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Reasons NOT to buy the Forerunner 955

Garmin’s latest Garmin Forerunner 955 is definitely the best triathlon watch ever, at least it is if you value the most number of features. I’ve written a glowing review of the Garmin Forerunner 955 here, I have one, I love it, I sleep with it! and it will be my main triathlon watch for 2022.

However, my job today is to persuade you not to buy one.

Aesthetics

The FR955 has the same aesthetic as recent forerunners, so you either love or loathe that. But something has changed with the looks of the 955, two things in fact.

Firstly the solar charging ring around the watch face creates an optical illusion to make the screen area look the same size as on the smaller FR945, it’s not…the 955’s usable screen is bigger – the stats say it is 260x260px on the FR955 vs 240x240px on theFR945.

Secondly, the 955 has a slightly changed case size with a diameter that’s 0.5mm less and a depth that’s 0.7mm thicker – 46.5×46.5×14.4mm on the FR955 vs. 47x47x13.7mm on the FR945. You might assume that such trivial differences are just that…trivial. But no, the FR955 feels thicker and looks thicker and the proportions seem wrong. Maybe I’m just used to my old Forerunners? But the real downside to me is that I’m now just that little bit more nervous about slipping the FR955 under my wetsuit sleeve and ripping it due to the extra thickness.

On a more positive note, the slightly narrower diameter might just make those of us with thinner wrists feel more comfortable with the face size that the slightly smaller new model appears to present?

Design Details

Other negative points include the word Forerunner etched into the side of the casing – that’s a bit naff but you can’t really see it, so I’m not too bothered there. But then comes the god-awful strap pins or, to be more precise, the lack of a QuickFit strap. The strap design is different from the FR935/FR945 and it’s no longer the case that you can simply unscrew the pins and replace the strap. The new strap pin design is interchangeable with Quickfit straps but for $500 I expect a QuickFit strap out-of-the-box.

Other Model-based Issues

Once again there is no smaller-wristed version. The lesser-wristed humans will have to wait for a 755 (aka 955s) and when will that be? 2023 would be my guess ie, not this season.

Maybe you want a bit of extra safety tech and are drawn by LTE so that you can send safety alerts without having to carry your phone? Sorry. No can do. Garmins are only sold to people who either have no safety concerns or who love lugging a phone around with them.

The watch has a backlight that automatically fires up with a wrist turn and that works well. Nevertheless, the screen remains a bit dull. Sure you can crank the backlight up to 100% but that hits the battery life stats big time.

The final hardware-based issue is the lack of an AMOLED screen. In many ways, this would make a perfect watch for me as I love the high resolution, colourful AMOLED screen on the Epix 2. To be fair AMOLED on the 955 with GPS accuracy set to max really would kill the battery…but I still want it.

CIQ Apps

If you buy an FR955 today then there is a lack of CIQ apps, watch faces and data fields that will work. In many cases, it’s just that the apps have not been certified with the latest generation of watches but there are also other differences that, for example, have stopped Supersapiens from being able to offer compatibility right now.

This is a perennial problem that Garmin gets wrong with the launch of every new watch. Or at least it seems that way to me.

Battery Life

Solar – why? Why does a watch that can take you through two consecutive Ironman races without a re-charge need solar charging? Maybe it’s because the battery life isn’t quite as claimed and that the batteries will, for sure, degrade over time.

The headline and official battery life stats are impressive but what I get so far seems to be less than what the stats suggest.  For example, I should be getting 20 hours of GPS recording time with accuracy cranked up to the max and I’m finding that after an hour run under dense tree cover with the occasional look at a map that the battery is more notably depleted.

Here is an example I’m talking about

But even in better GPS reception conditions I’m still not getting 20 hours. Indeed a 2-hour ride yesterday showed an improved burn rate of just over 5% per hour but that still equated to a 19-hour battery life and not the claimed 20 hours. And this is a brand, spanking new battery. It’s only going to get worse as the battery degrades.

Usage

The training readiness metric superficially looks useful. It relies on all these factors in its calculations: sleep, recovery time, HRV status, Acute Load, sleep history and stress history. You simply have to wear the watch almost all of the time to get these metrics. Will you? Will you wear a sports watch with a weird-looking solar ring and no AMOLED screen for work? If not the stats will be wrong, even more so if you also don’t wear it to bed.

If you’re not going to use the physiology stuff, just buy a second-hand Garmin 935.

Running Power

I’ve used Stryd for many years and have years of consistent running power data as a result. That all still works 100% as before with Stryd on the Forerunner 955 (yes, even their CIQ stuff works!)

However, Garmin’s new native running power remains proprietary. Garmin’s calculations simply don’t match those from Stryd plus Garmin Running Power simply cannot be correct as, for starters, Garmin use weather reports and GPS pace as inputs into their calculations. You can pontificate all you like to the contrary but those two inputs won’t be accurate. (FWIW: I’ve never said Stryd power is accurate)

Once again Garmin ignores Stryd’s running power ecosystem that over 100,000 runners probably use. In contrast to previous years, when Garmin managed to add ANT+ support for SmO2 and (soon) core temperature sensors both of which combined certainly have nowhere near 100,000 users.

Availability

Availability now seems to be improving for the all-black, non-solar model.