Ladies and gentlemen of the internet uh did you guys know that today was global running day yeah. You know i didn’t either, but i am excited because garmin is celebrating it by releasing two new gps watches the garmin forerunner 945, lte, which i made a separate video about in this, the garmin forerunner 55. This is garmin’s more affordable line of gps, watches and they’ve made some great updates from the previous model. The forerunner 45 and garmin did send me this watch for the purpose of this review, but they’re not sponsoring this video and no money was changed, hands or anything. Weird, like that and i’ll be packaging. This watch back up and sending it back to garmin after this review and the garmin forerunner 55 cost 200, which is the exact same as the previous 45 model. Although i have seen that model discounted slightly uh at about a hundred and fifty dollars lately – and this watch comes in at a very light – 37 grams and size wise it’s, not too massive – either it’s about 42 millimeters in diameter and only 12.4 millimeters in depth. So it doesn’t really sit too high up on your wrist, and here is what this watch looks like on my wrist that you know are still very manly but clearly built more for running than you know. Heavy lifting or something like that – and here is what this watch looks like on my wife’s wrist, and this watch has an optical wrist based heart rate, monitor or it can be paired with a chest strap.
It also has amp plus and bluetooth connectivity. So you can connect it with other sensors and accessories like foot, pods or speed cadence sensors. But i was not able to connect it to my bike power meter or my bike. Varya radar and it does work as a smart watch, meaning that you can connect it to your smartphone and you can display, or you can dismiss notifications and with this watch you can track. You know basic running metrics, you know distance and pace, and you know your heart rate uh. You can also get daily suggested workouts and you have access to something called garmin coach. Garmin coach is just you know, training plans that are provided to you from garmin. So you know if you want to train to finish, you know your first 5k or you know a half marathon, or something like that. You can download plans and make those pop up on your watch, and this watch also has that new track mode which i’ve talked about on this channel before, but it just allows the gps coordinates to just lock onto a particular track. You know, after you’ve established that track and it’s just a much more accurate way of measuring your distance when you’re doing track workouts. In addition to you know the basic running activity and that track activity, the 4runner 55 also has indoor track treadmill running walking, indoor walking, yoga elliptical cardio hit workout tracking stair stepper pilates, and this breathe workout thing.
And although you know my background, was you know as a runner on this channel? We are always talking about you, know, swimming biking and running stuff, and this watch also has a biking, activity type and a pool swimming activity type, and i absolutely love garmin watches for swimming. I test a lot of watches on this channel and i personally think that garmin does a really good job. You know providing swimmers really accurate ways of tracking their distances. You know, even if you’re doing a more complex swim, workout with different drills and different kick sets and things like that, and you know when it comes to gps accuracy. I compared this watch to uh quite a few watches the two year old, garmin 945, that latest garmin, 945 lte and then the garmin 745, which is you know up until this point been. You know the most accurate gps watch, that i’ve been testing, and it seems to me that garmin has done a really fantastic job with you know all of their newer watches, and you guys can probably see here on this particular turn that you know it really looks Like the only watch that struggles with this one is that two year old, garmin 945, the garmin 455 – is the one here in purple and to me it looks very solid and i also tested heart rate accuracy on this watch and the 4runner 55 uses garmin’s kind Of standard optical heart rate monitor, but you know i didn’t see any major problems here.
I would just say that you know if you are going to base your training or any sort of particular racing plans based on heart rate. I still would suggest that you pick up a chest strap. You know. I do have quite a few videos on this channel talking about why the wrist is kind of a rough spot to get an accurate heart rate. So you know check those out when you guys get a chance, but another update to this watch that i’m really excited about. Is the additional battery life that’s been given. You know i, you know wasn’t able to test that 4runner 45, but the new 55 can go up to two weeks in smartwatch mode and it can provide up to 20 hours of battery life in gps mode, which is you know, i would say about twice that Of the old 45 – and you know for me, battery life is huge. I really think that that would be a real kind of factor in picking out which watch you want to choose and potentially making this one a little bit more alluring than that 45. And while there are actually a ton of activity types on this watch, it is still primarily a running watch. Uh, you know i would love to have had the option to you know: have an open water swimming activity on this watch. You know i would love to see a triathlon mode on this watch um i get why they don’t do that.
But to me it personally just feels like garmin is, you know, holding back features a bit on some of these watches and there are other watches on the market like the coreos pace. 2. That you know are really the exact same price as this, but they don’t seem to limit the features and when it comes to biking you know, obviously i would have loved to be able to connect the watch to a few more devices, but other than that. I don’t have a ton of complaints with this new 4runner 55.. You know and as i’ve been using this watch, for you know swimming and biking and running. You know, i’ve been thinking to myself, you know. Maybe this watch is you know all that i really ever need, and you know honestly, you know i don’t race that many triathlons in any given year, uh and when i do race, you know they’re gon na provide the timing uh with the event. I do. Love swimming open water, i feel like for the most part. I could get pretty close with this watch to kind of having everything i need, but for you guys, you know if you are primarily a runner and you’re. Looking for a very accurate, very well designed gps watch that can you know, track a variety of different activity types. I think the 455 is a good option and you know, as always, don’t forget to get out there.du-fCzULqvA
