On the eve of World Running Day, Garmin introduced two new smartwatches for runners in its Forerunner line: the Forerunner 255 for $349.99 and the Forerunner 955 for $499.99.
Forerunner 255 is a lightweight middle-class smartwatch for runners, based on the Forerunner 245. It will come in two sizes. The standard Forerunner 255 is measured at 46 mm diagonally and weighs 49g, and the smaller 255S is 41 mm diagonally and weighs 32g. There will also be Forerunner 255 Music and 255S Music, which can store up to 500 songs on the watch. Garmin says that also includes playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Music models will cost an additional $50. The smartwatches are designed with water resistance of up to 5ATM, 14 days of battery life, and up to 30 hours with GPS on.
Key features this time include a new racing widget, heart rate variation (HRV) status during sleep, multi-band GPS, and the ability for triathletes to switch faster between sports at the touch of a button. The race widget will contain information about the preparation for the race, including performance predictions, weather on the day of the race, and the countdown. Multi-band GPS is the most popular feature in multisport watches that enhances GPS accuracy by communicating with multiple satellite frequencies. Finally, the watch is also equipped with a “morning report” function. When the user wakes up, the watch provides brief information about the weather for the day, suggestions for daily workouts, as well as a report on last night’s sleep, recovery time, training status, and HRV status.
Compared to the Forerunner 245, the 255 line also includes NFC for Garmin Pay. It is also equipped with continuous heart rate monitoring, as well as SpO2 sensors to enable features like a Body Battery. The metric measures how well you recover during sleep, as well as how exhausted you are during the day due to stress. The Forerunner 255 series will also support basic smartwatch features like push notifications, Garmin security features, incident detection, and real-time tracking. It will also provide users with recommendations for daily workouts, as well as access to training programs through Garmin Coach and detailed indicators in Garmin Connect.
Garmin Forerunner 955 is more of a premium watch for runners, which is equipped with a 47mm always-on full-color touch screen and weighs only 52g. However, fans of buttons have nothing to worry about. The 955 includes five physical buttons that can be used with the touch screen. Like the 255 series, it is designed for water resistance of 5ATM, but has a slightly longer battery life, about 15 days, with 42 hours in GPS mode. There is also the Forerunner 955 Solar for $599.99, which uses a patented Garmin Power Glass lens. With solar charging the 955 Solar works up to 20 days, and 49 hours in GPS mode.
The Forerunner 955 also features multi-band GPS, HRV status, morning reports, and a new race widget. In addition, it has a new training readiness metric. As the name implies, this metric takes into account sleep, recovery time, HRV, and some other indicators to give users an estimate that shows how ready they are to train. Also added is the real-time endurance tracking feature that Garmin introduced for the first time in the Fenix 7 series.
In terms of health and intelligence tracking, the Forerunner 955 has the same basic features as the Model 255. However, it adds a few additional training metrics, such as PacePro and ClimbPro, that provide real-time recommendations for your pace and altitude. You can also save more songs to the 955 – 2000, to be exact.
Both Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 955 are available now. The Forerunner 255 is available in four colors: gray, pink, blue, and black. And the Forerunner 955 is available in white and black.
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