Garmin revamps Forerunner lineup with racing options and solar energy

Garmin revamps Forerunner lineup with racing features and solar power - The Verge

Simply in time for World Operating Day, Garmin is introducing two new working watches to its Forerunner lineup: the $349.99 Forerunner 255 and the $499.99 Forerunner 955. Each GPS watches sport multi-band GPS and new racing options, together with a race widget. The Forerunner 955 can even are available in a Photo voltaic model, which, because the title suggests, provides photo voltaic charging for even longer battery life.

The Forerunner 255 is a light-weight, midrange working watch that builds on the Forerunner 245. It’ll are available in two sizes. The usual Forerunner 255 will measure 46mm and weigh 49 grams, whereas the smaller 255S will measure 41mm and weigh 32 grams. There’ll even be a Forerunner 255 Music and 255S Music variants, which can have the ability to retailer as much as 500 songs on the watch itself. Garmin says that additionally consists of playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. The Music fashions will value an additional $50 for a complete of $399.99. The watches are rated for 5ATM of water resistance with an estimated 14 days of battery life, with as much as 30 hours in GPS mode.

The large additions this time round embody a brand new racing widget, coronary heart price variation (HRV) standing throughout sleep, multi-band GPS, and the flexibility for triathletes to extra simply swap between sports activities by way of a single button press. The race widget will embody race prep info, together with efficiency predictions, race-day climate, and a countdown clock. Multi-band GPS is an more and more in style characteristic on multisport watches that reinforces GPS accuracy by enabling communication with a number of satellite tv for pc frequencies. The promise is healthier accuracy in environments the place it’s onerous to get a superb sign. Lastly, the watch additionally encompasses a “morning report” characteristic. When a consumer wakes up, the watch will ship a brief abstract of the day’s climate, a each day exercise suggestion, and a report of final evening’s sleep, restoration time, coaching standing, and HRV standing.

In comparison with the Forerunner 245, the 255 lineup provides an NFC chip for Garmin Pay. In any other case, it’s not too completely different sensor-wise. It nonetheless options steady coronary heart price monitoring in addition to SpO2 sensors to allow options like Physique Battery. The metric measures how properly you’ve recovered throughout sleep in addition to how “drained” you’re in the course of the day from stress. The Forerunner 255 sequence can even help primary smartwatch options like push notifications and Garmin’s security options, similar to incident detection and reside monitoring. For coaching options, it’ll additionally give customers each day exercise strategies in addition to entry to coaching packages by way of Garmin Coach and in-depth metrics on the Garmin Join app.

The Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar and non-solar models side-by-side The Forerunner 955 sequence provides photo voltaic charging and a brand new coaching readiness metric.Picture: Garmin

In the meantime, the Forerunner 955 is extra of a top-of-the-line working watch. (Although, it’s not fairly as full-featured as Garmin’s flagship Fenix sequence.) It encompasses a 47mm always-on, full-color touchscreen show and weighs 52 grams. Button followers needn’t fear, nevertheless. The 955 nonetheless consists of 5 bodily buttons that can be utilized in tandem with the touchscreen. Just like the 255 sequence, it’s rated for 5ATM of water resistance however has a barely longer battery life at an estimated 15 days, with 42 hours in GPS mode. There’s additionally a $599.99 Forerunner 955 Photo voltaic, which options Garmin’s proprietary Energy Glass lens. With photo voltaic charging, the 955 Photo voltaic will get as much as 20 days on a single cost, with 49 hours in GPS mode. (This assumes you’re getting roughly three hours per day in 50,000 lux circumstances, so take that with a grain of salt.)

Just like the Forerunner 255 sequence, the Forerunner 955 additionally will get multi-band GPS, HRV standing, morning reviews, and the brand new race widget. It additionally has a brand new coaching readiness metric. Because the title implies, the metric takes into consideration sleep, restoration time, HRV, and some different metrics to offer customers a rating indicating how “prepared” they’re for a coaching session. It additionally provides real-time stamina monitoring, which Garmin first launched with its Fenix 7 sequence.

So far as well being monitoring and good options go, the Forerunner 955 has the identical staple options because the 255. Nonetheless, it provides a number of additional coaching metrics, like PacePro and ClimbPro, that give real-time steering in your tempo and elevation. You can too retailer a better variety of songs on the 955 — 2,000 to be actual.

Each the Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 955 can be found beginning at this time. The Forerunner 255 is accessible in 4 colours: grey, pink, blue, and black. In the meantime, the Forerunner 955 is accessible in white and black.


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