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Garmin Forerunner 945 vs Amazfit T-Rex

Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin Forerunner 945

137 reviews

View Product Details

Amazfit T-Rex

107 reviews

View Product Details

#1 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

Feature-Rich Sports Watch for Endurance Athletes

Switchback Travel · Best Sports Watches of 2022

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

Great battery life

Military-grade durability

G-Shock look

Tracks calories burned, heart rate, steps, and sleep

Compatible with Pixel 4a5g

Not living up to its potential in terms of battery life

GPS accuracy is not reliable when running under trees

High price tag

Not a smartwatch

Software can be problematic

No response or call capabilities

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.

Verdict

The Amazfit T-Rex is an ultra-rugged fitness tracker with military-grade durability and a G-Shock look. It tracks calories burned, heart rate, steps, and sleep. It has great battery life averaging 3-4 weeks between charges or more. However, the software can be problematic as the auto brightness may get stuck after some time.

Reviews by Topic

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

Durability

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.

Design/price over function

1. I’ve owned this watch for approaching 2 months now. Just after the return period on Amazon, the auto brightness got stuck and no longer worked. It required turning off and back on

Battery Life

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

Pretty cool watch for the price.

No way the battery will last as long as they say with basic usage. The weather is weird. Does not seem to update unless you sync with your phone. Kind of defeats the purpose

Activity Tracking

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

youtube

Amazfit T-Rex FULL REVIEW! Here's What You Need To Know!

It also comes with no speakers so don't expect to have any sounds or notifications to appear on the watch. Obviously this is just a fitness tracker an...

Positive

Connectivity

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

So far so good..on 2nd watch

:-\ The app installs easy (do that before pairing the watch), then just scan the QR code on the watch thru the app, and it sets itself up. It took a while for everything to pair, upload and to setup, but since day 1, I've had no pairing loss (which was common with the cheapo ones. The Cheap ones I tried were the : popglory- B08DXQSVDC , a really cheap feeling toy; the Tinwoo - B0861X7S6Q , told me my heart was ready to explode, and pairing loss. In summary, I'll return on the future to revise my review, and hopefully increase the star ratings, but time will tell, and those really cheap ones are garbage

Price

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

* UPDATE * 10 months in, I regret buying this watch. It's a glitchy mess

I probably should have paid more for a name brand like Samsung or Fitbit. I held off on buying a smartwatch for a long time because I just don't know that I need one, and certainly not for what Apple or Samsung charges for one of theirs. But I saw this one on sale for about 1/4th the cost of Apple's, so I thought I'd go for it. Glad I did

Software Updates

**[Forerunner 945 New

Neutral

reddit.com/r/Garmin

Loving this watch so far!

No other instructions than some basic phone-to-watch pairing. My experience was: unboxed tried on my wrist (very much like the strap is soft silicone with a tab inside the band holder to keep the extra from coming out) connected charger (magnet is good, but not very strong) 9:55am BT pairing GPS update resource library update firmware update syncing 10:01am Charged to 100% before wearing it. So far I have turned on auto heart rate and sleep detection, alerts for all apps I use, turned off always on display. I have been changing the watch faces and playing with the settings

Fit

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

Great "Smartwatch" if you can overlook the "smart" limitations

Or I just use it to switch the music track on my phone... and keep the Fitbit next to it to let me know that I am not dead

Comfortability

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

I don’t need the latest features or capabilities. I’m currently using an Amazfit T-Rex that works for this purpose, but I’m hoping the Apple will give me a little more ability to read longer messages.

Positive

reddit.com/r/AppleWatch

Comfort

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

Amazfit T-Rex Review

It's about 0.5 inches thick and weighs 2 ounces. It feels light enough on my arm, and its soft silicone band is among the most comfortable I’ve worn.

Positive

Notifications

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.

Almost a perfect 5 Star! Best smartwatch I have ever owned to date!

So the brief notification is honestly what I need 99% of the time. But sometimes I find I wish it showed more.

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