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Garmin Forerunner 945 vs Garmin Vivoactive 4

Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin Forerunner 945

137 reviews

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Garmin Vivoactive 4

Garmin Vivoactive 4

210 reviews

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#1 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

Feature-Rich Sports Watch for Endurance Athletes

Switchback Travel · Best Sports Watches of 2022

#5 most mentioned

Reddit · r/garmin

#7 most mentioned

Reddit · r/smartwatch

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 high-end fitness tracker with advanced metrics

Accurate tracking of sleep, breathing, and stress

Motivating training plans

Contactless payments

Downloadable apps and onboard music storage

Not living up to its potential in terms of battery life

GPS accuracy is not reliable when running under trees

High price tag

Not as stylish as some other fitness trackers

Battery life could be better

No built-in altimeter for tracking elevation

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 Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a great choice for those looking for a high-end fitness tracker with advanced metrics and smartwatch features. It offers accurate tracking of sleep, breathing, and stress, motivating training plans, contactless payments, downloadable apps, onboard music storage, and the ability to leave your phone at home while exercising. Additionally, it can be paired with other devices such as chest strap heart rate monitors for more accurate readings during workouts.

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.

Pretty cool features questionable longevity

I have only had this for a week and a half and while it’s very informative and has lots of cool features and really keeps me motivated. I am however concerned it’s not going to last for the long haul. The bezel has already worn into the metal in one spot and I’m not sure how as I’m pretty careful and haven’t been playing rough. I’m not sure I can wear this to work once my landscaping job starts back up as it may not withstand it

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

nice watch, weak battery life, music sync didnt work, too complicated/clunky interface, 4s too small

I didn't realize that one hour of running with the GPS on and music on would kill two days of "smartwatch" mode, or that a few hours of use in gps tracking mode w/o music would do the same thing. So on average if you are using this the way it is intended you should really expect to have to charge it every 2-3 days minimum. If you're doing longer gps exercises or listening to music then you'll probably change every day. And charging isn't quick, it does charge up to 80% fairly fast but the next 20% seems to take forever

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

Garmin vívoactive 4S First Impressions // Activities, Menus & Animated Workouts!

So, let's go and back out of there for a second next one's gon na, be your health stats, your heart rate, stress level, body bout in respiration and t...

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

An Amazing Smartwatch—But Beware of Updates and Garmin "Customer Service".

maybe not exactly. From the first quarter of 2021 through most of July, my device performed admirably. Sure, sometimes the GPS can take a while to connect, but overall, the watch did everything it was supposed to. It consistently did a good job

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

Works as described

As far as cost/value rationing, given accuracy, with bias as purchased prime day at a discount, it definitely for me was a winner without the chicken dinner.

Software Updates

**[Forerunner 945 New

Neutral

reddit.com/r/Garmin

Excellent product, performs as described.

6) For much faster initial software updates I would recommend to install the Desktop app and update the watch from there.

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

Garmin Vivoactive 4 Review

The Vivoactive 4 gamifies fitness by giving you badges for certain achievements. When you earn a new badge, the watch will vibrate and a congratulatory message will pop up on the screen. To view all your badges, visit the Garmin Connect app, tap My Day at the bottom, then tap your photo or avatar at the top of the screen to open your profile.

Positive

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 only use these for music

This is pretty good for my use. I have several quartz and digital wristwatches; I only wear this smartwatch at work to listen to downloaded (not streamed) music. The fitness tracking and mobile app features are of no importance to me so I have given them 5 stars. As a timekeeping watch, it is pretty good

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

Battery life or GPS? You can only pick one...

Fit and comfort on my small wrist seems to be very good. Band fits me great, to the point I'm starting to think my wrist isn't as small as I thought it was. Explicit Exercise tracking - when you set it to track an activity - mostly walking for me - it works great. The app draws a very precise map of my route and indicates the distance to a high level of accuracy

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.

Basically what I was looking for

It's summarizes you day or week probably more but I have only had the phone for 1.5 weeks.

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