Released in February 2025, the Forerunner 165 fills a much-needed gap in Garmin’s running watch lineup and brings AMOLED display tech to an affordable price point. At 43mm, we found it light and comfy to wear – and it should suit women and men alike. It’s perfect for beginner and intermediate runners, we found excellent GPS accuracy. It doesn’t shy away from providing performance analytics. You get VO2 max estimates, adaptive training suggestions, and Training Effect metrics, with the experience also enhanced by updates to Garmin Coach. You can plan your races and use Pace Pro to get live pacing strategies, another unique and excellent feature. Battery life is way above a normal smartwatch, with around 17 hours of pure GPS time — and a couple of weeks as a smartwatch. Our tests saw it last around a week, which is superb considering the display type and heavy usage. It packs Garmin’s last gen Elevate 4 HR sensor, but accuracy was still good for steady runs and rides. We recommend a chest strap if you rely on low-latency HR data during sessions, but that’s true of every watch. The only major gripe is that Garmin has separated music features into a more premium version, so you’ll need to more to get Spotify offline on the wrist. Boo But this is a top Garmin GPS watch for most runners, and 90% of people will find the mix of features We check 1,000s of prices on 1,000s of retailers to get you the lowest new price we can find. Wearable may get a commission from these offers. Read more here.Released in March 2023, the Forerunner 265 is a superb mid-point option in the Garmin sports watch range. It’s a better fit for triathletes than most other Garmin watches, too, on account of the more advanced swim/cycle tracking. It comes in a 46mm case size as standard, with the 41mm 265S variant a more unisex option and a great fit for females. It builds on the FR165 (above) and adds Training Status, Daily Readiness, Endurance Score, Hill Score. That jo
