Garmin - Forerunner 970
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Dec 15, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
1938
566
"Been using them for about four years working out in my gym, and cycling daily (45+ minutes on a bicycle outdoors)."
"I even washed them accidentally and still worked perfectly fine afterwards."
"I still have the Kirby my grandma bought brand new in 1970."
655
73
"especially because of the battery life. ... The mouse I had right before this was the steelseries super light one, that was an every other day charge at minimum. Whereas this one is like once a week at most - and I work from home and game all night."
"offers significantly better battery life ... insane battery life"
"Oh, and the battery lasts days even when exercising a lot (weeks without excercise)."
98
6
"they were so much more comfortable I struggle to even put my Maxwells back on."
"open back is the only way since gaming you get so freaking hot you need the ventilation."
"Thanks to its plastic-plus-aluminum construction, the Dufu is incredibly light. ... Once you find the right set of ear tips, it practically vanishes on your ears without any sense of foreignness or sagging, ensuring excellent comfort even during extended listening sessions."
152
8
"a recent update even added Strength training to the Garmin Coach feature. It used to just be running plans. ... But aside from that you can make your own strength training workouts. ... I personally really enjoy the ability to make my own workouts and fill out the calendar in the app to have a custom training plan that I know works for me."
"The suggested daily workouts seems to integrate with the running calendar and a mirage of other metrics to help you get to the set goals, I found the SDW much better than the Garmin Coach on the Venu 2s."
"Garmin tracks your heart rate and HRV 24/7 continuously. ... It is very accurate in tracking my health when I got sick 2 weeks ago. ... I can see my ever increasing “stress” value and declining body battery during that time."
9
2
"People who buy garmins, specifically fenix, forerunners ... are buying them because they want accurate data about their health metrics. ... And in that field, you have no idea what you're talking about if you think any brand comes close to producing accurate data about your health."
"with all the GPS accuracy you can get"
"The forerunner will meet and exceed all your needs except one."
Disliked most:
3
25
"It's the same nozzle size, but it's also heavier than the red, so it's more prone to falling out of your ears. ... I returned both the red and the mp145 even though they both fit me (to an extent). ... Dont even try the 145 if the red's don't fit."
"They're bulky and heavy"
"I find it heavy, bulky and the wire doesn't curve over my ear well"
25
76
"wtf no time settings in a watch?"
"google's software features and fit-and-finish is lacking for their watch ... there is no option on a pixel watch to just automatically turn on the screen when a notification comes in to view the notification; you have to manually interact with it by either tapping the screen within a few seconds or lift-to-wake the watch, which is very unreliable ... that actually was a dealbreaker for me"
"it does not show new notifications as they come in without some sort of manual action ... unless you tap the screen or lift your wrist when you get the vibration, you don't get to see anything ... 75% of the time my pw2 wouldn't recognize a wrist-raise gesture, so I'd miss whatever the new notification was"
20
47
"I used to find that wrist HR sucked for rowing"
"the hr reading is incorrect. ... 20 dollars band from Samsung does a better job"
"The discrepancy is much higher for HR than running dynamics. ... I think it is straight up irresponsible to rely on wrist-based HR is you’re using HR as a part of training"
1
5
"The OS experience was bad because it was so laggy. ... Again i checked out my buddy’s suunto race 2 the OS performance was soo soo smooth."
"Outdated, laggy, buggy software ... the FR970/570 and VenuX1 are currently having software issues too."
"my Garmin FR970 crashed quite a lot before it had a few updates"
0
2
"Maps experience was very pathetic, honestly its so slow. ... My runner buddy has a suunto race2 and the maps were so much smooth…."
"If you have all the time in the world while sporting to wait for the maps on the 970 to move, zoom and show where you want to go then yes they do have more details (street names). ... If you run and instantly want to see than Garmin maps are useless."
The same I was big on the Apple ecosystem and felt like it was a cool watch just because it integrated so well, but I never even downloaded any apps for it. All I ever used it for was timers and reminders and stuff like that and basic fitness tracking, and my forerunner does all the same stuffbut way better. Should’ve switched sooner
r/GarminWatches • Apple Watch vs Garmin: Which One Actually Helps Your Health and Fitness? ->There is Garmin Swim (IMHO essentially it is a ForeRunner, but swim has been put in focus; review here https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/10/garmin-openwater-review.html). However, modern Garmin watches are all able to track pool swim as well as gym workouts (you might have to set exercises later in the app if you want to track muscle groups affected). Essentially ForeRunner is for runners mostly, Forerunner 9xx is focused on triathlon, Fenix is mostly for outdoors - but again, all of them can do almost the same. I’d go with Fenix if budget allows.
r/GarminWatches • Recommendation for swimming and sleep tracking ->There is Garmin Swim (IMHO essentially it is a ForeRunner, but swim has been put in focus; review here https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/10/garmin-openwater-review.html). However, modern Garmin watches are all able to track pool swim as well as gym workouts (you might have to set exercises later in the app if you want to track muscle groups affected). Essentially ForeRunner is for runners mostly, Forerunner 9xx is focused on triathlon, Fenix is mostly for outdoors - but again, all of them can do almost the same. I’d go with Fenix if budget allows.
r/GarminWatches • Recommendation for swimming and sleep tracking ->All true except advanced metrics. They are also present in Fenix (it has even more features for hiking) and Instinct. Forerunner is not more advanced. The rugedness is mostly about the bezel. In fenix and instinct it has a rim which gives extra protection to the screen. But that means rugged watches are more bulky what can be a problem in the gym. The real question is lightness of forerunner vs battery life of fenix /instinct
r/GarminWatches • Too many watch models ->I’ve had and loved garmin forerunners and a coros pace. Slight preference for coros over garmin for battery life. Slight preference for garmin for multi-app interoperability. I’m actually planning to buy an Apple Watch because it’s fine as a fitness tracker and has better health tracking capabilities on top of the fitness stuff.
r/XXRunning • What fitness tracking watch do you use? ->Depends on what you need, if it’s mainly for running, I’d go with one of the cheaper Forerunner models. An AMOLED display is a nice upgrade though. Also, definitely check the battery life if that’s important to you. I recently switched to the 965 and can say it’s been a solid watch.
r/runninglifestyle • garmin watch recommendations? ->I didnt have issue except my last night run with fr970. I had run 30-40 minutes with full open flashlight in the night so when i finished and wanted to record my run it just stopped for 15-20 minutes. No to control and anythings just stopped and this maybe you should not full open flash while running. But it weird because its garmin feature so frustrating facing garmin stop end of running.
r/Garmin • Surprised how many ex-Garmin users in the Ultra 2 subreddit mention bugs and charging frustration? ->Have you tried an AMOLED watch? Since getting a 970 I would never go back to MIPs. Only negative is battery life. But that’s not really a big deal for me.
r/GarminWatches • Goodbye Fenix 8, Hello Forerunner 970 ->I have both and just got the forerunner. I really enjoy the fitness data from garmin. AW is just a superior smart watch and I am coming to the conclusion that I don’t need it any more. At my age I just need to focus more on my health and fitness.
r/GarminWatches • Apple Watch vs Garmin: Which One Actually Helps Your Health and Fitness? ->I've gotten a lot more consistent with my running with my Garmin forerunner. Week long battery life, and basic notifications. I don't think there exists any watch that tracks lifting correctly though.
r/fitness30plus • What's the best smartwatch for android currently? Has it really motivated you? ->So true on both accounts...... 1) A Garmin watch is useless for counting reps and weight training it is so inaccurate. 2) And I found after trying countless apps to track my training in the end it's a notebook and paper that is not only the best but the most motivating.
r/Garmin • Is it worth it if I mostly weight train? ->This would be great. How are you tracking effort, and are you then using an algorithm to convert effort to muscular strain and load? This seems like an extremely difficult hurdle for you to overcome so I wish you all success. It would be awesome to try to match or beat your previous muscular load. Game changer, really. It was actually weight training that made me buy a heart rate strap. I am an experienced lifter and realized rather quickly my garmin's heart rate as measured through the wrist was so far off what my actual heart rate was, (as much as 30bpm!) - even after understanding how it averages over time, I deemed it pretty much useless. Since I am also a runner I immediately went out and got a heart rate strap as that is more accurate. And that's why I bring it up.... if you're using heart rate as a measurement for weight training, quite simply it will not work and be nothing more than a guess. Obviously not a fault of your software but the hardware you're dealing with. That all said feel free to reach out if you want me to test it out I have a Garmin fr970. I also have Strava and have tested other third party apps I have connected and offered feedback for them. (Right now I am testing mytf.run, which is also a great concept but definitely needs work)
r/Garmin • Is it worth it if I mostly weight train? ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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