Garmin Forerunner 165 Review

Small, lightweight and plastic-like, the Garmin Forerunner 165 lags behind the Coros Pace 3 for its relative lack of sports physiology insights and multi-sport abilities. Worse than that, it sits in a hard-to-comprehend Garmin product range that sometimes leaves knowledgeable reviewers scratching their heads let alone the purchasers they try to help. It’s a pointless upgrade for anything but an ancient sports watch but as a first-time GPS running watch is worth serious consideration.

The latest Garmin Forerunner rests uneasily near the bottom of the range yet has a beautifully vibrant AMOLED screen plus all the sports features you will need to take on your first running race this year. If its real purpose was to dominate the budget end of the running watch market then Garmin failed. But as a watch just for running and nothing else, it’s a highly competent watch and one that I recommend to anyone planning to take running at least half-seriously.

The 165’s five buttons and touchscreen allow easy control all year round but be careful as both the glass and case can be scratched. The display will come with childish standard watch faces but you will soon explore Garmin’s mostly free app store to replace those. More positive will be your in-run experience with many ways to follow plans, be audio coached or alerted if you go too fast. Naturally, there’s an excellent music option and the ability to tap and pay for a post-run coffee but don’t get lost as the FR165 has no maps, although you can sneakily add the DwMAP app to cover that omission.

If you like mazes, you will love the Garmin 165. Its menus are labyrinthine in complexity. Garmin is slowly improving usability but has some way to go, that said the left-side buttons scroll through a series of useful glances at key information covering everything from weather, race day info, your recovery status, HRV status and 24×7 body battery/stress. Better still the free Garmin Connect partner app is currently undergoing a revamp to improve how its complexity is presented to you. Don’t get me wrong, the Forerunner and Garmin Connect have some awesome features, it’s just that you can’t always find them.

Tip: For small wrists, I’m skinny and 174cm tall. It’s too small a watch for me and I prefer Garmin’s medium-size format.

As one of the cheapest Garmin Forerunners, it is still expensive, with a further premium for a music option but it will work on either iOS or Android, unlike Apple Watch. It costs $249 or $299 with Music which matches the Apple Watch SE ($249) and edges both the Polar Ignite 3 ($299) and Coros Pace 3 ($239)

• Buy Forerunner 165: $250/£250/280€ (music add $50/£30/50€)
• Buy Forerunner 55: $200/£180/170€ (no music)
• Buy Forerunner 265s: $450/£430/500€ (music as standard)

Here is a summary review and afterwards a deep dive into some of the interesting aspects of Garmin Forerunner 165, some tips, and my recommendations for some Garmin Connect IQ apps.

Verdict: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Garmin's entry-level GPS running watch. Very competent but less good as a smartwatch or non-running watch.

• Price
• Apparent Accuracy
• Build Quality & Design
• Features, Including App
• Openness & Compatability

4.2

Garmin Forerunner 165 Opinion & Summary Review

Garmin Forerunner 165 is the cheapest of the current crop of Forerunner running watches and is similar to a Garmin Vivoactive 5 with buttons added. You’ll find the same running features shared with the more expensive Forerunner 265/265s but you will miss out on the Traning Status, Training Readiness and Training Load features. You also miss out on triathlon features and some more advanced cycling features and whilst you get the latest GPS chip, you don’t get the ability to use its most accurate mode.

It looks cheap-and-cheerful but works well.

Its small format and sporty aesthetics are not for everyone, maybe it’s too small for your wrist or just doesn’t look good enough to wear outside of sports. But all those are deliberate choices made by Garmin and good ones if the target is someone who wants to train for an upcoming race and sometimes puts the watch in the drawer after each workout.

 

The Forerunner 165 is a powerful tool for runners, providing essential features like pace, power, distance, and heart rate monitoring. The wrist-based heart rate monitor, pace and free power metrics keep you informed about how hard you’re working.

Furthermore, the Forerunner 165 offers personalized features to enhance your training experience. From daily suggested workouts that adapt to your performance and abilities to the free training plans in Garmin Coach. With features like race predictor, and recovery time estimation, it prepares you thoroughly for races with the option of a coach-level training schedule. Plus, advanced sleep monitoring ensures you have insights into the energy and recovery you need to perform at your best. You can trust that Garmin gives you a large chunk of its mature stable running features and you will want for little else for years to come.

Garmin adds the necessary smart features like music, tap to pay, weather, 3rd party apps, an analysis and reporting app (Garmin Connect) and smartphone notifications but can’t offer the deep integration with a smartphone like the Apple Watch (FindMy, make/take calls, home automation, Apple Maps, Apple Music, iMessage).

It gives you all of that plus a battery life you won’t need to worry about.

In a way, the Forerunner 165 is the perfect running watch from Garmin. If you just want to use it in and around sporting activities (running), that’s largely what it’s designed for. Garmin’s issue is that at this price point, many people want more than a sports watch. They want a lifestyle watch that just so happens to include sporty elements and that is why Apple Watch is becoming ever more popular. Garmin does make a coherent product at this price point but as you go further up its price range, its other watches often struggle to justify their significant price premiums.

The FR165 also struggles with pricing as $250/£250/280€ is perhaps twice the price of a true ‘budget’ or ‘entry-level’ running watch but will watches at those bargain prices do the job? A: Some will, some won’t.  That kind of uncertainty doesn’t exist with this Garmin.

Buy Forerunner 165: $250/£250/280€ (music add $50/£30/50€)

Pros

• Generally accurate
• Free training plans
• Detailed workout guidance
• Extensive running features
• Great battery life
• Beautiful screen
• Music Support (optional)
• Some good smart features

Cons

• Not cheap but priced correctly compared to competitors
• Lacks advanced smartphone integration as found on Apple Watch
• Lacks advanced physiology features found on more expensive Garmin watches
• Lacks coverage for some non-running sports (like cycling and triathlon)
• Lacks maps (apps exist to get around this)
• Lacks power meter support (apps exist to partially get around this)

• Buy Forerunner 165
• Buy Forerunner 165 Music

Garmin Forerunner 165 Review – What’s New?

Lots of Garmin’s existing features have been trickled down to this model but there is nothing wholly new to Garmin to see here.

This is a solid update from the much older Forerunner 55 with several hardware bumps plus a raft of features. The range of sports features and hardware components represents those of a top-end Garmin watch from 2-5 years ago.

Features added to the Forerunner 165 when compared to the older FR55 include these

• Daily Suggested Workouts
• Music Options including Spotify, Deezer ad Amazon Prime Music
• Good Swim Features (Pool and Open Water)
• Basic outdoor/recreation/hiking features, basic cycling features, all commonly used sports profiles except triathlon
• Garmin Pay (tap to pay)

How to Guide: use Garmin PAY with most banks – here

• Nap Detection,
• Garmin Running Power – a great way to assess your effort on undulating terrain
• Morning Report – your status, training plan and weather for the day ahead
• HRV Status – how are you handling your life and activity stresses?
• Race Glance
• Course Guidance
• Rest timer
• Training Effect – Just how hard was that workout
• Primary benefit – What effect will that workout have achieved for you
• Intervals – on the fly intervals
• Blood Oxygen/SpO2 (Elevate Gen 4 sensor)
• Altimeter, compass, thermometer, ambient light sensor
• Text response & images (Android)
• 390x390px, 1.2″ AMOLED Touchscreen

Garmin Forerunner History – A Brief Timeline

Garmin’s Forerunners were made “for runners”, the Forerunner 205 (2006) being the start of the more competent GPS watches. It soon expanded the scope to cover multisports. As the company developed sports profiles with customisations specific to individual sports, soon Garmin created tailored coverage for all kinds of running each with their own unique needs including those for track running, ultra running, virtual running, orienteering, treadmills and more.

GPS technology gradually became more battery-friendly and more accurate. Whilst heart rate support was always available for chest straps that soon gave way to the standard inclusion of onboard optical sensors that themselves became progressively more able to sense other body metrics such as blood oxygen, ECG and irregular heartbeat patterns.

In 2020, Garmin acquired Firstbeat, a sports physiology company. With that knowledge, Garmin now includes many unique insights into the physiology of your performance and recovery. This area clearly sets Garmin apart from the competition but the Forerunner 165 is short on some of these features.

Sports watches soon overtook the role of basic activity trackers. All Sports watches now will count your steps, stairs, sleep (sleep stages) and more.

Garmin has led the way in defining standards. Thus, it is best placed to link to all kinds of sports sensors and all kinds of sports ecosystems, like Strava and Zwift. However, its app store remains proprietary yet largely free.

Garmin Connect evolved to become an industry-leading reporting and analysis app for all things running-related. Now able to help you find a race and automatically create a plan to train for it, when you’ve sinished the workout you can clearly see how you performed.

Sports watches now have all the features that can ever be easily included. Highly specialist ones still make their way to the high-end models but the fighting ground now for Garmin is to hold off the like of Apple Watch. As a result, Garmin sports watches are becoming wellness watches and evermore ‘smart’ but smartwatches are encroaching on Garmin’s traditional territory and becoming ever more sporty. Garmin’s fundamental problems are that it doesn’t sell smartphone and thus certain smart features will never be opened up to the company by the likes of Apple.

• 2006 Forerunner 205 – GPS capabilities
• 2009 Forerunner 310XT – first multisport capabilities (duathlon)
• 2011 Forerunner 910XT – first competent triathlon watch
• 2013 Forerunner 620 – adds running dynamics
• 2014 Forerunner 920XT – Live Tracking
• 2015 Forerunner 225 – first optical HR
• 2016 Forerunner 35 – first of the later generations of square-faced, entry-level running watches
• 2018 Forerunner 645 – Garmin PAY for tap and pay.
• 2019 Forerunner 245 Music – first to add offline music for streaming services, maps and SpO2
• 2021 Forerunner 55 – the entry-level watch reverts to a round face
• 2021 Forerunner 945 LTE – introduces LTE features for the first time
• 2022 Forerunner 955 Solar – introduces solar charging and dual frequency ‘GPS’ for the first time
• 2023 Forerunner 265/965 – introduce AMOLED display for the first time

In many ways, the Forerunner 165 uses the tech and features from the 245 model (2019). A 255 model on sale costs the same as the 165 but with more features, albeit also with an inferior screen.

Garmin Forerunner 165 Design: Mature

With five buttons and a touchscreen the Forerunner 165 shares the same design as the rest of the Forerunner range and is easy to use but also easy to get lost navigating the menus.

There exists considerable potential to personalise the Garmin experience including with the buttons, behaviour and brightness of the screen. A button combination could equally easily take a screenshot as it could trigger an Emergency Alert.

The lightweight construction (39g) is great for runners but both the case and glass easily scratch. So if you plan to train for a parkrun or a marathon this year it’s a great choice…less so if you plan to take it scrambling through undergrowth and over boulders.

The screen size is larger than the 265s but smaller than the regular 265. There is a fair-sized black ring around the screen and the usable screen area is about the minimum I would accept for a watch of this size but it remains able to clearly display 4 running metrics, unlike the 6 metrics you get on Garmin’s larger watches.

• Forerunner 165:  390x390px, 1.2″ AMOLED, touchscreen
• Forerunner 55:  208x208px 1.04″ old-fashioned MIP
• Forerunner 265s: 360x360px 1.1″ AMOLED, touchscreen, Gorilla Glass 3 (FR255 is 416x416px 1.3″ AMOLED)

Garmin Forerunner 165 Sensors & Connections: Highly connected

You can connect to running footpods including Stryd plus any heart rate straps. Other sensors are supported but if you want to pair to a bike power meter you will have to get clever with this kind of data field app from @Takura877 (not tested). The onboard motion sensors are great and give your running dynamics, cadence and Garmin Running Power (true effort).

The optical HR sensor is 4th generation which is fairly good and includes the ability to broadcast HR to gym equipment and to take blood oxygen SpO2 readings

The Airoha GPS chip is the latest accurate model supporting multiple satellite constellations like Galileo. However, the dual-frequency mode is disabled so you lose a tad of accuracy in some environments.

For those of you starting out or adopting mixed speed training, run/walk/stand detection is automatic as is sleep (sleep stage). Both include motion detection from the accelerometer and sleep takes inputs from HRV.

If you want to connect to other platforms then there are effectively no limits set by Garmin. Garmin links to just about everything including Strava.

 Garmin Forerunner 165: Suitability for your sport

The 165 is suitable for all kinds of running including track running, indoor running, walking, virtual running, parkrun, sprinting, and marathons. It lacks a map and hence suitability for the running sports that need a map, you might include Orienteering and Ultra Running there. It also lacks suitability for running in rugged environments, so some kinds of trail running might not be suitable.

The situation regarding other sports is good.

• Gym  – Good. Strength, HIIT, Cardio, Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, and Floor Climbing are covered. Reps are auto-detected and you can follow gym workouts
• Classes – Good. Yoga, pilates, meditation, and more. You can follow predetermined class plans.
• Swimming – it’s a great swim watch with many pool-related features and the ability to record your open water swims even in Winter. Brrrrr!
• Cycling – you can log your GPS cycling rides. However, more advanced cyclists will want power meter support, map-routing and trainer control none of which are included. You might also be careful putting the 165 through some of the knocks from MTB/trail/gravel riding.
• Multisport – not covered. You have to log each sport as a separate activity in you plan to do a triathlon…not the end of the world.

Garmin Forerunner 165 Recovery, Sleep, Stress & Wellness Metrics

Forerunner 165 collects information for sleep, stress and recovery with HR, HRV, and breath rate. It provides richer insights into sleep/sleep stages and stress.

• Recovery – A useful and simple hourly countdown to when you are next ready for a hard workout.
• HRV Status – HRV is a measure of how your body is coping with the stresses of life. Garmin gives nightly, daily and weekly views but the most useful one and the one that is scientifically grounded is how your HRV compares to your personal range. Garmin gives you that.
• Body Battery – assesses stress and activity over time to give a fun metric describing how much energy for life you might have in the tank as of now.
• Sleep Score – Your sleep is scored and assessed, and your sleep and sleep stages are trended over time to give you important insights into the key time of the day when your body recovers and repairs. Naps are also now included as are sleep recommendations.

Other wellness features include a health snapshot, PulseOx, Respiration, Women’s health and intensity minutes.

Deep Dive: What makes Forerunner 165 a great running watch?

A: Flexibility.

We are all different standards of runners with different interests, preferences and motivations. Garmin Forerunner 165 can pretty much keep us all happy.

Your experience as you run is tailored to how you want it. If you want more metrics on a screen, numbers or charts, Garmin can do that. If you want music or silence, alerts or encouragement. Garmin can do that.

If you want to follow a Garmin 30-minute running plan or a 22-minute one, Garmin does that for free. Your plans are put on your calendar and each workout offers detailed guidance should you want it. You can make your plan, buy a digital plan from a 3rd party or simply take Garmin’s daily workout suggestions. The latter is personalised to your goals and readiness each day, and your goals can also be automated to a degree if you choose an event from Garmin’s extensive race database.

Competitor Comparisons – Apple, Coros and Polar

Coros Pace 2/3, Polar Pacer (Pro) and Apple Watch SE all off Garmin stiff competition. None are as good as the Apple Watch for smart features (iPhone integration) and they lag behind the ability to personalise the look of the Apple Watch. But if you want a dedicated running watch to support your fitness and activities then those brands offer good alternatives. If you are not organised enough to charge a battery every day…avoid Apple.

• When to opt for Apple – You have an iPhone, work out casually and want the benefits of a Watches integration with the phone.
• When to opt for Garmin – Garmin has all the features. The leader in running. You’ve tried smartwatches but want richer running features
• When to opt for Coros – Coros watches are a little bit cheaper and easier to use than Garmin. Coros has lots of features but as a generalisation, they’re probably not quite as good as Garmin’s equivalents. Coros do not have AMOLED screens
• When to opt for Polar – Polar’s strength is its runner-focussed, and fitness-focussed ecosystem. Polar focuses on proven, core insights whereas Garmin is perhaps swayed too much by adding new features that might fill an apparent gap.

Garmin Forerunner 165 Accuracy & Performance Review – A Detailed Report

TL;DR – Good GPS Accuracy. Numerous heart rate errors

The GPS accuracy was good in many circumstances but definitely struggled with tree cover and tall buildings. GPS accuracy was a creditable 77% in my formal test.

The heart rate accuracy was good for a long tempo raun but otherwise disappointing. It was always worn correctly with a suitable degree of tightness and spacing from the wrist bone with no other devices on the same wrist. Not good enough.

Heart rate accuracy is use-case dependent, person dependent and environmentally dependent. Maybe you’ll have more luck than me, a few other reviewers who I trust did have better luck but still noted issues!

For sleep tracking the time in bed/asleep metrics were pretty good but the HRV that underlies the sleep stage metrics didn’t quite tie up with other tools I use (other reviewers find different results).

Garmin Forerunner 165 Battery Life: Great

These are not market-leading battery lives but they are very good for an AMOLED-screened watch. Perhaps the only thing to watch out for is battery degradation. This will happen over time and happen more quickly if you regularly run to music.

But even after some degradation over a few years, 5 or 7 hours of music playback time whilst running is still enough for most people.

• Smartwatch mode: 11 days (4 days with always-on display)
• Battery Saver Smartwatch mode: 20 days
• GPS-Only GNSS mode:19 hours
• All-Systems GNSS mode: 17 hours
• GPS-Only GNSS mode with music: 7 hours
• All-Systems GNSS mode with music: 6.5 hours

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Specifications

It’s a solidly spec’d watch for the price.

Garmin Forerunner 165 Review of the Reviews

Other Garmin Forerunner 165 Review articles by DC Rainmaker, CNET, TechRadar and those on Reddit and YouTube from the UK and beyond, all portray a similar story to what I’m giving here ie that of a solid entry-level running watch.

Garmin Forerunner 165 Bands

The bands are a standard 20mm size. The band supplied is not QuickFit. Cheap 20mm bands on Amazon probably will fit, choose those that claim compatibility with Garmin watches as sometimes the pin diameters vary.

Garmin Forerunner 165: Should You Upgrade?

It depends on the watch you currently have. Here are the scenarios when you might or might not consider the 165.

• First Sports Watch – Yes
• Garmin Forerunner 35/45 or earlier – Yes, a notable leap forward
• Apple Watch – No, except maybe from an old Watch like Series 3
• Fitbit – Generally yes
• Polar – No
• Suunto – No
• Samsung – Maybe, they tend to be inaccurate
• £/$100 Chinese smartwatch – Yes
• Other – ask below

Some Take Outs from this Garmin Forerunner 165 Review

TL;DR – AMOLED was an unnecessary addition to a sports-only watch that will only be occasionally used. That adds £/$50 to the price for no real benefit.

The Forerunner 165 represents a spec bump from the older Forerunner 55. Confusingly it’s identically featured to a Vivoactive 5 albeit with a couple of extra buttons and isn’t that different from the Forerunner 255 or 245 except for the superior screen.

I’m a little bit torn when it comes to deciding on who this kind of watch is best for. The easy call is that if you have thin wrists then the FR165 has the right proportions for you. From Garmin’s messaging around the product launch, it seemed clear that the company was targeting a new runner, perhaps someone buying their first running watch for their first event this year. The features seem nicely geared towards that.

However, such a runner probably won’t run for much more than 5 hours a week if training for a shorter event or, say, ten hours a week for marathon training. If these watches are geared solely for sports usage then why the AMOLED screen? Sure AMOLED looks pretty but that prettiness exists to give vibrancy and definition to features that you use outside of sport – like the watch face. I’m not sure that Forerunner 165 owners will be planning to wear their watches 24×7 .

I remain to be convinced that sporty, plastic-like FR 165 will have the right lifestyle aesthetic for many new owners. Unlike an Apple Watch which more easily morphs between a sports watch and a dressy watch following a judicious choice of watchface and band.

Let’s say you get the Forerunner 165. For running, swimming, gym and fitness classes you will be super happy with it. If you progress in your activities over the next few years to greater things you will still be super happy with it with no need to upgrade it. It definitely does more than you will ever need it to for sports.

If it were me then I would be unhappy with the watch. It’s not large enough overall, the active screen area is too small and it can’t handle the multisport needs I have for a watch. Worse than that I am perenially intrigued by Garmin’s physiological ranking and insights into my body and would miss the more advanced features there from Garmin’s more expensive watches. Even then I still prefer my Apple Watch because of its many smart integration with my iPhone and Smart Home.

Garmin probably has yet another winner on its hands. Well…on your wrists!

Garmin Forerunner 165 Price, Availability & Discounts

The latest Forerunner is expensive, with a further premium for a music option but will work on either iOS or Android. It costs $249 or $299 with Music which matches the Apple Watch SE ($249) and edges both the Polar Ignite 3 ($299) and Coros Pace 3 ($239)

• Buy Forerunner 165: $250/£250/280€ (music add $50/£30/50€)
• Buy Forerunner 55: $200/£180/170€ (no music)
• Buy Forerunner 265s: $450/£430/500€ (music as standard)