Garmin Forerunner 970 problems & delights – a negative review

This is probably the review of the Forerunner 970 that Garmin dreads.

This review highlights the negative bits so you can make an informed decision rather than relying on every other review, which only tells you how wonderful the watch is (which it is).

Heads up: I have zero links to Garmin and bought this watch with my own money. No media freebies here. People almost always only buy from positive reviews, so if you want to support truly independent content, then please buy the FR970 from this link or Buy Me A Coffee.

This product has been awarded the the5krunner Editor’s Choice 2026. The award is given to products that achieve an exceptional standard in independent testing. See all Editor’s Choice awards.

As you already know, Garmin’s best-ever triathlon watch is the Forerunner 970. It has every tri-related feature and is even better than the Forerunner 965. I rarely would say upgrade from the previous generation model of Garmin, but if you are a tri gadget lover (me), then the upgrade is worth considering.

The Forerunner 970 sits at the top of the current Forerunner range; for a full breakdown of all five active models and how Garmin differentiates them in hardware and software, see the Garmin Forerunner guide.

There’s always a but.

Usually, the ‘but’ is that Garmin is the butt of jokes about reliability and bugs. Once again, that is the case. Once again, you are expected to pay an awful lot of money for a sports watch with quite a few bugs. Admittedly, the situation with the FR970 is better than it was last time, when the bugs on the FR965 were more frequent.

This year’s crop of FR970 bugs is mildly annoying. If you contrast the current situation with well over 5 years ago, you would often hear cries of anguish from fellow athletes, “The £%^$%& Garmin has lost the workout.” Those kinds of catastrophic errors are rare nowadays, although you may encounter the odd unexpected mid-workout reboot from which Garmin should recover your data.

My Experience with the Forerunner 970

I’ve had the 970 from day 1 and have used it extensively as my daily driver for triathlon and HYROX training. It is a really good, well-featured watch, but…

Initial Setup

Garmin has a great system to transfer previous settings to a new watch. But. It often doesn’t work. At least it didn’t for me on the 970, nor its FR965 predecessor, nor my last Edge 540.

Garmin Connect just couldn’t find any backup. This is pathetic.

I also have multiple Apple Watches and iPhones. Transferring phones and watches between family members takes a bit of time, but Apple usually requires only a handful of taps at the start before it goes off and does its thing, and it always works reliably, provided the same software version is used.

With Garmin, I had to start setup from scratch, not a backup, and when you have as many sensors as I do, some disabled and some not, then manual setup is a complete nightmare.

• Set up did not find a backup. They should just ‘be there’ and automatically be found on every device, as Apple does.
• I had to go through the setup twice as there was an error at the end of the first attempt.
• The setup process took over 2 hours.
• During the slow setup, I sometimes had no idea whether the process was just slow or had hung. It needs an improved way to indicate progress.
• After setup, it found an old backup it hadn’t found earlier. #sigh
• Garmin PAY credit card details had to be re-entered twice to make it work.
• Garmin Connect IQ app settings were, of course, not passed over either; some of the settings are very specific, and it was a PITA to research, rediscover and reenter them.
• Multiple account logins were required to get Garmin Express (PC) working correctly
• The default setup language for me was French; others on the net found it to be Latvian. This causes lots of problems later if inadvertently tapped. Luckily, I can get by in French. Latvian…less so. You would have thought that the default language would be linked in some way to the customer’s shipping destination. Silly you, this is Garmin. You don’t become a multi-billion-dollar company by knowing which language your customers speak. How ridiculous.
• Multiple Connect IQ apps failed to work at launch or were unavailable. This is a design issue. Although there is a concept of device families/types, it’s broadly true that Connect IQ requires that 3rd party developers compile their apps and data fields to work on each new watch model. For smaller developers or forgetful ones, this can mean you have to wait weeks or months or never, until your favourite app/data field starts to work on Garmin’s latest watch. Certain developers are very good at getting their data fields to work within days of launch, eg Core and Stryd.
• The new secure accessory pairing is very peculiar. Garmin seems to enjoy finding new ways to add more options, clicks, and checks to any process to annoy you and make things take longer. After annoying you once, it repeated the annoyance again for most new sensors. Why am I continually asked if I want secure connections? I don’t. I’ve told you. Don’t ask me again.
• In my gym, the FR970 occasionally automatically detects a new accessory to add, presumably it’s a gym station. It tells me that only a non-secure pairing option is available but i can’t leave the screen. Mid-workout, I’m stuck on that pairing screen to a device I don’t want to pair to. There is no way to get back to the running workout. Ridiculous, the pairing feature clearly hasn’t been anywhere near properly tested.
• Why does Garmin seem to pair to BLE by default? I don’t want that. I want ANT+. I just want to pair stuff and get on with my life. The whole process is way too complex. But set against that, there are very specific things I want control over and Garmin is the only company that can do that properly – for example, I might want to have an accessory paired, specially named, but inactive. With Wahoo, I have to unpair such a sensor.

Hardware

• Garmin cables/ports work fine for a couple of months and then stop working. The connection is poor. It usually makes a charging connection, but the data transfer/synchronisation connection to a PC and/or Garmin Express is appallingly bad and unreliable. I have to wiggle or hold the cable to get the connection – why isn’t the cable exactly the right size? This has been the case for years with these stupid cables/ports. It’s a pathetic situation for such an expensive/premium product.
• The new speakers sound odd to me. The audio quality is not great. The speakers just can’t handle mid- or high-volume without distortion. If I didn’t know any better, I would say mine were simply broken or damaged.
• Thank you, lawmakers, everywhere – Garmin’s new USB-C ended cable doesn’t fit anywhere, at least not for a few more years in my household. Sigh. I guess it saves people from buying new cables, but I had to go out and buy some adapters instead. #Eco
• The buttons and screen are super nice. Gone is the nonsense from a few years ago when watches leaving Garmin’s factories weren’t quality-controlled to ensure buttons worked. Now the buttons work. And the screen, too. Although why I even have to mention that for a multi-hundred-dollar watch is a bit odd. That said, there were reports of ‘Ghost Touches’ which were later addressed through firmware updates.
• There are a couple of Reddit reports (Aug 2025) about manufacturing defects, including excess glue on some case joints.
• Then there is the yellow bit on the right side – the sensor guard. I wanted a black bit. There is no ‘black bit’ option. What idiot designer thought of this bright idea? It is the most aesthetically stupid call Garmin has ever made. Some people obviously like yellow on watches. Good for them. I would strongly suspect that most people do not want yellow bits on their watches. If it were for a $50 watch I only used for 3 runs a week, I wouldn’t mind, but I want to wear my watch all the time. I don’t want a stupid yellow bit, FFS! There are even stories on some forums (with the Fenix equivalent) about people buying hard, enamel paint to paint over the sensor guard. I’ll probably end up doing that. If it were a user-changeable part (it might now be Dec 2025), that would be a different story and present a nice customisation option.
• One of the key, recurring themes with Garmin hardware is that it is underpowered. You’re paying a premium price for a beautifully rich veneer of features that overlay a Sinclair ZX81. To be fair to Garmin, they are masters at designing around the tech; thus, during use, you don’t really notice the slowness too much. In the past, you might have had issues with the slow rendering as you page between screens. Not so now. The only remnants that are badly impacted by the old tech are:
  • Saving a workout – this can very easily take 10-20 seconds as the workout saves and you wait to see your summary data.
  • Panning and zooming on the maps screen is not great. It can take 5-10 seconds to fully render some zoom levels. If you add a heatmap layer, it can take over 15 seconds to render. You can easily buy a $100 Amazfit watch that performs better with map rendering. Still, that doesn’t matter much as Garmin isn’t really a map company. Oh. Wait a minute. That’s precisely what it is!
  • Zooming in to see street names can add 2 seconds to show the street names
  • Zooming out to a previously viewed tile can take 2-3 seconds. Why isn’t it cached?
• Another recurring theme is the constant stream of bugs. Garmin is good at fixing many bugs, better than almost all the competitors. But as soon as two are fixed, another is introduced. For example, the 970 no longer crashes when used to answer calls on my iPhone, but the map orientation is too sensitive to my arm movements, so it sometimes shows the wrong direction of travel.
• Battery Life as a 24×7 watch feels less than the older FR965 in real-world usage. I have a 15-second timeout on the AOD with minimum brightness (Normal Power Mode) and SatIQ. I use a 3rd-party watchface, but it has a proper power-saving mode. Calculated GPS battery life with these settings over multiple workouts is around 24 hours, which I am happy with.
• ECG. I enabled ECG, and this requires 2FA password authentication and is irreversible. I now have to wait for Garmin to email a PASS code before I can use Garmin Connect on a PC. Note that the ECG feature only permits active, manual readings, so you will only find an unusual beat pattern if you just happen to catch it in the 30 seconds of the reading or if your heart issue is constant. ie this headline ECG feature is mostly useless, never enable it as it could mess up the ease of access to Connect!

Garmin Connect – Data and widget Data

Years ago, Garmin Connect was a bit rubbish, disorganised and lagging behind its competitors in many respects. Garmin definitely improved it with a concerted effort, and it reached a stage about 6-12 months ago when I thought it was poised to leap further ahead in usability, even though its latest dashboard looked a bit odd in the app. However, over the last 6 months, some very odd things have happened. Despite wearing a Garmin almost 24×7, vast chunks of my data have gone AWOL. This manifests itself on Connect and on the watch itself via the widgets. My problem might be linked to having duplicate data from HRM 600. I can’t think of any other cause, as I’ve had duplicate data before.

Garmin Connect

Don’t forget: Garmin has started adding a subscription paywall to its features.

Not only do you stop getting new features on your FR970 2 years after you buy the most premium-priced sports watch out there, but the $100 paywall subscription has, for now, about one feature and is really worth about 50c a month. But the enshittification of Garmin Connect is only going to end one way. And it’s a very expensive way…for you.

Other than token gestures, where are the influencers? Influencers influence brands, right? Whose interests are they working for? Yours or the brands?

The last thing that annoyed me about Connect was when I was on holiday in mid-2025. I only had access to Garmin Connect mobile. When creating a route, I was stuck with following it on my FR970. It’s not easily possible to export the route GPX to use in non-Garmin hardware or to send to friends – all you can send is a link, which the friend needs a Garmin Connect desktop account to open and then export the GPX file and use on their non-Garmin device.

Watch software

At least Garmin now has an improved process for quality checking software before launching a product. Even better, the company has an improved process for sharing beta releases with customers to iron out bugs ahead of a launch.

It’s all brilliant, right?

A further issue is that Garmin builds in feature obsolescence. Let’s see how Garmin does that compared to apple.

With an Apple Watch, its owner might decide to upgrade rather than replace the battery after 4 years; they last 3-5 years because they go through more charge cycles than a Garmin. That natural degradation of the battery prompts an upgrade decision.

Garmin does not face the same issue (opportunity!) because it has far fewer charge cycles, thanks to battery life that is market-leading, in fact. Your Garmin battery will last a long time, provided you don’t leave it on the charger for excessively long periods.

10.5 Garmin C*ck Ups – What’s going on at Garmin HQ?

Instead, and perhaps more annoyingly, Garmin effectively stops adding significant new features about 2 years after launch. It uses features to prompt you to make an upgrade decision.

So, if you wait for a year to buy a FR970 to save a bit of money in a sale, you will soon be horrified to learn that you only get meaningful new features added for another 12 months. That’s it. Of course, Garmin will still keep the bug fixes and other trivial stuff coming.

You might want to consider how happy you will be having spent multiple hundreds of dollars.

Limiting new feature availability is Garmin’s strategy – it almost wants to annoy you into upgrading, whereas Apple, to a degree, can shrug and say, “Ahh, batteries. What can we do? It’s just the tech.” Garmin deliberately chooses to restrict the features available to you.

My latest bug was using round-trip routing (Aug 2025). After about 15km of road cycling, the routing and directions just stopped. End of.

The next day, the following bug was that at the end of the ride, the watch totally hung on the screen before it said ‘save’. I had to reboot the watch to let me actually choose save. Luckily, the rebooted watch recovered the workout and offered the save option, as I hoped. I was ‘worried’ I’d lose the workout, though, and this sort of thing just shouldn’t happen 3 months after launch.

I use the Apple Watch beta software, which generally works but has some issues. I would rank Garmin’s launch software as about at the same standard as Apple’s Developer Beta level ie at the stage before it goes through a public beta process. I kinda don’t mind ‘playing’ with my sports gadgets and quite enjoy it. However, if you just spent hundreds of dollars and want a proper sports tool, you may be considerably less forgiving than me.

An improved Interface

The watch interface has been improved. The biggest improvement is how you start your sports and sort sport profiles using favourites or a favourites folder, easily accessible at the top of the screen.

It takes me 3 or 4 button presses to start a run or ride, depending on how my last activity changes the default favourite. That’s good, and it’s the same or better than most other watches, though the Apple Watch takes 2 or 3 taps to start a workout in the way I have it set up. That one tap or button press makes no difference to me either way; both are fine. Similarly, to zoom in or out on the map screen during a workout is also a similar number of presses – three, or so.

However, you encounter Garmin’s complexity when you go looking for a setting or a feature. Menu structures are not intuitive when you are new to the watch, and menu structures that require you to navigate through nested screens (and sub-screens to find an option) continue to exist where there is no real need for them. The good news is that with use and familiarity, you find what you need quickly, but until you do, Garmin doesn’t help you with their overly complex menus.

Watchfaces

The watchfaces remain a weak point. Garmin’s built-in faces are improving, but many still look dated compared to Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch. The good news is that the Connect IQ store has a large selection of third-party watchfaces, and several are genuinely excellent. If you find the right one, you can make the FR970 look as good as an Apple Watch. The 454x454px AMOLED screen has the resolution to support it.

Garmin Forerunner 970 Review: Accuracy Tests & Results

I must have easily cycled over 1,000 miles with the FR970 as my data source. GPS and heart rate accuracy tests were performed across running and cycling. The GPS performance is genuinely excellent. The dual-frequency Airoha chip delivers consistent accuracy that rivals the best in class. Heart rate from the Elevate 5 sensor is improved over the FR965 for sport use, particularly during tempo and interval sessions, but a chest strap remains the gold standard for intensity-based training.

GPS accuracy details: Garmin has had years of relatively poor GPS accuracy overhyped by multiple reviewers. Garmin’s recent crop of dual-frequency GNSS chipsets has put an end to that. The dual-frequency, multi-band chips from Airoha and Synaptics deliver a positive step change in accuracy.

Notifications and other Smart Features

The FR970 has a built-in speaker and microphone. This hardware supports phone calls and voice assistant support, and is a major upgrade for smart feature support. Phone calling works well paired to an iPhone, though the audio quality is functional rather than impressive. The smart notification delay feature (added in firmware 16.28) is genuinely useful – you can defer non-urgent notifications until an activity is complete.

Garmin Pay works well on the FR970 wherever contactless is accepted. The watch supports NFC payments and the setup process, though fiddly at first, is straightforward once established.

Hardware and Design Differences: 970 vs 965

Lens Material: The Forerunner 970 features Sapphire Crystal lens material, while the Forerunner 965 uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3 DX. Physical Size: The Forerunner 970 measures 47 x 47 x 12.9 mm, making it slightly thinner than the Forerunner 965 at 47.2 x 47.2 x 13.2 mm. Weight: The Forerunner 970 weighs 56 g, slightly heavier than the Forerunner 965 at 53 g. Built-in Speaker/Microphone: The Forerunner 970 features a built-in speaker and microphone. This hardware supports features like phone calls and voice assistant support, and is a major upgrade for smart feature support in the future (and now). Display Size: While both are listed as 1.4″ diameter, the measurements are slightly different: 35.3 mm for the Forerunner 970 and 35.4 mm for the Forerunner 965.

Battery Life Differences: 970 vs 965

Smartwatch mode: Up to 15 days for the Forerunner 970 vs. Up to 23 days for the Forerunner 965. The 965 has a longer estimated battery life in standard smartwatch mode. GPS-Only GNSS mode: Up to 26 hours for the Forerunner 970 vs. Up to 31 hours for the Forerunner 965. The 965 has a longer estimated battery life in GPS-only mode without music. Satiq (AutoSelect) GNSS mode: Up to 23 hours for the Forerunner 970 vs. Up to 22 hours for the Forerunner 965. The 970 has a slightly longer estimated battery life in SatIQ mode without music.

Smart Features Differences: 970 vs 965

The FR970 adds speaker and microphone (phone calls, voice commands), Garmin Pay, ECG, LED flashlight, and skin temperature tracking (Elevate 5). The FR965 has none of these. The 970’s smart features bring it meaningfully closer to the Apple Watch proposition, though it still can’t match iPhone integration depth.

Health & Wellness Differences: 970 vs 965

Elevate 5 optical HR sensor on the 970 adds ECG capability, skin temperature tracking, and improved accuracy during sport. Elevate 4 on the 965 has no ECG and no skin temperature. Both models track HRV, Body Battery, sleep stages, VO2max, and the full Training Readiness suite.

Workout and Training Plans Differences

The FR970 adds the Garmin Triathlon Coach adaptive plan, which was not available on the 965. Both models support structured workouts, Garmin Coach free plans, and third-party TrainingPeaks integration. The 970 also adds the adaptive Garmin Cycling Coach.

Activity Profile Differences (Exclusive to 970): 970 vs 965

The FR970 adds triathlon-specific profiles including Pool Triathlon and Swimrun, as well as expanded multisport profiles (Duathlon, Brick) and obstacle racing. Mountaineering, Horseback Riding, and several additional sport profiles are exclusive to the 970. Road Biking, Gravel Biking, Bike Commuting, and Cyclocross are present on both. The 970 uniquely supports disc golf and hunting.

Running Features Differences: 970 vs 965

Running Power (wrist-based), PacePro, Grade-Adjusted Pace, and the Race Predictor are present on both models. The 970 adds Garmin’s full adaptive running coaching and heat and altitude acclimation features, which were not present on the 965 at launch. Both support Stryd and other running footpods.

Other New Features: 970 vs 965

Load Ratio, the Suggested Finish Line trim feature, Auto Lap by Timing Gates, and projected waypoints are additions in the 970. The complete golf feature set including CT10 sensor compatibility and Garmin Golf app integration comes to the 970. Varia radar voice alerts were added via firmware 16.28.

4G LTE / 5G RedCap Features

There is no real autonomy with the FR970. Whilst you can upload workouts over Wifi and also download maps, music and firmware updates over Wifi, true connectivity to web services is only via a connected smartphone. Thus, the phone, text, and live tracking features only work if your phone is present. The FR970 can make and take connected calls in this way and is certainly OK to use. I find the audio quality on calls to be satisfactory, but not as good as an Apple Watch.

Triathlon Features and other multi-sport like Hyrox and CrossFit

The triathlon features in the Garmin ecosystem are significantly superior to those of any competitor. Competitors might appear to offer the same broad competencies, but the sheer breadth and depth of Garmin’s capabilities are unmatched.

The multisport mode supports automatic transitions between swim, bike, and run, with discipline-specific data screens. The FR970 supports the full Garmin Triathlon Coach adaptive plan, which automatically adjusts workouts around your available training time and upcoming race schedule. Hyrox is supported via the expanded multisport mode in firmware 16.28, with the Roxfit Connect IQ app providing dedicated Hyrox functionality.

Garmin Forerunner 970 Review – Take Out

This is the best Garmin watch ever made, and I have tested most of them. The FR970 improves on the FR965 in every meaningful hardware dimension: better sensor, sapphire lens, speaker/microphone, ECG, LED flashlight, and a more refined interface. The software remains a work in progress, as Garmin’s software always is at launch.

The bugs are real but manageable. The setup process is genuinely poor. The yellow sensor guard is an aesthetic blunder. The charging cable situation is Garmin being Garmin. None of these things should put you off buying the watch if you are a serious triathlete or runner who wants the deepest training ecosystem available.

The case for the FR970 over the FR965 is straightforward if you want any of: ECG, skin temperature, maps, speaker/microphone for connected calls, LED flashlight, or the full Garmin Triathlon Coach. If you have a FR965 in good condition and none of those features matter to you, the upgrade is optional.

Forerunner 970: Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Garmin Forerunner 970 worth buying?

Yes, for serious triathletes and runners who want Garmin’s deepest training ecosystem, the FR970 is the best available. The price is high, but every triathlon feature is included without additional hardware. The software bugs are real but manageable for athletes who understand that Garmin launch software is always a work in progress.

How does the Forerunner 970 compare to the Fenix 8?

The FR970 and Fenix 8 share most software features. The Fenix 8 adds a more rugged military-spec case, dive capability, and solar charging options. The FR970 is lighter and more running-focused. For a pure triathlete who trains and races in normal conditions, the FR970 is the better choice. For outdoor adventurers who also do triathlon, the Fenix 8 makes sense.

Does the Forerunner 970 have maps?

Yes. The FR970 includes full topographic maps. It is the only current Forerunner with onboard maps. The FR570 uses breadcrumb-only navigation without underlying map tiles.

What is the battery life of the Forerunner 970?

Up to 15 days in smartwatch mode, up to 26 hours in GPS-only mode, and up to 21 hours in all-systems multi-band mode. Real-world battery life with Always-On Display, SatIQ, and background heart rate typically runs 20-24 hours GPS recording.

Related Garmin Features Explained

• Training Readiness
• Training Load
• VO2max
• Lactate Threshold
• Daily Suggested Workouts
• Body Battery

Last Updated on 26 May 2026 by the5krunner