Garmin Forerunner 165 review

The Garmin Forerunner 165 emerges as a brand new multisports watch in Garmin’s vary and is now the most affordable method to choose up a Forerunner with an AMOLED touchscreen show, as Garmin continues to unfold color throughout its vary.

Sitting in between its AMOLED-free, entry degree Forerunner 55 and the Forerunner 255, the 165 is considerably cheaper than the expensive Garmin Forerunner 265, after Garmin added an AMOLED to its earlier midrange watch possibility.

So the Forerunner 165 is pitting itself in opposition to the superb Coros Tempo 3 and the equally strong Polar Pacer. Has Garmin sewn up one other value spot for runners who need an AMOLED working watch for much much less cash than the Forerunner 265 and 965?

Design & Construct

• Weighs 39g
• 43mm case solely
• Is available in music and non-music choices

The Forerunner 165’s design may be very a lot consistent with different Forerunners which have lately been given the color display screen remedy. It’s an undeniably sporty-looking watch with the polymer case out there in 4 totally different colors in the event you go for the music model, or two colors for the non-music version.

Each variations are available only a 43mm case measurement, that means it’s smaller than a Forerunner 265 and solely barely bigger than the Forerunner 265s and the equally priced Vivoactive 5 (42mm). There’s a polymer bezel and a typical 5 bodily button array you’ll discover on most Garmin Forerunners, with a bigger flatter exercise button tucked up within the nook.

Mike Sawh

That case is partnered up with a 20mm, silicone strap that has a pleasant stretch to it and makes use of Garmin’s quick-release mechanism, which suggests you may take away it and swap one thing else as a replacement, whether or not that’s from Garmin’s official assortment or one thing that isn’t.

There’s a spread of six colors relying on whether or not you need the music participant mannequin with the common coming in Black/Slate gray or Mist gray/Whitestone.

Then we get to the headline-grabbing color display screen. It’s a 1.2-inch, 390 x 390 decision touchscreen, matching the Vivoactive 5’s display screen for stature and high quality. It’s a pointy, vibrant display screen, responsive and it’s a shiny display screen too, with scope to regulate that brightness within the watch settings.

It is a show that may be set to always-on and you’ve got management over whether or not that display screen stays on in all eventualities. So in the event you simply need it enabled for exercises and turned off for the time in between monitoring, you are able to do that.

What you get from the Forerunner 165 is a reasonably dainty and lightweight watch that makes it superb for all-day put on and likewise has an important high quality AMOLED show to match. When you favor your watches extra on the hulking facet, then it won’t be for you.

It’s a disgrace it is advisable pay additional for the added music participant when you may get it included for simply barely extra on the Vivoactive 5.

Well being & Health Monitoring

• Good monitoring efficiency for runs and swims
• Stable coronary heart fee monitoring efficiency
• Lacks new Garmin Sleep Coach and triathlon profile

Like different Forerunners, monitoring your runs is the precedence right here, although you even have devoted monitoring working, biking and swimming, together with an open water swimming mode.

There are further profiles for indoor actions like stair stepping, yoga and indoor biking and it’s constructed for out of doors actions like climbing. For triathlon followers in search of an reasonably priced path to monitoring a number of occasions, that’s one mode not coated right here.

Mike Sawh

Working goes to be the prime cause you’re going to wish to choose it up and on that entrance, the Forerunner 165 places in efficiency.

It provides you entry to helpful coaching options like Garmin’s PacePro pacing methods and entry to Garmin Coach to sync and observe working coaching plans on the watch. There may be built-in GPS right here in fact, although in contrast to different new Forerunners lacks a multi-band mode to spice up monitoring accuracy outdoors when utilizing the watch close to tall buildings and in deeply forested areas.

I used it in opposition to Garmin’s personal multiband mode on the Forerunner 965 and likewise pitted it in opposition to the dual-frequency mode on the equally priced Coros Tempo 3. Distance monitoring did sometimes come up a tiny bit quick compared to the 965 and Tempo 3 however not by a worrying quantity.

When you care about the easiest GPS accuracy out there, you’re going to overlook out on it right here however the efficiency with out it is going to be strong for many. Whereas the 165 packs in Garmin’s older Elevate Gen 4 optical sensor to trace coronary heart fee and blood oxygen ranges, we discovered that the sensor carried out properly throughout train, even at excessive depth throughout observe exercises and it does really feel just like the smaller type issue helps right here.

When you do care about the very best accuracy always you may pair it up with an exterior coronary heart fee monitor to get that and I paired it as much as a Polar H10 chest strap monitor with no points.

Outdoors of working, the 165 is a really competent and acquainted performer. I used it to trace swims within the pool, indoor bike rides although was dissatisfied to see it misses out on some indoor modes like indoor rowing.

It’s good to see that whereas Garmin unsurprisingly doesn’t embrace full mapping assist, it does handle to squeeze in breadcrumb navigation, which makes it a helpful watch to have round in the event you get just a little misplaced.

Mike Sawh

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By way of coaching insights, you’re not going to get the total gamut of what Garmin’s Forerunner watches have to supply. It sticks to extra simplified insights like really helpful restoration time, Garmin’s Physique Battery power monitor, although curiously chooses to incorporate HRV Standing, which is a coronary heart fee variability measurement to assist information your restoration wants. It’s disappointing to see the extra simplified Coaching Readiness metric isn’t right here as an alternative.

Like different Garmin watches, the Forerunner 165 acts as a health tracker as properly, counting every day steps, robotically adjusting objectives based mostly on progress and can repeatedly monitor coronary heart fee and can do this in a reasonably dependable style.

It’ll observe your sleep and napping too, producing sleep scores, monitoring sleep period with a pleasant breakdown of sleep stats out there on the watch. It does lack Garmin’s new Sleep Coach nevertheless. Accuracy-wise, Garmin’s sleep monitoring exhibits indicators of enchancment and I discovered it posted comparable sleep period and sleep stage breakdowns in addition to sleeping coronary heart fee because the Oura Ring Gen 3.

Smartwatch Options

• View notifications from Android and iPhone
• 4GB for storing music together with Spotify assist
• Appropriate with Join IQ

The Forerunner 165 performs fairly admirably as a smartwatch and a giant a part of that’s all the way down to the inclusion of that AMOLED touchscreen.

It merely makes utilizing options like scrolling by means of menu screens, studying longer notifications and utilizing music incorporates a a lot nicer factor to do.

Mike Sawh

With regards to music, the music version examined right here has 4GB of storage to play with and provides Wi-Fi into the connectivity combine to assist you to retailer audio from streaming providers like Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music. Syncing music is a breeze when you’ve downloaded your most well-liked app and I’ve had no issues pairing with a spread of Bluetooth headphones with connectivity between the watch and headphones usually strong.

It’s good to see that Garmin’s new Morning Stories are right here to get up to and supply a fast abstract of elements like your night time’s sleep knowledge, letting you see your really helpful restoration time and get a look on the day’s climate.

You even have entry to Garmin’s Join IQ Retailer, which doesn’t supply Apple App Retailer or Google Play Retailer ranges of apps, however does imply you’ve gotten scope so as to add additional watch faces, knowledge fields and widgets and a few helpful apps right here too.

Battery Life & Charging

• 11 days in every day use
• As much as 19 hours of GPS battery life
• As much as 7 hours battery when streaming music

Garmin’s transfer to scatter AMOLED shows throughout its vary fortunately hasn’t come at an enormous expense of the large battery numbers you’d usually affiliate with its watches.

Within the case of the 165, this can be a new watch collection and a brand new watch that places in battery efficiency.

Mike Sawh

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Garmin claims you may take pleasure in as much as 11 days in smartwatch mode, although that’s clearly based mostly on whenever you don’t have the display screen set to always-on. Whenever you do this, the quantity considerably drops. Monitoring blood oxygen ranges and streaming music are additionally different options that shortly sap the battery.

I discovered that the every day drop-off with common GPS monitoring and notifications enabled and utilizing a mix of music streaming and different smartwatch options was round 20%, in order that works out to about 4-5 days. Going longer than that may require being extra cautious of options which might be in every day use.

When you go for the always-on display screen mode, battery drops to round 2-3 days in the event you’re monitoring exercises throughout that point too.

By way of GPS battery efficiency, an hour’s value of working outdoors noticed battery drop by 8%. For 3 hours of working, it dropped by 20%. Once I switched to always-on mode throughout monitoring, a 30-minute observe session noticed battery drop by 7%.

Garmin sticks to the identical proprietary cable it makes use of for nearly each watch in its vary and like Garmin’s different AMOLED watches, it does appear to cost up faster than its non-AMOLED watches, which is sweet to see. 

Value & Availability

The Garmin Forerunner 165 was introduced on 20 February 2024 with a launch value of £249/$249 for the non-music model. Including in a music participant and Wi-Fi pushes that value as much as £289.99/$289.99.

In addition to shopping for it direct (hyperlinks above) you will discover it at Amazon, Argos, Very and Currys within the UK and Adorama within the US.

That commonplace 165 value places Garmin’s watch above the likes of the Coros Tempo 3 (£219/$229) and the Polar Pacer (£169.50//$199.95).

In Garmin’s personal assortment, it’s solely barely cheaper than the Garmin Vivoactive 5 (£259.99/$299.99), whereas the Forerunner 165 music version isn’t far off the price of the Garmin Forerunner 255 (£299.99/$299.99).

See our round-ups of the very best smartwatches for extra choices.

Must you purchase the Garmin Forerunner 165?

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is one more sturdy addition to Garmin’s already in depth assortment of multisports watches.

It primarily fills the place of Garmin’s Forerunner 200 collection watch, which has leapt into one other value class and means you may choose up an AMOLED-packing Forerunner for much less.

It provides you a greater smartwatch and sports activities watch hybrid than equally priced rivals just like the Coros Tempo 3 and the Polar Pacer. The Tempo 3’s run monitoring options are in some ways superior and does embrace dual-band GPS as properly.

It’s additionally value factoring in that the Garmin Vivoactive 5 prices simply £10/$10 greater than the usual 165 and provides a music participant as commonplace and comparable options throughout the board together with an added aluminium bezel, additional well being and wellness monitoring options and extra superior interval coaching assist. It additionally provides you a devoted golf mode as properly if that’s of curiosity.

Backside line, the Forerunner 165 provides expertise total, however it’s beginning to really feel just a little congested in Garmin’s assortment at that midrange value level.

Specs

• 1.2in 390 x 390p AMOLED show
• Polymer casing
• 4GB RAM
• 5 ATM water score
• 20mm fast launch straps
• 43 x 43 x 11.6mm
• 39g