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.
Garmin Forerunner 970
Premium GPS triathlon smartwatch. Features a bright AMOLED touch screen and a built-in LED flashlight.
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
Last Updated on 29 May 2026 by the5krunner
My favourite kit and nutrition
- Maurten — the race nutrition trusted by elite athletes. Gels and drink mix engineered to be easy on the stomach.
- Garmin 90-degree charging adapter — the small adapter that keeps your charging cable tidy at the stem. Essential for race day.
- Garmin charging puck — the fastest and most reliable way to top up your Garmin before a session.
- Ravemen FR300 — front light that mounts directly under your Garmin or Wahoo head unit. Keeps your bars clean and your beam pointed where it matters.
- Garmin Varia RTL515 — radar rear light that alerts you to vehicles approaching from behind. Pairs with your Edge or Garmin watch.
- Stryd — the footpod that brings running power to your Garmin. The single most useful running upgrade I have made.
- Favero Assioma Pro RS2 — the power meter pedals most serious cyclists end up choosing. Accurate, easy to move between bikes.
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
I’m glad that someone finally described problems which are known, but pushed away from Garmin fanboys. As user Enduro3 I mostly agree especially when we talks about Garmin Connect simplicity (sarcasm) and paywall for useless things. Totally destroyed challenges and the final thing is expensive watchfaces, with paid bloatware
HYROX! I didn’t know you did this sport tfk! Have I missed a post on this before?
Those .62m runs are sure intriguing, but I’m curious how do you warm up for these competitions?
i haven’t written too much about it.
i’m quite enjoying the distraction and difficulty of it. for a triathle/runner who maybe should have been to the gym more in the past the hyrox training brings you down to Earth with a bump and exposes your inadequacies. the cross training effect also improves swim bike run
How do you execute those short/fast runs though? Do you warm up separately and prior to the competition?
yes but you can run them as 1km reps.
they’ll be 10mile/10k pace or so in the actual race,
Epix 2 was my first garmin watch and after struggling with bugs and updating the watch all the time just to get new different bugs or battery drains I decided it will be my fisrt and last Garmin watch. My revenge was posting on reddit my thoughts on garmin but I was always downvoted by Garmin lovers who were always commenting smth like: garmin watches are amazing, look how good DCRainmaker is talking about them. But to this day as a Polar strap user I can easily after just 10 minutes of run say when it happend that I have forgotten to change battery in my strap and my hr is recorded by the watch. Like no idea how those influencers get those nice 1:1 100% coverage strap vs watch graphs ;/
I fully agree with. probably 99% of your thoughts on garmin and for me it is shocking that I bought my Epix 3 years ago and nothing have changed. At the beginning I was posting all the bugs on their beta forums but eventually saw that noone is responding to them, you really need something huge like a topic of 300 epix users angry at battery drains (keep in mind it is a low key Garmin beta forum where very small percent is looking and posting even less so the problem was probably common for millions of users) it took a month to eventually fix the bug but the support from Garmin was jsut horrendous.
number of menus and submenus I will not even comment on, bc I could test it quickly by giving my watch to any random person and ask for switching like 3 random things, let’s say hr zones, voice notification (to this day I have no idea why when running it gives me voice turn notification but only on trails and on roads not and why oh why it uses diffrent language depends on the connection of my headphones 😀 like really if i connect them to my phone the language is different then if they are connected to the watch, btw phone and watch are both set as english, but I’m native polish)
So yeah, I think 99% of reviewers on yt and internet are just so called “inflencers” but more strictly more of a paid actors playing in well orchestrated ads….oh here you have my review of the newest watch…ofc my thoughs are 100% honest and you can trust me, I tested this product for last 3 months (ofc only those “Selected” influencers got that product before the launch…ofc the review looks amazing bc is recorded in some random beautiful scenery were those influencers were taken for free to spend weeks and play with devices (flights, hotels, everything included) but again ofc they are honest and tehy think about us and not brands! 😀
sry for this rant but just wanted to say that I’ve found your blog a year ago or so ago (your hrv comparision was a great read) weeks ago decided to make a bookmark of your page bc I had hard time remembering the name (was checking your page here and there), and now I moved it to my most favorites and will be a daily reader (actually I’m already one since the wahoo roam 3 review, great review too!)
PLEASE never become an influencer! be yourself, you are doing amazing job!!! like AMAZING!!!
I defnitely need to become an influencer in order to eat! 😉
i think i am already in any case, its a better word than blogger.
“bc I could test it quickly by giving my watch to any random person and ask for switching like 3 random things, let’s say hr ….” i have meant for years to do a video on that. I’m pretty certain that a non-garmin user would be totally unable to do anytihng with a garmin watch the first time they used it – and that would be after explaining what menus and suchlike the buttons accessed.
If you use tri or dual mode, is it possible in running part to load workout libratry/training/DSW, I cant figure how, middle button is reserved for settings?
I understand that Garmin uses their low power $10 processor to keep high battery. But then it seems quite ridiculous to charge $700-1000 with extreme profit margins for watches that have mapping performance of 2010. Even on Fenix 8 the mapping, a flagship feature for Garmin is so unbelievably slow, and if I push it to hard I am always afraid of getting a reboot.
yup!
maybe it’s a $20 cpu, idk exactly. but the point stands, it’s a cheap one
garmin’s account show 50% margins.
I’ve been using Garmin since fenix 3HR (I used FR945, Fenix 3Hr, 5x+, enduro 1, 7xPro, FR245), switched mostly due to significant updates or watches simply got too tired. Important – i’m not a pro athlete by any means, just an average amateur almost weekend warrior, but trying to keep up with 5-6 training sessions per week. I also love all high-tech a lot.
I never ever had any issues with watches as described on forums, always have latest firmware installed automatically. I understand that my study has a very small sample size :). Not everything is so pinkish with my marriage with Garmin – i had to replace 3 watches for the same reason of barometer failed (enduro 1 twice and 7xpro), so something is wrong either with the sensor or with water it is being exposed to, but I cant complain about Garmin customer service – all was replaced very quickly.
I’m also not a huge fan of Garmin design solutions – fenix are too bulky, earlier FR were too small to my eyes, recent FR970 has a strange colored plug I dont like. I havent been convinced by amoled screens yet and i dont want to spend 700 quids just to give a try. I also dont like their strategy of having gazillion of versions of the same watches.
Reading the post and comments – we have really a piece of tech art on our wrist (regardless of a brand), capable of many things and we at some point got spoiled with technology getting better and better.
We are complaining about reliability of automatic VO2 calculations from the wrist (done in background at no extra cost for you – I mean an extra time&money cost of visiting to a specialized lab) – having a difference of 2 points on the watch versus specialize lab values makes me laughing, it tells how accurate watches are. If you(someone) are(is) a pro athlete, i’m wondering why you care about actual VO2 on your Garmin? It only make sense to track long term VO2 changes. For coach potatos like me, having 54 or 52 gives massages my ego, but i only care about the trend of the change – if it goes up or down.
Same for HR – optical/onwrist measures are never as accurate as on-chest. Do i care about if its not 100% spot on? no, as it doesnt change anything for me (I understand it may be important to someone else if the workout is based on HR).
its great we have a choice, you can go to iWatch with better sleeping and HR/HRV accuracy (but have to charge them once a day and use iPhone), or you can go to other brands (might be cheaper or doing something else better).
its good to continue nagging Garmin to improve what the actual users dont like.
yes
i suppose 90% of people only really need that basic sports watch for $200
but we buy them for all the nice extras
but the point is that we pay a lot more than $200 for the extra features. put simply: they should just work properly. if not, fair enough bugs happen, take a little while and fix them.
maybe you wnat a fancy sports watch case and lens…ok lets have a $300 version that does the same thing.
thats why I loved previous mojo of Forerunner 9xx series – you get almost the same features as top fenix, with a bit of delay (thats OK), at lower price and slimmer/simpler design
Seeing 970 at 630 quids makes me hiccupping… Maybe I will consider them next year if my 7xPRO dies by that time (i hope not).
Thanks for sharing this moment of real life as a Garmin customer
—
I’m not sure i already share with you the fact that Venux X1, VivoActive 6 and Frx70 seems to be aligned on the same System version/branch now.
It is an interesting move and should help to achieve better software quality, even if it is harder than ever to understand the watch product lines …
https://forums.garmin.com/beta-program/forerunner-970/f/announcements/417459/public-beta-version-12-58—100
https://forums.garmin.com/beta-program/venu-x1/f/announcements/417917/venu-x1-beta—12-59
Thanks you so much for taking the time and effort to make this long and detailed review.
thank you for your kind words
Thanks for this honest review on this watch, I hardly ever see the standard youtubers/influencers/etc mention the often very clear and present bugs and issues. Guess they’re mostly afraid to lose their privileges.
I love Garmin watches (mostly) and have been using them for years, but I’m getting more and more adverse(?) to them. Still, currently owning a 955 solar, I AM looking to upgrade to the 970. I love the mapping possibilities (including full navigation on and from watch, something not present in any other brand), battery time (getting less impressive with the 970), options, flashligh!, etc. But the performance (maps mainly), bugs, price… ugh.
Been waiting for a good deal, and still am, to buy it which is a blessing in disguise as I have been reading TONS of issues. And serious ones. Workouts lost, many reboot, etc. Inexcusable, but it seems it IS getting a bit more mature now… finally.
So yeah, Garmin is loosing its charm to me but in the end still is the only real option at the same time… Being a runner mainly it is way overkill, but due to specific features I DO want I end up with these high end watches afterall.
Same with phones, LOVE a great camera with optical 5+x zoom, so there we go… high end.
honestly will definitely get me nowhere.
I’m guilty as well, but when you rush to get something written in one week after receiving the device you naturally miss stuff. you’ll notice that dcrainmaker typically waits longer to write his reviews because of that and keeps them u p to date as time progresses. he does note some issues but is a little bit more diplomatic and nuanced in his language than me.
ultiamtely garmin devices are extremely complex and it’s simply impossible to test every (old) feature for each review. a review shoud not be a beta test. more of an experience test. at least that’s wht i think. somtimes its easier regurgitating the spec sheet
thank you for the post and I agree with 99% of what you have said. Glad I only run and bike because if I needed hydrox or tri on my watch that would really force me into a marriage with Garmin.
One thing I did appreciate about DC was he did not do a YouTube video on the 570 this time because he thought it was a miss. I agree that you have to understand the code switching to truly understand how good a watch is, but in the degrees of influencing, I trust DC the most. There are others that do not even try to communicate issues.
The question I have been struggling with for a while is how to break up with Garmin. I want a divorce! But who is going to do my laundry and cooking?
Jokes aside, (and I’m sure everyone’s situation is different to mine), I use my 955 for running and swimming. And then I sync my cycling on Zwift to my Garmin Connect account.
This allows me to manage my overall load on Garmin. And I also use the VO2Max to track fitness increases decreases. I don’t care (or share) what my VO2Max is, I just know what to expect from the number produced by Garmin and can use it to manage my fitness.
If I can figure out how to replace this with a new marriage, everything else will be (wedding) cake!
good VO2 strategy
less good marital one
Thanks for your test and naming the negative points!!!
That’s something that 99% of testers lack these days.
I would actually like something new….
At this price and with these bugs, Garmin really has to pray that Apple doesn’t come around the corner with a WatchOS that focuses completely on sports metrics. (Google has gone in this direction with the Pixel Watch 3)
Because then only battery life would stand out at Garmin.
The Garmin FR970 is actually what I expected as a successor to my FR 265 -> at a normal price.
Funny: And this yellow side panel bothers me just as much as it does you 😀
And what is Garmin doing with the 570? Practically nothing. Simply embarrassing.
I took a look at the other manufacturers:
The Suunto Race S is a great watch, but I didn’t like some things (stiff crown, complications on the dial don’t always work…). However, I liked the app and it is beautifully designed.
With Polar, the app and the watch OS still look the same to me as they did 4 years ago, and I wouldn’t want that.
Nevertheless, I hope that Polar with its M3 / GritX 2 and Suunto get a lot of new users from Garmin!!!!
I have currently decided for myself: I’ll just stick with my FR265 and I’m happy:)
PS:
I hope the FR970 will have competition from the Apple Watch Ultra 3 at the end of the year.
Whereby the weak point is the watchOS (26).
Let’s see how the market develops over the next 2 years.
I think Amazfit (with its very attractive watch: Balance 2) could take more and more customers away from the established brands.
the watch ultra 3, just wont be a competitor watch for serious triathletes. I’m 100% sure of that.
it just cant and wont have the same depth and breadth of features.
that said, i’ve laid out extensively at other times why apple is the long term strategic threat that will eventually spoil Garmin’s day in the sun
Yes, that’s true.
But who knows what will come with watchOS 27 or 28:
It only needs 1 watchOS version where Apple only focuses on sports….
I hope so.
I’d be happy if there was just one sports metric a la Training Readiness.
That’s why my AW 10 is almost only in the drawer. I like my FR265 more.
Hi King Bradley,
Funny that you mention the Amazfit Balance 2 as a competitor to the FR970. Although it’s a decent piece of hardware, the software side still needs a lot of improvement. Amazfit prioritizes features instead of usability. Many of these features are half-baked at best. I switched from my Garmin EPIX Pro to the Balance 2. Now, half a year later, I’m returning to Garmin (FR970) despite all the mentioned bugs.
You just can’t do what Garmin does with the Balance 2. I’m just a simple weekend warrior doing road and trial runs. Here’s what made me switch back to Garmin (missing on the Balance 2):
– you can’t navigate a route while doing a structured workout.
– integration with 3rd party training apps is limited, eg. runna is not supported.
– using the built-in (AI) trainer has limited flexibilty, eg. you can’t change the workout days.
– no map manager. You can select a box of an area to download, and that’s it. No clue if a specific region is already downloaded and/or needs an update.
– navigation setting ‘north’ works properly, but ‘up’ direction doesn’t.
– all workouts are saved including the data, but there’s no way to analyze it. You also can’t export workouts.
I’m probably missing many other differences, but the above mentioned topics are important for me.
So switching to Amazfit has been an expensive lesson, even with it being a cheap watch. Lesson learned!
I read good things about the new betas 12.58-60 and so on. When do we think these will be released.