. Some people with small wrists still want the greater sports tracking capabilities of the Forerunner 970, so if there was a 42mm or 43mm model along with the 47mm watch I'm sure it would be a success.
Phone Arena
18-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Amazon launches a rare Garmin Forerunner 265 promo you just can't pass up
Get the Forerunner 265 at its best price of 2025! $100 off (22%) Want multi-day battery life, a beautiful AMOLED touchscreen, and countless sports features on your next Garmin watch? The Forerunner 265 fits the bill, and it's now down to its best price of 2025 on Amazon. Save $100 before it's too late. Buy at Amazon Garmin Forerunner 965: $100 off at Amazon $100 off (17%) Garmin's high-end Forerunner 965 is also available at its best price of 2025 at the e-commerce giant. This model has a slightly larger 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen, longer battery life, and extras like full color, built-in maps. Buy at Amazon Receive the latest mobile news By subscribing you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy Seeking a Garmin Forerunner model with an AMOLED touchscreen and multi-day battery life for under $400? The Forerunner 265 meets those requirements and can now be yours at its lowest price! That's no typo — Amazon has slashed $100 off its original ~$450 asking price, knocking it to an all-time low for our knowledge, the 46mm sports watch hasn't seen any significant discounts since Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024. In other words, Amazon's current promo isn't just super attractive; it's also quite rare! So, if you're after highly accurate performance metrics, long battery life, and a touchscreen, the Forerunner 265 might be the right case you missed it, the more premium Forerunner 965 has also dropped to its lowest price so far in 2025 at Amazon. Consider this Garmin watch if you don't mind spending an extra $150 for extras like full color, built-in maps and even longer battery what makes the slightly less premium Forerunner 265 an attractive choice? Well, it's not just one thing! To begin with, the unit packs a plethora of sports-related features, including support for triathlons and multisport profiles. There's also training status and Garmin Coach on deck to help you optimize workout times and stay on track with your performance the workout features, the Garmin watch gives you a personalized morning report featuring insights on HRV status, sleep, and weather. It tracks naps, offers sleep coaching, and keeps your heart rate on track. As if that's not enough, it can stay on your wrist for up to 13 days between charges, surpassing even the best smartwatches for Android lovers on the battery life things considered, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is one of the best Garmin watches money can buy. While it may be pricey at its standard price, the model is definitely more attractive at $100 off. Get it at its best price of 2025 through Amazon while you can!
Tom's Guide
15-05-2025
- Tom's Guide
I test Garmin watches for a living — here are the 5 coolest new features of the Forerunner 570 and 970
Two of the best Garmin watches just got upgraded, with the new Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 replacing the Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965 in the brand's range. I've been testing Garmin's for almost a decade, and in that time, I've almost always had at least one of the brand's watches strapped to my wrist to support my marathon training. I've often had two, in fact, including when I set my marathon PR lately wearing both the Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Forerunner 965. I'm excited to start testing the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970, and also the new Garmin HRM600 heart rate chest strap, which unlocks the new feature I'm most excited about — running economy measurements. Here's why I'm looking forward to tracking my running economy in particular, and four other new features on the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 that have caught my eye. To use this feature on the Forerunner 970, you need to wear the Garmin HRM600 chest strap. Running economy is a measure of your running efficiency, and basically, the more economical or efficient you are, the less energy it costs to run at a certain pace. This is very interesting to me not only as way to look at my running form to see if I can make it more efficient to help improve my times, but also as a way to test running shoes — if a shoe helps you to run more efficiently, as many of the best carbon plate running shoes claim, then that's a reason to stick with it. Running economy measurements from the wrist are not something I've come across before from any brand, and if it's done well, this will be a star feature for Garmin's high-end watches, assuming it also comes to models like the Fenix 8 in time. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. When Garmin introduced a built-in LED flashlight to the Fenix line, it was a huge hit, and it's since been added to Epix and Instinct models among others, but Forerunner users have had to wait until now to get a flashlight on their watch. The Forerunner 970's flashlight has multiple brightness settings and also a red mode, and it's a very handy addition to the watch, whether you use it for camping or running at night, or just to get downstairs to see to crying toddlers without turning on any lights. I've been testing out the Forerunner 570, and the increased brightness of its display compared to a Forerunner 965 is noticeable. What's more, the colorful bezel and band options within the range make for a welcome change to the more conservative styles of most sports watches. Rest assured, if you're dead against the bright colors, there is a black model available in both sizes of the Forerunner 570. With the 47mm model of the watch, you also get a bigger screen than on past models — at 1.4 inches, it's as large as the screens of the 47mm and 51mm Fenix 8 models, but in a much smaller and lighter watch. Using this new feature, you can load the course for a race into Garmin Connect with the mile or kilometer markers logged, and then when you run the race, the watch will detect when you pass the timing gate and mark a lap, then, rather than relying on GPS. As someone who always worries about poor GPS during races affecting pace and distance stats, this feature could be a fantastic upgrade, especially in events in city centers where skyscrapers can play havoc with GPS accuracy. Even when running marathons on open courses, I often notice a discrepancy between the official measured distance and what my watch measures, and I've used a Connect IQ app called Peter's Race Pacer in the past that allows you to manually adjust the distance measured when passing a mile marker. Having that done automatically using a course will make for a much easier experience, and mean you can rely on the pace stats from your watch being accurate. You will need the course you add to the watch to be accurate, though, so hopefully, race organizers work with Garmin to create official routes you can use. A simple but much-needed upgrade, the Forerunner 970 now has a sapphire crystal screen instead of a glass one. As someone who scratched the screen on the Garmin Forerunner 965, this is a great upgrade — I've used many Fenix models with sapphire displays and have never managed to so much as mark them.
Phone Arena
15-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Garmin officially releases its most premium Forerunner watch and adds a lifesaving feature
Garmin has officially unveiled the Forerunner 970, its latest high-end smartwatch designed for serious runners and triathletes. As the successor to the well-regarded Forerunner 965, this new model brings a mix of premium upgrades, cutting-edge health features, and a noticeable bump in Forerunner 970 is crafted with a titanium bezel and sapphire crystal, wrapped in a lightweight 56-gram build with a 47mm diameter. The AMOLED touchscreen display maintains the sharp 454 x 454 resolution but now gets even brighter, improving visibility in all conditions. Garmin also updated the watch's aesthetic with bold color accents in green or purple and refined button shapes to give it a more modern it's not just a cosmetic refresh. One of the headline features is the addition of an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, which can detect signs of cardiac arrhythmia. This joins the existing heart rate, SpO2, and skin temperature sensors already offered on the 965. Garmin also adds new running-focused tools. Running Economy evaluates how efficiently you move, while Running Tolerance helps monitor your biomechanical load to reduce the risk of overtraining. Garmin Coach returns as well, offering more personalized and adaptive training plans. Another new feature is an integrated LED flashlight, which is a handy tool for early morning or nighttime runs. And thanks to onboard microphones and speakers, the Forerunner 970 can now handle phone calls and interact with voice assistants when connected to a smartphone. It still offers 32 GB of internal storage for maps, apps, and music, plus Garmin Pay support for contactless life takes a small hit compared to the previous model, with up to 15 days in smartwatch mode and around 26 hours when using GPS. These numbers are still respectable, but worth noting for users who prioritize long-distance endurance tracking. The Forerunner 970 will be available starting May 21st for $749.99 — a steep increase over the currently reduced $499 price of the Forerunner 965. Buyers can choose from three color options: carbon gray titanium with black case, titanium with whitestone case, and soft gold titanium with french gray case. This release follows news of another Garmin Forerunner debut, the Forerunner 570. With the Forerunner 970, Garmin is clearly pushing its premium tier forward — both in features and pricing.
