If you’re looking to invest in one of the best Garmin watches, but don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars, we’re here to help. While a lot of the premium watches in the Garmin lineup have great extras like solar charging and touchscreens, if you’re just looking for a running watch that will help you keep track of your training, I’ll show you your stats as you run. And you have the option of tracking your swim or your cycle commute, you probably don’t need to spend more than $300.
Below, we put two of the most popular and most expensive Garmin running watches side by side to help you decide what’s best for you and your training needs. we will compare 55 and the 245 papar Find out the best running hour for you.
Do you want more options? We’ve also picked the best running watches, and best shoesAnd The best running phone mountsand the The best Nike shoes.
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs. Garmin Forerunner 245: Price and Availability
The Garmin Forerunner 55 is Garmin’s entry-level running watch, which at the time of writing costs $169 at Garmin website (Opens in a new tab)And Amazon (Opens in a new tab). By contrast, the Garmin Forerunner 245 costs $224 Garmin (Opens in a new tab) And Amazon (Opens in a new tab) Or $274 if you want the Music version, which has the option to hold up to 500 songs on the watch, allowing you to leave your phone at home when you go out for a run. employment Amazon (Opens in a new tab)Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is $259.
The Forerunner 55 was released in June 2021, while the Forerunner 245 was released in April 2019, so Garmin will likely upgrade the older watch soon.
If money isn’t your thing, go for the Forerunner 245, as you’ll see below, it has more features and you’ll likely find it on offer now before the rumored Forerunner 255 comes out. However, $100 is a lot of money, and if you’re on a budget Or just starting to run, you still get a great combo with the Forerunner 55.
Winner: Garmin Forerunner 55
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs. Garmin Forerunner 245: Specifications at a Glance
55 | 245 papar | |
---|---|---|
Box sizes | 42 mm | 42 mm |
display size | 26.3 mm | 30.4 mm |
Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 2 weeks | 7 days |
Battery life (GPS mode) | 20 hours | 24 hours without music / 6 hours with music |
Built-in GPS | yes | yes |
heart rate | yes | yes |
Garmin Pay | no | yes |
Taurus pulse | no | yes |
a musician | no | Yes (in Forerunner 245 Music) |
maps | no | yes |
Advanced performance metrics | no | yes |
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs. Garmin Forerunner 245: Design and Display
On the wrist, the Garmin Forerunner 55 and Garmin Forerunner 245 look incredibly similar — both with a 42mm chassis, a large, round display and five buttons, three on the left and two on the right, allowing you to move around the watch.
The screen is slightly larger in the Forerunner 245 at 30.4mm than in the Forerunner 55’s 26.3mm, plus the Forerunner 245 has a slightly better resolution at 240 x 240 pixels, compared to the Forerunner 55’s 203 x 203 pixels.
Both screens are bright and easy to read, even in direct sunlight. They both look nice on the wrist as well – during testing, we found that no two watches looked too big on the wrist, and they are both available in several different colors. Both also come with a silicone sport strap, but both are compatible with Garmin quick-release bands, so you can swap out the strap for a metal or leather strap if you’d like.
Winner: Garmin Forerunner 245 – Although you probably won’t notice the difference while running, the Forerunner 245 has a larger screen, with a slightly higher resolution
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs. Garmin Forerunner 245: Battery Life
Unlike your smartphone, or smart watch like Apple Watch 7With both watches, you can easily go a few days between charges. The Garmin Forerunner 55 has a slightly longer battery life than the Forerunner 245 in smartwatch mode, lasting two weeks, compared to 245 days. This is due to the higher resolution screen, and the fact that the Forerunner 55 is a newer watch.
However, in GPS mode, the Forerunner 245 can last up to 24 hours, while the Forerunner 55 can last up to 20 hours. Only six hours.
Winner: Garmin Forerunner 55 – Looking at the hours side by side, we can say that there is really not much when comparing the time between charges. However, as we mentioned, the Forerunner 245 is an older watch, and it’s likely that battery life will improve when Garmin updates the watch next time.
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs. Garmin Forerunner 245: Fitness Tracking and Features
Of course, the main purpose of any running watch is to track your stats as you run and give you live feedback to help make you a better runner. Both watches can track indoor and outdoor running, indoor and outdoor cycling, swimming, cardio, aerobics sessions, and yoga. Both will also track your daily steps, heart rate, stress, sleep, and track your period. Both also use the same Garmin Connect app, which is a valuable tool and helps make it easy to see all of your health data in simple graphs and graphs.
Both watches can tell you things like your VO2 max, recommended recovery time after a run, and your body battery — a handy tool that looks at your activity levels, heart rate variability and stress levels to help you see at a glance how ready you are for a challenging workout. Both also have PacePro, which prevents you from starting a race too quickly, suggested workouts, as well as LiveTrack and Incident Detection safety features.
You can also use the Garmin Coach tool on both watches, which allows you to download training plans on the watch. There are a number of different plans in the Garmin Connect app, ranging from a 5K to a marathon.
How are they different? The Forerunner 55 is often considered the “light” version of the Forerunner 245, mainly because there aren’t many advanced performance metrics on the watch. The Forerunner 245 has the ability to track more sports modes, including indoor rowing, outdoor running, and jogging (although it doesn’t have Pilates and HIIT modes, which are available on the Forerunner 55). You can also use the Training Condition, Training Load, and Training Effect metrics on the Forerunner 245, which help you see how well your training has progressed over time – handy if you’re working toward a race or distance goal.
The Forerunner 245 also has mapping capabilities, which are especially useful for trail runners or hikers. Features like Quick Nav, which allows you to see where you are on the map in a jiffy, are useful if you regularly head out to explore.
From a health perspective, the Forerunner 245 has the ability to track Pulse Ox levels, or blood oxygen saturation. Although this sounds very technical, it helps you get clearer sleep data and notice conditions like sleep apnea, which may affect your recovery.
Winner: Pioneer 245 There is no doubt about it, the Forerunner 245 is a better watch with more features. However, if you’re a beginner, or aren’t really into running sprints, we’d say you’re not likely to use the extra sport modes and training metrics, so save your money on the cheaper watch.
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs Garmin Forerunner 245: Smartwatch Features
Both watches have all the basic smartwatch features we’ve come to expect from our wearables including weather, the ability to read messages on the go, calendar reminders, and things like Find My Phone and Find My Watch.
From a smartwatch perspective, the main difference between the two watches is that if you buy the Forerunner 245 music version, you have the option to upload music to the watch or listen from Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music and leave your phone at home. The Forerunner 245 also has Garmin Pay, which is handy when you’re on the go, and you don’t want to take your phone out of your pocket.
Referee: Garmin Forerunner 55 – Again, we’ll argue that there isn’t enough difference between the watches to warrant the extra price tag, especially if you didn’t buy the music version of the Forerunner 245. However, if you’re striving for PR or hate running with your phone, the music option is handy, But for most people, the features in the Forerunner 55 are sufficient.
Garmin Forerunner 55 vs Garmin Forerunner 245: Verdict
So, which running watch should you buy? The best running watch for you is the one that has the features you need to reach your goals. If you are a beginner, the Forerunner 55 has everything you need and more. We might also argue that even if you’re a more experienced runner on a budget, you can probably find everything you need in the Forerunner 55.
However, if you can afford it, the Forerunner 245 is a more advanced watch, with additional training metrics, track-running features and (if you purchased the music version), the ability to store music on the watch and leave your phone at home when you run. Whether it’s worth the extra $100 or so is a personal decision, but since the watch has been around for a while, you’ll likely find models on sale or refurbished for cheaper.
Either way, both hours are a great investment and will make it easy to keep track of your training.