If you’re the type of person who needs a beat to bop to when training but doesn’t want to fiddle with your phone while you’re jogging along, then maybe the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is for you. Replacing the incredibly popular Forerunner 235, the 245 faces a difficult task. However, Garmin has trickled down some of the tech from its higher-end product line to pack this needed smartwatch with the latest tech.
Garmin is no stranger to the GPS world, which would go part way in explaining why the version in the Forerunner 245 is widely regarded as the best GPS in a watch for less than £300. Super quick to pick up where you are and very accurate when tracking your run, ride or swim. If it’s GPS data you’re after, then consider this.
The trick up this watch’s sleeve, though, is the music. You can sync all your playlists from streaming services Deezer and Spotify. You could also store up to 500 songs on the watch. You can then listen to music on the go with a pair of compatible Bluetooth headphones.
Verdict: If you like to exercise without the limits of GPS and bop for your favourite songs, you’ll do much worse than the Garmin 245 Forerunner.
Pros
- Very accurate GPS
- Integration across many sports
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Decent battery life
Cons
- It doesn’t support power meters for cycling
- Not the best colour options
- No triathlon mode
| Battery life | Up to seven days in smartwatch mode/six hours in GPS mode with music |
| Bluetooth Enabled | Yes |
| GPS | Yes |
| Smart Phone Notifications | Yes |
| Rechargeable | Yes |
| Charging Method | USB |
- Integrated music player via Bluetooth headphones (sold separately)
- Get adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach, or create your custom workouts at Garmin Connect, an online fitness community.
- Provides advanced running dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio and more
- Safety and Tracking features make sharing your location with chosen contacts easy.
- Customise with free watch faces, apps and more in the Connect IQ store.
- GPS, GLONASS and Galileo network capability helps you track how far, fast and hard you've run - on and off the city streets
- Connected features include built-in WiFi connectivity, smart notifications, and automatic uploads to the Garmin Connect app.
What’s good?
Instantly you’re able to get running or exercising. You’re not waiting for the GPS to kick in and say it’s good to go. The likelihood is that this will be ready to roll before you are. I also found the watch to be very lightweight and not noticeable. Its slim, sleek design didn’t catch on shirt sleeves, either. That’s when you’re not exercising.
It was reassuring that when I was using my rowing machine or treadmill with the watch, it all seemed to match up and work together nicely, the stroke rate on the rowing machine was very similar, and you could calibrate your run between the treadmill and outdoors.
I also liked the range the watch would give you away from your phone, picking up notifications without having my phone on my person if I was on the treadmill, rowing machine, or cooking in the kitchen.
Music was super easy and a joy to use. Very easy to control and skip tracks and cycle through playlists on the fly. It does what it says on the tin here, and so it should.
What’s okay?
While the screen was large and easy to read, I never really got on with it being black with white prompts. I’d much preferred a white screen with black prompts. You can change this.
As ever with Garmin products, they’re never the most intuitive of things straight out of the box. The more time you spend with them, the more they grow on you as you find workarounds and tricks through the Garmin Connect App. Which, actually, I found more straightforward to use than the watch at times.
The notifications are okay, with a wide variety, again, controllable in the app. You can get push notifications for things like Ring, Teams, Texts, WhatsApp, emails etc. More than you’d ever want on your watch while you’re trying to exercise.
Any negatives?
I did enjoy my time with the Forerunner 245. It slipped effortlessly into my lifestyle, but there were a couple of niggles which I found. First off, as I was talking about them, the notifications from a wide variety of apps got a little bit too much. Trying to focus on my run and have my music interrupted by a report from Teams sometimes got a bit much.
I was also left a little miffed and frustrated with the suggested exercises given to me by Garmin – I never felt as if they pushed me quite enough. Yes, I understand the need for sustained activity, but I wanted more, and when I followed them to the letter, I never felt they were hard enough.
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How the product was tested
I wore the Garmin Forerunner 245 daily and replaced my regular watch with it. I followed the training advice through the Garmin App as I tested it.
Ryan Gilmore is a contributor to What's The Best. He is also the Deputy Autos and Tool Editor on CAR and Parkers.
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