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Bought a vívoactive 5 during Amazon India's Great Indian Festival, but was disappointed with its heart-rate monitoring.

Showed around 72 bpm when placed against a pillow, off my wrist.

Consistently showed only 80–90 bpm during treadmill exercise at 15 incline and 6 km/h.

Sleep tracking also seemed inaccurate compared with my much cheaper Samsung Galaxy Fit3.

I recorded video evidence and contacted Amazon. Initially, they directed me to Garmin for service-centre assessment, but Amazon has now accepted my return and refund.

For a premium smartwatch, this was a disappointing experience.

Has anyone else experienced similar sensor issues with the vívoactive 5?

Usage was similar on both watches: no SpO2, continuous steps / HR / Bluetooth / notifications / weather, alarms rarely. No backlight on the F6X or AOD on the F9 at night. Roughly 5k steps a day, occasional mail and other notifications, health stats checked and calls received (vibration only) now and then. A couple of indoor workouts per week in the last weeks of F6X use (see the short-term chart) and throughout the F9 period. The first week on the F9 used almost the same face as the F6X (colors adjusted for AMOLED).

Differences: F6X gesture backlight at 20 %. F9 had AOD on, full face on gesture at 30 % brightness. The second F9 cycle ran with brighter faces. There was also a lot of watchface development and testing on the F9 (no GPS) plus one ECG test per cycle.

The F6X battery has barely lost capacity after 5–6 years (see the long-term chart). Maybe a couple of days, hard to quantify exactly because usage varied, but the drop is small. Impressive.

F9 data is still limited (two full cycles so far, ongoing).
Battery life looks comparable, especially taking into account the heavier testing load for F9.

P.S. Previous post

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice before I make the jump to Garmin.

Current setup: iPhone 17 + Apple Watch Ultra 2. My next phone will most likely be Android, so the watch needs to work well with both.

What I actually use the Ultra for:

- Seeing who's calling (my iPhone is always on silent, so I see the call on my wrist and pick up on the phone)

- Health/activity stats – I'm a stats person and love digging into data

What I don't like: charging apple watch every 1.5 days. I want something that lasts at least a week and is comfortable to wear 24x7, including sleep.

The two options:

1. Brand new Forerunner 965 for ₹40k from the Garmin India site (2-year India warranty)

2. Forerunner 970, used for about a week, from a friend for ₹58k. He bought it in the US for himself but feels 47mm is too small for his wrist. It comes with the US invoice, but no Garmin India warranty.

About me: Honestly not very active right now. I barely hit 6k steps a day and don't exercise, but I'm planning to start going to the gym in about a month. I'm hoping the watch nudges me to move more. \s

From what I've read, the 970 adds wrist calling (speaker/mic), a sapphire lens, a flashlight, ECG and newer software support, while the 965 has better battery (about 23 days vs 15) and comes with a proper warranty.

Questions:

- For someone starting from zero fitness, is the 970 worth ₹18k more?

- Has anyone had issues getting a US-bought Garmin serviced in India?

- Any 965 owners regret not getting sapphire glass?

Planning to keep whichever I buy for 5 to 6 years. Thanks in advance!

Hey all, I have a Garmin D2 Air X10, and an instinct tactical. For whatever reason, the silicone band on the D2 Irritates me so I use my instinct tactical when I run/lift. I have been running into an issue though, where my activities from the instinct do not show up in Garmin connect despite the watch being connected, and even being the primary wearable. Any help is appreciated

Update: powering off the other watch and setting the desired device as the primary wearable prior to activity seems to have fixed the issue.

I got a Forerunner 570 last week, but when I go for a run and want to listen to music, the connection seems to be quite weak. I downloaded a playlist, but when I start it or skip a song, I no longer get a clean sound. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Hello everyone, I’m a new garmin watch user and I wonder why the pool activity eventually misses a length. I came from AW and that never happened.
I’m pretty consistent during my swim and I keep the watch snug, the pool length is also set correctly. However when I reach around 1,5km it starts miscalculating the distance. Is it a common occurrence? What can I do to have an accurate recording of my swim?

That’s all. I am low key fuming 😭😂

Hey Garmin fam! I’m a dedicated distance runner using (and loving!) an instinct 2 solar. I’m primarily a year round outdoor runner, but live in rural northern New England and do rely on a treadmill when needed. I recently upgraded, and my watch is off by about 1/4 - 1/2 mile, and respectively the pace. Garmin support said I need to do a hard reset on my watch to start fresh for a new treadmill sync. Has anyone done this? Will I lose the learned metrics such as Vo2 max data etc? Thanks for any insights!

I have been using garmin vivoactive 5 and i found that swim related tracking is poor on the garmins. Lengths always tend to be not detected right, atleset 25,50 to 75mtrs of difference always exists when done with the pool swim activity.

So there are bunch of apps available on the connect iq store.

Saw thw swimtag app to be relatively better, it has edit options etc. Need to check in the pool if it tracks better.

But there isnt any tiny bit of information on how do we sync account on watch as it ends up with 404, and other issues exist where app too has vgood and lots of options but we dont get to know what is what etc..so app based tutorials etc but a well maintained doc is needed.

And there are other apps too. So now can you who have been using garmin suggest some better apps which performs better than poolswim app.

How is stamina v2?

The Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar was released in June 2022, almost four and a half years ago.

What amazes me is that, even today, I can't find a single newer watch that offers the same combination of features without making compromises somewhere.

The entire 9xx lineup that followed (965, 970) hasn't brought anything that would make me seriously consider upgrading. Sure, there are new sensors, some minor additional features, and AMOLED displays. But for me, AMOLED is actually a downgrade in a sports watch. I much prefer the always-on MIP display, its visibility and its battery efficiency.

The Coros Apex 4 is probably the closest alternative I've found. But even there, I'd have to give up some things I value. The COROS ecosystem still feels less mature than Garmin's, particularly when it comes to features like Garmin Pay and advanced mapping and navigation. There's no solar charging either. And from what I've seen, COROS still hasn't fully solved its annoying lag in displaying instant pace.

Meanwhile, my 955 Solar is still receiving firmware updates. The latest one was released at the end of August 2026.

So I've been thinking: was the Forerunner 955 simply that far ahead of its time, or did Garmin somehow manage to build a watch that perfectly matches my needs?

Almost four and a half years later, nothing on the market has convinced me that the overall combination of hardware and software has meaningfully improved for my use case.

I really hope my 955 Solar lasts another two or three years. I'd love my next upgrade to be driven by something genuinely exciting — new sensors, new capabilities, or features that fundamentally change how I train and use my watch.

Not simply because my current watch is getting old.

I fly quite a lot, and when there’s no seatback screen with a flight map, I often look out the window and wonder which country or city we’re flying over.
Obviously, this required a watch app.
I built an app for my Garmin Instinct 2S that uses the watch’s GPS to show:

- An approximate country and the nearest city, with distance.
- A world map and a regional map, with a cross marking your position.
- Coordinates, for when knowing the country isn’t quite nerdy enough.
Everything runs offline, without a phone or internet connection. It does need a GPS fix, so reception inside the plane matters. A window seat helps.
I made it for myself, mostly to satisfy my curiosity and compensate for the airline’s failure to provide my favourite entertainment: watching a tiny plane move across a map.
Would anyone else actually use this, or have I built something for a market of exactly one?
Now available in the the IQ store https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/c02cc72c-7614-4a11-a0c6-ec3713b0de1b

Supported models:

Forerunner®️ 165
Forerunner®️ 165 Music
Forerunner®️ 255
Forerunner®️ 255 Music
Forerunner®️ 255S
Forerunner®️ 255S Music
Forerunner®️ 265
Forerunner®️ 265S
Forerunner®️ 570 - 42mm
Forerunner®️ 570 - 47mm
Instinct®️ 3 – 45mm, AMOLED
Instinct®️ 3 – 45mm, Solar
Instinct®️ 3 – 50mm, AMOLED
Instinct®️ 3 – 50mm, AMOLED, Tactical
Instinct®️ 3 – 50mm, Solar
Instinct®️ 3 – 50mm, Solar, Tactical

I prefer smaller / lighter watches (I tried on 47mm Garmins and they were just to big) so I'm limiting this to 43mm and under.

I just got a Venu 4 and I like it a lot. Monday-Friday I work a desk job and do gym workouts, and it goes from the office to the gym with ease. However, on the weekends I do things such as play beach volleyball and go mountain biking, and I'm concerned about the Venu getting damaged in these dirty / high-risk (for the watch) environments. The Venu crystal is gorilla glass, but it rises above the bezel and seems very exposed. Even with a TPU screen protector, it seems very vulnerable.

You don't get big impacts with hard objects in beach volleyball, but sand gets EVERYWHERE, and I could see sand getting into and clogging the opening for the microphone/speaker in the front of the watch.

I'm considering returning the Venu and getting a 43mm Fenix 9 as my "do it all" watch. It has sapphire glass, the crystal seems better protected, and it has 10ATM water resistance (I don't plan on much in the water, but the fact that it has a higher rating means its better sealed from the elements than 5ATM). But it has the speakerphone capability so it probably has a sand ingress vulnerability like the Venu, but probably not as bad. I didn't get the Fenix to start because I really don't need the mapping and extra features and the extra price premium didn't seem worth it.

Or, I could keep the Venu for Mon-Fri, and get a "beater" for my weekend sports activities. The Cirqa has no crystal to worry about, but just captures data and loses the functionality of a watch, it would be nice to check the time without pulling out a phone.

The Instinct E 40mm is also another beater contender, it's $50 more than the Cirqa, and has a monochrome MIP display which will display time great in the sun. It downgrades to "chemically treated glass" (from the Venu's gorilla glass) but the crystal is much better protected. It has 10ATM water resistance, and I believe no speaker/mic opening to get clogged with sand.

The FR70 is at the same price point as the Instinct E, same crystal material but less rugged case, steps down to 5ATM, but more lightweight/less bulky than the Instinct.

Interested in what folks think about the Fenix route and Venu + beater route, and which beater you would go with. If I were to go the beater route, I'm kind of leaning toward the Intinct E because it's the most rugged versus the Cirqa and FR70. The Fenix would be about $200-300 more than a Venu + beater.

Lately I've been thinking that it'll soon be time to upgrade from my old but trustworthy FR945 (last picture) and then a few weeks ago I received a sign. My Forerunner's screen started delaminating... So I decided to upgrade.

I think Enduro 4 is a very beautiful watch and I love how it looks. I've only had it for a day, done one trail run this morning and I'd like to share my first impression.

First of all, the 26mm wide band is really nice. The watch sits on my wrist much more securely. My old FR kept moving around. Especially during runs. The band is made out of a thin material and is slightly elastic. Very comfortable. It also dried quickly after I took a shower with it.

I was most afraid of moving to a bigger sized watch. So far, I think the 51mm looks great on my wrist and the additional weight hasn't been uncomfortable. Of course I notice it a bit transitioning from the smaller FR, but I think I should get used to it in a week or two. The thickness is noticeable yes. It's 2mm thicker than my FR. It's a compromise I was willing to take and with the low weight I think I should be fine.

The screen is super nice looking. My main wish was to have the mip display, so if I wanted a new gen watch I had to basically choose between Fenix or Enduro. I went with the Enduro cuz it's cheaper and I don't need the extra features from the Fenix. I also think it looks better.

One small issue I noticed is the light button. You know how Garmin watches are famous with having weird, mushy, problematic buttons? Well, it seems this is still the case in 2026. When I press the light button it does two clicks. First click is at around 50% pushed in and the last, expected one, at 100%. It's a minor inconvenience and I'm used to it. My Forerunner had mushy buttons since the day it arrived. As long as the button doesn't get worse I won't bother myself with it.

That's about it. Let me know if you have any questions. Of course, I basically skipped three watch generations with this upgrade so everything is a big change for me haha. That's maybe also why I'm so impressed with everything. One very big change is the added touch screen. Still thinking about how much I want to use that. I guess I'll see.

I like wearable devices and especially devices born with soul.. Days ago I found Tactix 7 Pro on the local market with reasonable price and bought it in the same day. Just to try how it is in 2026. And know what? It still the beast!

Design still looks great with flat bezel. In comparison with Fenix 8 51mm it looks way smaller exactly because of flat bezel. I really like Tactix series for that.

Hardware sensors (elevate v4) give me all metrics I need (I don't use ECG) and i'm not care about SpO2, skin temperature etc. Sleep tracking is not the strong side of all Garmin watches. That's why I always wear Helio Strap on the my right wrist. It broadcasts data while sport activities.

Screen is OK, not so crisp like in the last Fenix / Enduro series but that's MIP and more than enough to see data in the any light conditions. I personally think that best MIP screen was in Fenix 6 line.

No lags in UI, seems like the previous firmware was better that newest on Fenix 8 and higher models.

Workouts, sport modes and tracking - work well as on all Garmin watches.

Original Tactix nylon band is a great thing ever! Point.

Solar battery is a gimmick. Point.

PS: Garmin, please update your mobile app with modern UI!

Hello. I’m considering purchasing a Garmin Fenix ​​8 or 9 (47mm). Could owners share what the real battery life is like with the display set to "always-on" and with daily workouts lasting about an hour?

Went to Garmin for an exchange program and they offered me fēnix® 7 Pro – Sapphire Solar Edition, Carbon Grey DLC Titanium with Black Band for £495 and my 735 XT.

Not sure 7 pro still with £495, I haven't had a new watch in nearly a decade.

could anyone please give some advice.

Hello everyone,

I currently own the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro but not enough for sport and really weak autonomy.

I'm going to use it mainly for running, walking and hiking! (I will also be able to wear every day) so ideally light.

I use Spotify and Strava

Ideally for less than 400 euros!

I'm open to any watch.

Thank you very much and beautiful evening!

Hi! I'm considering an instinct 3 solar 50mm vs Enduro 3 from Facebook marketplace. The price difference between the two is $150 (the Enduro being more expensive). I like how legible the screen is on the instinct 3 but the maps and gen 5 sensor on Enduro appeals. But I don't backpack or thru hike and don't know if it's a waste of money.

I would like to hear some thoughts that I might be not considering or just what choice you'd make. Thank you.