Garmin 745 | Available NOW | Initial Verdict

16 September 2020

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Garmin Forerunner 745

Check Stock/Price LINK HERE

Verdict: The Garmin Forerunner 745 (FR745) delivers a massive increase in features and capabilities over the ageing 735XT. The triathlon features are all there as is a full training ecosystem. Physiology metrics, music and Garmin Pay make this a more-than-complete athletic package. Be wary of the battery life for your Ironman. Courses, but no maps – that’s fine, get the Forerunner 945 if you want maps.

In A Nutshell: A smaller 945, a bit cheaper, with no maps, less battery and less some trivial other stuff

Deals and discounts will be rare at launch, so your best bet to sweeten the steep price is to go for a tri bundle. A detailed look at the Garmin 745 (FR745) will be inbound here soon or you can jump the starting gun now with a retail price of £450/$499/Eu489.

Note: the GPS battery life of the 745 as stated in the Garmin.com specs look wrong to me – s/be 24 hours not 16 I reckon and the 21 hours quoted by garmin for ultratrac is nonsense.

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36 Comments

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stripeyhorse

2 months ago

But not much cheaper…

Alex

2 months ago

For 3-4 years since the forerunner 735xt, I would have expected battery to be longer than 16 hours, especially with the 245 getting 24 hours on average. For $100 more, you get double battery and that’s just the minimum

John Kissane

Supporter

2 months ago

A lot of my electronic purchases come from Germany, best price I found for a new 945 there is €479 which leaves the 745 looking a bit lost.

Christian

2 months ago

745 has much less battery life compared to 945. According to the Garmin Website it has not even half of the GPS time of the 945. This is a huge disappointment for me. I expected 25-30h.
It does not even make sense in relation to the dimensions of the watch:
945 (47x47x13,70mm = 23769) 36h
Fenix 6s (42x42x13,80mm = 19119) 25h
745 (43,8×43,8×13,3mm = 20040)16h

gtom

2 months ago

Maps and battery size aside will swapping 945 for 745 resolve button issues?

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to gtom

2 months ago

😉 my 3rd 945’s buttons are alright.

N. Gullo

Reply to gtom

2 months ago

Do like me, wait 6 months and ask for iteration D ( I did for FR 945)… Reading online review, Garmin has often quality control issue in the first lot of production. It is happening for the old 1030, with the model produced in early 2018 experiencing touchscreen failure.

inSyt

2 months ago

“However, there are a handful of new features here, including a new track recognition mode that nails your track workout’s GPS map to the correct lane on the track, as well as ensuring the distance is virtually identical to what you run. Second, there’s a new Daily Suggested Workouts for running and cycling, which gives you specific daily workouts to do that keep you within the bounds of ideal training load and recovery. Oh, and fear not, they’re coming to FR245/945/MARQ/Fenix6 units today in public beta, and then to final/production firmware in a few weeks.” DCR

The Coros Pace 2 pushing Garmin in the right direction. Also, the 245/945, the way Garmin should be supporting all their watches.

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to inSyt

2 months ago

yes.
with the suunto battery modes you could have argued that garmin were doing a similar thing anyway
with the coros track mode it DOES seem to have moved garmin into action. rightly so….but see how quick they can react….pretty good

Ronnie

2 months ago

So the reason to buy this over the 945 is…it’s 3 grams lighter and a hair smaller? Given the 945 is available at $520 right now on amazon I can’t see why I wouldn’t buy that over this at $500? Am I missing something? (Coming from an “ancient” 735)

Inky

Reply to Ronnie

2 months ago

YES. I hear ya!

I want to get rid of my Apple Watch and want to join Garmin.

I’ve been waiting for the 745 release to choose between the 745 and 945. In Germany both got the same prize (945 is in cheaper on other sites)

Dear Mister 5krunner. Is there ANY reason to choose the 745. I don’t get it at all. I compared all specs.

Help!

MOC

Reply to Ronnie

2 months ago

The 945 “mushy button” which may be fixed in Rev D, bit of a lottery whether you get a older one if not ordering from Garmin directly I suppose.

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to MOC

2 months ago

with orders direct from garmin you will/should get latest Rev.
HOWEVER if you are getting a replacement (like my rev b) then that’s probably a recon unit and possibly with the same problem.
my rec C was shipped from wiggle. whether or not it was from their stock or garmin’s idk.
the good thing with garmin/wiggle is that you are more likely to get the latest rev. smaller companies could still have a rev A sitting on the shelf…you just wont know

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to Ronnie

2 months ago

battery and maps
i suspect that 945 is on its way out to be replaced by a more expensive and more capable 955, which explains the temporary price ‘anomoly’

stripeyhorse

Reply to tfk, the5krunner

2 months ago

In what time frame would you expect that to happen

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to stripeyhorse

2 months ago

no intel on dates. i would guess ces2021. but could be next month.

this is the latest view on the future…continually changes: https://the5krunner.com/2020/09/30/october-2020-sports-watch-update/

nilspecial

2 months ago

As this turned out to be basically another 945, do you think the 955 will be released before Christmas? Any guesses what will be changed / improved?

A phoneless emergency call (= LTE?) would be a must buy feature for me, but other than that I can hardly think of any!? More battery? Any new (more accurate?) sensors to be foreseeable? Power on wrist?

As the altimeter on my 935 is broken, I’m trying to decide if I should jump onto a good 745/945 deal or if I should wait for the 955!?

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to nilspecial

2 months ago

check the altimeter hole is clear. try to get a repalcement from garmin …there’s a 2 year EU guarantee (despite what they say). even if longer than that give it a go.
955 will have a larger screen and LTE will be the stand out feature. there will be incremental niceties like quickfit bands. there will be a minor feature or two

Justin

Supporter

2 months ago

Oh look, another piecemeal Garmin Watch that fragments the consumer base over trivial features being left off and out when I have seen this before

(It’s Garmin’s entire business model).

Just look at the responses above, this isn’t what people wanted. Unify the line with one model and a few changes in terms of build and hardware. I’m talking at most offering something like LTE on a top model and Saphire glass, but under the hood, they all do the same thing. Getting no Tri option and blocking some metrics that easily can be used across the line is starting to look stupid.

Jacob

2 months ago

Does it have same sony chipset as 945?

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to Jacob

2 months ago

that is a better question than you think.
a simplistic answer: yes.
long answer: read today’s post !

Jacob

Reply to tfk, the5krunner

2 months ago

so how it’s possible to only 16h gps? 🙂 similar sized garmin devices with that chipset provide better battery life

Kai

Supporter

Reply to Jacob

2 months ago

There’s something decidedly fishy about the battery lifetime, and I think it’s not related to the GPS chipset. The assumption is that the 945 and the 745 are based on the same electronic platform, so current consumption should be identical. However:
FR945: 2 weeks (336 hours) smartwatch, 36 hours with GPS, 10 hours GPS+music
FR745: 1 week (168 hours) smartwatch, 16 hours with GPS, 6 hours GPS+music

Either their platform is seeing an increased power consumption (unlikely), or the electronics is so large that the battery is so small that the change in volume (+16% down) has effectively halved the volume of the battery.

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to Kai

2 months ago

don’t forget the 745 is smaller

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to Kai

2 months ago

the volume of the case is smaller but what other components apart from the battery would be smaller? eg you wouldn’t have a 16% smaller sony gps chip

eierbärli

2 months ago

Hello fellow gadget heads,

the pricing is ambitious. Read: rediculous.

My issue with Garmin, apart from pricing, is their hype around
stuff I absolutely don’t want and need, like Pay and music.
And to an extend, maps.

I had really hoped for something like a toned down 945.
Like all metrics and sport modes just without pay, maps, music
and the barometer but in a smaller and slimer case and most
important for a reasonable price.

I got a Vantage M for 176€ (!!!) on black friday and it ticks like 90% of the boxes for me.

I’d really like to try out the swimming metrics but the world keeps on turning without those so far. 😉

I am aware that I am a declining minority but still I like to satisfiy my electronic gadget fix, you know.

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to eierbärli

2 months ago

yes I was faster before I used ANY gadget. surely they are all over-rated. life is more fun with a gadget tho.
Everyone is different with different wants and needs. what’s right for you is not right for someone else.
I agree the price is ‘ambitious’
then again, the Apple watch also has ambitious pricing and it’s the best-selling wearable EVER. IIRC it sells more than the rest combined. So ambitious pricing plus branding and decent marketing works wonders for sales.
745 *IS* a toned-down 945. admittedly not with a toned-down price. get a 935.
vantage M….yes i agree. a box ticker. i like it

eierbärli

Reply to tfk, the5krunner

2 months ago

With the confusing product lines and the boatload of watches at Garmin,

do I get it right, that they sell the entry level tri-watch for 500 EUR?!?

Is there a lower priced tri-watch in the pipeline? Something like 655 with tri-mode?

I’d really like to get a watch brother for my garmin cycling head unit
but without upsetting the homefront and taking out a mortgage. 😉

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to eierbärli

2 months ago

good point
1. it’s crazy that the garmin entry-level tri watch is Eu500. perhaps a cheaper one is planned. OR perhaps older model/old stock is planned to hit lower price points.
2. it would be more like the 245 than 645 i think. garmin needs to compete in tri around the mid-price point which is 200-something euros
3. watch brother – 245, it doesn’t need to do anything fancy with the bike. record them both separately.

John Kissane

Supporter

2 months ago

A friend of mine in one of those partner programs can get me the 945 direct from Garmin for €480. Presumably that would be the latest revision, didn’t even know one had to worry about revisions ’til I read it here! Must admit I’m tempted given the high price of the 745 & presumed demise of the 6xx series. Will mull it over for a while as it’s one of those wants rather than needs situations 🙂

tfk, the5krunner

Author

Reply to John Kissane

2 months ago

indeed so.
now look at the post i’ve just this second published and you’ll be even more concerned 😉

John Kissane

Supporter

Reply to tfk, the5krunner

2 months ago

Thank you, I am now paralysed by indecision!

BrowneB

2 months ago

Does anyone know what kind of 22mm strap it uses? I looked on the Garmin website and it looks like it might be a new strap just for the 745. I have lots of third-party Fenix 5 and Forerunner 945 straps. Do you know if they would fit the 745?