96 reviews

137 reviews

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Feature-Rich Sports Watch for Endurance Athletes

Switchback Travel · Best Sports Watches of 2022

Great for triathletes

Easy to use

Good battery life

Accurate for HIIT exercises

Fast charging capabilities

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 suitable for swimmers or triathletes

High price

Does not record heart rate during swims

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 735XT is a comprehensive fitness tracker that provides triathletes with pertinent information and advice. It is easy to use and has good battery life, but it comes at a high price. The watch is accurate for HIIT exercises and has fast charging capabilities. However, it does not record heart rate during swims or store the data when the swim is stopped, making it unsuitable for swimmers or triathletes.

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.

Battery Life

I have had a Garmin 735XT for maybe 3 years. I never had the text/notifications on to increase battery life and have loved the watch. Then a few weeks ago the battery was not lasting as long as it used to. Then on the 4th of July I was swimming in a lake and my watch just totally died

Negative

3 years ago

reddit.com/r/running

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

3/5

5 years ago

rei.com

Notifications

Lovely watch but lacks non-subtle vibration alert, decent 'beep' volume and bright'ish backlight

The critical aspect of all of my earlier Garmin watches is that I had both sound and vibration turned on for the lap notification so that even if it was noisy and there were distractions, I never missed the lap. That doesn't work for me with this watch. There is (as is typical) no volume for the sound, and the vibration is so subtle that while I feel it if I'm sitting at a desk, outside I never felt it, even when approaching what I knew was going to be a lap - it's just too subtle. Given that this is a popular triathlon watch, I must be in the minority on this, but I couldn't use this watch

4/5

3 years ago

amazon.com

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.

4/5

5 years ago

rei.com

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