Garmin Forerunner 245 Music review: a runner’s best friend

Forerunner 245 from Garmin’s best performance-oriented running watch. It creates a new benchmark by that against which competition is assessed.

Its Forerunner 245 resembles a round digital watch. It measures 42.3mm across, 12.2mm thick and 38.5g in weight. That by standards of sports watches is small, and compares favorably to Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 and the Apple Watch Series 5. It can be used with standard 20mm watches and comes with a great traditional silicone strap that can fit wrists that are between 127mm to the 204mm circumference, that is, most wrists.

The LCD’s colour transflective display – not touchscreen-like – can be observed in direct sunlight, without the necessity of a backlight though there is one for nighttime. The display is crisp and easy to read at a glance, however it is not as impressive as the flashy OLED displays on smartwatches. Consider it more of an advanced digital watch and you’ll realize the concept.

There are a variety of watch faces available that include digital and analog choices, as well as a variety accessible from third-party vendors via the Garmin Connect IQ retailer.

The upward, downward and back buttons guide you through the interface. The button for start/stop doubles as a select button . the light button turns the watch and allows access to quick settings. Press and hold downward button for access to the music controls, or press the up button for a quick switch to the full settings menus.

On the watch face, you will also be able to access an extensive list of customizable widgets with the buttons for up and down that include notifications from smartphones such as calendars, weather, calendars as well as health statistics and stress levels, your heart rate, your previous run, and many more.

Garmin 245 review – Specifications

Screen size: 1.2in the transflective aspect of MIP (240×240 pixels)

Size of the case: 42.3mm

The thickness of the case: 12.2mm

Size of band: Standard 20mm quick release

Weight: 38.5g

Storage: 3.5GB/500 songs

Water resistance 50m (5ATM)

Sensors: GPS/Glonass/Galileo, compass, accelerometer, heart rate, pulse Ox

Connectivity Bluetooth 4.2 (ANT+), Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi (Music only)

Syncing and charging

The Forerunner 245 can be fully charged in just two hours with the Snap-In USB cable that connects to on the rear of the device. It can be connected to Garmin’s Desktop Express software running on Windows as well as Mac.

The watch can be connected with your Android or iPhone through Bluetooth as well as you can use the Garmin Connect app is responsible for syncing information and updates smart notifications as well as other things. The additional Garmin Connect IQ app handles installing applications, such as watch faces, widgets , and music services.

Forerunner 245 Music Forerunner 245 Music also has WiFi for syncing your activity directly onto the cloud. and downloading music as well as software updates.

It is the Garmin Connect app is extremely extensive, capable of displaying an overwhelming amount of information. It also offers analyses typically reserved for pay-for-subscriptions other places, such as the efficiency of your training. Recent improvements have made the app easier for beginners, especially for daily health monitoring.

Sustainability

Forerunner 245 Forerunner 245 is generally repairable however, Garmin usually replaces damaged devices with new units for a small fee. The battery isn’t repairable, but the straps are. The screen is protected by the Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, similar to the screen of a smartphone.

Running

The Forerunner 245 is a versatile device that can be used for a variety of sports but is a great running device with virtually every option you can imagine regardless of whether you’re running on the track, treadmill or trail. The battery can last at least 24 hours of tracking using GPS and less than six hours of playing music.

Its GPS trails are among the most precise I’ve seen in suburban London that match distances and routes with a minimal deviation from the maps and race lengths. The time needed to receive an GPS lock, as well as the security of that lock, have been significantly enhanced by the latest software update and a lock is available less than 20 minutes after getting outside for the majority times.

Garmin’s 3rd-generation heart rate sensor is as precise as optical scanners are also and for the vast majority of people, it will be far more accurate than adequate to be used for training purposes. If you’re looking for more, it is possible to connect an arm strap to Bluetooth.

During your run, you will see several customizable screens that have a variety of fields and statistics on the screen. The screens are well-designed and simple to comprehend even with a glance at the middle of the run.

My main screen displays the pace in the upper right, with a distance timer and run timer to the left, my heart rate at the lower. You could also show fewer fields or swap one of them to show a huge array of statistics, which include laps and timers as well as distances, paces and speeds, heart rate and zones and running dynamics (with the Run Dynamics Pod) cadence, race data temperatures, elevations, and other information. The stats are available for virtually everything you’d like to see in an opportune moment.

Performance, goals, and exercises

It is possible to set the watch to sound a beep and vibrate whenever you’ve reached certain milestones, for example, laps or distances, and communicate with your normal speed every three minutes using Bluetooth headphones. It is also possible to set your target that is based on distance, speed or time that is extremely useful to run a 5K with no running tracks.

Together with VO2 Max estimates, used to determine overall fitness and fitness, the Garmin will measure your performance and let you know whether you’ve put in enough. Between 6 and 20 minutes into your run, the device will sound and provide you with either a negative or positive score. It could be motivation to run more as well as confirmation you’re in the right direction. It’s extremely helpful.

The Forerunner 245 is able to track workouts like interval training, too. It has an in-built coach that can be adapted to suit intermediates to beginners, and the ability to run 5k in 21 minutes.

However, you can easily program your own sessions or download them according to pace or distance and heart rate zones or other parameters. If you are running at a fast pace for example the watch will beep an alarm to signal the beginning of the time.

During the sprint , the watch alerts you when you’re in excess or below your goal speed, and displays a readable dial that appears on the screen. It’s a great tool and doesn’t require a track, fixed location to run, or an alarm clock to be able to perform efficient interval training.

The only thing that’s missing is an instrument called a barometer. It’s possible to get elevation information from maps, but if you plan to train using elevation , this could be a problem.