Fenix 8 47mm Sapphire. I've had a range of Garmins (Forerunner range: 35, 235, 935, 945, 955) but the 970 didn't appeal to me (accent colour on side and domed glass) so I got my first Fenix and first AMOLED watch (solar was thicker than my 955 which was already a bit thick under clothing). Love the look of the Fenix a lot more, plus better battery life
Instinct 2, my old faithful forerunner 235's (i think) battery was starting to last less and less time, so bought the cheapest Garmin that had all the functions I wanted.
Battery life is awesome and the screen is easy to read in all conditions.
Get the garmin. I'm a young runner who's come from a long line of runners, and the garmin is my holy grail. I have the forerunner 235 and I've been looking into purchasing a new one myself. I know it's a lot of money, but you don't need one that plays music or has any extra special features, my forerunner 235 is perfect and it has never failed me. If you want a cheaper option, you could look online for a resell or try and find an older version. The only reason I'm looking into getting a newer one is because it's a bit outdated (still works though) If you're a serious runner/athlete, go with the garmin. But if you're someone who enjoys running for the sake of running, go with the apple watch. But who are you to let people on the internet tell you what to do, it's whatever you think would work best for you. Hope this helps :)
Same.
I have a 235 and a 55 I bought as backups, for when I can't use my Apple Watch. Though I do like having push buttons only sometimes, when I'm super sweaty or it's really rainy, I feel the same. There's often an issue where the Garmin screen just loses data.
How do you like the offline maps? Did you use them while running?
I run long trails in the city and in the countryside with my ancient Garmin FR235 with 'crumble' navigation, which works fine. But as the battery life tends to become shorter than my runs, replacement becomes useful.
This kind of reasoning always makes me scratch my head. You *do* realise you can turn notifications off, right? All of them. These devices don’t force you to interact with them any more than you choose to. Having features doesn’t mean the watch stops functioning if you ignore them.
Ironically, plenty of people leave Garmin because they think the watches are too bloated—packed with far more features than they’ll ever use. Yet again, Garmin devices and the Garmin app are fully customisable. You can disable or even remove anything you don’t want, and if you really want to, you can use the watch as nothing more than a timepiece.
Garmin watches generally stay functional far longer than most people keep using them. A good example is Strava’s data from 2023: the most‑used watch that year was the Garmin Forerunner 235, a device released back in October 2015. In other words, the bulk of those units were five to seven years old and still going strong. That longevity is exactly why it often makes more sense to buy an older, higher‑tier Garmin model at a heavy discount rather than a brand‑new entry‑level one. The Forerunner 255, for instance, is still competitive with the Forerunner 170 depending on your needs, despite being four years old—and it usually costs significantly less.
Also, since you are considering the FR165, the FR70 may be a cheaper alternative to FR170.
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Garmin
Forerunner 255 Series
86% positive of 466 users
Long battery; but wrist HR tracking is inconsistent.
akaSovereign
