Picking the best Garmin watch isn’t easy. The main reason: Garmin itself. The company has many watches in its range and while that means there will almost certainly be one that matches your preferences, it can be hard to find that watch without spending ages researching the differences between the devices.

You can, however, leave all that to me because I’ve tested pretty much every Garmin device that’s been released in the last five years and know the range like the back of my hand. Or wrist, in this case.

Garmin is renowned for making some of the best sports watches and running watches. Whatever your favorite form of exercise, the company has a device for you. I’ve picked out the best Garmin watch for a range of sports, along with my top overall pick that offers the best balance of value and features.

The quick list

Here’s a run-through of the top Garmin watches available in the most important categories. Click on any watch here to jump to its entry in the main list below.

How I Test Garmin Watches

Best overall

The Forerunner 265 is a multisport watch with an AMOLED screen that offers useful training analysis, including Garmin’s readiness rating, on top of accurate sports tracking and smart features. It’s a great all-rounder that will suit you whatever your preferred sport is, and it’s a good smartwatch and general fitness tracker, too.

The price is still high, but the Forerunner 265 is considerably cheaper than top watches like the Forerunner 965 and Fenix/Epix ranges, which offer maps, longer battery life and more durable designs as an incentive to upgrade. If you aren’t fussed about the AMOLED display of Garmin’s training readiness feature, then the Forerunner 255 is a good, cheaper alternative to the Forerunner 265. Explore the differences between the two with my Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Garmin Forerunner 255 comparison.

Read more in my Garmin Forerunner 265 review

Best for running

The Forerunner 165 Music is the brand’s entry-level AMOLED watch and a great option for runners. It provides accurate GPS tracking (though it’s a shame it doesn’t have dual-band GPS as with more expensive Garmin watches), structured workouts and training plans you can follow on the watch, plus music storage and breadcrumb navigation.

If you find the Forerunner 255 in a deal for around the same price as the Forerunner 165 then that would be a strong alternative for those who don’t need or want an AMOLED screen, since the 255 has more insightful training analysis and dual-band GPS tracking. I’ve gone into more detail on the differences between the two in this Garmin Forerunner 255 vs Garmin Forerunner 165 article.

If you’re just starting out with running the cheaper Forerunner 55 is another good option that does the basics well.

Read more in my Garmin Forerunner 165 review

Best for cycling

Assuming you can find it in a sale (usually easy as it’s an older watch), the Forerunner 255 is the best-value Garmin watch, and could be the pick in a number of categories in this round-up. I’ve singled it out for cyclists as a more affordable option that has key features like power sensor support and a multisport mode, which you don’t get on cheaper Forerunners and Garmin smartwatches.

If you want an AMOLED display and training readiness the Forerunner 265 is a possible upgrade, or you could go up to the Forerunner 955 or 965 to get maps as well. You could also save by getting an entry-level watch like the Forerunner 55 and splash out on a Garmin bike computer instead, which is easier to view during rides.

Read more in my Garmin Forerunner 255 review

Best for triathlon

Another old-but-excellent watch, the Forerunner 955 packs in the same excellent multisport features as the newer Forerunner 965 (minus the AMOLED display), and Fenix/Epix ranges, into a lightweight plastic design with an LCD display. It’s a better pick than the Forerunner 255 and 265 for triathletes tackling longer events in particular, since the extra battery life you get from the Forerunner 955 will be handy in an Ironman, for example. It supports all the sensors you need and will automatically transition between sports during multisport events.

The Forerunner 965 does all of the above and has a bright AMOLED display and a titanium bezel, to increase its durability a little, and of course triathletes are well served by the excellent Fenix 7 and Epix ranges, which have more durable designs than the 955 and come in a range of sizes. If you’re sticking to shorter races and don’t need maps, then the Forerunner 255 and 265 watches are also excellent for triathletes. See how the Forerunner 955 stacks up in my comparison of it alongside the Forerunner 255.

Read more in my Garmin Forerunner 955 review

Best for swimming

Most of the watches in Garmin’s range offer a lot to swimmers and if you also do other kinds of activity I’d suggest opting for a more rounded watch, such as the Forerunner 255 or 265, which match the swimming features of the Garmin Swim 2. However, if you just swim the Swim 2 is a cheaper alternative that has all the features you need to track pool and open-water workouts.

It’s a lightweight watch and records swimming-focused metrics, including distance, pace, stroke count, stroke type and Swolf. You can set up and follow swimming workouts on the watch and use it to measure your critical swim speed, which is an indication of your aerobic swimming threshold.

Read more in my Garmin Swim 2 review

Best smartwatch

The Vivoactive line is one of two dedicated smartwatch lines within Garmin’s range, along with the Venu line, but the same smart features are found across a wide array of Garmin devices. These include music storage, NFC payments, notifications and access to the Connect IQ apps store (which is limited compared with the Apple or Google app offerings).

You get all of this on the Vivoactive 5 at a lower price than other smart Garmins, aside from the cheaper Venu Sq watches, which are not as attractive and enjoyable to use in my experience. If you upgrade to the Venu 3 you get a mic and speaker, which is a handy feature in a smartwatch, and you do get better sports tracking and training analysis from the likes of the Forerunner 265, which also has the same smart features as the Vivoactive 5.

Read more in my Garmin Vivoactive 5 review

Best for hiking

Hikers heading on adventures in the great outdoors will benefit from the long battery life of Garmin’s Fenix and Enduro watches, which also have maps to help you navigate. The Fenix 7X Solar has solar panels around the outside of the face to extend the battery life more in sunny conditions, and I’ve picked it out over the smaller Fenix 7S and 7X because it has a built-in flashlight, a handy extra for those who camp in particular.

The newer Fenix 7 Pro range all have built-in flashlights but you pay more for a watch that otherwise isn’t an upgrade on the Fenix 7 range. The Enduro 2 has a flashlight and the longest battery life, but is expensive. A cheaper option for hiking than the Fenix 7X is the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar, which doesn’t have maps, but does have a rugged design, breadcrumb navigation and long battery life. My head-to-head comparison pits the Fenix 7 against the Enduro 2.

Read more in my Garmin Fenix 7X Solar review

The best running watches can do a lot more than track your workouts. Come race day your Garmin watch can help you stay on track and hit your target time, with a variety of features available to help you successfully pace a marathon.

I’ve run the London Marathon six times and used several different approaches when setting up my watch for the race, all of which were designed to keep me on track for my target time. That’s harder than in other marathons I’ve run because the GPS signal goes AWOL running through Canary Wharf and the tunnels on the course.

The simplest way to track your race is with your normal data screens, but I’d suggest adding lap pace to them, rather than current pace. Current pace is particularly susceptible to GPS trouble and will jump around a lot, while lap pace is your average pace for the current mile or kilometer split you’re running and is a more stable number to help you pace your run.

Even with lap pace the GPS problems you encounter in the second half of the London Marathon when running under high buildings and through tunnels can throw your watch off. I take manual splits when passing the mile/kilometer markers to get an accurate number for each to make sure I’m hitting my target pace.

A more advanced setting is to use the distance and time target setting on the watch. On your run page hold the menu button, select training, quick workout (or set a target depending on which model you’re using) and then distance and time. Select marathon distance and put in your target time and you’ll get two new data screens. One shows how far behind or ahead of your goal pace you are, and another gives a predicted finish time plus your average pace and distance remaining. 

The predicted time is handy as long as you take into account the distance your watch has measured compared with the actual distance you have left to run, with GPS inaccuracies included. Check the distance on the watch against a marker when you pass it and add any discrepancy in time to the predicted time on the watch. 

Another Garmin tool you can use is PacePro, which will give you a target time for each mile or kilometer of your race based on the elevation profile of the course, your overall goal and race strategy, as in whether you want to run even splits, or a negative split where you run the second half of the marathon faster than the first. 

I’d advise against this though. PacePro is brilliant but will be rendered near useless by GPS inaccuracy and is most useful on hilly courses like the Boston Marathon where your pace per split will rise and fall with the hills. PacePro can help you stick to target pace in the first half of the London Marathon, which has good GPS accuracy with few tall buildings, but once you hit Canary Wharf inaccurate pace readings will throw it off.

The most complicated and most accurate option you can use is a ConnectIQ app that allows you to correct the distance readings on the watch. I have used one called Peter’s (Race) Pacer to do this (Peter’s (Hi-Viz) Pacer is a simpler app that does the same thing). When you pass a marker on the course, hit the lap button and it rounds the distance measured by the watch up or down to be exact.

So if your watch reads 5.12km at the 5K marker, hit the lap button and it will correct to 5.00km, and then adjust the average pace and other stats on the watch. You can also set a target time with Peter’s Race Pacer and it will tell you how far ahead or behind you are.

I’m hoping Garmin will eventually make this a native feature on its watches—as it is on the Wahoo ELEMNT Rival watch—because Peter’s (Race) Pacer isn’t the most attractive data screen, but it has worked well for me in the past when GPS readings have gone wonky. Just make sure you try the app out in a training run to get used to the info being shown.

Any of the best running watches can help you pace a marathon, as long as the GPS accuracy is on point. By using the lap pace in particular you can judge your pace for each mile or kilometer split and ensure it’s in line with your overall goals, and stop yourself from going out too fast at the start.

However, Garmin’s PacePro tool goes beyond this by offering a pacing guide that’s tailored to your target time, the way you want to run the race and the course you’re going to run. That last part in particular makes it perfect for the Boston Marathon.

That’s because the Boston Marathon route is not the pancake flat course you get at other major marathons like London, Berlin and Chicago. Boston has hills, with the most famous being Heartbreak Hill in mile 20, and you need to judge your effort on the uphill and downhill sections of the course carefully to hit your target time.

With Garmin’s PacePro tool you set the course you’re going to run and an overall target time, then you choose one of three race strategies and how hard you want to run any uphills. The race strategies are even pacing, a negative split (where you run the second half of the marathon faster than the first), or a positive split. 

If picking a negative or positive split, you also choose how much of a difference you want between the two halves of the race. You could start slowly and set yourself up to sprint home, for example, or just aim for a minute or two difference across the two halves. You also select how hard you want to run uphills, but if you ease off you’ll have to make the time up on flats and downhills.

This is the magic of PacePro, in that it will give you target times for each mile or kilometer split of the race based on your preferences, target time and the elevation of the course during that exact split. For example, if you set up a target time 2hrs 50min for Boston, plus a negative split where you take it easy on uphills, you’ll be given your fastest split targets for the downhills that come after the famous Newton Hills, with a slower target for the mile that includes Heartbreak Hill, or any other incline.

This allows you to ease off in the early stages of the race, and on any uphills, knowing that the race plan will have you hitting your overall target time by attacking the easier downhill miles on the course. The Boston Marathon has a lot of downhills, so you can judge how much time to make up in those sections well to allow you to be slower on the uphills.

During the race the PacePro screen will show your target time for the exact mile or kilometer split you’re running, plus your current split pace, how much distance is left in the split and the total time you are ahead, or behind, your overall goal.

You will need to use a Boston Marathon route within the Garmin Connect app to get a PacePro strategy, but these are easy to find in the app or on the website by searching for Hopkinton, the town where the race starts. There are several Boston Marathon routes to pick between and you can use them to create your PacePro strategy and then send it to your watch. 

The routes are all slightly longer than the exact marathon distance, because they are probably created from the routes people actually ran—it’s hard to run the perfect racing line at a big marathon because of the crowds.

Most of Garmin’s current range is compatible with PacePro, even if the watch doesn’t have maps or breadcrumb navigation as a feature. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is the cheapest watch to have the feature, and you can be assured that any more expensive watch launched in the past couple of years will also have it. You can check if your watch is compatible on the Garmin website by typing it in and selecting your watch.

Garmin’s PacePro tool is useful for lots of races, but is best for hilly courses and also those that don’t spend much time in the center of big cities with tall buildings, because the GPS accuracy that dictates the pacing info on the watch is affected when you’re in the heart of London or New York, for example. It’s perfect for the Boston Marathon as a result, and may well be just the thing for getting you up and over Heartbreak Hill still on course for your PR.

How To Set Up PacePro For The Boston Marathon 

1. Go to Training & Planning>Courses
2. Search for Hopkinton and select a Boston Marathon course from the list
3. Click ‘create a PacePro strategy’
4. Pick your target time or pace
5. Choose between mile and kilometer splits
6. Choose your race strategy and uphill effort
7. Check the individual splits to see if they make sense for you, then hit save
8. Send the route to your device

You can find the PacePro strategy in the training and workouts section of the running app on your watch. Make sure you select it before you start the race. You can also create a PacePro strategy on the watch for any route you have saved on there, but it’s easier to do it in the Garmin Connect app or on the website.

Garmin has rolled out a free software update to many of its watches, including the Garmin Fenix 7 and Epix 2.

The headline new feature is automatic transitions during multisport activities such as triathlons and duathlons. When using these modes, compatible Garmins will sense when you transition between swimming, cycling and running, and automatically record the transition and switch your data screen to the correct sport mode.

This is a feature that is already available on Wahoo and Apple sports watches, and it means you won’t have to remember to hit any buttons during your transition. If you’re worried that the watch might transition incorrectly, there are methods to undo it, like long-pressing the lap button, and you can also turn the feature off and manually transition.

Another feature in the update is a new database of over 10,000 running tracks being added to watches, which will be used when you select track mode for your runs. The database means you won’t have to calibrate the watch by running a few laps to get accurate distance data during your run—the watch will already know you’re at a track. 

I use track mode regularly on my Garmin and the highly-accurate distance data makes it easier to pace long reps. Not having to calibrate a new track will be a small but useful quality-of-life improvement.

As will another new feature—Lap Undo. If you hit the lap button by mistake during an activity you have eight seconds to undo it by pressing the down button (bottom left). This only works for manual laps for now, you can’t undo automatic laps or use the feature when following a structured workout on the watch.

Other new features included in the update are a jump rope activity mode, and Garmin’s sleep coach, which recommends the amount of sleep you need that day based on sleep history and your activity levels. The watch will only recommend between seven and nine hours of sleep, so it’s not going to suggest wild changes to your routine, but it might be a useful prompt to sleep more when training a lot.

Which Garmin Devices Receive This Update?

The following devices receive all of the new software features detailed above:

• Garmin Fenix 7
• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
• Garmin Epix 2
• Garmin Epix Pro
• Garmin Enduro 2
• Garmin Forerunner 255, 265, 955 and 965
• Garmin Tactix 7
• Garmin Tactix 7 AMOLED
• Garmin Marq 2
• Garmin Quatix 7
• Garmin Quatix 7 Pro
• Garmin D2 Mach 1
• Garmin D2 Mach 1 Pro

The Garmin Venu 3 and Vivoactive 5 already have the sleep coach feature, and gains the jump rope activity. 

The Garmin Lily 2 has the jump rope activity added. 

The new Garmin Forerunner 165 will soon receive all the updates, bar the multisport automatic transition feature.

How To Download The New Software 

These features have been available as part of Garmin’s public beta testing program, but will now be rolling out across all compatible watches automatically. 

Software updates automatically when your device connects to the Garmin Connect app, but this may not happen immediately. The Garmin website states that it may take a few days.

The Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 165 are among the best sports watches and offer better value than most devices in Garmin’s range. The Forerunner 255 is a full multisport watch with more training analysis features than the Forerunner 165, which is cheaper and has a bright AMOLED display as its star feature.

Forerunner 255 vs Forerunner 165: Price And Availability

The Forerunner 165 launched in February 2024 and there are two models: the 165 Music and standard 165. The Forerunner 165 is $249.99 in the US and £249.99 in the UK, and the Forerunner 165 Music is $299.99/£289.99.

There are also music and non-music models of the Forerunner 255, which launched in June 2022, and they come in two sizes. The Forerunner 255 is $349.99/£299.99 and the Forerunner 255 Music is $399.99/£349.99, with the smaller 255S variant available at the same price with both models. As an older watch, however, the Forerunner 255 is usually available for much less than its list price.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the Forerunner 165 Music and Forerunner 255S Music for my reviews on Coach, using them for several weeks to track my workouts, general activity and sleep. I usually run 50-80 miles a week, as well as doing regular yoga and some strength sessions and bike rides. I tested the watches for heart rate accuracy against a Polar H10 chest strap and for GPS accuracy against the Garmin Epix 2 or Garmin Epix Pro, both of which I’ve found accurate for GPS distance and pacing.

• Garmin Forerunner 165 review
• Garmin Forerunner 255 review

Design

The main difference in design is obvious as soon as you look at the two watches. The Forerunner 165 has a 1.2in AMOLED display while the Forerunner 255 has Garmin’s traditional memory-in-pixel LCD (1.1in on the Forerunner 255S and 1.3in on the Forerunner 255).

I prefer the AMOLED display, which is more vivid and easier to read inside and when under tree or cloud cover. In bright sunlight the screens offer equal visibility, though overall the AMOLED is superior—making the Forerunner more engaging and enjoyable to use as a general watch, outside of training.

The Forerunner 165 comes in only one size, with a 43mm case. The Forerunner 255S has a 41mm case, and the Forerunner 255 a 46mm case. Both watches have a plastic build, but the screen is stronger on the Forerunner 255, using Gorilla glass, whereas the Forerunner 165 features chemically strengthened glass.

The watches have the same sensors, including a barometric altimeter, and use Garmin’s Elevate V4 heart rate sensors. They can connect to external sensors using Bluetooth and ANT+, but the Forerunner 255 can connect to cycling power sensors, something that isn’t available on the more running-focused Forerunner 165. The Forerunner 255 also provides more accurate dual-band GPS tracking, which isn’t available on the Forerunner 165.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

The Forerunner 165 tracks a range of sports, including open-water swimming and the other parts of a triathlon individually, but it doesn’t have a multisport mode where you can record a full triathlon, including your transition. It’s more of a running watch, while the Forerunner 255 is a full triathlon watch.

You can also display more information during activities on the Forerunner 255, which allows up to six data fields at once on screen, whereas the max you can show on the Forerunner 165 is four. The Forerunner 255 offers more analysis, including Garmin’s training status, which provides insight into whether your training is balanced and productive. Both watches lack the Forerunner 265’s training readiness feature.

You do still get some useful training insights from the Forerunner 165, which will tell you how your workouts benefitted your aerobic or anaerobic fitness and give a VO2 max estimate, plus estimated race times for 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon events.

GPS And HR Accuracy

One big difference between the watches is that the Forerunner 255 offers dual-band GPS tracking, whereas the most accurate mode on the Forerunner 165 is all-systems-on, which uses multiple satellite systems at once. In my testing the GPS accuracy of the Forerunner 165 was good and mostly comparable to that of the Garmin Epix Pro. However, dual-band tracking on the Forerunner 255 is more reliable when in tough GPS conditions, such as when running under tall buildings or tree cover. It reduces battery life, though, and the accuracy of the Forerunner 165 is good enough to judge your runs.

The optical heart rate accuracy was comparable across the watches, which is to say it’s not something I’d rely on entirely. It was mostly OK, especially in warm conditions, but I often saw heart rate readings that were incorrect when compared to a chest strap. If you’re intending to use heart rate in workouts, or to use the training analysis on the watches to shape your training plans, I’d link one of the best heart rate monitors to the watches for peace of mind.

Battery Life

The difference in battery life isn’t huge, especially if you set the 165’s screen to raise-to-wake rather than always-on, though the standard Forerunner 255 is the longest-lasting watch in watch mode and during activities. The smaller Forerunner 255S still slightly outlasts the Forerunner 165.

With the screen always-on I found the Forerunner 165 lasted four or five days when running daily, while the smaller Forerunner 255S lasted six days on a charge.

The Amazon Big Spring Sale has arrived and it features some great Garmin deals on the best sports watches. I’ve been testing and reviewing Garmins for several years and have tried all of the watches on sale, and the standout pick for me is the Garmin Forerunner 255.

There are two sizes of the watch and two models—one with music and one without—and all of them are discounted in the US. The top model in the range is the Garmin Forerunner 255 Music (or smaller 255S Music), which has music storage as an extra feature that will be worth having for anyone who owns wireless headphones but doesn’t like to run with their phone.

Although an older watch, the Garmin Forerunner 255 Music remains one of the best value options available, especially at the reduced price of $299.99 (or $249.99, if you don’t need the music feature). It’s a full multisport watch for runners and triathletes with accurate dual-band GPS tracking, and offers useful training insights to help you improve.

The newer Garmin Forerunner 265 has an AMOLED screen plus Garmin’s training readiness feature, but it’s a lot more expensive (you can read more about the differences in my Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Garmin Forerunner 255 comparison). The recently-released Garmin Forerunner 165 is around the same price as the Forerunner 255 and has an AMOLED screen, but doesn’t have a multisport mode or dual-band GPS tracking.

The Garmin Forerunner 955 is available at a great price in the Amazon Big Spring Sale, with a $100 discount available on what is one of the best sports watches. Garmin is also offering the deal directly, which is handy as stock is already low on Amazon.

 While the Garmin Forerunner 955 is an older watch and has been superseded by the Garmin Forerunner 965, it is still up to date with Garmin’s key features. The main difference between it and the 965 is the AMOLED screen on the latter, so if you’re happy with the LCD screen of the 955, which does help to boost battery life, then the older watch is the better value pick.

That’s especially the case when it’s reduced by $100, so it’s no surprise that the stock is already low on Amazon. If you’re looking for a great multisport watch in the sales and want maps on board to help with navigation, this is the best deal I expect to see.

The Garmin Forerunner 165 and Garmin Forerunner 265 are among the best sports watches. Both have bright AMOLED screens and offer accurate tracking and insightful training analysis. You get more features with the Forerunner 265, which is a full triathlon watch, but the Forerunner 165 represents better value for runners.

Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Garmin Forerunner 165: Price And Availability

The Garmin Forerunner 265 launched in March 2023 and costs $449.99 in the US and £429.99 in the UK. There are two sizes available—the standard Forerunner 265 and smaller Forerunner 265S—but both have the same features and price. 

The Garmin Forerunner 165 launched in February 2024 and there are two models: one with music, one without. The standard Garmin Forerunner 165 is $249.99/£249.99 and the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music is $299.99/£289.99.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the standard Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 165 Music for our full reviews, using both for several weeks to track my training and daily activity. I usually run 50-70 miles a week and have also done yoga and strength sessions with both watches. To test GPS and HR accuracy I used each watch at the same time as the Garmin Epix Pro (which I’ve found accurate for GPS) linked to a Polar H10 chest strap, which I consider one of the best heart rate monitors.

• Garmin Forerunner 265 review
• Garmin Forerunner 165 review

Design

The Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 165 have similar designs, with a plastic case, five buttons and AMOLED touchscreens. The Forerunner 265 uses more durable Gorilla glass for its screen, whereas the 165 has chemically strengthened glass. The Forerunner 265 comes in two sizes: The 265S has a 1.1in screen and the 265 a 1.3in screen. The Forerunner 165 only comes in one size, with a 1.2in screen.

Both watches have barometric altimeters and Garmin’s Elevate V4 optical heart rate sensor. There’s no major difference between the internal sensors, and both link to external sensors via both Bluetooth and ANT+. However, the Forerunner 265 can link to cycling power meters where the Forerunner 165 can’t, which marks the latter as more of a running watch than a multisport one.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

The main difference with the sports tracking on the two watches is that the Forerunner 265 has a multisport mode, whereas the 165 doesn’t. You can track all the individual sports of a triathlon with the 165, including open-water swimming, but it doesn’t have the multisport mode.

During activities the Forerunner 265 can display more data fields at a time than the 165; there’s a maximum of six on the 265 and four on the 165. Both are clear and easy to read during activities, even in sunny conditions. 

There are more differences between the training analysis offered by the watches. The Forerunner 265 provides Garmin’s training status insights (which tell you if your training is proving productive or not) and a training readiness score that rates how ready you are to train. This is out of 100, and based on factors like sleep, training history and heart rate variability (HRV) overnight.

The Forerunner 165 provides a more basic experience, though it does give your HRV status overnight, as well as estimating your VO2 max and race times. It also advises you on how long it will take to recover after a workout.

At times, the more extensive training analysis on the Forerunner 265 is useful, but it’s the multisport features that are probably more important in determining which is the right choice for you.

GPS And HR Accuracy

The Forerunner 265 has dual-band GPS, which is the most accurate option, whereas the Forerunner 165 has only all-systems-on GPS. I say “only” but all-systems-on is still accurate—and during my testing of the 165, the distance tracking matched up well to the stats from the Garmin Epix Pro in dual-band mode. You still get an improvement with the dual-band on the 265, especially when running amid tall buildings in cities, but it reduces battery life to use the dual-band mode. 

Both watches have the same optical heart rate sensor and I experienced mixed results with its accuracy during testing. If you want the most accurate results, pair one of the best heart rate monitors with either the Forerunner 165 or 265. If you intend on using the training analysis on either watch, using a chest strap is advisable because this will help avoid poor data coming into the watch from workouts where the optical sensor has proved inaccurate.

Battery Life

The longest-lasting watch in the Forerunner 165 and 265 ranges is the Forerunner 265S. Overall, the differences in battery life between the Forerunner 165 and 265 are not big enough to make it a significant factor, but the 265 lasts longer between charges. Both lasted around four or five days for me with the screen set to always-on, tracking runs every day, though listening to music via the watch brings that number down quickly.

More Garmin Forerunner 265 Versus

• Garmin Forerunner 265 Vs Garmin Forerunner 255
• Garmin Forerunner 965 Vs Garmin Forerunner 265

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is a new AMOLED option within Garmin’s extensive range of sports watches, coming in significantly cheaper than the Garmin Forerunner 265, though it’s not as affordable as Garmin’s true entry-level running watch, the Garmin Forerunner 55.

While you miss out on some useful features that are on the Forerunner 265 (and indeed the non-AMOLED Garmin Forerunner 255) like a triathlon mode and dual-band GPS tracking, the Forerunner 165 is an excellent option for runners who want a watch with an AMOLED screen. It’s certainly one of the best running watches available, and I’d say the only better-value options are non-AMOLED watches like the Coros Pace 3 and Garmin Forerunner 255.

Garmin Forerunner 165: Price And Availability

The Garmin Forerunner 165 launched in February 2024 and costs $249.99/£249.99 for the standard version of the watch, while the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music is $299.99/£289.99. It is available to buy now from Garmin US and Garmin UK and ships in five to eight weeks.

This is considerably cheaper than the Garmin Forerunner 265, which is $449.99/£429.99, and also cheaper than the Forerunner 255’s list price, though as an older watch it’s usually possible to find the 255 in sales for a lot less. Our coverage of 2023’s Black Friday Garmin deals found it for as low as $299.99.

How I Tested This Watch

I have been wearing the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music for two weeks, using it to track around 150 miles of running in that time along with other workouts including yoga and strength sessions. During that time I also wore the Garmin Epix Pro linked with a Polar H10 heart rate monitor to check the GPS and HR accuracy of the Forerunner 165. I have also tested the rest of Garmin’s Forerunner range, and all the best sports watches on the market.

Design And Hardware

The star feature of the Forerunner 165’s design is the 1.2in AMOLED display, which is as bright and vibrant as the screens on other AMOLED Forerunner watches such as the 265 and 965. The watch has Garmin’s usual five-button set-up, with two buttons on the right side and three on the left, and you can also use the touchscreen to navigate its menus. The screen is made from chemically strengthened glass rather than the Gorilla glass used on the Forerunner 265.

Unlike the Garmin Forerunner 255 and 265, the Forerunner 165 only comes in one size, which sits between the 265 and 265S sizes. The only differences between the 165 and 165 Music are the music feature and audio prompts during workouts on the latter.

It is a small and light plastic watch that I found comfortable to wear at all times. It uses a 20mm band, which you can replace on the watch easily, either with another Garmin strap or a third-party band.

The watch uses Garmin’s Elevate V4 optical heart rate sensor, which is not the latest Elevate V5 sensor found on watches such as the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Epix Pro. It has a barometric altimeter for elevation tracking during activities and counting your floors climbed each day, and also has a pulse oximeter for measuring blood oxygen saturation.

You can link to external sensors via both Bluetooth and ANT+, but the Forerunner 165 won’t connect to cycling power meters, which marks it out as a running watch rather than one aimed at triathletes or cyclists.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is not a triathlon watch with a dedicated multisport mode, but it does have sports modes to cover pretty much everything else, including pool and open-water swimming and a dedicated track run mode.

It will offer suggested workouts each day based on your past training, and you can link the Forerunner 165 with a Garmin Coach training plan for a 5K, 10K or half marathon, which will be customized to your fitness level and goals. It’s also easy to create and add your own structured workouts to the watch to follow on your wrist, and the Forerunner 165 can measure running power and running dynamics like ground contact time from the wrist without needing to link up with an external sensor.

The training analysis on the watch is not as extensive as on the Forerunner 265, which has Garmin’s training readiness stat and gives you your training status, but the Forerunner 165 does estimate your VO2 max and recovery time after a workout. It will also tell you the aerobic and anaerobic training effect of your run, as well as predicting your race times for 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon distances.

During workouts the screen is only large enough to show four stats, but it’s bright and easy to see even in sunny conditions, and clearer than the LCD screens of watches like the Coros Pace 3 and Forerunner 255 when under cloud or tree cover.

While it lacks some of the insights you get on Garmin’s more expensive watches, the Forerunner 165 is a good sports tracker that covers the essentials for runners well, and also includes some extras like running power and technique stats.

GPS And HR Accuracy

While the Forerunner 165 does not offer Garmin’s dual-band GPS tracking, which I have found to be the most accurate from any brand, it does have an all-systems-on tracking mode as well as a basic GPS-only mode which can extend battery life.

I used the all-systems-on mode throughout my testing, comparing it against the Garmin Epix Pro in multi-band mode. Overall the Forerunner 165 was highly accurate, closely matching the Epix Pro on every run including some under tree cover.

I found it tended to overestimate distance slightly and was a little generous with my pace as a result, and looking at GPS tracks this would be down to it tracking a wider path around corners at times, but overall this was marginal. In a week where I logged 77.1 miles on the Epix Pro, the Forerunner 165 logged 77.6 miles.

The heart rate tracking, unfortunately, was less impressive. On most of my runs the Forerunner 165’s optical heart rate sensor would log an erroneously high heart rate compared with the Polar H10 chest strap, including for the entirety of a 20-mile run where it locked on to my cadence instead of my heart rate. 

This skews the limited training analysis on the watch, so if you intend on using that or to train using heart rate, it would be best to link a chest strap.

Navigation

The Forerunner 165 offers breadcrumb navigation, which is a feature you don’t get on the cheaper Forerunner 55 running watch. Create a course in the Garmin Connect and send it to the watch to get a line and pointer, plus turn-by-turn directions. You can also activate the back-to-start feature during an outdoor activity to get a pointer and the distance back to your start point.

I have always found Garmin’s breadcrumb navigation sufficient to guide me through runs in unfamiliar places. It’s not as easy to follow the route as when using a Garmin watch with full maps, but those are much more expensive.

Battery Life

Both Forerunner 165 models are listed as lasting up to 11 days in watch mode, and offer 19 hours of GPS. Judging by my testing, this GPS stat is based on using the more energy-intensive all-systems-on tracking, because I found the watch drained by around 5% an hour when tracking runs in that mode.

The battery life comes down if you turn the screen to always-on, which I did during my testing. My Forerunner 165 lasted four to five days on a charge when running, on average, for at least an hour a day—but I didn’t have notifications coming into the watch, which will reduce battery life a little. 

Setting the screen to raise-to-wake outside workouts will extend the battery life considerably, and the screen does wake quite quickly and reliably with a turn of the wrist.

Even with the screen always on and running every day, the battery life on the Forerunner 165 is pretty impressive for a small watch with a bright AMOLED display. Even with heavy use, it outlasts the best fitness smartwatches by a couple of days. If charging every four or five days is too much for you it’s easy to extend the life beyond that by disabling the always-on screen.

Smart Features

Both models of the Garmin Forerunner 165 offer notifications, access to the Connect IQ app store and NFC payments through Garmin Pay, and the Forerunner 165 Music also has music storage. 

As with all Garmins with music, the Forerunner 165 works with paid-for Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music accounts, allowing you to wirelessly sync across your music for offline playback on the watch. It has 4GB of storage available, half the 8GB on the Forerunner 265, but still enough room for a lot of music.

The app store is limited and the Forerunner 165 doesn’t offer cellular connectivity, so it’s not a true smartwatch like the Apple Watch Series 9, but the smart features here are better than you get from any other sports watch. 

Activity And Sleep Tracking

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is very good as a daily activity tracker, logging your steps, calories, floors climbed and active minutes each day. It also has a pulse oximeter to measure your blood oxygen saturation, and will track your heart rate variability at night and plot it against your baseline once this has been established.

It also tracks naps as well as sleep, and gives you a sleep score for the latter plus your sleep stages and time in REM, deep and light sleep. While it doesn’t offer Garmin’s training readiness score, the Forerunner 165 does have the brand’s body battery feature, which rates your energy levels out of 100.

As with all Garmin watches I’ve tested, I found the Forerunner 165 was a little generous with its sleep tracking, missing periods where I was awake during the night and logging them as light sleep. I usually found it logged 30-60 more minutes as time asleep in total than the third-generation Oura ring measured, but the heart rate variability tracking numbers did largely agree with the Oura ring each night, and you can use those to judge the overall state of your body and your readiness to train each morning.

Is The Garmin Forerunner 165 Worth It?

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is an excellent running watch and while it’s not exactly cheap, it is a lot more affordable than Garmin’s other AMOLED sports watches. Whether it’s the best value sports watch for runners or not depends on how highly you value its bright display.

The main competition for the 165 comes from the Coros Pace 3 and Garmin Forerunner 255, but both have LCD screens. However, both those watches are a little cheaper and offer dual-band GPS and more insightful training analysis, and the Coros has significantly longer battery life too. The GPS tracking and training analysis on the Forerunner 165 was good enough in my testing, and I didn’t find its battery life annoyingly short, so I’d say the value you place on the screen and price are the key considerations. Unless you’re a triathlete, that is—the Pace 3 and Forerunner 255 have a multisport mode and the 165 doesn’t.

The Forerunner 165 is certainly a compelling alternative to the Forerunner 265, which is a lot more expensive. The 265 is undoubtedly a better watch and offers different size options and additional features like training readiness, but the extras it offers over the 165 won’t be required by everyone.

Compared with the Garmin Vivoactive 5 and Venu 3 smartwatches, the Forerunner 165 offers more sports features and training analysis, as well as more buttons for ease of use during workouts. I found the Vivoactive 5 a good sporty smartwatch, but the Forerunner 165 has proven more accurate and useful as a sports watch and has similar smart features.

Garmin has today announced the release of a chest strap heart rate monitor that’s designed for women. The Garmin HRM-Fit clips to the underband so you can wear it with your favorite running bra.

It’s an important development because electrocardiogram (ECG) chest strap heart rate monitors are much more accurate than the optical wrist monitors found in even the best sports watches, but wearing one with a sports bra is a less-than-ideal arrangement. Wearing two tight bands around the ribcage is a recipe for friction and discomfort. “Whichever way I tried it was annoying,” says ultra runner Rhalou Allerhand about her attempts to wear a chest strap.

While there are sports bras that have built-in connections for ECG heart rate monitors, they’re few and far between. MyZone sells a sports bra that’s compatible with several of its HRMs, but the bra only offers medium support and comes in basic sizes (S-XL) with no adjustability to the shoulder straps. A heart rate monitor that works with any sports bra means you can prioritize getting the right fit.

The Garmin HRM-Fit uses three anchor points to clip onto the underband of any medium- or high-support bra, and transmits your heart rate data to the device of your choice, whether that’s a running watch, cycling computer or a connected cardio machine such as a treadmill or spin bike. There’s no limit to the number of ANT connections, and it can have three Bluetooth connections.

The Garmin HRM-Fit can also measure your heart rate variability, which can indicate if you’re getting ill or overtraining. The monitor tracks running dynamics like cadence and vertical oscillation, as well as tracking running pace and distance, on indoor as well as outdoor runs.

While we haven’t tested this HRM yet, Coach’s senior writer Nick Harris-Fry found the Garmin HRM Pro Plus to be accurate at tracking heart rate and liked the extra running stats tracked, although as with the HRM-Fit these extra stats only work with a compatible Garmin watch.

The HRM-Fit has a 3ATM waterproof rating so it can be used for swimming, with the device storing your data and sending it to compatible devices afterward. 

Garmin says the coin battery will last a year of daily use and you won’t need a screwdriver to change it, it opens with a coin.

The HRM-Fit has a suggested retail price of $149.99 in the US and £139.99 in the UK. That’s a little more expensive than Garmin’s HRM Pro Plus ($129.99 / £119.99), and quite a lot more than most other HRMs on the market. 

If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative that’s almost as accurate and won’t argue with your sports bra, consider the armband-style optical monitors worn on the upper arm such as the Coros Heart Rate Monitor, which features in Coach’s recommendations of the best heart rate monitors.

Launched four years ago, the Garmin Swim 2 was the brand’s second attempt at a dedicated swimming watch. As well as a sleeker, more contemporary design and a color screen, it added cycling, running and cardio tracking—making it an attractive option for swimmers looking to dabble in cross-training without investing in a triathlon watch.

Its specs made it look like it could challenge its significantly more expensive rivals. As well as recording and logging swimming metrics in the pool or open water (via GPS), it tracked general fitness such as steps and calories burned like the best of them, while offering features (phone notifications, calendar reminders) common on other smartwatches.

But, years on from its release, does it still hold its own among the best swimming watches or has it been knocked into the slow lane by newer, flashier alternatives?

Garmin Swim 2: Price And Availability

The Garmin Swim 2 was released in October 2019 and costs $249 in the US and £219.99 in the UK. The next cheapest smartwatch in Garmin’s range that features similar pool and open-water swimming capabilities is the Instinct 2 ($299.99/£249.99), while its most affordable triathlon watch is the Garmin Forerunner 255 ($349.99/£299.99). The Coros Pace 3 and Polar Ignite 3 offer a multisport alternative for a similar price.

How I Tested This Watch

I’ve used the Garmin Swim 2 as my main watch for four weeks, which has included two 1,500-2,000m swims a week in a 50m lido and 25m indoor pool. I also tested the Swim 2 in open water and put its workout functions through their paces while completing pool-based drills and training sessions. I have experience with some of the best triathlon watches, including the Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar, which I used alongside the Garmin Swim 2 to check its accuracy.

Set-Up And Design

The Swim 2 has a 1.04in glass color display enclosed in a robust plastic case with a silicone strap. While on the small side compared to other smartwatches and fitness trackers, its bright backlight makes the screen easy to see at a glance, and it’s also clear when used in the pool.

You navigate the watch using five buttons that are on the sides of its base. Each button performs a different function in general smartwatch mode and during an activity, and while it is quite intuitive, there are small labels on the screen to make its functionality that bit easier.

As with other Garmin watches and bike computers, setting up is straightforward. Out of the box, you’re prompted to download the Garmin Connect app (available on Google Play and the Apple App Store) and connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth. From here, it’s possible to set up preferences, such as Do Not Disturb timings (the hours when you won’t receive notifications on the watch), while Garmin Connect is also the place where you’ll be able to delve into activities and keep track of your general fitness metrics and sleep score.

Swimming Features

The Swim 2 is packed with all the swimming features you could possibly want. Distance, pace, stroke count, stroke type and SWOLF (score that measures your swimming efficiency) can be displayed on the watch mid-activity and analyzed post-swim, while the built-in heart rate monitor logs the intensity of effort and how hard you’re working.

In practice, the Swim 2 correctly analyzed the type and number of strokes when I was swimming lengths, but it wasn’t 100% accurate on distance and, therefore, pace. On several occasions when completing a general endurance-focused swim, it over-estimated the number of lengths I’d swum, slightly skewing the average and fastest paces in the process. While this is an issue I’ve encountered with the Garmin Forerunner 955, I expected closer to 100% accuracy from a dedicated swimming watch.

When completing drills or equipment-based sessions, the Swim 2 fared much better. After syncing a workout I’d created via the Garmin Connect app, the watch seamlessly took me through the steps during each stage and at no point cut an interval short. In open water, it appeared to log activities accurately via its built-in GPS (well, as accurately as the Garmin Forerunner 955), and the only issue I found was the drain this caused on the battery. When used for pool swims, the Swim 2 lasted around a week between charges, though open-water swims required more frequent charging.

Fitness Tracking And General Features

One of the biggest upgrades to the Swim 2 over its predecessor was the addition of running, cycling and cardio logging. In testing, it was fine for the basics, but fell short on the more advanced metrics that you’d get on a multi-sport watch, or even a newer smartwatch.

For running and cycling it tracked heart rate, distance and pace/speed in line with the Garmin Forerunner 955, but the inability to add a power meter as another sensor limits its multi-sport potential. Also, it doesn’t have a separate triathlon activity mode, which means you’d have to get creative with the watch if you wanted to use it for an event.

Its general features are passable compared with other, newer models. Smartphone syncing is limited to messages and calendar notifications (no Garmin Pay here), while its small screen makes it more of a pager than something you could read a full email on.

Is The Garmin Swim 2 Worth It?

The Garmin Swim 2 does what it’s designed to do well, will elevate your swimming training to new data-fueled heights, and has the benefit of the user-friendly Garmin Connect interface. 

At its price, the Swim 2 is an affordable option relative to the rest of Garmin’s range, particularly if you’re only after a way of tracking time in the pool or open water.

Unfortunately, its general fitness and smartwatch features haven’t aged well outside the water, and I’d want more from a modern smartwatch—particularly with cross-training on my workout agenda. You’ll get more for your money by plumping for the new Coros Pace 3 or Garmin Instinct 2.

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Epix Pro are among the best sports watches available, and sit at the top of Garmin’s impressive range. They are also fairly new watches, having only come out in late May this year, so it was a pleasant surprise to find them included in the Garmin Black Friday sale reduced by $200.

It’s even more surprising that Garmin is still offering the deal as part of its holiday sale, and if you’re planning on being incredibly generous this Christmas, one of the Fenix or Epix would make for an outstanding gift for runners or other keen athletes (although it will arrive after December 25th, but no-one receiving a watch this good is in a position to complain). In Garmin’s sale you can get $200 off the standard Fenix 7 and Fenix 7 Pro ranges, as well as the Epix Pro range.

• Need help deciding between the two? My Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Fenix 7 Pro comparison will help.

• I put these two watches head to head in my Garmin Fenix 7 Pro vs Garmin Epix Pro 2 face-off.

The best value to be found is in the standard Fenix 7 range, which has the same software features as the Pro watches, though lacks the built-in flashlight (aside from the larger Fenix 7X) and improved heart rate monitor you get on the Fenix 7 Pro range. The Pro watches also have multi-band GPS as standard, while it’s only available on sapphire Fenix 7 watches. 

Garmin has not reduced the standard Epix 2 watch unfortunately, which would be the cheaper alternative to the Epix Pro and was available for just $449.99 at Amazon during the Black Friday sales. However, you can get the sapphire titanium version of the Epix 2 in the sale for $599.99, and this is the model that has multi-band GPS.

The $300 saving is an even bigger saving than the $200 you get on other watches in Garmin’s sale, and Walmart has topped this deal by offering the white Epix 2 sapphire model for $579.99, a $320 saving on its listed price.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Garmin Epix Pro are two of the best sports watches available, and both are reduced in the Cyber Monday sales. You can get the standard Epix Pro for $699.99 down from $899.99 at both Garmin and Amazon, while Amazon has reduced the Apple Watch Ultra 2 from $799 to $739.

Both are outstanding watches, but which should you get? I used both watches for several weeks when testing them for my reviews on Coach and have continued to use them since then. In my mind the choice will depend on how much you value the smarts of the Apple Watch versus the training analysis, battery life and navigation tools you get from the Garmin.

The Garmin Epix Pro has a bright AMOLED display and Garmin’s best smart features, including NFC payments through Garmin Pay and music storage with the ability to link up to streaming services including Spotify to wirelessly transfer your playlists across to the watch.

However, it isn’t a true smartwatch, with the Connect IQ app store being mostly limited to watch faces and data fields rather than useful third-party apps, and it doesn’t have cellular capabilities. Garmin Pay is also less easy to set up and use than Apple Pay, especially outside the USA.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 obviously is a proper smartwatch, the best on the market in fact, with the most impressive App Store and cellular capabilities. Within the App Store you can also find loads of brilliant sports tracking and navigation apps, so while the native tracking on the watch isn’t quite as good as Garmin’s, you can get a Garmin-level experience from apps like WorkOutDoors and others.

However, what you can’t get from the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is more than two days of battery life, or the detailed training analysis you get from the Garmin Epix Pro. Garmin is also well ahead of all other watch brands with regards to its navigation tools. The Epix Pro has color maps on the watch and can create routes on the fly, or you can load routes onto it to follow from your wrist.

I used both watches side by side during testing and I’d say they are among the best watches available with regards to GPS and heart rate accuracy, with both having multi-band GPS, though on both counts I’d just give the edge to the Garmin Epix Pro as the slightly more accurate watch.

Normally the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has another advantage in being cheaper, but that has been turned on its head during the Cyber Monday sales, because the Epix Pro is reduced by $200 and comes in $40 less than the Apple Watch.

I’d say unless you really need the cellular capabilities of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 in particular, the Epix Pro is the smarter buy in the sales. It’s a little larger on the wrist than the Apple Watch Ultra 2, but the latter is not a small watch either, and as an added bonus the Epix Pro has built-in flashlight so you always have a light handy for your adventures.

The Black Friday And Cyber Monday Garmin deals started in early November this year and there have been big savings available across Garmin’s range of watches. Two surprise deals have cropped up late in the month though, a $50 discount to be had on both the Garmin Venu 3 and Garmin Vivoactive 5.

Both watches are among the newest in Garmin’s range—the Venu 3 came out in August and the Vivoactive 5 in September, so getting any kind of discount is a surprise this Cyber Monday, and the Vivoactive 5 is now just $249.99 on both Amazon and Garmin.

The Vivoactive 5 is missing a few features compared with the Venu 3, such as a microphone and speaker and an altimeter, and it also has an older heart rate sensor than the Venu 3, which is $399.99 in the sales down from $449.99. The Venu 3 also comes in two sizes and has slightly longer battery life, but the core features are the same across both watches and the Vivoactive 5 is $200 cheaper.

Neither the Venu 3 or Vivoactive 5 are true smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 9 or Google Pixel Watch 2, both of which have access to proper app stores and have cellular models in their ranges, but they do have key smart features and better native sports tracking through Garmin. 

I have been a regular visitor to the SportsShoes website in recent days to check its Black Friday sale for deals on the best running shoes. What I did not expect to find there was the best deal available on the Garmin Forerunner 955, which is available for £359.99 down from £479.99.

The Forerunner 955 was always due to be reduced this Black Friday after the Garmin Forerunner 965 came out earlier this year, but the older watch has been updated with all of Garmin’s latest software features, and while it doesn’t have the bright AMOLED display of the 965, its LCD screen means it offers longer battery life compared with the 965. (Read my Garmin Forerunner 965 Vs Garmin Forerunner 955 comparison for more.)

It’s the best value watch for those who want Garmin's top features like maps and extensive training analysis on top of accurate and detailed sports tracking, coming in cheaper than the likes of the Garmin Fenix and Epix ranges.

Amazon currently doesn’t have a discount available on the Forerunner 955, and the cheapest I’ve found the watch elsewhere in the sales is £399.99, so you save an extra £40 at SportsShoes.

The Cyber Monday Garmin deals have been coming thick and fast throughout November, and now, as the big day is finally upon us, I hope they will build to a crescendo of savings. I’ve been hunting for deals on the Garmin Fenix in particular, with three generations of the sports watch worth looking out for in the sales.

Originally released in 2019, the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is old, but still an excellent sports watch with maps and music storage—the standard Fenix 6 is also good, but lacks maps, which I consider a key part of the Fenix line’s appeal.

The Garmin Fenix 7 came out in early 2022 and is still up to date with all of Garmin’s software features, some of which launched with the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro in 2023 but then rolled back to the 7. 

There are some hardware differences between the Fenix 7 and 7 Pro though. The Fenix 7 Pro has a better heart rate sensor than the Fenix 7, and all sizes and versions of the Pro have built-in flashlights and multi-band GPS, whereas with the 7 only the 7X has a flashlight and only sapphire models have multi-band GPS.

All three watches—the Fenix 6 Pro, Fenix 7 and Fenix 7 Pro—are discounted in the sales, and the savings are considerable. However, this is the first Cyber Monday where deals on the Fenix 6 Pro have started to drop off, presumably because stocks are running low.

US Garmin Fenix Cyber Monday Deals

Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Cyber Monday Deals

You can get the Fenix 6 Pro for $499.99 on Amazon, or pay just $329.99 for a renewed version of the watch if you’re happy to go for a refurbished product. However, the best deal I’ve seen is on the larger Fenix 6X Pro Solar, which is reduced to $399.98 at Bass Pro.

Garmin Fenix 7 Cyber Monday Deals

The deals on the Fenix 7 are pretty standard across retailers, with Garmin leading the charge itself by knocking the price of the standard Fenix 7 model down to $449.99, which is as good a price as you’ll find anywhere. It’s worth considering upgrading to a sapphire model though, because they have more accurate multi-band GPS as well as using more durable materials. The Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar is $599.99 in sales, though for that price you can get the standard model of the Fenix 7 Pro instead if you’d rather have a built-in flashlight than a sapphire screen and titanium bezel.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Cyber Monday Deals

I didn’t expect the Fenix 7 Pro to be heavily discounted this year, but you can get $200 off any model in the range in the Garmin sales, or at Amazon if you prefer. That means it’s $599.99 for the standard Fenix 7 Pro, or $699.99 for a sapphire solar model with a titanium bezel.

UK Garmin Fenix Cyber Monday Deals

Garmin Fenix 7 Cyber Monday Deals

It’s a similar story with the deals available in the UK, where the Fenix 6 Pro is no longer easy to find at substantial discounts, unless you opt for a renewed model on Amazon, which means you can get a Fenix 6X Pro for £447.74. A new Fenix 6 Pro is £549.99 on Amazon, which is a lot more than you’ll pay for a Fenix 7 in the sales, and no other retailers are picking up the slack, so it’s definitely worth upgrading to a Fenix 7 at least.

You can get the standard Fenix 7 for £399 at Amazon, which is £50 cheaper than it is in Garmin’s own sale, or the larger Fenix 7X Solar model for £499.99. Finding a sapphire solar model in the sales is trickier, but Blacks has reduced the Fenix 7 Sapphire model to £579.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Cyber Monday Deals

Amazon and Currys have slightly undercut Garmin with their sales on the Fenix 7 Pro, which has been reduced to £629 at both retailers. However, the cheapest Fenix 7 Pro in the Cyber Monday sales is the smaller Fenix 7S Pro, which is reduced to £599 at Amazon. The smaller size means the Fenix 7S fits thinner wrists better, but you get less battery life and a smaller screen, so if you don’t mind a slightly bigger watch I’d pay the £30 extra for the Fenix 7 Pro.

Two of the best Garmin Black Friday deals this year are the discounts on the Garmin Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 245. The music versions of both watches are substantially reduced, so you can get the Forerunner 245 for $199.99 on Amazon and Forerunner 255 for $299.99 on Garmin.

Both watches are older devices, the Garmin Forerunner 265 being the newer of the two, but both the Forerunner 245 and 255 are still excellent options at their reduced prices. 

The Forerunner 245 hasn’t received new features via software updates from Garmin in a while, but it still offers accurate and detailed sports tracking and some training analysis. It also has breadcrumb navigation and music storage, and lasted me a week on a charge quite reliably even when running every day.

Naturally the Garmin Forerunner 255 is an upgrade on the older watch, with notable new features including a multisport mode for triathletes and multi-band GPS, which is more accurate than the tracking available on the 245.

Other new features include more detailed training analysis, a race calendar widget, a morning report and heart rate variability tracking, which can help you judge how ready your body is to train each day (though the Forerunner 255 does not get Garmin’s training readiness measurement, which is on the 265).

There are also two sizes of the Forerunner 255. The smaller Forerunner 255S is a great option for those with smaller wrists, even if the smaller case means less battery life. The 255S still lasted me five or six days when running most days using the multi-band GPS, which uses more battery than standard GPS.

If you don’t need music features, you can actually get the Forerunner 255 for $249.99 at Amazon in the Black Friday sale, so if you carry your phone with you when training or just don’t need any audio encouragement during workouts, that’s the better deal for sure.

As a keen runner who doesn’t do triathlons, I’d say the Forerunner 245 Music would be the better watch for me to grab in the sales. I’d miss the multi-band GPS on the 255 for sure, but the 245 is a simple and reliable watch that I’ve happily trained with in the past, and it does everything I need for $100 less.

If you want a more detailed comparison, read my Garmin Forerunner vs Garmin Forerunner 255 article, and my Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Garmin Forerunner 255 article. You can also read more about my experience with each watch in my Garmin Forerunner 255 review and my Garmin Forerunner 245 review. 

There are a lot of great Black Friday Garmin deals available right now, with discounted watches to suit all budgets. However, having tested almost every watch in Garmin’s current range, the deal that stands out the most to me is the $350 saving you can get on the Garmin Epix 2.

That brings the watch down to $449, which is still a lot of money, but considering that the Garmin Epix 2 is one of the best sports watches available and usually $799.99, it’s an excellent price.

With an attractive and durable design, color maps, music storage, a bright AMOLED display and all of Garmin’s top sports tracking and training analysis features, the Epix 2 will satisfy runners and triathletes of all levels. I used the sapphire version of the Epix 2 for most of last year while training for and running four marathons, and it’s a brilliant watch.

The Garmin Epix Pro came out this year but the Epix 2 was updated with all the new software on the Pro. The differences between the Epix Pro and the Epix 2 are that the Pro comes in three sizes, all of which have an upgraded optical heart rate monitor and a built-in flashlight, which you don’t get on the Epix 2.

Having tested both extensively I’d say that unless you plan on using the flashlight regularly or want a smaller or larger watch, the Epix 2 is better value than the Pro, even with the latter reduced to $699.99 in the Black Friday sales.

However, there is one feature that is not on the Garmin Epix 2 available in the sale which I would miss. The deal is on the steel version of the watch, which doesn’t have multi-band GPS, a feature that Garmin limited to the sapphire version of the Epix 2.

I love the extra accuracy you get from multi-band GPS, but it is true to say the all-systems-on GPS tracking you do get on the Epix 2 steel version is still highly accurate. Unless you’re a GPS obsessive like myself you probably won’t notice the difference. 

If you must have multi-band GPS, it’s standard on the Epix Pro, and also available on the Forerunner 955, which is down to $399 this Black Friday and also has Garmin’s latest software, in a lighter, plastic case. 

It’s hard to say a $449 sports watch is good value, but given the quality of the Epix 2 and the size of the discount you’re getting in Amazon’s sale, this is one of the standout Garmin deals of Black Friday so far for me. The best price I can see on the watch elsewhere is $499 at Best Buy, while Garmin hasn’t included the Epix 2 in its sale at all.

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023 sales are now over but we've taken note of what deals were available on each Garmin device so you can work out what discounts are worth your time when the sales roll around again.

The standout deal was $200 off the Garmin Epix Pro, which is probably the best sports watch in the world—taking it to its lowest ever price. The Fenix range also got a chunky $200 discount.

Welcome $50 discounts on the fairly recent Forerunner 965 and Forerunner 265 made these excellent multisports watches even better value. 

It was a similar story in the UK, although the discounts didn't feel quite as generous across the board. Having said that, across the products we highlighted the average saving was $90 in the US, and in the UK the average saving was £95.

Garmin Black Friday Quick Links

Check in with the major retailers to see what’s on offer right now.

US Quick Links

• Amazon: Garmin deals updated daily
• Bass Pro: Deals on Garmin watches and accessories
• Best Buy: $100 off the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar, plus other deals
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Save on Garmin watches
• Garmin: Check for discounts direct from Garmin
• REI: 25% off the Garmin Flux S Smart Trainer
• Walmart: $320 off Garmin Fenix 7X Solar

UK Quick Links

• Amazon: The latest Garmin deals, updated daily
• Chain Reaction Cycles: Savings on Garmin devices
• Currys: The latest deals on Garmin watches
• Decathlon: 22% off the Garmin Forerunner 55 and other deals
• Garmin: Check for deals, with Garmin’s holiday sale now live
• John Lewis: Deals on Garmin watches and bike computers
• Sigma Sports: Save 22% on the Fenix 7, plus other Garmin deals
• Wiggle: Discounts on Garmin watches, bike computers and accessories

US Black Friday Garmin Deals: Editor Picks

These deals are over, but we’ve summarized them below to help you to assess subsequent deals on the same devices.

• Garmin Epix Pro: Sale price $699.99, saving $200
• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Sale price $599.99, saving $200
• Garmin Fenix 7: Sale price $499.99, saving $200
• Garmin Epix 2: Sale price $449.99, saving $350
• Garmin Forerunner 265: Sale price $399.99, saving $50
• Garmin Forerunner 965: Sale price $549.99, saving $50
• Garmin Forerunner 255 Music: Sale price $299, saving $100
• Garmin Forerunner 955: Sale price $399, saving $100
• Garmin Instinct 2X Solar: Sale price $349, saving $100
• Garmin Enduro 2: Sale price $799.99, saving $200
• Garmin Forerunner 245 Music: Sale price $199, saving $100
• Garmin Forerunner 55: Sale price $169, saving $30
• Garmin Instinct Crossover: Sale price $299, saving $100

UK Black Friday Garmin Deals: Editor Picks

These deals are over but we've logged the offers for Black Friday 2023 so you can compare them next time there's a discount on offer.

• Garmin Epix Pro: Sale price £716, saving £114
• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Sale price £628.34, saving £121
• Garmin Fenix 7: Sale price £449.99, saving £110
• Garmin Forerunner 55: Sale price £119.28, saving £65
• Garmin Swim 2: Sale price £219, saving £70
• Garmin Venu 2: Sale price £244.99, saving £105
• Garmin Enduro 2: Sale price £799, saving £130
• Garmin Instinct Crossover: Sale price £299.99, saving £50

Best Black Friday Garmin Deals By Line

Our deals tool scans the web and retailers’s databases to bring you a selection of the top Garmin deals available today. We’ve divided your options by Garmin line.

Garmin Forerunner Deals

Garmin Fenix Deals

Garmin Epix Deals

Garmin Enduro Deals

Garmin Venu Deals

Garmin Vivoactive Deals

Garmin Instinct Deals

Garmin Black Friday FAQs

The Garmin Forerunner 955 and Garmin Forerunner 255 have been superseded in 2023, but the main update you get with the newer Forerunner 965 and 265 watches is an AMOLED screen, which isn’t something everyone wants on a sports watch.

That means the 255 and 955 remain among the best sports watches, and they’re also now the best-value options in Garmin’s range because they are old enough to appear in sales. If you’re picking between the two, you’re getting good value either way, and the choice largely depends on whether you want to pay the extra for the color maps on the 955, plus a couple of other useful training analysis features.

Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Forerunner 255: Price And Availability

Garmin launched the Forerunner 955 in April 2022 and while there is only one size, you can choose between non-solar and solar versions. The standard Forerunner 955 costs $499.99 in the US and £479.99 in the UK. It’s $599.99/£549.99 for the solar version.

The Garmin Forerunner 255 launched in June 2022 and it comes in two sizes, and there are music and non-music options. The music versions of the watch cost $399.99/£349.99 and the non-music watches are $349.99/£299.99. 

The watches are frequently available for less than their RRP, especially in big sales periods like Black Friday. Price drops of $50-$80 are common for all models of both watches.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the Garmin Forerunner 255 and Garmin Forerunner 955 for several weeks before writing my reviews for Coach, tracking all my workouts, everyday activity and sleep with the watches. I tested the smaller Forerunner 255S and Forerunner 955 Solar. My main sport is running and I usually log 50-70 miles a week, as well as tracking the one or two cycles, yoga sessions and strength workouts each week.

• Read my Garmin Forerunner 255 review
• Read my Garmin Forerunner 955 review

Design

The Forerunner 955 and 255 are plastic watches with Gorilla glass memory-in-pixel LCD screens and five buttons, with the only real upgrade on the 955 being that it has a touchscreen, as well as a solar option.

The Forerunner 955 is a larger watch than both versions of the 255, but the standard 255 has the same size screen at 1.3in, while the smaller 255S has a 1.1in screen. The Forerunner 255 is lighter than the 955: The standard 255 is 49g, the 255S is 39g and the 955 is 52g. Both watches have a 5ATM water-resistance rating.

Both watches offer multi-band GPS tracking, as well as less accurate, less power-intensive options like all-systems-on, and have the same array of sensors on board, including a barometric altimeter. They can connect to external devices via Bluetooth and ANT+, and have the same smart features: music storage (only on the music versions of the 255) and Garmin Pay.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

I found the watches’ GPS tracking impressively accurate, with Garmin’s multi-band mode the most reliable. The heart rate tracking was more hit-and-miss, and to get the best data feeding into the training analysis on the watches, I would use a chest strap heart rate monitor.

This is particularly important with the Forerunner 955, since it offers more extensive training analysis, including Garmin’s useful training readiness feature. This gives you a score out of 100 that rates how ready you are to train based on factors like recent training, sleep and heart rate variability readings.

The Forerunner 265 offers most of the data underlying this score, including tracking your heart rate variability each night, but doesn’t give the readiness score. It also misses out some other training analysis from the 955, such as heat and altitude acclimation. 

You also get more sports modes on the Forerunner 955, and it is a full golf watch with more than 42,000 courses loaded on the watch to help you navigate your round.

Battery Life

The Garmin Forerunner 955 offers longer battery life than the smaller 255, as you would expect, but in practice the difference was not huge for me. During my testing, the Forerunner 255S lasted around six days on a charge, and the Forerunner 955 Solar lasted seven to eight days. I was running almost every day with the multi-band mode enabled on both watches, and had notifications coming in.

If you live in a sunny climate and are outdoors for several hours each day, the solar version of the 955 will extend your time between charges, but this wasn’t a notable upgrade for me when testing in the UK and only going outside for one or two hours each day. If you’d like more detail, I've written about my experience with Garmin’s solar charging.

Navigation

The Garmin Forerunner 255 doesn’t offer maps, but does have breadcrumb navigation with turn-by-turn directions, so you can still follow routes on the watch easily enough. It also has a back-to-start feature that guides you back to where you began your activity with a pointer.

While breadcrumb navigation is usually good enough, the maps on the Forerunner 955 are one of the biggest reasons to consider upgrading. The color maps are clear and make navigation much easier, and they are routable, so you can create routes on the fly because the watch knows where you are, rather than just overlaying your route or position over a map.

With the Forerunner 955 you also get one of my favorite Garmin features. ClimbPro analyzes the elevation on your route and picks out the climbs and descents so you can see the details on them individually during your activities. This means you can gauge your effort on climbs more easily, since you know how much longer you’re going to be running uphill.

More Versus

See how the Garmin Forerunner 955 stacks up against other Garmin watches.

• Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Forerunner 965
• Garmin Forerunner 955 Vs Garmin Forerunner 945
• Garmin Forerunner 955 Vs Garmin Fenix 7

See how the Garmin Forerunner 255 compares with earlier and later generations.

• Garmin Forerunner 255 vs Garmin Forerunner 265
• Garmin Forerunner 255 vs Garmin Forerunner 245

Garmin and Polar make some of the best sports watches and are established as the two biggest brands for the seriously sporty, though Coros has made inroads into that market of late, and Suunto has a dedicated following too.

If you’re choosing between Garmin and Polar, you have decisions to make at pretty much any level—whether you’re a beginner looking for your first watch or an athlete needing the best of everything. Here, I’ll go through the key differences between the brands, though from the outset I’ll say that Garmin is clearly the better pick for most people right now.

How I’ve Tested These Watches

I’ve been testing sports watches from all the major brands for several years and have reviewed almost every device in Garmin and Polar’s current ranges. When testing watches I use them for two to three weeks, tracking all of my everyday activity and sleep, as well as my workouts, with my main sport being running—I usually log around 50-70 miles (30km-43km) a week. I check the accuracy of the GPS and heart rate sensor on the watch, looking at the usefulness of the training analysis and smart features, such as navigation, as well as battery life.

Garmin vs Polar: The Range

Garmin makes a lot of watches and its range can be confusing to navigate. There are the Forerunner watches, which are mainly aimed at runners and triathletes, while the Vivoactive and Venu watches are designed to feel more like smartwatches and to be suitable for general activity and workout tracking.

The upper echelons of the range contain the Fenix, Enduro and Epix watches, which are packed with the brand’s top features, and have more rugged, outdoorsy designs than the Forerunners, while also offering longer battery life. There is also the ultra-expensive Marq range, which has watches with distinctive designs, though these mostly run the same software as Garmin’s other top sports watches.

Whichever Garmin watch you get, the core user interface and sports tracking has many similarities. The foundations are always strong, and you fine-tune your choice based on the features you deem essential and the price you’re willing to pay.

Things are simpler with Polar’s range, which contains fewer watches. The budget option is the Unite, a basic fitness tracker, while the Pacer and Pacer Pro are the cheaper sports watches available.

The Polar Ignite 3 stands out in the range because of its AMOLED screen, which makes it the best-looking Polar available, and it also has good sports tracking. At the top of Polar’s tree are the Vantage V2 and Grit X Pro sports watches: The Grit has a hardier design for outdoor adventures, while the Vantage V2 is sleeker and lighter for those focused on performance. (The Vantage V3 has been announced but I have yet to test it.)

There are older Polar watches available as well, like the Vantage M2 and Grit X. The Vantage M2 has effectively been replaced by the Pacer Pro, which has more features and is cheaper. The Grit X is still worth investigating as a cheaper alternative to the Grit X Pro, though the latter has extra features.

Design

For the most part, Garmin and Polar stick to a similar formula for their sports watches, which have plastic bodies and three to five buttons. However, the amount of buttons varies, and the smartwatch-style devices in both ranges have fewer. Touchscreens are becoming more common across the ranges, and both brands have watches with bright AMOLED displays, as well as some with the classic LCD screens that are better for battery life.

In Polar's range the Ignite 3 is the only watch with an AMOLED display, while Garmin has the Venu and Epix ranges, plus the Vivoactive 5, Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965 watches, and the Marq 2.

Garmin also has many watches that use metal in their design, with steel or titanium bezels and case backs. Most of these are found in the Fenix, Epix, Enduro and Marq ranges, though the Forerunner 965 has a thin titanium bezel on its otherwise plastic design. Within Polar’s range the Grit X Pro Titan and Polar Ignite 3 Titan models have titanium bezels, while the standard Grit X Pro has a steel bezel, and the Vantage V2 has an aluminum case.

Overall, Garmin’s devices look more modern than Polar’s. Many Polar watches have a thick black bezel that surrounds the screen and makes them look somewhat dated. 

Sports Tracking

Both brands successfully manage the basics of sports tracking, with lots of customisable sports modes and a structured workout-builder, and offer training plans you can follow from your wrist, along with suggested workouts each day.

One area where Garmin has moved ahead in recent years is GPS accuracy. Garmin has many devices that offer multi-band GPS, and its watches with this mode have proved the most accurate for distance and pace tracking of all the brands I’ve tested. 

Polar only has one watch with multi-band GPS, which is the Ignite 3, and in my testing it didn’t perform well for GPS accuracy, delivering frequent errors during runs. I hope Polar will address this with the next generation of the Vantage V watch, because currently Garmin’s superiority is clear.

With regards to heart rate accuracy, the optical sensors in both brands’ watches are good most of the time, though I still spotted errors and lag compared with the readings from a chest strap. Garmin launched a new heart rate sensor with the Epix Pro and Fenix 7 Pro watches and this has proved more accurate during my testing, but with both brands I’d opt for an external chest strap or armband to get the best results on heart rate. 

One notable difference between them is that Garmin watches link to external sensors via Bluetooth and ANT+, while Polar’s latest watches use Bluetooth only.

Training Analysis

Polar once led the way for training analysis, but in recent years this is another area where Garmin has moved ahead. Polar’s training analysis is still extensive and useful, though you need to use the Polar Flow website to get the most detail on your training load and recovery, but Garmin offers the same features and more.

One of the major additions to Garmin watches over the past two years is training readiness. This is a simple rating out of 100 that says how ready you are to train, based on factors including your recent training and sleep, and heart rate variability. It’s a great distillation of the data being tracked by the watch that’s clear and easy to use. The underlying data is available too, if you want to dive into more detail.

Garmin has added interesting new ratings to its top watches in hill score and endurance score, which rate your proficiency in those areas. I’ve found Garmin's VO2 max estimates and race predictions to be more accurate than Polar’s, which tend to be somewhat optimistic for me. I will say, though, that Garmin is less accurate with some tracking than Polar, notably sleep, and this feeds into other training analysis.

Smart Features And Navigation

Garmin has also moved ahead of Polar in smart features. While Garmin doesn’t have access to an app store as impressive as Apple’s or Google Play, it offers a range of watches with key smart features like music storage and NFC payments. Its music watches can link to streaming services including Spotify and Amazon Music, and the Garmin Venu 2 Plus and Venu 3 can make calls.

By contrast, Polar’s smart features are limited to mirroring notifications, showing a weather forecast and controlling music playback on a connected phone. Garmin also has its Connect IQ app store, which for now mostly contains watch faces and extra data fields, but has useful third-party apps including a parkrun barcode app, so you can have it on your watch.

Garmin leads the way on navigation features. Its top watches have fully routable color maps with turn-by-turn directions and extra features like ClimbPro, which analyzes all the climbs and descents on your route so you can judge each one. You pay a lot for a Garmin watch with maps: Its mid-range watches have breadcrumb navigation, with a line and pointer on the watch to follow, plus a back-to-start feature.

Polar offers breadcrumb navigation with turn-by-turn directions on several of its watches, which is good enough in most situations, and it has a back-to-start feature, though it doesn’t have maps on any watch yet.

Activity And Sleep Tracking

All Garmin and Polar watches track everyday activity and sleep. For activity, your steps, calories burned and active time are recorded. With Garmin you can set a step goal or have it automatically adjust to your activity levels, so the target is always appropriate for you. 

With Polar you choose from three overall activity targets, and each day aim to hit 100% of that goal. The targets combine all your activity and the three levels are aimed at different levels of activity, where the hardest goal should be a challenge—even for those running every day, in my experience.

Polar’s sleep tracking is more advanced than Garmin’s, and more accurate. With Polar you get a detailed breakdown of your sleep focused on three areas (amount, solidity and regeneration) and Polar graphs out the day after your sleep, showing when you’re likely to be most alert and giving you a sleep window to aim for the following day.

Garmin graphs out your sleep stages through the night and gives you a sleep score, and the accuracy of its tracking has improved of late, but I’ve often found Garmin logs periods where I’m awake but lying still as light sleep, and so overestimates my total sleep. I’ve tested some Polar watches that haven’t logged any sleep at all, though when they do it’s usually more in line with how I actually slept than Garmin’s logs.

Battery Life

The battery life on Garmin watches varies throughout its range. Some of the Fenix and Enduro watches last weeks on a charge. It also has several watches with solar panels, which can extend the battery life considerably in the appropriate conditions, though these are not that easy to find if you live in the UK and mostly work indoors.

The longest-lasting watch is the Garmin Enduro 2, which can go three weeks between charges even with heavy use. How long the battery lasts depends on factors such as whether it has an AMOLED screen and whether you use multi-band GPS, which is the most power-intensive mode. Smaller watches like the Garmin Forerunner 55 last around a week.

Polar’s watches don’t vary much in battery life, and in general offer far less than Garmin. The Vantage V2 and Grit X Pro will last five to seven days with my use, while the Polar Ignite 3 with its AMOLED screen lasts just one to two days if the screen is always-on, and three to four if not. Polar watches drain faster at night than Garmin, perhaps because of the extra detail they offer for sleep tracking.

With regards to GPS battery life, Polar’s top devices offer about 40 hours of tracking (without multi-band). Garmin’s devices vary depending on the watch size and GPS mode, but the Enduro 2 offers 110 hours of GPS-only tracking, or 68 hours of multi-band.

Verdict: Best Garmin and Polar Watches To Buy

If you want to buy a Polar watch, the Pacer Pro is the model to go for, since it has all the key features you get from the Vantage V2 and Grit X Pro watches and costs less. However, for a similar price you could get the Garmin Forerunner 255, which is a more accurate and accomplished watch.

I’d say this is the case throughout the two ranges, with Garmin offering better options at every price. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is the best beginner running watch, though if you find the Pacer Pro in a sale for a similar price it is a full multisport watch, whereas the Forerunner 55 doesn’t have a triathlon mode.

If you want a sporty watch with some smarts, Garmin is the clear pick, whether you opt for a Venu or an AMOLED Forerunner, like the 265. The best mid-range multi-sport watch from either brand is the Forerunner 255, or the 265 if you are happy to pay more for an AMOLED screen.

At the top end of the range, Garmin leads once more: Every watch from the Forerunner 955 and 965 up offers all its best features, many of which you won’t find on any Polar watches, like maps, music, training readiness and multi-band GPS. The Forerunner 955 or AMOLED 965 are good value for a top-end watch, while the Epix, Fenix and Enduro ranges offer more rugged metal designs and longer battery life.

Having tested almost every watch that Garmin has released over the past five years, and worked several Black Fridays and other major sales, I usually have a good idea about which Garmins are likely to be reduced at any given time.

However, I didn’t see this £150 discount on the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro coming because it’s quite a new watch that sits close to the top of Garmin’s range. It’s one of the best sports watches available, and a 20% discount like this is unlikely to be bettered—even in the upcoming Black Friday period.

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro has all of the brand’s top sports tracking, navigation and smart features. Along with offering best-in-class tracking, training analysis and maps, those smart features include NFC payments and music storage. 

It also has a built-in flashlight, which is one of the big hardware upgrades on the standard Fenix 7, along with a new heart rate monitor that I found accurate during workouts, and which can also take ECG measurements.

The battery life on the Fenix 7 Pro is great and this is the main reason to get it ahead of the Garmin Epix Pro, which has the same features but a bright AMOLED display. The AMOLED screen is great and more vibrant than the LCD screen on the Fenix 7 Pro, but the Fenix’s display is still easy to read in all conditions and preserves battery life.

Black Friday is fast approaching and I expect there to be great deals available on the Fenix 7, which is an excellent watch in its own right, but if you want the latest and greatest Fenix this deal is undoubtedly worth checking right now.

Garmin first rolled out electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements on the Venu 2 Plus in January 2023, and now after a surprisingly long wait four more watches have got this feature: the Epix Pro, Fenix 7 Pro, Tactix 7 AMOLED and Venu 3/3S.

The feature is only available in the USA, because Garmin has FDA approval for its ECG measurements but is not yet certified anywhere else. You need to be in the USA to enable the feature, but according to DC Rainmaker once you activate it in the US you can then take ECG measurements anywhere in the world.

Only watches with Garmin’s latest optical heart rate sensor—the Elevate V5—are able to take ECG measurements, so it’s not going to be rolled out to other watches. The feature also requires a wire connected internally to the bezel on the watch, where you place your finger and thumb to take the measurement.

To set up the feature you need to go to the settings for your device within the Garmin Connect app and click on ‘Finish Setup’, where enabling the ECG measurements is now a new option. From there you’ll be guided through the process of adding the measurements to your watch.

Then to take a measurement you have to fire up the ECG app and hold your finger and thumb on the bezel for 30 seconds. You’ll see a waveform of your heart rate during this time, and if you move around too much or remove your fingers the reading will fail.

Like all ECG features on watches, Garmin’s measurement will tell you if it detected normal sinus rhythm or atrial fibrillation (Afib). If you get the latter result it’s something you should check with your doctor. As the watch will remind you during the measurement process, it cannot detect heart attacks.

ECG measurements have become a common feature on smartwatches and sports watches since Apple added it to the Apple Watch Series 4 in 2018. Several other brands offer the feature, including Fitbit and Withings, while Polar is bringing it to its range with the new Vantage V3 watch.

The Garmin Fenix 7 and Garmin Forerunner 955 are now frequently found in sales because they’re both older watches, having launched in 2022. Regardless of this, they remain among the best sports watches available. Since they are still up to date with Garmin’s top features, and cheaper than newer options like the Fenix 7 Pro and Forerunner 965, the Forerunner 955 and Fenix 7 offer better value for those eyeing up one of Garmin’s top devices.

Garmin Fenix 7 vs Garmin Forerunner 955: Price And Availability

The Garmin Fenix 7 range launched in January 2022 and contains watches in three sizes and a variety of designs that use different materials. The smallest watch is the Fenix 7S, the Fenix 7 is the standard model, and the largest watch is the Fenix 7X.

A steel, non-solar Fenix 7S or 7 costs $699.99 in the US and £559.99 in the UK, while the steel Fenix 7X is $899.99/£739.99 and has solar panels as standard. The sapphire solar models that have titanium bezels are more expensive at $899.99/£779.99 for the Fenix 7S or Fenix 7 and $999.99/£829.99 for the Fenix 7X.

The Garmin Forerunner 955 launched in April 2022 in one size only, though you do have the choice between non-solar and solar versions of the watch. The standard Forerunner 955 costs $499.99/479.99, and it’s $599.99/£549.99 for the solar version.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar and Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar for several weeks, using them to track my everyday activity and sleep alongside the workouts I did. My main sport is running and I’ve run hundreds of miles with both watches, as well as recording yoga and strength sessions, plus the occasional cycle ride. When testing the heart rate accuracy of the watches I compared their readings with those of a chest strap monitor.

• Read my Garmin Fenix 7 review
• Read my Garmin Forerunner 955 review

Design

Design is the biggest difference between the Fenix 7 and Forerunner 955. The Fenix 7 is a larger, heavier device, though also more rugged, and comes in a range of sizes and colors, whereas the Forerunner 955 has one size and is either black or white.

There is a larger bezel on the Fenix 7, which is made from either steel or titanium, as is the back of the case. This increases the weight of the watch compared with the all-plastic Forerunner 955. The weight and screen size of the Fenix 7 changes with the size you opt for.

The Forerunner 955 has a 5ATM water resistance rating, while the Fenix 7 range is rated 10ATM, and in general the Fenix 7 is a more rugged, hard-wearing watch thanks to the metal bezel and case. Opt for a sapphire Fenix 7 and you also get a more scratch-resistant sapphire crystal screen, while the Forerunner 955 and steel Fenix 7 models all use Corning Gorilla Glass.

When choosing between the Fenix 7 models it’s worth noting that only the sapphire watches offer multi-band GPS tracking, which is more accurate than the modes available on the standard Fenix 7 watches. Multi-band GPS is available on the Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar.

The Garmin Fenix 7X also has a built-in flashlight, which is not available on the smaller Fenix 7 watches or the Forerunner 955, though there is a setting that allows you to use the screen as a flashlight.

GPS And HR Accuracy

Garmin’s multi-band GPS is the most accurate I’ve tested on watches from any brand, and if you opt for a model of the Fenix 7 with multi-band then you will see no difference in overall accuracy from the Forerunner 955. It’s not infallible, but you are getting the best GPS accuracy on the market.

If you opt for a steel Fenix 7 model without multi-band, then the all-systems-on GPS tracking is still good but less impressive, especially when running under tree cover or among high buildings. 

With regard to heart rate tracking accuracy, I didn’t see a notable difference between the Forerunner 955 and Fenix 7 during my testing. With both, I would pair an external chest strap or armband heart rate monitor to get more accurate results because while the optical sensors on the Fenix 7 and Forerunner 955 are OK most of the time, I often saw errors compared with a chest strap.

Battery Life

The Garmin Fenix 7 and 7X watches offer longer battery life than the Forerunner 955, though the difference is only likely to be noticeable if you opt for the larger Fenix 7X. In my testing, the Forerunner 955 solar lasted seven to eight days on a charge, running most days with the multi-band GPS mode enabled, whereas the Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar lasted me two to three weeks in the same conditions.

With either watch the solar version will lengthen your time between charges, but only in the right conditions. In my testing, in the UK, where I spend most of my time indoors during the week, the solar versions of Garmin watches would not be worth the extra outlay. However, if you spend a lot of time outdoors in the sun they can extend your battery life considerably.

• Is Garmin’s solar charging worth paying extra for?

The Garmin MARQ range has always featured some of the most beautiful watches in the company’s range, and some of its most expensive too, but things have been taken to another level with the new Garmin MARQ Carbon collection.

This contains three watches—the MARQ Athlete, Commander and Golfer—made from 130 layers of fused carbon fiber that create spiral design patterns on the body of the watch. This makes the 46mm watches much lighter than previous MARQ watches, which were made from titanium or diamond-like carbon.

As you may expect, this upgrade in materials results in an increase in price, and the MARQ Carbon collection costs from $3,100 in the US and £2,799 in the UK, making even some of the best sports watches, like the Garmin Epix Pro and Fenix 7 Pro, look cheap in comparison.

The three watches in the MARQ Carbon range have distinct design features, with light green accents on the MARQ Athlete, pine green accents on the MARQ Golfer, and a stealthy all-black design on the MARQ Commander, which is designed for tactical operations. Along with the black design, the Commander’s features include a screen option that can be viewed with night vision goggles, a stealth mode that prevents the watch from storing your GPS position, and a kill switch to wipe the watch’s memory.

The MARQ Athlete is the sports-focused watch in the range and display your VO2 max and recovery time on the watch face, while the MARQ Golfer comes loaded with more 43,000 courses from around the world and has a Virtual Caddie feature, which recommends clubs to use, as well as giving advice on hazards.

The watches have AMOLED displays and are loaded with all of Garmin’s top features, like multi-band GPS, color maps and music storage. The watches will last up to six days in watch mode with the always-on screen enabled. This is all par for the course for Garmin watches from the Garmin Forerunner 965 up, though what separates the MARQ Carbon watches is design not software. 

The MARQ Carbon watches are available now. The Garmin MARQ Carbon Athlete costs $2,950/£2,599. The Garmin MARQ Carbon Golfer is $3,100/£2,699, and the Garmin MARQ Commander is $3,100/£2,799.

There are always a lot of Garmin Prime Day deals to consider if the sales event rolls around when you’re looking for a new sports watch, and perhaps the most exciting discount of all in the Prime Big Deal Days sale is the $150 that’s been knocked off the Garmin Epix 2.

I love the Garmin Epix 2 and have used it as my main sports watch for most of the time since it launched in 2022, including running a 2hr 28min marathon in Berlin and a 2hr 29min marathon in Valencia. I also used it to run the Bilbao Bizkaia Marathon and London Marathon in 2023 at more sedate paces—London was just a week after Berlin to be fair.

When the Garmin Epix Pro came out I started using that, but I only prefer the Epix Pro for the longer battery life on the 51mm edition. Otherwise the older Garmin Epix 2 is every bit as good, and it’s much cheaper, especially in the Prime Day sale.

Both the steel and titanium Epix 2 watches are reduced by $150 in the sale, but I think the one to get is the titanium model, even though it’s $100 more. The upgrade in materials is one thing—the titanium Epix 2 also has a sapphire crystal screen and is both lighter and more durable than the steel one—but the key reason for me is that only the titanium model has multi-band GPS.

Garmin’s multi-band GPS mode is the most accurate on the market and as someone who obsesses about GPS, the Epix 2’s accuracy was a key reason it was useful to me when training for and running marathons. The extra accuracy is useful when pacing the race itself, but even more important when running hard training sessions on the road and trying to stick to certain paces. Unlike race day, there are no mile or kilometer markers to help you judge your pace then, and having the best GPS accuracy you can get is invaluable.

Along with multi-band GPS, the Epix 2 also packs in all of Garmin’s other great features, including all the new software features that launched with the Epix Pro this year that have been rolled back via an update to the older watch, like hill score and endurance score.

The bright AMOLED display is what separates the Epix 2 from the Garmin Fenix 7 (also on sale and just as good if you prefer an LCD display that extends battery life), and this display is brilliant for viewing the color maps on the watch. It also has extensive training analysis, smart features like music storage and NFC payments.

I found the Epix 2 to be more or less perfect throughout my use of it, and the only thing that makes it hard to recommend is the high price, so getting $150 off its RRP in the Prime Day sale is certainly welcome.

The best Prime Day Garmin deals are usually found on the most expensive watches in the company’s range, because you can save hundreds on devices like the Garmin Epix 2 or Fenix 7. 

However, even with big discounts those watches remain too expensive for a lot of people, and overkill for what they need. If you’re looking for the best affordable watches in the sale, then I’d recommend the Garmin Forerunner 55 or Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music, both of which are available for under £200.

I’ve tested pretty much the entire range of Garmin watches and the Forerunner 55 stands out as the best entry-level running watch, while the Venu Sq 2 Music is the best cheap smartwatch. While both lack some features you find on pricier options, they both punch above their weight at the price they’re available for in the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale. You won’t find a better running watch than the Forerunner 55 for £120 from any brand, or a better sporty smartwatch than the Venu Sq 2 Music for £185.

One of the best features about the Forerunner 55 is the guidance it can offer new runners, with suggested workouts each day based on your recent training load. You can also follow Garmin Coach training plans for 5K, 10K and half marathon events on the watch, and these are personalized to your ability and available time to run when you set them up in the Garmin Connect app.

The Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music is a remarkably capable little watch too, and a good-looking one thanks to its bright AMOLED display. It has smart features like music storage and the ability to link with Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer premium accounts, so you can transfer your music across wirelessly. It also offers NFC payments through Garmin Pay, and as always with Garmin, is a reliably good sports watch too. 

It also works with both Apple and Android phones and is a better sports tracker than any true smartwatch around its price. Garmin also has the more expensive Vivoactive and Venu smartwatches in its range, which are a little more elegant with their circular design, but the Venu Sq 2 Music matches them on features for the most part.

Amazon is spoiling us with Garmin deals in its Prime Big Deal Days sale, with several of the best sports watches dropping to their lowest price ever. That includes the Garmin Fenix 7, and you actually have a choice of models in the sale, with both the standard Fenix 7 and larger Fenix 7X Solar both reduced significantly in the UK.

The Garmin Fenix 7X Solar is the more eye-catching deal, because the £240 discount is huge and so is the watch, with its larger frame offering more room for a bigger screen and battery than you get with the Fenix 7, and it also has solar panels to extend its battery life further.

However, having tested and reviewed Garmins for many years, including almost all of the current range, I’d say the Fenix 7 is the better deal. For one, it’s a smaller, lighter watch that’s more comfortable to wear all the time than the Fenix 7X, and it’s also simply a lot cheaper than the larger watch in the sale at £419.99 vs £539.99.

I tested the Fenix 7X Solar Sapphire model for our review on Coach and while there are definite benefits to the bigger watch, the larger size is also a drawback at times since it is heftier and less comfortable to wear 24/7. The battery life of the 7X Solar is excellent and it will last weeks on a charge, but unless you live in a sunny place and spend hours outdoors every day, the solar panels won’t add much in the way of battery life (I've written in-depth about whether Garmin’s solar panels are worth it).

It’s also important to note that the Fenix 7X Solar is not a sapphire model, and so doesn’t have multi-band GPS, neither does the discounted Fenix 7. Both watches are still accurate GPS trackers using the all-systems-on mode, but there’s no mutli-band boost even if you opt for the pricier Fenix 7X Solar.

If you have large wrists and simply want the biggest and best battery life available in the sales, then the Garmin Fenix 7X Solar is the one to get—this is still an excellent deal—but having used a variety of Fenix models of different sizes, I think the Fenix 7 will work better for most people, and it’s £120 cheaper.

The Garmin Epix 2 was one of the watches to look out for in the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale, and Amazon has delivered with the biggest discount we’ve ever seen on the watch: Both the steel and titanium models are reduced by $150 in the US.

While Garmin Epix 2 is no longer the top model in the Epix line—that honor belongs to the Garmin Epix Pro, which launched this year—the Epix 2 has been updated with all the latest and best features Garmin offers. It’s undoubtedly still one of the best sports watches available from any brand, with a bright AMOLED display, music storage and maps, and the most impressive sports tracking and training analysis on the market.

We saw the Epix 2 reduced by $100 in the Prime Day sale in July, a great deal at the time, but Amazon has gone $50 better for Big Deal Days. You can get either the steel model of the Epix 2 for $549.99, reduced from $699.99, or the titanium mode for $649.99, down from $799.99.

The benefits of the titanium model extend beyond its lighter, hardier titanium bezel and sapphire crystal screen, because only the sapphire models of the Epix 2 have multi-band GPS tracking. Garmin’s multi-band tracking is the most accurate from any brand, and while the all-systems-on GPS mode on the steel Epix 2 is still good, it’s not as impressive.

Unfortunately for those hunting for deals in the UK, it’s only the steel model that’s included in the Prime Big Deal Days sale on Amazon UK. It’s an excellent deal though, with the watch reduced from £599.99 to £509.99, the cheapest we’ve seen it.

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 stands out as one of the best fitness smartwatches thanks to its attractive design and reliable sports tracking. It’s a cheaper alternative to the Garmin Venu 3, which offers most of the same key features, including a bright AMOLED display.

There are reasons to upgrade to the Venu 3, or indeed the Apple Watch Series 9, if you’re looking for a true smartwatch with great sports tracking. Garmin also has the Venu Sq 2 Music, which is often available for less than the Vivoactive 5’s RRP, and the Forerunner 255 for those who’d like something more sports-focused. 

Garmin Vivoactive 5: Price And Availability

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 launched in September 2023 and costs $299 in the US and £259.99 in the UK. That’s considerably cheaper than the Venu 3, which is $449.99/£459.99, and similar to the Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music smartwatch, which has an RRP of $299.99/£269.99, though it is now often found in sales.

How I Tested This Watch

I’ve used the Garmin Vivoactive for two weeks, tracking all my workouts, general activity and sleep with the watch in that time. I’ve run most days with the watch, as well as tracking bike rides, strength and yoga sessions. I’ve tested most of Garmin’s range of watches, as well as fitness smartwatches from a range of brands, including the latest Apple Watches.

Design

The most notable update to the Garmin Vivoactive 5 is that it now has an AMOLED display, rather than the color LCD screen used in the past. Previously, this was one of the major reasons to upgrade to the Venu over the Vivoactive, but the 1.2in AMOLED touchscreen on the Vivoactive 5 is bright and easy to see indoors and out.

The watch now comes in just one size, which has a 42mm case that’s 11mm thick and sits snugly against the wrist. The Vivoactive 4 came in two sizes—40mm and 45mm—as does the Garmin Venu 3 (41mm and 45mm). It weighs 36g with the silicone band and is a lightweight and comfortable watch to wear 24/7.

The Vivoactive 5 has an aluminum bezel, but otherwise is made from plastic. It has two buttons on the right side of the watch and comes in four colors—black, purple, blue and ivory—and ships with a 20mm silicone band. While the Garmin Venu 3 has the brand’s latest and greatest optical heart rate sensor, the Elevate V5, the Vivoactive 5 has the Elevate V4. The V5 provided an upgrade in accuracy when I tested the Epix Pro and Fenix 7 Pro watches that also have it.

The Vivoactive 5 also lacks a barometric altimeter, which is not only available on the Venu 3, but was on the Vivoactive 4, so there’s a small downgrade from the older model there. You still get elevation stats during outdoor activities through GPS, but these are less accurate, and the watch also won’t track floors climbed throughout the day.

A less surprising omission is multi-band GPS tracking. The Vivoactive 5 GPS chipset offers only all-system-on and GPS-only modes, which are less accurate than multi-band, but not by much, in my experience. And given that this is a less sports-focused watch than others in Garmin’s range, and multi-band GPS uses more battery, I can see why it has been left off.

The Vivoactive 5 has a 5ATM water-resistance rating and 4GB of storage, which you can use for music or to add apps and watch faces from the Garmin Connect IQ app store. It has a pulse oximeter to measure blood oxygen saturation either continuously or just for spot checks, which is less battery-intensive.

Sports Tracking And Accuracy

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is not billed as a sports watch like the Forerunner range, though in practice there are more similarities across Garmin’s devices than differences. The sports tracking is always reliable, with customisable sports modes that show all the key stats you need during your workouts.

I found the Vivoactive 5 to be accurate during my testing, for the most part. The GPS tracking largely matched up well to that of the Garmin Epix Pro in multi-band mode. There were errors on the Vivoactive 5’s tracks, especially when I ran under tree cover in a forest, but the overall distance and pacing stats were close to the Epix Pro. 

The Vivoactive 5 was somewhat inaccurate on distance during a track session though, since it doesn’t have Garmin’s Track Run mode, which remains reserved for the brand’s more sports-focused watches.

I saw more errors with the optical heart rate tracking from the watch, which lagged behind the readings from a chest strap during intervals, and was wrong for the entirety of one run where it seemed to lock on to my cadence rather than my heart rate. You can connect external sensors via Bluetooth and ANT+ if you want to use a chest strap. This connectivity is a standard feature on Garmins but not always offered by smartwatches.

The training analysis on the Vivoactive 5 is less comprehensive than on the Forerunner range, though you get an estimated recovery time after workouts and a short paragraph explaining the training benefits of workouts, such as improving your VO2 max or general aerobic fitness. You won’t get insights into your overall training load or daily suggested workouts though.

Activity And Sleep Tracking

Aside from not having floors climbed, the Vivoactive 5 is a comprehensive everyday activity tracker, logging steps, active minutes and calories burned. It has Garmin’s Body Battery feature, which estimates your energy levels and shows how sleep and workouts affect them, and tracks your heart rate variability overnight. Once it has set a heart rate variability (HRV) baseline for you, deviations from the norm can indicate that your body is unduly stressed or that you’re getting ill.

During testing the sleep tracking was not particularly accurate, which coincided with a period where my five-month-old baby decided he wasn’t all that keen on sleep. I’ve had many nights with lots of time spent awake, which the Vivoactive 5 has logged as light sleep, much to my chagrin.

Naps are also tracked with the Vivoactive 5, not that I’ve had any while wearing it, unfortunately. It also has a sleep coach feature that suggests how much sleep you need each night based on activity levels, HRV and recent sleep. It’s a nice idea but undermined by inaccurate sleep tracking.

Smart Features

Now it has an AMOLED screen, the Vivoactive 5 has basically all the smartwatch-style features Garmin offers in general, aside from navigation. It has NFC payments through Garmin Pay, music storage and the ability to link with Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music premium accounts for wireless transfers, and access to the Connect IQ app store. However, the app store falls well short of the range you get from Apple or Google Play. There’s no LTE version of the Vivoactive, so it’s not a true smartwatch, though it has useful smarts and is a great sports watch that works with Apple and Android devices. 

Battery Life

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is listed as lasting 11 days in smartwatch mode, which drops to five days with the screen always on. It offers 17 hours of GPS tracking when in all-systems-on mode, and 21 hours if you opt for GPS-only.

In my testing, I found it lasted a week with the screen set to raise-to-wake, and four days with the screen always-on. That’s when running every day with all-systems-on mode activated, and with notifications coming into the watch. Sportier Garmins with LCD screens can last longer, but for a fitness smartwatch with an AMOLED screen the battery life on the Vivoactive 5 is good, though it’s not as long as the larger Venu 3 model.

Is The Garmin Vivoactive 5 Worth It?

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is a great watch, and worth the price—it looks a great-value option in comparison with the Venu 3 and the Apple Watch Series 9. It offers attractive design, good sports tracking and handy smart features, and it’s a considerably better sports watch than any Android smartwatch I’ve tested.

Buying decisions become less clear when you add in all the other Garmin watches around it, however—Garmin could do with simplifying its range. The Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music in particular is similar in price, with a smaller square design and most of the same features as the Vivoactive 5, and it’s now often in sales for less than its RRP.

On the sportier side of things there is the Garmin Forerunner 255, which doesn’t have an AMOLED display, but does have a barometric altimeter and multi-band GPS tracking, plus more insightful training analysis. It’s the better option for those more focused on sports like running over tracking general activity and gym workouts.

Black Friday is just around the corner, and there will no doubt be Garmin deals galore during the sales period. However, one watch I was not expecting to be majorly discounted during Black Friday is the Garmin Forerunner 265, because it is a relatively new device.

That means I was delightfully surprised to find the Garmin Forerunner 265 already reduced on Amazon, with a 10% discount knocking $45 off its price. It’s not a huge sale, but certainly a notable reduction on one of the best sports watches released this year.

This deal seems to only be available on the white and blue Forerunner 265, though the aqua green and black watch is reduced by 9% to $408.99, with only the black and gray watch remaining at its $449.99 RRP.

I rate the Garmin Forerunner 265 as the best overall sports watch because of the combination of its bright AMOLED display and top-notch sports tracking features. It also has music storage, breadcrumb navigation and insightful training analysis, and is only really missing the color maps and more durable metal designs that you get with Garmin’s more expensive watches.

The main upgrades you get compared with the older Garmin Forerunner 255 are the AMOLED display and the inclusion of Garmin’s training readiness feature, which is a useful stat that rates how ready you are to train based on factors like your recent training load, sleep and heart rate variability.

If neither of those features sound appealing, then the Forerunner 255 is still a great watch with a less power-intensive LCD display and one that we expect to see widely available at a reduced price this Black Friday.

Need help choosing between the two? I’ve written a Garmin Forerunner 265 review, a Garmin Forerunner 255 review and a Garmin Forerunner 265 vs 255 comparison which should help. 

Normally, I’d hesitate to suggest jumping on any Garmin deals at this point of the year, with Amazon Prime’s Big Deal Days and Black Friday fast approaching. Both sale events are certain to feature discounts on the best sports watches.

However, this isn’t a normal deal. This is the cheapest we’ve ever seen the Garmin Forerunner 945, which might be an older watch, but it remains one of the best options for runners and triathletes. The temptation to bag it now for $300 is strong.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 has now been superseded by the Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 965 in Garmin’s range, and doesn’t have features you get on those watches. Some of the updates you miss out on are big, like multi-band GPS, Garmin’s useful training readiness feature and heart rate variability tracking, as well as the bright AMOLED display of the Forerunner 965. You can dig into the differences with this Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Forerunner 945 comparison.

However, none of the upgrades you get are essential, and the Forerunner 945 is still packed with brilliant features. It has music storage, maps and offers lots of analysis to help guide your training. While the GPS modes it has are not as accurate as multi-band GPS, the 945 proved reliable during my testing.

The watch also offers longer battery life than the Forerunner 955 and 965, partly because it doesn’t have some of the power-intensive features on the newer models. During my testing, the Forerunner 945 lasted 10 to 14 days—even when running almost every day.

You won’t be getting new software updates from Garmin with the Forerunner 945 because it’s an older device, though it already has everything you need. I hope and expect to see the Garmin Forerunner 955 feature in sales this Black Friday, but thus far it’s never dropped below $400 on Amazon so, even if it’s discounted, it’s unlikely to drop as low as this deal on the 945.

Garmin has released the Vivoactive 5, four years after the release of the Vivoactive 4, and it’s available for $299 in the US and £259.99 in the UK.

That price makes it significantly cheaper than the Garmin Venu 3 smartwatch ($449.99/£449.99) that was announced on August 30, even though the Vivoactive 5 shares many of the same new features. These include a sleep coach, nap tracking, morning report and enhanced activity tracking for wheelchair users.

The Vivoactive 5’s screen has had a makeover, going from memory-in-pixel to a brighter, sharper AMOLED screen. Despite using a more demanding type of screen, the battery life in smartwatch mode increases from eight days on the Vivoactive 4 to 11 days.

To us, the Vivoactive 5 looks like a great option for people who are into sports and working out—but don’t have a favorite activity, such as running, which is better catered to by the Forerunner line—or outdoor pursuits, served by the Instinct and Fenix ranges.

The Vivoactive 5 has useful additions for exercisers, such as feedback on how each workout benefits your body. From what we’ve seen so far, it looks like a more accessible repackaging of the Training Effect feature on sports watches. The Vivoactive 5 also adds an interval timer that you can set up to help you follow HIIT sessions.

Garmin is making much of its health features, with respiration and heart rate variability tracking (logging the tiny variations in timing between heartbeats) feeding into stress metrics, a body battery score to show your energy levels, and sleep tracking. It has also introduced guided meditation sessions on the watch.

The health features may well have been given prominence because the Vivoactive 5 is the same price as the Fitbit Sense 2, which is promoted as a health watch. The Sense 2 has two key bits of hardware that allow it to take an electrocardiogram (ECG) and continuously track electrodermal activity to inform its stress tracking.

Our Fitbit Sense 2 review, however, found that the device lacked in certain aspects, especially sports tracking and smartwatch features, areas where the Vivoactive 5 should come out on top. However, we’ll have to confirm that once we’ve been able to test it. One area Garmin has mastered is compatibility with music streaming apps such as Spotify and Amazon Music.

Adding solar charging to sports watches is a terrific idea, in theory. The constant trade-off with even the best sports watches is functionality for battery life, with power-hungry features like AMOLED screens, multi-satellite GPS settings and heart rate tracking all reducing the time between charges.

The theory is, if a sports watch could produce its own energy independently using solar panels it wouldn’t need to balance cutting-edge features against battery life.

Unfortunately that day has not yet come, because the solar panels on sports watches are not that powerful. That said, if you are someone who spends a considerable amount of time outdoors it is definitely worth getting your hands on one of Garmin’s solar devices.

Several watches in Garmin’s range come with solar panels, including the Garmin Fenix 7 and Fenix 7 Pro ranges, the Garmin Enduro 2, the Garmin Forerunner 955 and Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. 

In some cases a solar panel comes as standard, but with most Garmin watches sun-powered functionality is an optional extra, and it costs more to get the solar version of the watch. So, is it worth the outlay?

The numbers posted by Garmin can be very enticing. The Instinct 2 Solar can run indefinitely in watch mode in sunny conditions, for example, while you get 16 more hours of GPS tracking with the Fenix 7 Solar than on the standard Fenix 7.

However, the numbers Garmin gives are based on getting a certain amount of sunlight, namely being outside in 50,000 lux conditions (a measure of light level intensity) for three hours a day. This is 150,000 lux hours in total, and you can achieve this by outside in 25,000 lux conditions for six hours or 75,000 lux conditions for two hours, but any way you slice it, it’s a whole lot of sunshine.

I’ve tested a variety of Garmin’s solar watches and I find that amount of lux hours difficult to achieve even with my lifestyle, which I consider to be very active. I run outside once a day and take a couple of walks. But even on the sunniest days in the UK, after doing a 90-minute run alongside other spells outdoors, I struggle to hit even 100,000 lux hours. 

That’s partly because I live in the UK, of course—it’s hardly known for its blazing sunshine—but it’s still difficult to hit the levels required by Garmin when in other countries.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that the angle of your watch to the sun matters too. Even if you’re outside for long periods of time, if your watch isn’t directly facing the sun, you won’t get the lux hours you expect. This is especially notable for cyclists, because your position on the handlebars will affect how much sun your watch gets, though one of Garmin’s range of solar bike computers is probably a smarter purchase than a watch if you’re a committed cyclist.

For my use, it’s difficult to reap the benefits of the solar versions of the watch. But it’s a different matter if you’re someone who works outside, or who enjoys long hikes, fishing or multi-day expeditions in sunny spots. If you’re genuinely outside all day long you can tot up sufficient lux hours easily, and you will see a noticeable improvement in battery life.

Even if you do work mostly indoors, a solar Garmin can be useful for one-off adventures, where the extension in GPS battery life could make the difference in not having to charge or use a less accurate tracking mode to conserve the battery.

Overall, unless you have a clear use for solar charging, or you are regularly outdoors for most of the day, it’s not worth paying extra to get a solar Garmin instead of a standard model for now. This gets confusing in some ranges where you have to have the solar version to get some other features, and there’s no downside to the solar panels unless you dislike the look of the band around the watch face.

The Garmin Forerunner 965 and Garmin Fenix 7 offer the same excellent array of software features, but have big differences in design. The Forerunner 965 has a light frame and a bright AMOLED display, while the Fenix 7 has a more rugged design and a memory-in-pixel screen that means it lasts longer on a charge. Both are among the best sports watches available, but which suits you better depends on the design you prefer.

Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Forerunner 965: Price And Availability

The Garmin Fenix 7 range launched in January 2022 and contains a variety of watches in three sizes: The Fenix 7S is the smallest model, the Fenix 7 is in the middle, and the Fenix 7X is the largest. 

If you opt for a steel Fenix 7S or Fenix 7 it will cost $699.99 in the US and £559.99 in the UK. The Fenix 7X is $899.99/£739.99 and has solar panels—there isn’t a non-solar version of the 7X. If you upgrade to the sapphire solar models, which have titanium bezels, it costs $899.99/£779.99 for the Fenix 7S or Fenix 7, and $999.99/£829.99 for the Fenix 7X.

The Garmin Forerunner 965 launched in March 2023 and there is only one model, in a range of colors, that costs $599.99 in the US and £599.99 in the UK.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the Fenix 7X sapphire solar and Forerunner 965 for several weeks. I’ve since used the Forerunner 965 for extended periods as my main running watch. I have run hundreds of miles with both watches, as well as tracking activities like cycling, yoga and strength sessions. To test the heart rate tracking accuracy of the watches, I compared their readings with those of a chest strap.

• Read my Garmin Fenix 7 review
• Read my Garmin Forerunner 965 review

Design

For the most part, choosing between the Garmin Forerunner 965 and Fenix 7 will come down to design. The Garmin Fenix 7 has a larger bezel, which is either steel or titanium, as is the case back, meaning that it weighs more than the Forerunner 965. The Forerunner 965 and the standard Fenix 7 have a 47mm case, though the Forerunner 965 weighs 1.8oz/52g compared with 2.7oz/79g for the steel Fenix 7, and 2.5oz/73g for the titanium model.

The Forerunner 965 has a thin titanium bezel on a mostly plastic frame. It has an AMOLED display, and notably the screen size is 1.4in, which is the same size as the screen on the larger Fenix 7X model. The Fenix 7 has a 1.3in screen, while the Fenix 7S has a 1.2in screen.

Although the Fenix 7 screen is still clear enough to read in all conditions, and slightly easier to see in bright sunlight than AMOLED, the Forerunner 965’s display is brighter and clearer when indoors or under cloud or tree cover. This means it’s easier to use the maps and navigation features on the 965. I found the Forerunner 965 more comfortable and less noticeable to wear 24/7 because of its thinner, lighter design.

However, the Fenix 7 has a more rugged build, especially if you opt for a sapphire model. I actually scratched the gorilla glass screen on the Forerunner 965 during a long trail run, and if you are regularly hitting the trails then the hardier build of the Fenix 7 may be preferable. The Fenix 7 also has a higher waterproof rating of 10 ATM compared with 5 ATM for the Forerunner 965.

There are differences between the Fenix 7 models. One is that only the sapphire models offer multi-band GPS tracking, which is more accurate than the all-systems-on mode on the standard Fenix 7. With the Forerunner 965 multi-band GPS is standard, and it also has 32GB of storage as standard, which is the same as the sapphire Fenix 7 models, while the non-sapphire ones have only 16GB.

Another difference is that the Fenix 7X watch has a built-in flashlight, which can be useful. The smaller Fenix watches and the Forerunner 965 don’t offer this, though there is a mode that uses the screen as a flashlight.

GPS And HR Accuracy

If you opt for a sapphire model of the Fenix 7, you’ll get multi-band GPS which means there’s no difference in accuracy between the Fenix 7 and the Forerunner 965. Both are among the best watches available from any brand thanks to this multi-band tracking, but if you opt for a cheaper Fenix 7 there is a slight drop-off in GPS accuracy. It’s not something you’ll notice every day, but on fast runs when I was using the watch to pace myself, especially under tree cover or for races, I always preferred the extra accuracy of multi-band GPS.

The heart rate accuracy is comparable across the two watches, with the Forerunner 965 perhaps slightly better on this front (for me) because it’s a lighter watch that sits more snugly on my thin wrist. Neither watch has the upgraded heart rate monitor Garmin introduced with the Fenix 7 Pro and Epix Pro ranges though, and I would pair a chest strap or armband heart rate monitor to both to get the best results.

Battery Life

This is one area where the Fenix 7 has a distinct advantage over the Forerunner 965, especially if you opt for a larger Fenix watch with solar panels. If you’re outside in sunny conditions for several hours a day the solar panels will extend the battery life considerably, though I didn’t find they made much difference in my testing, since I live in the UK and usually only get out for an hour or two of running a day.

During my testing, the Garmin Fenix 7X sapphire solar watch lasted me two to three weeks on a charge when running almost every day with notifications enabled. With the same conditions, the Garmin Forerunner 965 lasted seven days on a charge with the always-on screen enabled. If you turn the screen to raise-to-wake then you’ll get weeks of use from the Forerunner 965 between charges, though you lose a little in the everyday experience. 

The original Garmin Venu was the brand’s first watch to feature an AMOLED display, while the Garmin Venu 2 stood out as one of the best sports watches on the market with this type of screen thanks to the addition of superior sports tracking.

Garmin has since added AMOLED displays to its most popular sports watch range including the Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965, so where does the new Garmin Venu 3 fit in? The answer is that it’s a bit less sporty, but a smarter and more attractive alternative to the Forerunner 265. And it tracks naps.

Nap tracking is one of several innovative new features launching with the Garmin Venu 3 that will roll out to other watches. Other highlights include several new features for wheelchair users—the Venu 3 will track pushes throughout the day and has wheelchair sport-specific workout modes.

The new watch also comes in two sizes—45mm for the standard Venu 3 and 41mm for the Venu 3S—and adds some features common to other Garmin watches launched since the Venu 2, like morning report, recovery time and HRV tracking.

It also introduces a daily summary to review every evening, as well as individual workout benefit metrics. It also now supports additional cycling sensors like power meters, though it doesn’t have a multisport mode.

The battery life has also improved with the Venu 3. It will last up to 14 days in smartwatch mode, or five days with the screen set to always-on, and offers up to 20 hours of GPS tracking in all-systems-on GPS mode (it does not have multi-band GPS, unlike the Forerunner 265).

Some key differences from the Forerunner 265 are that the Venu 3 has three buttons instead of five, and comes with a built-in speaker and mic. The Forerunner 265 offers more accurate multi-band GPS and more detailed training analysis including training readiness, plus multisport and track running sports modes. Both have smart features like music storage and NFC payments.

Both the Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S cost $449.99/£449.99 and they are available to buy now. While the Forerunner 265 looks the better pick for sporty types given that it’s the same price in the US and cheaper in the UK, the Venu 3 has a sleeker design. The addition of the mic and speaker so it can take calls and use your phone’s voice assistant is also a nice touch.

The original Garmin Enduro was a strange watch, in that it didn’t have some of the features on the Garmin Fenix 6 range, such as music storage and maps, but it cost more—with its only advantageous feature being its long battery life. 

With the Garmin Enduro 2, you no longer have to choose between features and battery life because it offers everything you get on the Garmin Fenix 7 with longer battery life. That comes at a cost, however, and with the Fenix 7 being one of the best sports watches, it’s the better value pick for most people.

Garmin Fenix 7 vs Garmin Enduro 2: Price And Availability

The Garmin Enduro 2 launched in August 2022 and is one of the most straightforward watches in Garmin’s range: there is one model, which costs $1,099.99 in the US and £929.99 in the UK. It’s the most expensive sports watch in Garmin’s range, unless you count the Marq luxury watches.

By contrast, the Garmin Fenix 7 range is sprawling and the price varies depending on the size and materials you opt for. The Fenix 7 originally launched in January 2022 and its RRP has now dropped in the UK, while remaining the same in the US.

There are three sizes of the Fenix 7. The smaller Fenix 7S and Fenix 7 cost $699.99/£559.99 for the base steel models, and $899.99/£779.99 for the titanium models with sapphire screens and solar panels. The larger Fenix 7X is $899.99/£739.99 for the steel watch and $999.99/£829.99 for the sapphire solar watch.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar model for several weeks prior to its launch in 2022, and have used it occasionally since to compare with other models. I tested the Garmin Enduro 2 for a month when reviewing it, and have used it regularly since as one of my main sports watches. I run around 50-70 miles a week, along with doing other workouts, and have tested almost all of Garmin’s watches.

Design

The Fenix 7S has a 42mm case, the Fenix 7 a 47mm case, and the Fenix 7X a 51mm case. All of the cases are made from plastic with either a steel bezel and case back for the cheaper models or a titanium bezel and back for the sapphire solar models.

The screens on the base models are made from gorilla glass and there are no solar panels around the watch face. The sapphire solar watches use power sapphire crystal for the screen and have the solar panels to boost battery life. The screen sizes are 1.2in for the Fenix 7S, 1.3in for the Fenix 7 and 1.4in for the Fenix 7X.

The Enduro 2 is similar in design to the Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar. It also has a 51mm case, solar panels and uses titanium for the bezel and back. The Enduro 2 is slightly thicker at 15.6mm compared with 14.9mm for the Fenix 7X, and it’s also a few grams heavier at 64g for the case compared with 61g.

The Enduro 2 feels lighter, however, because it comes with a nylon strap. This nylon strap is lighter and more enjoyable to wear than the silicone bands that come as standard with the Fenix 7X, and since Garmin charges $60/£55 for this strap it offsets the price difference a little. That said, I’ve picked up similar nylon bands on Amazon and eBay for around £7 in the UK and used them for months.

The Garmin Enduro 2 has a flashlight built-in to the top of the watch, which is the same on the larger 7X models of the Fenix 7 range, but not the Fenix 7S and Fenix 7.

A notable design difference is that the Enduro 2 has one style, which is black with yellow accents running around the screen at the hour marks, and a yellow accent on the start/stop button. The Fenix 7 comes in several colors, both for the bezel and watch case, including a blue bezel with white case or a rose gold bezel with a light sand-colored case. The extra colors may swing it for the Fenix if you’re on the fence and don’t love black.

It’s only the sapphire models of the Garmin Fenix 7 that offer multi-band GPS tracking, which is more accurate than the other modes available on Garmin watches. Multi-band is available on the Enduro 2.

Battery Life

The Garmin Enduro 2 is long-lasting, no matter how much you use it. It outperforms the Fenix 7 on this front, and by a long way if you use a smaller Fenix 7 watch. However, the Fenix 7 is no slouch on battery life, and if you opt for the larger Fenix 7X it will go for weeks on a charge—or longer if you’re outdoors a lot in sunny conditions with a solar model. 

The difference in battery life between the Fenix 7X and Enduro 2 was probably only four or five days of overall use in my experience, but the difference is more telling when looking at how long they can track activities for. If you’re lining up an exceptionally long or multi-day activity, the Enduro 2 offers significantly more battery life than the Fenix 7X—even in the most accurate multi-band GPS tracking mode.

Sports Performance

Since I tested the Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar, my experience of using both watches was incredibly similar, and both have all the same sports tracking and training analysis features, including the new ones that launched with the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Garmin Epix Pro watches in May 2023.

They are also comparable in GPS and HR accuracy, with the only thing to note here that opting for a non-sapphire model of the Fenix 7 means you don’t get multi-band GPS. This is something I’ve noticed is more accurate than the other GPS modes on Garmin watches. The all-systems-on tracking you get with the cheaper Fenix 7 watches is still good, but if you want the best distance and pace tracking, especially in tricky conditions like under tree cover, multi-band GPS is worth having.

Garmin Fenix 7 vs Garmin Enduro

The original Garmin Enduro is still available and sometimes pops up in sales at appetizing prices. It’s a great sports watch for those who aren’t fussed about the music storage and maps available on the Garmin Fenix 7, and in general are happy with a simpler watch with great battery life.

However, it’s not just music and maps that are missing on the Garmin Enduro: it doesn’t offer multi-band GPS or all-systems-on, so it’s less accurate on that front. Several recent software updates haven’t been rolled back to it, including useful features like training readiness or the new hill and endurance scores Garmin launched with the Fenix 7 Pro.

The Enduro does offer great battery life, and is the longest-lasting watch for general use I’ve tested. It will go for 50 days (65 days with solar) in watch mode. However, it’s less impressive than the new Enduro 2 when tracking activities, only lasting 70 hours (80 hours with solar) in GPS-only mode, which is also less than the Fenix 7X.

Given that Garmin still has the RRP of the Enduro at $799.99 for a steel version or $899.99 for a titanium watch (in the UK it’s no longer available from Garmin directly), it’s not worth looking at unless you see it on sale for a huge discount. If you can grab an Enduro for around $500/£400 then it may make an interesting decision for you to make.

The Apple Watch keeps getting sportier while the best sports watches from Garmin keep getting smarter, meaning the gap between them shrinks each year. However, there are still big differences between the Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin Fenix 7, and while both are great sports watches they have varying strengths and weaknesses that mean they’ll suit different people.

Apple Watch Ultra Vs Garmin Fenix 7: Price And Availability

The Garmin Fenix 7 launched in January 2022 and is available in three sizes, with steel and titanium editions of each, as well as solar models. The cheapest steel models of the watch cost $699.99 in the US and £559.99 in the UK, while the titanium models with sapphire screens cost from $899.99/£739.99. The Apple Watch Ultra was released in September 2022 and costs $799/£849, with only one model available.

How I Tested These Watches

I wore the Garmin Fenix 7X and Apple Watch Ultra for several weeks when testing them for our full reviews on Coach. I’ve since worn the Apple Watch Ultra for several months as my main watch—using it to train for, and track, three marathons—alongside other watches. 

Design

The Garmin Fenix 7 comes in three sizes, but they are all big watches. The smaller 7S has a 42mm case, the middle Fenix 7 has a 47mm case, and the larger Fenix 7X is 51mm. All the watches in the range have transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) touchscreens, with the solar models having panels running around the outside to help extend battery life.

The larger the Fenix 7, the bigger the screen. The 7S has a 1.2in display, the 7 a 1.3in, and the 51mm a 1.4in. The standard models in the range have a steel bezel and back, while the sapphire models have a titanium bezel and back, which is lighter than the steel. The standard models have gorilla glass screens, or power glass screens if you opt for a solar watch, while the sapphire models use power sapphire crystal.

There is a built-in flashlight on the Fenix 7X, but not the smaller models. The Fenix 7 Pro range launched in mid-2023 and all sizes now have flashlights. Another change with the Fenix 7 Pro range is that all models offer multi-band GPS tracking, which is Garmin’s most accurate mode, whereas this is only available on the sapphire models in the Fenix 7 range.

The Fenix 7 is a circular watch, while the Apple Watch Ultra is rectangular. The Apple Watch Ultra has a 49mm titanium case with an OLED sapphire crystal screen, with only one style available. The OLED display on the Apple Watch Ultra is brighter and sharper than the MIP screen on the Fenix 7, both during and outside of workouts.

Multi-band GPS is available on the Apple Watch Ultra, and it is water resistant to 100m; the same as the Garmin Fenix 7, which has a 10ATM waterproof rating. Both watches have a built-in heart rate monitor and the Apple Watch Ultra can take ECG readings and measure your skin temperature at night, which the Fenix 7 can’t. They both have a pulse oximeter and barometric altimeter, and you can connect external sensors to the Apple Watch Ultra via Bluetooth or via Bluetooth and ANT+ with the Fenix 7. 

The Garmin Fenix 7 has five buttons, while the Apple Watch Ultra has three—one of which is a dial. The Action button on the Apple Watch Ultra can be configured to work with different apps, including using it as a lap button during workouts.

GPS And HR Accuracy

Garmin’s multi-band GPS tracking is the most accurate I’ve come across from any brand, but the multi-band GPS on the Apple Watch Ultra runs it close. The Apple Watch Ultra will also use its built-in pedometer alongside GPS to track your distance on runs, which sometimes means it can be more accurate than GPS alone—when running through tunnels, for example.

If you opt for a standard model of the Fenix 7 you don’t get multi-band GPS, and although the all-systems-on mode available is still accurate, it’s not as good as the multi-band on the sapphire Fenix 7 watches or the Apple Watch Ultra.

The optical heart rate tracking on both watches threw up regular errors during my testing. The Ultra had fewer than the Fenix, but I would pair an external heart rate chest monitor with either watch to get more accurate results. Garmin has upgraded the heart rate sensor on the Fenix 7 Pro range, and that is more accurate than the Ultra or Fenix 7.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

Apple’s sports tracking has come a long way since the first Apple Watch and the Ultra is its sportiest device. Software updates over the past year have improved the native Workout app significantly, adding customisable data screens, a structured workout builder and more stats. 

Runners get the best of it with watchOS 9, but cyclists get new stats and connectivity to external power sensors with watchOS 10, though the Ultra can only link to two Bluetooth sensors at once, while the Fenix 7 can link to up to eight ANT+ devices at once.

The upgrades Apple made with its native sports app brought it closer to what you get from a top-tier sports watch like the Fenix 7, but the latter still offers more stats and customization, plus suggested workouts and full training plans you can follow on the wrist.

To close the gap further, you can use the Apple App Store, which is laden with excellent sports tracking apps like WorkOutDoors. The Garmin Fenix 7 still has the edge on sports tracking no matter what apps you get, but the Apple Watch Ultra isn’t far behind.

However, on training analysis, Garmin surges well clear. The Fenix 7 will break down your training in great detail and help you gauge whether your training load is balanced and making you fitter, or that you’re over- or under-doing it. It also offers Garmin’s useful training readiness feature, which takes a holistic look at your recent training, sleep and heart rate variability to give a rating of how ready you are to train.

The Apple Watch Ultra does none of this natively, and even the App Store doesn’t provide anything that gets close to what you get from Garmin. The Apple Watch Ultra’s VO2 max estimates also cap out at 60, whereas Garmin’s don’t—so if you’re fit you still get a personalized rating.

Battery Life

There’s no contest between these watches when it comes to battery life. The Garmin Fenix 7X I tested lasted three weeks on a charge when running most days, whereas the Apple Watch Ultra lasts two days. 

In multi-band mode the Apple Watch Ultra can track 12 hours of activity, while the Fenix 7 tracks for 23 hours in multi-band mode. If you get a solar version of the Fenix it will last longer between charges, though I found the solar panels didn’t add much unless you spend several hours a day outside in bright sunlight.

Smart Features

The Apple Watch Ultra has the edge on smart features. It is a cellular-capable watch so if you get a data plan you can use it without your phone, and it links up to the App Store, which is packed with sports and lifestyle apps that enrich the experience of using the watch.

The Ultra links to many music streaming services that allow offline playback (if you have a premium account with the music service), including Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music. It offers Apple Pay for NFC payments, which is easy to set up and use since it’s partnered with most major banks. The wallet app stores travel tickets and loyalty cards, which is handy.

The Fenix 7 is no slouch on the smarts front, but it doesn’t match up to the Apple Watch Ultra. The Garmin Connect IQ app store is small and mainly contains alternative watch faces, while Garmin Pay is partnered with fewer banks than Apple Pay, especially outside the US.

You can link the Fenix 7 with a Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music premium account for offline playback, though, so it’s easy to use the watch to store and stream music. Both watches mirror your phone’s notifications and calendar appointments.

Maps And Navigation

The Apple Watch Ultra has the Apple Maps app that you can use for navigation, and is getting topographical maps via the forthcoming watchOS 10 software update. However, you can’t use maps with the native Workout app to follow routes or guide yourself back to the start of your workout. 

You can do this with third-party apps like Footpath and WorkOutDoors, but the mapping experience is more seamless and impressive with the Garmin Fenix 7, which has color maps preloaded, and is able to create routes on the fly as well as guiding you through routes synced from the Garmin Connect app.

There are clever extras with Garmin’s navigation features too, like ClimbPro, which analyzes the climbs and descents on your route and guides you through each one. This means during an uphill section you can see how much climbing you still have to do, and how steep the climb is going to get, and judge your effort accordingly.

Apple’s mapping features will continue to improve now that it’s more focused on the sports and adventure market since the launch of the Ultra. But Garmin is well ahead of every other brand on this front, so don’t expect it to be caught soon.

Garmin opted for an incremental update to the Fenix 7 with the Fenix 7 Pro range, which has new hardware features and software updates that will be rolled back to the Fenix 7. It’s a better watch, but is it enough to make it worth spending more on the Fenix 7 Pro—especially as the 7 is still one of the best sports watches available? This guide will help you decide.

Garmin Fenix 7 vs Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Price And Availability

There are a lot of watches in the Fenix 7 and Fenix 7 Pro ranges, and the prices vary based on size and materials used. There are three sizes, with the 7S being the smallest, the 7 in the middle, and the 7X being the largest, and you can opt for steel or titanium, the latter of which is lighter and more expensive. The Fenix 7 range launched in January 2022, and the Fenix 7 Pro range came out in May 2023.

The steel Fenix 7S and Fenix 7 watches cost $699.99 in the US and £559.99 in the UK, while the Fenix 7X is $899.99/£739.99 and has solar panels—there is no non-solar version of the 7X. The steel Fenix 7S Pro and Fenix 7 Pro watches are $799.99/£749.99, and the Fenix 7X Pro is $899.99/£829.99.

If you opt for a titanium watch it also has a sapphire screen and solar panels, whether you opt for a Pro watch or not, and the price of both ranges is the same in the US, but the older models are cheaper in the UK. 

The Fenix 7S and 7 sapphire solar watches cost $899.99/£779.99, and the Fenix 7X sapphire solar is $999.99/£829.99. The Fenix 7S Pro and 7 Pro sapphire watches are $899.99/£829.99 and the Fenix 7X Pro sapphire is $999.99/£929.99.

Garmin devices regularly feature in sales events, especially as devices get older and new generations are released. It’s worth checking Amazon’s Prime Day Garmin deals in July and October, and for Black Friday Garmin deals in November.

How I Tested These Watches

I tested the 7X sapphire solar versions of both watches and used them for several weeks for our reviews on Coach. I’ve done a couple of runs using both the Fenix 7X and Fenix 7X Pro at the same time. To check heart rate accuracy, I compared the watch’s readings to a chest strap, and pored over the GPS tracks from each to hunt for errors. 

• Garmin Fenix 7 review
• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro review

Design

The Fenix 7 Pro range introduced new software features, like hill score and endurance score, but they are all rolling back to the Fenix 7 watches, so the key differences between the generations are all in the hardware. There are clear differences on this front. The Fenix 7 Pro watches have Garmin’s new heart rate sensor and built-in flashlights, whereas only the Fenix 7X had a built-in flashlight in the older range.

Garmin has made multi-band GPS a standard feature on the Fenix 7 Pro range, while only the sapphire models in the Fenix 7 range have it, and the transflective memory-in-pixel displays on the Pro watches are meant to be brighter and clearer in low-light conditions. One smaller update is that all Pro watches have 32GB of storage, the same as the sapphire Fenix 7 watches, whereas the non-sapphire Fenix 7 watches had only 16GB.

The flashlight is a clear upgrade, since it’s useful to have it on your watch at times and then completely unobtrusive when you don’t need it. The improved screen, however, disappointed me. I didn’t notice any upgrade on the Fenix 7 Pro, which looks the same as the Fenix 7 to me. It’s a perfectly good screen, clear enough to read in all conditions, but I didn’t see a difference between the 7 and 7 Pro. Otherwise, the design of the two watches is identical, just with more colors currently available in the Fenix 7 range.

GPS And HR Accuracy

Garmin’s multi-band GPS is the most accurate I’ve come across on sports watches and it is a shame it’s not a standard feature across the Fenix 7 range. The GPS on the non-sapphire watches in the range is still good, but not on the same level as multi-band, and this is something that makes the price difference between the 7 and 7 Pro watches less of a concern. If you want the best GPS, you have to fork out for a sapphire model of the older watch anyway.

The new Pro watches also offer an upgrade in heart rate tracking accuracy. Throughout my testing of the Fenix 7X Pro it matched up well to the reading from a chest strap, with only the occasional big error. It still lags behind the reading of a chest strap, but for an optical heart rate monitor it’s impressively accurate, though I did test the watch during the summer and warmer conditions are helpful for optical HR accuracy.

I initially tested the Fenix 7 in the winter but have used it in warm conditions since, and while its heart rate tracking isn’t terrible it’s noticeably less accurate than the Fenix 7 Pro. It makes more mistakes and the reading errors last longer, which can skew the training analysis the watch does from a run. It also makes it harder to gauge your effort during runs using heart rate.

However, despite the Fenix 7 Pro being more accurate on heart rate, I’d still pair a chest strap to it with a view to avoiding even the occasional error, especially when doing heart rate-based training. So it’s not necessarily a big reason to upgrade to the newer watch unless you only use optical heart rate.

More Versus

See how the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro stacks up against other Garmin watches.

• Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Vs Garmin Epix Pro

See how the Garmin Fenix 7 stacks up against other Garmin watches.

• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Epix 2
• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Apple Watch Ultra
• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Enduro 2
• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Forerunner 965
• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Forerunner 955
• Garmin Fenix 7 Vs Garmin Fenix 6

There are several great Prime Day deals on Garmin watches, with the standout being the $300 discount on the Garmin Epix 2. However, the best deal for Garmin owners is this 20% reduction on the price of three nylon bands.

These are not Garmin’s own nylon bands, which cost a slightly silly $60 and are only available in the 26mm size that fits the brand’s largest watches, like the Fenix 7X or Enduro 2. Instead they are a third-party set of three 22mm bands, which fit a wide range of Garmin watches including the Forerunner 955 and 965, Epix 2, Fenix 7.

I have used Garmin’s own nylon bands and also purchased several off-brand ones to use with Garmin watches, and can say that you don’t lose much at all by going for the cheaper option. I've not used these exact bands from Olytop, but my experience with third-party bands is that they are the same regardless of the brand involved. The bands are more comfortable than the standard silicone ones that come with the watches, dry quickly, and it’s easy to adjust the fit to make sure it’s tight enough for sports.  

The downside of nylon bands compared with silicone, and this goes for Garmin’s own ones as much as the third-party options, is that nylon will degrade over time, especially if you regularly wear the band in the shower or when swimming. They still last me a year of intense use though, and even then they just look a little worn, rather than being completely wrecked.

Getting three bands for $16.79 in the Prime Day sale means you can use them without fear of wrecking an expensive item, and swap between them depending on your preferred color—the trio of bands in this deal are black, grey and dark green.

To attach the band you just loop the ends through the bars on the watch and attach them using the velcro. The bands fit wrists from 6.2in-9.25in, and as someone with thin wrists I’ve always found they work well for me.

There are many nylon bands like these available on Amazon, with a lot of them included in the Prime Day sale, so you can shop around to find a color you like, but getting three for $17 is the best deal I’ve come across so far.

There were two main selling points to the Garmin Forerunner 745 when it originally launched in late 2020, which were that it was a cheaper triathlon watch than the Forerunner 945 and Fenix range, and that it was a much smaller watch that suited thinner wrists.

At the time, I didn’t really rate those benefits as enough to make the 745 a better option than the 945, which was only a little more expensive and had offline maps as the standout feature not available on the 745, along with longer battery life.

When Garmin launched the Forerunner 255—a smaller and cheaper multisport watch than the 745 that also offers more accurate multi-band GPS and heart rate variability tracking—it seemed to signal the end of the Forerunner 7X5 line in general, and the 745 has not been supported with recent software updates.

The Forerunner 745 became the forgotten Forerunner, until Amazon Prime Day 2023 rolled around with a huge discount on the watch, which is going for $279.99 down from its RRP of $499.99 in the US, and £229.99 in the UK, down from its RRP of £359.

US Deal

UK Deal

It may seem like Garmin is clearing out stock of an old watch, but that’s no reason not to capitalize on what is an excellent deal. The Forerunner 255 Music might be an upgrade on the 745, but the 255 Music hasn’t dropped below $330 yet in any sale I can remember, so at $280 the 745 offers better value than anything else.

The Forerunner 745 is an excellent sports tracker with detailed training analysis and it has useful smart features like music storage and the ability to link up with streaming services including Spotify for offline playback.

It doesn’t have maps, but you can sync routes to the watch and follow a breadcrumb trail on your wrist, which is usually good enough to find your way in my experience. 

The 745 even offers Garmin’s useful ClimbPro feature for routing, which identifies the climbs and descents on your route and shows them individually so you can judge your effort on climbs taking into account how much uphill is left.

Garmin’s newer watches do offer more accurate GPS and more insightful training analysis, but the 745 is perfectly acceptable on those fronts, and at such a big discount it’s worth considering. The only other notable drawback is its short battery life—I had to charge it every four or five days, while the Forerunner 255 would last me six days even with the smaller 255S model.

At its RRP, or even close to it, the Forerunner 745 doesn’t make sense in Garmin’s line-up. However, at $280 in the Prime Day sale, there is a case for picking it up, as long as you’re aware of the 745’s drawbacks compared with newer models.

The Garmin Epix 2 was my favorite sports watch of 2022 and I’ve used it to track three marathons plus countless other events. Garmin recently launched the Epix Pro watches, which come in different sizes and have built-in flashlights, but the new models are only minor updates on the Garmin Epix 2 and in my review of the Epix Pro I said the older watch offered better value if you could find it in a sale.

Such a sale has now arrived—the Garmin Epix 2 is significantly discounted in the Amazon Prime Day extravaganza. Both the steel and titanium versions of the Epix 2 have been reduced to the lowest price I’ve ever seen them, and they are the standout sports watch deal available this Prime Day.

The Garmin Epix 2 steel watch is now $599.99 down from $899.99, while the titanium watch is $699.99 down from $999.99. Both are excellent watches, but I would opt for the titanium one myself despite the extra outlay.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is that by using titanium for the bezel and back case, the watch becomes significantly lighter, and it’s also more durable than the steel watch. It also has a sapphire screen, which is hardier than the gorilla glass on the steel model.

The second, and more important reason, is that the titanium watch offers multi-band GPS tracking, which you don’t get on the steel model. This multi-band mode is a little more demanding with regards to battery life, but in my experience it does deliver more accurate pace and distance tracking, especially in tricky GPS environments like under tree cover or among tall buildings.

You don’t need to worry about either model of the Garmin Epix 2 missing out on any software features that arrived with the Epix Pro models, such as Garmin’s new hill score and endurance score performance metrics, because these are being rolled back to the older watch.

I hoped to see the Garmin Epix 2 drop to $700 in the Prime Day sales, and Amazon has actually done better than that, since the steel model is just $600. It’s a top deal on one of the best sports watches available whether you opt for steel or titanium, but the latter is a worthy upgrade for $100.

The Garmin Epix Pro and Garmin Fenix 7 Pro are two of the best sports watches available and, along with the long-lasting Enduro 2, sit at the top of Garmin’s range, offering terrific sports tracking, training analysis and maps, as well as smart features like music and NFC payments.

Picking between the Epix Pro and the Fenix 7 Pro is a simple affair: it mostly comes down to whether you’d rather have the bright AMOLED display of the Epix Pro or the longer battery life of the Fenix 7 Pro. However, the larger 51mm Epix Pro creates a wrinkle in this thinking because it has impressive battery life to go along with that vibrant screen.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro vs Garmin Epix Pro: Price And Availability

Both watches launched on 31st May 2023 and come at a high price. Across the board the Fenix 7 Pro is a little cheaper than the Epix Pro, and both come in three sizes—42mm, 47mm and 51mm—with steel and titanium options in each size. 

The Fenix 7S Pro and 7 Pro steel watches cost $799.99 in the US and £749.99 in the UK, while the 7X Pro costs $899.99/£829.99. The titanium models with sapphire crystal screens cost $899.99/£829.99 for the Fenix 7S Pro and 7 Pro, and $999.99/£929.99 for the 7X Pro.

The 42mm and 47mm steel models of the Epix Pro cost $899.99/£829.99, while the 51mm is $999.99/£929.99. The 42mm and 47mm titanium models with sapphire screens are $999.99/£929.99, and the 51mm watch is $1,099.99/£999.99.

If you’re not in a hurry, it’s worth waiting for major sales events because Garmin devices at this end of the scale regularly get three-figure discounts. It’s worth checking Amazon’s Prime Day Garmin deals in July and October, and for Black Friday Garmin deals in November.

Design

All the models in the Epix Pro and Fenix 7 Pro ranges have built-in flashlights and Garmin’s new and improved heart rate sensor, which are the hardware features that differ from the older Epix 2 and Fenix 7 watches. 

The key difference between the Epix Pro and Fenix 7 Pro is the screen. On the Fenix there is a transflective memory-in-pixel display with solar panels running around the outside of it to boost the already substantial battery life. On the Epix Pro watches there are AMOLED screens. 

On both watches the screen sizes are 1.2in for the smallest watch in the range, 1.3in for the middle one, and 1.4in for the largest watch. The design is essentially identical apart from the different screens.

I’ve found the AMOLED display on the Epix Pro brighter and easier to read than the Fenix 7 Pro’s screen, which isn’t bad, just duller than the AMOLED. The benefit of the AMOLED screen is clear when indoors, under cloud or tree cover, or in dappled light, where it’s easier to see workout stats or the maps on the watch at a glance.

In bright sunlight the transflective screen is just as visible as the AMOLED screen, however, or even slightly more visible, especially if you are wearing sunglasses. 

Overall AMOLED is better and brighter, but it comes at the cost of reduced battery life.

Battery Life

It may not be as exciting to look at, but the Fenix 7 Pro’s duller display delivers better battery performance than from the Epix Pro. The Fenix 7 Pro screen is always-on as standard, while choosing between always-on and raise-to-wake makes a big difference in how long the Epix Pro lasts. For the Fenix 7 Pro watches, the solar panels can add substantial amounts of battery life, though you will need a lot of sun to hit the maximum numbers listed, in my experience.

For both watches, the more accurate the GPS mode you use, the shorter the battery life. There is also an Auto Select GPS mode for both that will switch between GPS satellite options, depending on conditions, to save battery life where possible.

I’ve tested the Fenix 7X Pro, Epix 47mm and Epix 51mm watches, and they largely live up to the battery life as listed by Garmin. With real-world use, running outdoors almost every day, with notifications coming in and the always-on screen enabled on the Epix Pro watches, the Fenix 7X Pro lasted me three weeks on a charge, the Epix Pro 47mm five days, and the Epix Pro 51mm 10 days.

Overall, the Epix Pro 51mm is perhaps the most intriguing watch because it closes the battery life gap on the Fenix models, especially if you set the screen to raise-to-wake mode outside workouts. It is the most expensive model in either range, though, so you pay a premium for that battery/AMOLED combo.

Red Shift Mode

One feature that is available on the Epix Pro but is not on the Fenix 7 Pro is Red Shift mode, which can switch the AMOLED display to use only the color red at night. This can help preserve night visibility and limit the impact the AMOLED screen has on your sleep cycle. This is less necessary with the memory-in-pixel display on the Fenix 7 Pro.

It’s similar to features available on smartphones and laptops, but given the relatively small display of the Epix Pro watches I don’t think they have a considerable impact on sleep. I’ve set the Red Shift mode to come on with the watches once sleep mode is engaged, but it’s not a feature I’d miss.

When the Garmin Epix 2 launched in early 2022 it was a sign of things to come. The Epix 2 is essentially a Fenix 7 with an AMOLED display, which for many people, myself included, made it a more attractive option.

Since then Garmin has brought AMOLED screens to two more of the best sports watches in its range, the Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965, and as battery tech improves, AMOLED screens will only get more common in sports watches.

The Garmin Epix Pro will not make the same splash the Epix 2 did, though its new hardware features are useful. However, the largest model in its range once again shows the future of sports watches because the 51mm Epix Pro has a bright AMOLED display and excellent battery life.

Garmin Epix Pro Review: Price And Availability

The Garmin Epix Pro launched on 31st May 2023 and costs from $899.99 in the US and £829.99 in the UK for the standard model of the watch, with the most expensive models in the range costing $1099.99/£1099.99. The Garmin Epix 2 now costs from $699.99/£709.99 to $799.99/£779.99.

Design And Key Hardware

There are three sizes in the Garmin Epix Pro range, which stick to the sizing seen on the Fenix range in the past. The middle model has a 47mm case, the same as the Garmin Epix 2, with the smaller model having a 42mm case and the larger one a 51mm case. 

The watches have AMOLED touchscreens: The 42mm model’s screen is 1.2in, the 47mm watch’s screen is 1.3in, and the 51mm watch has a 1.4in screen. The standard Epix Pro models have a stainless steel bezel and case back and have Gorilla glass screens, while the sapphire models use titanium for the bezel and back and have sapphire crystal screens.

The displays haven’t improved on what was available on the Epix 2—and actually only the 51mm Epix Pro’s screen matches the Forerunner 965’s in size and clarity—but they are still a delight to use, being far brighter than the memory-in-pixel screens on watches like the Fenix 7.

The 47mm and 51mm watches I tested are big devices that you notice on the wrist, though using a nylon strap rather than the standard silicone one makes them lighter. The 51mm model in particular may be too big a watch for some, and the Forerunner 965 offers a nice alternative. It’s lighter and slimmer while having the same size AMOLED screen.

The most important design update is the new heart rate monitor, which Garmin says should deliver more accurate tracking. Another notable change is that all models of the Epix Pro have a built-in LED flashlight, which has four brightness settings, as well as a red-light mode. 

This flashlight is useful on occasion, so it’s an upgrade across the board, and some people will find it handy more often than I did if they are regularly outdoors after dark.

All models have multi-band GPS tracking, which was only available on the sapphire version of the Epix 2, and they have a red shift mode to change the colors on the display to shades of red late in the day to reduce any impact of the screen on your sleep cycles. 

The battery life on the 47mm Epix Pro is exactly the same as on the Epix 2, while the smaller 42mm Epix Pro offers less juice, as you’d expect. What I didn’t expect was just how much more battery life you get with the 51mm Epix Pro, which will last 11 days in watch mode, even with the always-on screen enabled. 

All the watches in the range have a waterproof rating of 10ATM and the sapphire models have 32GB of storage, while the standard models have 16GB. The Epix Pro has a barometric altimeter, compass and pulse oximeter, and connects to external sensors via Bluetooth and ANT+.

How I Tested These Watches

I’ve tested the Garmin Epix Pro 47mm and 51mm models over the past month, using them to track all my workouts, daily activity and sleep, testing them against other top watches like the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Forerunner 965, and Suunto Vertical. I have also tested a variety of the best sports watches on the market, including almost all of Garmin’s range.

HR And GPS Accuracy

Garmin’s multi-band GPS tracking is the most accurate I’ve come across and the Epix Pro watches are exceptional on this front whether you opt to use full multi-band or the Auto Select GPS mode, which switches between satellite options depending on conditions to save battery life.

The accuracy is not infallible—when running among tall buildings in city centers the GPS tracks will wobble—but it’s as good as, or better than, anything else available.

The same is true of the optical heart rate tracking on the Epix Pro, which has the new sensor also used in the Fenix 7 Pro. The accuracy of the tracking using the 47mm and 51mm model with both silicone and nylon bands has impressed me, usually being close to the reading from a chest strap.

There are still errors though. The optical monitor lags behind a chest strap in picking up intervals where I spike my heart rate, and occasionally will miss an interval entirely. I’ve also been testing the Epix Pro watches in warm conditions when optical heart rate tracking tends to perform better.

That said, in a month of use without pairing a chest strap, running almost every day as well as doing other workouts, I can point to only a few obvious errors in the heart rate tracking.

Hill Score And Endurance Score

The biggest new software features on the Epix Pro are hill score and endurance score. These add to the training analysis on the watch by rating your proficiency at running up hills, and your ability to sustain long efforts in any sport. Hill score and endurance score, along with the other software updates on the Epix Pro, are all coming to the Epix 2, so are not a point of difference with the older watch.

On the watch there are color-coded ratings of both scores, and your hill score is broken down into hill strength and hill endurance. I currently have a 61/100 rating for hills, which is classed as “trained”, while my endurance score has been hovering between 9,300 and 9,800 during testing—there is no upper limit to this, but I am classed as elite for endurance.

My endurance score tallies with the rest of Garmin’s training analysis, like my VO2 max and predicted race times. I’m not sure it adds a lot to the overall picture of your fitness you already get from Garmin watches, but it’s not a negative either.

Hill score is more novel, though it’s hard to rate how accurate it can be. My score seems to be based on a high VO2 max and running around 2,000m of uphill over the past four weeks, and is probably generous given that I don’t do major climbs on the gently rolling terrain near my house.

It will be a useful score for trail runners in particular, though, and a helpful metric to try and improve if you’re targeting hilly events. If you’re primarily a road runner, however, it’s likely you’ll soon start to ignore it.

Battery Life

The battery life on the 47mm Epix Pro is nothing to get excited about, since it’s the same as the Epix 2. It lasted me around five days when tracking runs most days and getting notifications on the watch. The smaller 42mm Epix Pro takes a hit on battery life, but the talking point here is the 51mm Epix Pro, which is exceptionally long-lasting for such a good sports watch with an AMOLED screen.

With the always-on screen enabled, notifications coming in, and running most days, the Epix Pro 51mm lasted me 10 days on a charge. Set the display to raise-to-wake and the battery drain slows down—to around 5% a day with running.

I’d keep the screen set to always-on because 10 days is a great return for one charge given the bright display and the amount of tracking the Epix Pro is doing, including 24/7 heart rate and heart rate variability tracking at night. It’s not as long-lasting as the Fenix 7X Pro or Enduro 2, which can both go two to three weeks on a charge even with heavy use, but it’s impressive given the brighter screen.

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

The Garmin Epix Pro offers the usual suite of sports tracking tools you get from the brand, including new sports modes like basketball and soccer. Every sports mode has customisable data screens, and you can add structured workouts to follow or use the daily suggested workouts for running and cycling that are designed to keep your training load balanced.

The training load is analyzed in detail on the watch and in the Garmin Connect app, so you can see if you’re doing enough to improve your fitness without pushing too hard. The Epix Pro also has Garmin’s excellent training readiness feature, which shows how prepared your body is to train based on factors like recent training and sleep.

It’s a comprehensive set of features that’s as good as, or better than, all of Garmin’s rivals on every front. For sports tracking and training analysis the Epix Pro can’t be topped, though it is matched by several other Garmin devices including the older Epix 2 and cheaper Forerunner 965.

Maps And Navigation

Garmin stands out in its mapping features, which include routable color maps that can create routes on the fly or guide you through pre-planned courses you sync to the watch via the app. The only feature lacking on Garmin devices is the ability to create courses in Garmin’s app, which you can do with Suunto and Coros, but otherwise the level of detail to the maps and extra features you get like ClimbPro put Garmin well clear of the competition.

There are new mapping features. Data screens allow you to see the map in a split screen with stats on the other side, or a perimeter view with a circle of map surrounded by six stats in a black ring on the edge of the screen. I find these useful for navigating while keeping an eye on stats on the run.

Smart Features

The Epix Pro has all of Garmin’s smart features. There’s music storage and the ability to sync with premium Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music accounts for offline playback. You also get NFC payments with Garmin Pay, a weather widget that includes maps to show upcoming conditions, and the Connect IQ app store has useful add-ons like a parkrun barcode app.

It’s not a true smartwatch for me, since the app store is basic compared with something like the Apple App Store or Google Play, and there’s no cellular connectivity, though the Epix Pro has useful smarts to back up its sport tracking.

Is The Garmin Epix Pro Worth It?

In my opinion the Garmin Epix Pro is the best sports watch available, especially the 51mm model, which escapes the usual criticism of AMOLED watches that they have subpar battery life. The Epix Pro 51mm may not last as long as the Garmin Enduro 2 and Garmin Fenix 7X Pro, which will be attractive to ultramarathon and Ironman athletes in particular, but it’s still got enough juice to satisfy most people while having a fantastic display.

There is stiff competition from the Garmin Forerunner 965, however. It’s got the same excellent screen as the 51mm Epix Pro and will be getting the same software features in time. It’s much lighter and cheaper than the Epix Pro, and lasted me six or seven days on a charge with the screen always on. The Forerunner 965 has a thin titanium bezel on a mostly plastic build—so some will prefer the design of the Epix Pro—and it doesn’t have a flashlight, but having the slimmer, lighter watch for sports is appealing.

The Epix 2 is also a strong alternative. It has the same software features as the Epix Pro and as an older watch, it’s a little cheaper. Unless you opt for the 51mm Epix Pro, there is not a huge upgrade with the new watch, aside from that flashlight. Just note that only the sapphire models of the Epix 2 have multi-band GPS, not the standard ones. 

Outside of Garmin, the closest competition comes from the Suunto Vertical, which has great battery life, color maps, multi-band GPS and a bright memory-in-pixel display, though it’s not AMOLED. It’s cheaper than the Epix Pro, but across the board the Garmin is a better watch, on features, accuracy and ease of use.

Safety is a top priority for me as a runner. I always plan my route beforehand, I run on well lit streets at night and if I’m running alone, I use Garmin LiveTrack. 

Garmin LiveTrack is a tracking function that allows you to share your real-time location and tracking information with whomever you choose. It works when you’re tracking an activity, such as a run or cycle, but you can also opt to keep it active when you’re just wearing your watch as normal. 

It’s one of my favorite features on the Garmin Vivoactive 4, and you can find the feature on most GPS-compatible Garmins from 2018 onwards, and some older models too. Check if your device is compatible on the Garmin support page. 

It’s getting crowded at the top of Garmin’s range, with the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and Garmin Epix Pro ranges joining the existing Fenix 7 and Epix 2, along with the Garmin Enduro 2 and Garmin Forerunner 965. All of the above are among the best sports watches available, offering an array of features to support and enhance your training.

For its part, the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro line-up delivers minor but useful hardware updates on the Fenix 7 range, along with new software features that will apply to the older Fenix 7 watches. It’s an update Fenix 7 owners can skip, though it continues to improve the line and ensures Garmin stays clear of the competition.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Review: Price And Availability

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro launched on 31st May 2023, along with the Garmin Epix 2 Pro. There are three sizes in the range and in each size you choose between standard and sapphire models. The standard model costs from $799.99 in the US and £749.99 in the UK, while the sapphire models can cost as much as $999.99/£1,099.99.

Design And Key Hardware

There are two significant changes to the hardware of the Fenix 7 Pro when compared with the Fenix 7. The first is the addition of a heart rate monitor, across the range. The second is that all three sizes have a built-in flashlight, whereas only the Fenix 7X has it in the older range. The flashlight is a helpful addition. I mainly use it to negotiate my way around an untidy house at night to respond to crying children, though others may have more adventurous uses in mind.

All the Pro watches have solar charging, which was available only on some models of the Fenix 7. Garmin says that the memory-in-pixel screens on the Pro watches have been improved to be clearer than those on the Fenix 7 range, but I didn’t notice any difference in my testing. The screens are easy to read in all conditions, but less bright than an AMOLED display when inside or under cloud cover. Otherwise, the new watches look identical to the old ones. 

The Fenix 7S Pro has a 1.2in screen, the Fenix 7 Pro has a 1.3in screen, and the Fenix 7X Pro has a 1.4in screen; they ship with a silicone strap, though there are other materials available in the accessories range, including nylon straps that make the watches feel lighter on the wrist. That’s handy because they are chunky watches, especially the steel models (63g/2.2oz, 79g/2.7oz or 96g/3.3oz with silicone strap), which weigh a few grams more than the titanium models (58g/2oz, 73g/2.5oz or 89g/3.1oz with silicone strap).

Battery life rises through the range. With the Garmin Epix Pro watches offering the same features, as well as a bright AMOLED display, battery life is the reason to go for a Fenix 7 Pro watch instead—which is probably why Garmin has made solar panels standard across the range. 

There is no upgrade in battery life compared with the Fenix 7 range though, with the Pro models offering the same juice as their solar equivalents of the older watch. All the watches have multi-band GPS tracking, which is Garmin’s most accurate mode—and something that is available only on sapphire models in the Fenix 7 range. 

All the watches have a 10ATM waterproof rating, can connect to external sensors via Bluetooth and ANT+, and can connect to Wi-Fi. Other sensors include a compass, barometric altimeter and pulse oximeter.

How I Tested This Watch

I tested the Garmin Fenix 7X Pro for three weeks, mostly alongside the Garmin Epix Pro watch. I’ve used the watch to track more than 100 miles of running, as well as bike rides and indoor strength and yoga sessions. It has also tracked my sleep and daily activity. I’ve tested every generation of the Fenix since the Fenix 5 Plus, along with almost all of Garmin’s other sports watches.

HR And GPS Accuracy

The new heart rate monitor is what sets the Pro apart. I’ve yet to find an optical heart rate monitor on a watch that I trust to track my training accurately, and instead use a chest strap heart rate monitor. The Fenix 7 Pro’s heart rate tracking won’t change that, but it is accurate for an optical wrist-based monitor.

Across my runs and other workouts there were never glaring, or lengthy, errors when compared with the reading from a chest strap. By and large, I could use the Fenix 7X Pro without a strap to guide training. However, there are still mistakes—such as spikes in heart rate at the start of workouts and lag in tracking the rise and fall of heart rate during interval sessions. 

Occasionally, the watch’s heart rate reading would spike too high during an interval, and it once missed an interval entirely. These aren’t huge issues, but they affect the training analysis you get from the watch.

If you’re already happy just using your watch’s optical heart rate to track sessions you will probably notice and enjoy the improvement in accuracy you get from the Fenix 7 Pro, but if you’re someone who uses a chest strap for reliable readings you’re unlikely to be convinced to jettison it. 

The GPS accuracy from the Fenix 7 Pro is excellent, and matches up with other top Garmins in producing the most accurate tracks you can get from any brand when using the multi-band mode. 

Hill Score And Endurance Score

The additions to the training analysis on the Fenix 7 Pro range are hill score and endurance score (which are rolling out to the Fenix 7, Epix 2, Forerunner 955 and Forerunner 965 later this year). Hill score is for runners, and rates your ability on hills out of 100 based on your endurance and strength on hills, plus your VO2 max. Endurance score is for all sports, and provides a rating of your ability to sustain long efforts, with no maximum score.

The endurance score matched well with the other training analysis on the watch. I have an endurance score of 9,628, which is rated as elite. That’s a pleasing thing to read, but I’m not sure it adds much to the other assessments of my fitness on the watch, such as VO2 max. 

My hill score rating is 62/100, which is classed as “trained”, with my hill strength and hill endurance rated as moderate. I’m mostly a road runner but have done more trail running on undulating ground while testing the watch, as well as one hill session, which means my hill score rating has increased. 

The score can be a useful target for improvement if you are working on doing more hills, and it is a different way to rate fitness from things like VO2 max and endurance score. My score feels about right—I’m in good shape for something like a road marathon but wouldn’t consider myself a strong hill runner. If you’re a dedicated trail runner who feels underappreciated by ratings like race predictions on the watch, hill score may suit you better.

Battery Life

The battery life on the Fenix 7X Pro matched my experience of testing the Fenix 7X—which is to say it’s very good. When using multi-band GPS tracking to record six or seven hours of outdoor activity a week, with notifications enabled and the backlight brightness on max most of the time, the watch comfortably lasted three weeks. 

I have engaged a sleep mode that helps reduce battery drain at night—and it is summer, which has resulted in assistance from the solar panels. However, I wouldn’t expect much from solar charging unless you are outdoors for several hours a day with the watch facing the sun. 

Sports Tracking And Training Analysis

The sports tracking on the Fenix 7 Pro is as good as you get on any watch: Highly detailed and easy to use, it can be customized to display the stats you want to see for your main sports. It’s also backed up by training analysis features like training readiness and suggested workouts each day. 

In my opinion, training readiness is the stand-out analysis available on any sports watch. It gives a color-coded rating of your readiness to workout at any time, based on factors like recent training and sleep quality. It’s an easy top-line stat to have available to guide your training, and if you want more detail there’s plenty to dive into on the watch and in the Garmin Connect app.

Garmin has introduced dozens of new sports modes with the Fenix 7 Pro, including soccer, basketball and horseback riding. None of these are useful to me, but it’s never a bad thing to have more sports modes on a watch.

Maps And Navigation

Garmin’s mapping features are the best available on any sports watch, with detailed color-coded maps stored on the Fenix 7 Pro range to make it easy to create routes on the fly or follow pre-planned courses synced from the Garmin Connect app with turn-by-turn directions.

Another stand-out feature is ClimbPro, which highlights each climb and descent on your route so you can judge your effort on each. I mainly use this to avoid going too hard early on in what turn out to be surprisingly long climbs.

There are new features within Garmin’s maps on the Fenix 7 Pro, including data screen options in sports modes that show the map along with stats. This is either via a split screen with stats on one side and the map on the other or in the new perimeter view, where a thin band around the outside of the maps shows up to six stats.

The perimeter view is best for hiking, since it’s hard to see the stats when running, but I like the split-screen view for following routes while keeping an eye on my stats.

Other additions to the maps include a weather overlay you can use in the weather widget on the watch. There are four overlay options—temperature, precipitation, wind and cloud cover—and they show conditions in your area over the coming hours. It can be useful, though the overlays are not available on the map screen within activities, which is probably the only time I’d use them to see if there was rain coming up without having to leave my route page.

Smart Features

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro is not a full smartwatch because it lacks cellular connectivity and a proper app store—though the Connect IQ store is useful for watch faces, third-party data fields, and the Parkrun barcode app. The watch does have several useful smart features, though.

Music is the best of them. The Fenix 7 Pro provides 32GB of storage and while maps and other features use a lot of this, you can still put plenty of music on the watch. This is done either via direct transfer or by linking it to a streaming service to sync playlists across for offline playback—Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music premium accounts are all supported. 

An important smart feature is NFC payments through Garmin Pay, which does not support a lot of UK high-street banks but is better supported in the US. The watch also mirrors phone notifications and calendar appointments, and has a great weather widget.

Activity And Sleep Tracking

All the usual stats are tracked by the Fenix 7 Pro each day, including steps, active calories burned and floors climbed. It also monitors your heart rate variability each night to see if you are within your normal range, and it adds your general activity levels into its estimated recovery time for training.

For the sport-focused, the training readiness feature is the best use of the activity and sleep tracking, since it feeds into that performance-focused metric. It’s worth keeping tabs on your sleep each day because the tracking is a little generous at times, logging periods as light sleep when you are awake but just lying still. 

Garmin watches have improved on this front over the last couple of years and the sleep tracking is good enough to be useful after being put into the readiness stat, though the Fenix 7 Pro is not as accurate in spotting time awake as devices from Fitbit and Polar in particular.

Is The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Worth It?

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro is clearly the best Fenix available, but if you already have the Fenix 7 there is no need to upgrade unless you really want that flashlight. All the software features being rolled back to older watches is welcome, especially because it’s not something Garmin always does, and it means the Fenix 7 is still worth looking at if you are buying a watch this year and don’t need the solar panels, or the improved heart rate monitor. You can find a more in-depth rundown with my Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Vs Garmin Fenix 7 guide.

If you want an AMOLED display then the Garmin Epix Pro offers the same features as the Fenix 7 Pro, including the flashlights. Again, you can get stuck into the details with my Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Vs Garmin Epix Pro guide.

The Garmin Forerunner 965 also has an excellent AMOLED display in a smaller, lighter watch that’s also cheaper and remains, for my money, the best-value option among Garmin’s top watches.

Outside of Garmin, the Suunto Vertical is another long-lasting watch that offers maps and solar-charging. The user experience is not as slick with the Suunto, though, and it lacks many features you get with the Fenix 7 Pro such as ClimbPro, music storage and training readiness. 

The same is true of the Coros Vertix 2, which has most of the main features you get on the Fenix 7 Pro, but it’s nowhere near as polished and useful. The maps and music features on the Coros fall well short of what you get from the Fenix, for example, and its GPS accuracy is not as good.

Apple introduced watchOS 10 at the 2023 Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) before its release in September, and there were several important updates for people who use the Apple Watch to track running and cycling. Those included the ability to link up with cycling power meters and to import workouts from third-party platforms like TrainingPeaks, as well as the arrival of topographical maps.

When the Apple Watch Ultra came out last year with the aim of rivaling the best sports watches, one of its shortcomings was that it did not allow you to navigate using maps, especially during activities. The introduction of topographical maps in watchOS 10 suggests Apple has understood that this is a problem, and that maps and routing are likely to feature on the next generation of the watch.

For now, however, details on the new maps are scarce. Apple has shown pictures of maps, but there’s no mention of being able to plot a route or follow turn-by-turn directions. It also seems as if offline maps will be accessed via your phone, rather than stored on the watch itself.

More details will come when the next generation of the Apple Watch is launched in September, but if Apple is truly hoping to rival the navigation tools in high-end sports watches, it needs to take lessons from Garmin, which has been the market leader in this area for years. If Apple can get maps and navigation right, that will challenge one of the big reasons people stick with Garmin. But it’s not going to be easy.

What Makes Garmin’s Navigation Features So Good

Garmin has been offering maps for a long time and its features are fine-tuned. Garmin’s watches with maps store the maps locally on the watch so you don’t need your phone with you to use them. You also get turn-by-turn directions for routes, which can be created in the Garmin Connect app or website or imported from other route creators. 

The maps are also visible during activities as part of your data screens, so you can switch between your route and your workout stats with one button press. One concern I have about Apple’s forthcoming offering is that you’ll have to leave the Workout app to view them.

You can also create routes on Garmin watches, whether that’s a suggested loop (handy when you’re in an unfamiliar location) or a back-to-start feature, which guides you home after you’ve gone off-piste.

Garmin also shows how popular paths and roads are with runners and cyclists in its route creator. The watches also use this popularity data when creating their own routes for you.

The more advanced navigation features on Garmin watches include Next Fork, which automatically identifies the next turn available on your trail and says how far it is, even if you don’t have a route loaded, and Up Ahead, which allows you to plot certain key points on your route like aid stations, so you can see the distance to each.

However, the stand-out feature I love most on Garmin watches is ClimbPro. When you load a route on a Garmin watch it breaks out the individual climbs and descents so you can see how long and hard each is. This information is available in your workout data screens so you can see what’s coming up, and manage your effort during a climb so you don’t overcook it five minutes into a three-mile ascent.

Existing Navigation Apps On The Apple Watch

While waiting to see what Apple will do with its native maps, there are excellent third-party apps that offer navigation on the watch. Footpath has maps with routes and turn-by-turn directions you can see alongside your workout stats, and it also shows the elevation profile of your route.

Another great app is WorkOutDoors, which offers a variety of map styles and routes that are overlaid on the maps, though there aren’t turn-by-turn directions for the routes (beyond alerts when you stray too far from the route).

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro launched on 31st May, with three watches that offer upgrades on the standard Garmin Fenix 7 range, which I consider among the best sports watches available. While the new models aren’t huge updates on the existing Fenix 7— they’re the same sizes, use the same materials and have the same battery life—the Fenix Pro range does introduce some useful new features and has a better optical heart rate monitor.

After two weeks of testing I’d say the Fenix 7 Pro is another excellent top-tier watch from Garmin, although it doesn’t stand out in the company’s increasingly crowded range. That’s especially true because the new software features on the Fenix 7 Pro like hill score and endurance score will roll out to the existing Fenix 7 watches.

Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Price And Availability

The Garmin Fenix 7 Pro launched on 31st May 2023, along with the Garmin Epix 2 Pro, and prices for watches in the range start at $799.99 in the US and £749.99 in the UK. That’s for the standard steel model, while the sapphire models with titanium bezels can cost as much as $999.99/£1,099.99.

What’s New?

1. Heart Rate Monitor

The biggest change to the design of the Fenix 7 Pro compared with the Fenix 7 is the upgraded heart rate monitor, which Garmin says will offer enhanced performance. I have rarely found optical heart rate monitors sufficiently accurate and nearly always use a chest strap to get accurate data during my runs, but the Fenix Pro’s tracking has been impressive.

Aside from the occasional hiccup at the start of runs and some slight lag on readings during hard intervals, the Fenix 7 Pro’s optical heart rate monitor has matched up almost beat-for-beat with a chest strap.

I’ve only done eight runs plus some other workouts with the watch so far, and those runs have been in warm weather when optical heart rate monitors perform better. But so far the heart rate monitor on the Fenix 7 Pro has been very good.

2. Hill Score and Endurance Score

Hill score and endurance score are two new elements of Garmin’s training analysis, and are displayed using color-coded graphs on the Fenix 7 Pro. Hill score is an estimation of your ability to tackle inclines, based on your hill strength and hill endurance, plus your VO2 max.

While hill score is a running-only metric, endurance score takes into account all sports and assesses how good you are at sustaining effort. It takes two weeks of training to get your score if you’re new to Garmin, but if you’ve logged enough data using another Garmin device you’ll get your scores once the Fenix 7 Pro links to Garmin Connect.

I currently have a hill score of 57 out of 100, which rates as “trained”, and an endurance score of 9,693 (there is no upper limit on this), which is “elite”. I tend to run flat road events and have a marathon PR of 2hr 28min, so my scores seem in line with what I’d expect, but have been on hilly trails more of late in preparation for an ultramarathon so it will be interesting to see how my scores change over time.

3. Flashlights

The Fenix 7X already had a built-in LED flashlight, but with the Fenix 7 Pro range it’s available across all sizes of the watch. It’s a bright and useful extra light to have available on your wrist at all times, especially when camping.

4. Multi-Band GPS As Standard

All models of the Fenix 7 Pro range get multi-band GPS tracking, whereas in the Fenix 7 range this was available only on the sapphire models. This is Garmin’s most accurate GPS mode and the Fenix 7 Pro has proved very accurate for me in all my testing so far, in line with the performance of the Garmin Epix 2 and Garmin Forerunner 765 in multi-band mode.

5. New Map Features

Garmin has added a weather forecast overlay option to the maps on the Fenix 7 Pro to see upcoming conditions. This is only available in the weather widget for now, which is a shame as it would be useful to see when rain is forecast during an activity.

Open the weather widget to use the feature, scroll down to the map and then pick the overlay for the conditions you want to check. This can be cloud cover, precipitation, temperature and wind. Then select “play” and conditions for the hours ahead will be shown.

There is also a new shading style that should make the maps more visible, though I haven’t noticed much difference on that front.

6. New Sports Modes

Dozens of new sports modes have been added to the Fenix 7 Pro, including football, basketball and horseback riding. I haven’t done any of those with the watch yet myself, but having more sports modes to pick from is never a bad thing.

7. Improved Displays

The memory-in-pixel display on the Fenix 7 Pro has been upgraded to make it slightly easier to read, especially in low light. To be honest I haven’t noticed any difference on this front. It’s pretty easy to read in all conditions, and very clear in bright sunlight, but the AMOLED display on the Epix 2 Pro is more of an upgrade when under cloud cover or in dappled light.

When the Garmin Epix 2 launched in early 2022 it immediately established itself as one of the best sports watches, bringing the features of the Garmin Fenix 7 to a watch with a bright AMOLED display.

With the Garmin Epix 2 Pro range, released on the same day as the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro, Garmin has made a few notable updates to the watch and expanded the range of sizes available. I’ve been testing the watch for two weeks and there are certainly some impressive new features, which I’ve ranked below ahead of our full review.

Garmin Epix 2 Pro: Price And Availability

The Garmin Epix 2 Pro launched on 31st May 2023 and starts at $899.99 in the US and £829.99 in the UK for the standard model of the watch, with the most expensive models in the range costing $1,099.99/£1,099.99. The Garmin Epix 2 now costs from $699.99/£709.99 to $799.99/£779.99.

What’s New?

1. Heart Rate Monitor

The most important design update is the new heart rate monitor on the watch, which Garmin says should deliver better tracking. So far I’ve been very impressed with the heart rate monitor, which has barely missed a beat across eight runs and several other workouts, delivering impressively similar readings compared with a chest strap.

The Epix 2 Pro will still sometimes throw up an odd heart rate for the first couple of minutes of an activity, and it lags very slightly behind a chest strap’s reading during intervals. But across the workouts I’ve done it’s been close to being on the money. 

There are caveats here. I’ve not done enough testing to declare that you can ditch a chest strap, and all my testing has been in warm weather, when optical heart rate monitors tend to perform better.

2. Three Sizes

There are three sizes in the Garmin Epix 2 Pro range, which mirror the sizing on the Fenix range: 42mm, 47mm and 51 cases, with the middle model matching the Garmin Epix 2. 

The watches all have AMOLED touchscreens. The 42mm model’s screen is 1.2in, the 47mm watch’s screen is 1.3in, and the 51mm watch has a 1.4in screen. The standard Epix 2 Pro models have a stainless steel bezel and case back and have Gorilla glass screens, while the sapphire models use titanium for the bezel and back and have sapphire crystal screens.

I’ve been testing the 47mm Epix 2 Pro, which is the same in many ways as the Epix 2. It’s the 51mm model that might be the most interesting because of the impressive battery life it offers. The 42mm is a great addition to the range for those with smaller wrists, though it loses out on battery life.

3. Battery Life On The Larger Size

The battery life on the 47mm Epix Pro is exactly the same as on the Epix 2, while the smaller 42mm Epix 2 Pro offers less juice, as you’d expect. What I didn’t expect was just how much more battery life you get with the 51mm Epix 2 Pro, which will last 11 days in watch mode even with the always-on screen enabled. 

This makes the 51mm watch the most interesting device in the Epix 2 Pro range for me, because as far as I can tell there’s nothing else available from any brand that can offer this kind of battery life with an AMOLED screen, even before you consider the top-tier feature set you get from Garmin.

The 47mm Epix 2 Pro I am testing has lived up to or slightly exceeded Garmin’s estimates, lasting just over six days with the always-on screen enabled. However, I don’t yet have the watch linked to Garmin Connect so notifications aren’t coming into the watch and it isn’t syncing data to the app. I’d expect the watches to hit Garmin’s numbers when linked up, just not exceed them.

4. Hill Score And Endurance Score

The two big new software features on the Garmin Epix 2 Pro are hill score and endurance score. Both of these provide color-coded scores to indicate how good you are at running hills and sustaining long efforts in any sport, respectively. 

It takes two weeks for the watch to assess your hill and endurances scores, although if you already have two weeks of the data required in Garmin Connect you won’t have to wait for your scores. My scores landed after I linked the watch with the app, and my hill score was 57 out of 100, which is rated as “Trained” based on my strength and endurance on hills, plus VO2 max.

My endurance score of 9,694 (there is no upper limit to this score) was rated as Elite and the watch shows the sports that mainly contribute to your rating, with mine just showing running.

I focus on flatter road events and have a marathon PR of 2hr 28min, so my scores tally up with what I’d expect to see—weaker on hills, stronger on endurance. I’m running my first ultra later this year so hope to see my hill score getting better, along with my endurance.

The two scores are useful new parts of Garmin’s training analysis overall, if not essential. Both hill score and endurance score, along with the other software updates on the Epix 2 Pro, will roll out to the Epix 2 as well.

5. Flashlights

The other notable change in design is that all models of the Epix 2 Pro have a built-in LED flashlight, which has four brightness settings plus a red light mode. This light is surprisingly bright and while it isn’t something I’ve needed to use much in my testing of the Epix Pro so far, in the past the same flashlight on the Fenix 7X and Garmin Enduro 2 has come in useful as an extra light outside after dark.

6. Multi-Band GPS As Standard

All models of the Epix 2 Pro offer multi-band GPS tracking, which was only available on the sapphire version of the Epix 2. Garmin’s multi-band tracking is the most accurate I’ve come across and that’s been the case with the Epix 2 Pro so far in all my outdoor activities.

7. Red Shift Mode

The new watches have a red shift mode to change the colors on the display to shades of red late in the day, which will reduce any impact of the screen on your sleep cycles. This is only available on the Epix 2 Pro, not the Fenix 7 Pro, and you can turn it on via the controls menu on the watch or set it to come on automatically when sleep mode is engaged on the watch.

When you turn it on, the display uses shades of red for everything, but otherwise the Epix 2 Pro performs as normal. I’m not sure this will have a big impact on sleep cycles compared with similar night modes on smartphones, but turning the display red does help preserve your night vision a little.

8. New Map Features

You can now see weather forecast overlays on the maps on the Epix Pro. To see the overlays, scroll down after clicking on the weather widget to the map, then select the overlay you want—precipitation, cloud coverage, temperature or wind. Then hit “play” and the map will show conditions over time in your location.

You can’t see the overlays on the maps during activities, which reduces its appeal for me because seeing the upcoming chance of rain during a run or cycle would be very helpful. 

There is also some new relief shading on the maps to make them clearer, though I didn’t notice much difference from the Epix 2. 

9. New Sports Modes

Basketball, horseback riding and football are among the new sports modes on the Epix 2 Pro, which will delight fans of those activities.