Garmin Forerunner 945 HR reviews and deals for sale

Best Running Watch out there

This thing is the best. It is lightweight, accurate, and has above average battery life. The Garmin ecosystem is tops and this is their most premium device. If you are looking at the Fenix consider this. The Fenix is way to heavy. I also own a COROS Apex Pro but I almost never use it because this watch is way better.

Not a heart rate monitor

This is a very poor product. The watch fails to deliver on its primary function - heart rate monitoring, this is before we even get to all the fancy “nice to have” features. The HR monitor is way off, and I am not talking about the wrist based one which Garmin right off the bet had a disclaimer ready for… The actual chest strap HRM-Tri™ monitor is predictably off by 30-40bmp… read more during workouts (when connectivity and conductivity are optimal). Picture below is a real time comparison to a medical level EKG monitor showing 33bmp difference…! Obviously if you don't compare to a gold standard heart rate monitor you would not know that. This is not a trustworthy product when you need to know your real HR during workouts and recovery.

Poor Product

I had read a few bad reviews for this watch, but more or less chalked it up to a mismatch between product and consumer. As it turns out this watch is inept at in all the places the 935 shined, except for maybe keeping the time...both perform equally well at that. I was looking forward to this watch primarily because of the sp02 sensor, as I've been doing some higher elevation… read more hikes/climbs, and wanted to utilize it on my Mt. Whitney day hike. Should have just taken my 935, as I couldn't even use the 945 to give me a decent distance traveled reading. Worst of all I couldn't trust the heart rate reading. Thankfully I'm pretty attune with my body, and could ballpark my status throughout the hike. Sensor breakdown below: - Battery life = mediocre (even with most of the sensors shut off) - Long story short, the GPS is poor which takes it's toll on the elevation, compass, and distance monitors. Very frustrating. - Elevation sensor - I had this watch 4 days and had to re-calibrate it multiple times each day to get a proper starting point - Compass - same thing as the elevation sensor except I got tired of rotating my wrist in a figure 8 for 5 minutes, and eventually gave up trying with this. - Heart rate sensor - It seemed to be fairly accurate when I wasn't in an activity, but when I either selected run, trail run, or hike the readings were significantly lower than my actual heart rate - Activity distance (run, hike, trail hike) - was at least a mile off of the actual within 4 miles of starting the activity. - Sp02 - it was all over the place. I got a couple readings at around 8000 feet that were 99%, then a couple that were in the 80s. Similar issue at higher elevation. Ended up having a 96% reading on the summit of Whitney, but I have no idea how accurate that was given the inconsistencies at the lower elevation checks.