It’s Global Running Day, which is the perfect time for Garmin to announce new watches. So, uh, we get new watches! The Forerunner 55 and 945 LTE are the newest members of the Garmin running/multisport family. Here’s the skinny.
Garmin Forerunner 55: An Entry Level Watch with High-End Features
If you’ve been looking to get into the Garmin running watch ecosystem, it’s hard to find a better entry level fit than the Forerunner 55. This builds off of the Forerunner 45 platform and adds a few excellent features to the mix, like full Connect IQ support for not just watch faces, but also data fields and apps. The Forerunner 55 also gets support for PacePro pacing strategy, recommended recovery time, suggested workouts, cadence alerts, race predictor, finish time estimator, and customizable lap alerts.
Past that, the 55 appears to be pretty similar to the 45 (at least on paper), with built-in GPS/GLONASS/Galileo, incident detection, Assistance mode (in case of emergency), and Garmin Coach (just to name a few features). Aside from being a generally great running companion, the Forerunner 55 is designed to be an all-day-every-day watch, with 24/7 wellness tracking features. It has some of my favorites from other Garmin watches, like Body Battery, which helps you determine how rested and recovered you are for your next workout.
It also has a slew of other lifestyle features, like relaxation reminders, breathing exercises, respiration rate tracking, built-in workouts, and menstrual and pregnancy tracking for women. Likewise, it sports familiar smartwatch features, like notification mirroring.
According to Garmin, the Forerunner 55 doubles the 45’s battery life, with up to two weeks in smartwatch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode. That’s beastly.
The Forerunner 55 comes in three colors and one size. It costs $199.
Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE: The Most Powerful Forerunner, Now Even More Powerful
If you’re interested in the high-end Garmin market, you’ve undoubtedly looked at the Forerunner 945. This is the flagship watch of the Forerunner family, with the most impressive feature set of the bunch. Today, it gets even more powerful with the addition of LTE.
Adding LTE the Forerunner 945 opens the door for even more possibilities, especially if you want to run or ride without your phone. Leaving the phone at home has always been a possibility, but you’d miss out on important features like LiveTrack, incident detection, or emergency assistance. With LTE onboard, you’ll be able to ditch the phone without losing that peace of mind.
The LTE-equipped 945 also allow users to send page and mileage updates to loved one, who can then cheer them on with audio and text messages. Again, all without the need to carry a phone too.
The 945 LTE gets a slight hit in battery life over the regular 945 (which is to be expected), with around two weeks in smartwatch mode and 7 hours with GPS, music, and LTE LiveTrack running.
The Forerunner 945 LTE is available today in two colors for $649.99.
