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Garmin Forerunner 45 vs Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin Forerunner 45

Garmin Forerunner 45

111 reviews

View Product Details

Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin Forerunner 945

137 reviews

View Product Details

#15 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

Wirecutter · The 4 Best GPS Running Watches 2021

#1 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

Feature-Rich Sports Watch for Endurance Athletes

Switchback Travel · Best Sports Watches of 2022

Great for tracking workouts and all-day activity

Accurately records heart rate, step counts, and calories burned

Built-in calendar shows events and planned workouts

Power saving settings to extend battery life

Gamifies progress to make fitness fun

Great features such as music, an oximeter, and improved battery life compared to the 935

Journaling features are fantastic

Can charge it while it's on your wrist

Strap hog with plenty of options for straps

Compatible with other sports and activities

Not accurate for tracking sleep if you do a lot of weight training activity

Does not have a built-in altimeter

Cannot edit workouts without internet access

Not living up to its potential in terms of battery life

GPS accuracy is not reliable when running under trees

High price tag

Verdict

The Garmin Forerunner 45 is a great choice for runners who want to track their workouts and all-day activity. It accurately records heart rate, step counts, and calories burned. It also has a built-in calendar that shows events and planned workouts. However, it does not have a built-in altimeter or the ability to edit workouts without internet access. Additionally, it may not be accurate for tracking sleep if you do a lot of weight training activity.

Verdict

The Garmin Forerunner 945 is a feature-packed sports watch with a high price tag. It has great features such as music, an oximeter, and improved battery life compared to the 935. However, it does not live up to its potential in terms of battery life and GPS accuracy when running under trees.

Reviews by Topic

Our analysis shows how reviewers feel about different topics. Please note these are not full reviews.

Price

Nice looking, adequate features

I had (actually still have) a Samsung Gear Sport that is almost 3 years old and I've loved it. Buying the Forerunner 45 has made me realize why. The reasons I chose the 45 were 1. The price - I didn't want to spend $300+ again, mostly just on principle

ALMOST as good as it gets... almost...

excellent watch with crummy buttons. If I hadn’t caught it on sale, I think I would’ve regretted the purchase, as I would’ve just gone straight for the 955 (which is current right now). However, if you find this watch for a nice price (like I did), it’s worth it… crummy buttons and all

Battery Life

I tracked my route on my watch, which worked great but ate the battery. I hadn't adjusted any of the power-saving settings. I will next time, but I wonder if it will affect accuracy. It just gave basic distance speed, etc

Negative

reddit.com/r/Ultralight

Forerunner 935 is better

5 of those were with music) over about 4 days and was down to 14% battery. When new, my 935 would have gotten probably about double that. I don’t know if I got a defective model or something but my commute to and from work via bicycle is about 50 mins each way. Without music, it would drain 8-10% battery

Activity Tracking

youtube

Garmin Forerunner 45 GPS Running Sportswatch // New Style, New Features!

It comes with some of the most commonly used sport profiles like running outdoors running indoors. On a treadmill, cycling walking a generic cardio pr...

Positive

I haven’t used a sports watch before, and as well as using it for triathlon-specific training, I’d like to use it for the other sports which I usually partake in (football, tennis, weight training etc), and general day-to-day activities. Looking online, it appears the Garmin Forerunner 945 is my best bet.

Positive

reddit.com/r/triathlon

Fit

> If you are primarily looking for a running watch, we recommend that you focus your search on that. If you’re a runner who’s interested in having the Apple ecosystem on your wrist, the Apple Watch will serve you fine, but there are some caveats.

Positive

reddit.com/r/running

I do like it though. I am glad I bought it. It talks to my cell phone which talk to my ear buds which is cool. i like having texts displayed

Connectivity

youtube

Garmin Forerunner 45 Fitness Sportswatch // In-Depth Review & Tutorial

And then next is your stress level, which takes about thirty Seconds to register and then, if we dive in, we can see your stress level over the last f...

Positive

For a $500 watch, I expected better.

to me. I decided to keep the Marq after experiencing both watches for over a month. First, the most annoying thing for me was the Forerunner often lagged a half second after each press of the buttons. It felt like it wasn’t responding so I would often press the buttons multiple times and then it caught up and jumped menus on me

Comfort

What's your running budget?

Don't bother with fancy socks or anything like that. I wear free race t shirts. I recently indulged in a garmin forerunner 45 watch so nothing top end, before that I just used to record runs on strava on my phone. Don't bother with strava premium or any subscription apps or anything like that

Negative

reddit.com/r/AdvancedRunning

The Garmin Coach?

1 and anaerobic effect of 3.5. Translation? It was time to chill. Instead, I decided to go on a short 2

Comfortability

Is a Garmin watch overkill for casual-ish runners?

I don't think it's overkill at all! Honestly I think it's worth it just for the convenience of being able to easily see your pace/time/distance during your run, alone. I think the Forerunner 45 would be fine for you, but if you think there is a chance that you might want to upgrade in the future, I would just go for the Forerunner 245 now!

Positive

reddit.com/r/running

Like it more than the Fenix 5s Plus

I had the Fenix 5s Plus, returned it and got this. It's much lighter, thinner, and the band is noticeably for comfortable (softer and more stretchy). The Fenix series are just bulky heavy and for some reason the bands are uncomfortable. That means the 945 is more comfortable to sleep with, run with, and wear throughout the day

Durability

Accurate tracker for bike rides

But with the forerunner 45, it's made for this and lasts a long time. I have not used it for daily tracking or sleeping as that was not my intent. So far super happy with my purchase. Only reason it's 4 stars is due to my limited use so far

It happened to me and I ended up regretting my purchase big time. Anyone claiming that the FR series is of equal durable to the Fenix series is performing some serious mental gymnastics. Get your hands on both and you'll understand what I mean.

Notifications

Finally a Smaller Forerunner!

It was extremely frustrating downloading the firmware update when the watch wouldn't stay connected to my phone. But once I got the firmware updated, the watch has stayed connected without issue (iPhone Xs). It's the original firmware that's the problem, not the watch! The one thing that does really bug me (and that Garmin will likely fix in future updates) is that even when I turn notifications off, I still get ALL notifications sent to my phone! The 45s has a choice of all notifications, calls and texts, calls or off. Further, notifications have to be cleared individually

Good, not eveything I wanted, but most of it

Getting addresses into it should be easy. Instead I'm using a third party app to read notifications for turn by turn directions in Google on my phone. Admittedly not a must have.

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