Garmin Forerunner 965 Review (Don't Buy, Until You Watch This)
– I’ve been using the Garmin 965 for the past few weeks now, and today I’m gonna show you what it’s like, if it’s worth your money, and if you should buy it. I’ll cover a wide variety of topics from the hardware to the software and, kind of, what features it has, what it doesn’t, and what you need to look out for before you buy this product. Now, when it comes to design and durability, I think the Garmin’s are definitely more durable than Apple watches. This one does have a very flat screen when it comes to,
kind of, the screen and the bezel. So, you are more likely to hit it against things, you’re more likely to scratch it. So, that’s just one thing to keep in mind, versus like the Epics, and the higher tier Garmin watches out there. I take the approach of, like, I don’t really care, and I just bang my watch against things, and typically it’s fine. Now, it comes included with like a silicone band. So, one thing to keep in mind is when you do get that wet, and you don’t dry it off and you keep wearing it,
it’s just gonna continue to have more moisture on your wrist. Make sure to dry the silicone band after you’re done working out, or else it’s gonna leave like
and you can just maneuver the entire watch using just the buttons. So, I really appreciate that. And, the one thing that I’ve noticed is, just, like, the vibe, like it, if you’re a runner, it’s cool to wear a Garmin Watch, whereas, like, if you’re wearing an Apple Watch, people might not think you’re as serious in you’re training. I think Coros, kind of, falls on the same bucket. I have videos on that too, but just the aesthetic that it gives off, like, I’m training for something, like, I’m a serious athlete. That’s kind of the vibe that
Garmin gives off. In terms of the display, and the user experience, it’s brightly colored, you can see it outside which is really nice. I think some of the older Garmin watches, it’s harder to see in bright daylight, but this one, it does extremely well. It is now color based. One thing I realized when I had the Phoenix 7X, like, it was black and white, and it had a little bit dose of color, and I was like, “oh, that’s okay, I can deal with it.” And, when I started wearing the Garmin 965, I was like “wow,
like, the color actually does make a big difference.” So, just something to keep in mind. I don’t think you really need it, but it’s just nice to have. I would argue that the colors look a little too retro, and like old school, it’s like a video game vibe. I’m not the biggest fan, but I like having colors and things like that. Like, the font’s a little weird, but hey, it works. Now, first and foremost, you don’t need to buy one of these, but if for some reason you do decide to buy one, use the links
down below, it’ll help support the channel. Then, when it comes to like third party integrations, it automatically integrates with Strava. So, you can upload your runs straight to Strava. You don’t have to worry about manually syncing it like you do on the iPhone and the Apple Watch, it’s just not as clean. Whereas Garmin just has cloud-to-cloud, whereas, iPhone you need to send it from your iPhone to Strava. I really appreciate that they have Apple Health integration. You’re not gonna get all the data that you do from an Apple watch, running into Apple Health, but you’re
gonna get most of the data that you need, and then you can use that data in all your other apps. So, let’s say I track my run on my Garmin, I can have it input into Apple Health, and then my WHOOP can read that data, so it knows when I started and ended my run, and gimme like a straight score, and figure out other data over here. Or, if I just wanna see trends over time In Apple Health, I just like to use Apple Health as, like, the sole main hub where I input all of
my fitness and health data. So, I think that’s like a critical component. Garmin does write more health data than Coros does, so it’s always nice to see them adding more data that they’re writing to Apple Health, which leads into our next thing, which is fitness tracking. So, the Garmin 965 is is one tier above the Garmin 265, right? The 265 is mainly for running, the 965 incorporates a lot of other features, as well. So, this is a great watch if you’re training for a triathlon if you’re running, if you want just a lot more features
in your watch than the basic one. When it comes to heart rate accuracy, I typically wear two watches all the time, and I notice that the heart rate on the Garmin, and my Apple Watch are pretty consistent. You can connect both of these devices to a chest-based heart rate strap. So, I like to wear the polar H10, linked below, and that will give you the most accurate data, because depending on how you wear the watch, the tightness, your skin color, hair, tattoos, like, that can all impact the heart rate accuracy for you, specifically. In terms
of GPS, it does have multi-band GPS, which is shown to potentially be more accurate. I noticed it to be pretty spot on. I’ve tested the top four running watches, video is linked below, and they’re all really, relatively, pretty good at getting your distance and pacing. One thing to keep in mind is they’re not perfect, so there are gonna be some discrepancies. Don’t take your mileage and pacing as if that is the sole truth. Like, just take it all with a grain of salt. Like, it’s pretty close, it’s close enough, but the spot where I’ve seen
distance and pacing be the most accurate, is on the track. The Apple Watch is probably the king when it comes to track mode. It’s just the user experience of being able to show up to the track, start track mode on your Apple Watch, and then actually get the accurate distance and pacing on there. Like, it felt spot on meter-to-meter. The garment is relatively okay, too. It’s just you have to start a different track mode. You can’t really switch from an outdoor run, and then onto the track mode when you arrive at the track. So, there
are some small friction points to initiating a track mode run. But, I did notice that it was like, okay, even on the map, like, you can see a video here, like it didn’t stick exactly to my lane, and I’m not really sure why that is. So, it was like, it was like, pretty good, but it wasn’t amazing. And then, if you are trying to improve your running, the one thing I do like, and take all this information with a grain of salt, is like the race predictions. So, it’ll tell you like, “Hey, what do we
predict you’re gonna run a 5k, half marathon, marathon?” And, it’s just interesting to see that information, especially as it’s changing. It’s, like, “all right, is my fitness increasing or is it decreasing?” So, when it’s decreasing, I’m like “Uh-oh, either I’m injured, or I need to start training again, like, I’m slowing down a little bit.” A new feature that I really like using is, like, routes to run in, and I can use the Garmin navigation. You can go and say ahead, and say, “Hey, I wanna run a five mile route, starting from where I am and
do a loop,” or “I wanna run north, east, west.” It’s gonna give you turn-by-turn navigations, as well. It’s kinda a map that you can see on your watch, in terms of where I need to run. So, I think that’s a great way to, kind of, explore new cities. I just appreciate presetting a route that I wanna run, and then knowing, “all right, we can just follow this, and I’ll be fine, I’ll hit the numbers that I need to, and I won’t get lost.” One thing I would love to see that Coros does really well, is
you can draw a route. So, let’s say I want to just like tour a city, but I also wanna have navigation, I can draw a route, and it’ll automatically create a route that I wanna run. You can set points on the map to, like, where you want to go. It’s just a bit more complicated, and when something has too much friction to actually initiating that feature, most people are not gonna use it. That’s including me, ’cause I’m extremely lazy. I’ve noticed a lot of people want to get a Garmin just so they can take a
photo of their watch to, kind of, show how much they ran to share on social media. So, that’s just another thing to keep in mind, is like, how do other people perceive you with this watch? Whereas, with like an Apple Watch, it might not show all that data in one easy-to-see view, when you’re trying to take that iPhone to POV wrist photo for your social media profiles. (camera shutter clicks) Also, make sure to follow me on Instagram, Twitter, at ShervinShares, I’ll be posting wrist-based mileage photos. Next would be the health and wellness features. One thing
I do love about the Garmin Watch, is like the training load. It’ll tell me, “Hey, you’re being productive” “You’re overstrained,” “you’re de-training.” Well, like, actually it can be, kind of, depressing ’cause if you’re de-training and you’re wearing the watch, and maybe, like, you’re injured, or you’re just not running as much as you used to, you don’t wanna see that. So, I’ve noticed that when I’m not training for a specific event, I’ll take the Garmin Watch off and I won’t use it. So, that’s something to keep in mind. And, then there are some other fancy features,
like, stress, body battery, VO2 Max. And, although these things are nice, I think the VO2 Max I definitely appreciate. The stress and the body battery, like, I never actually use those features. They’re there, and it’s, like “okay, it’s kind of insightful and helpful, but I don’t think enough people are going to spend all their time investing, and, like, looking at this data” Yeah, it’s another data point, and it’s valuable, and it could help you, maybe understand how you’re feeling. Like, if your intuition is not the best. But, for the most part these are just, kinda,
like, extra fancy features that I will bet you, if they have like statistics, most people are not actually looking and using. So, I wouldn’t take these into account for your purchase decision. And then, sleep tracking. So, if you have watched my channel, you know I love sleep tracking devices, the Aura ring, the WHOOP strap and the Garmin, now does sleep tracking as well, and they do measure your heart rate 24/7. So, it seems very competitive to the WHOOP strap, except there’s no membership fee. And, I’ve noticed that it’s, like, decent at measuring my sleep and
being accurate, in terms of when I actually went to sleep, when I actually woke up. I think for any device I don’t look at sleep stages, it’s just not worth looking at that information, ’cause you don’t know how accurate it is. It’s all these devices are trying to guess based on machine learning algorithms, and you don’t want that data to impact how you feel throughout the day. But, the data is there, if you wanna get, like, a vague, general idea of how you feel, based on your sleep, like, that’s there. You can wear the watch
on your wrist, and you’ll get that info, but it’s not something that’s necessary. If you really wanna make sure you’re getting good sleep tracking data, I’d go with the Aura or WHOOP, and then just wear your Garmin throughout the day. But, that’s like if you have an endless budget, you know? Next are the smart watch features. So, a big part of running is having music, right? You wanna be able to listen to music, you wanna be able to change your song, change the volume. I think having your phone is probably the easiest, ’cause you can
just press the up/down volume buttons here, pick a new playlist, and all that stuff. But, sometimes when you’re running that’s very hard to do. So, being able to do that on your watch is the next best thing. The Apple Watch is probably the second closest thing to the iPhone. I can use their digital crown to change the volume, I can go pick playlists, and all that stuff. It’s touchscreen, so if my hands are not wet, and I’m not wearing gloves, that can be valuable. But then, the Garmin does offer the ability to do all these
things, but it’s not that easy. You have to kind of go deep into menus, you gotta press a lot of buttons, and if you’re running, you’re more than likely not gonna do this. And, if you have your phone with you, you might as well pull out your phone and do it, ’cause it’ll be that much faster. But, let’s say you’re not bringing your phone, you can download offline music. They don’t offer a way to stream like you could on the Apple Watch, but that’s something you have to kind of think beforehand, and prep and plan,
and then connect your watch to your wifi, download the playlist offline, and I do appreciate that they’re integrated with, like, Spotify, and I can download, like, my favorite running playlist. So, if you know you’re the type of person who’s gonna prep and plan for your runs, and actually get that music downloaded, then that’s something you’re gonna use. But, I think for most people, like, you’re just probably gonna stick to your iPhone, ’cause, that’s a frictionless experience. When it comes to calls and message notifications, I think this is something that’s probably unnecessary in this day and
age, ’cause we’re getting so many notifications and pings. (notification ping repeats) But, you can get your calls and notifications on the Garmin as long as your phone is nearby, and connected via Bluetooth. Not necessary, I would want it if I don’t have my phone, I wanna be able to make sure I get calls in case of an emergency, or if I need to call 911, like, having an emergency SOS feature on the Apple Watch, I really appreciate. There are safety features on the Garmin, but you really need to make sure that your phone is nearby
with you. Which leads us into the next thing, which is payments. Let’s say you go for a run with friends, you don’t wanna bring your phone, and then you all decide to grab brunch or coffee after, and you want to pay for the thing. I like having payments on my wrist. The Apple Watch, you know, with Apple Pay. Garmin does have Garmin Pay, but it doesn’t support all the cards that you want. So, most of my cards actually don’t work. Maybe I just use niche banks, but they only support certain cards. And, then you can
add it, you will enter in your code, and then you can pay with the Garmin, wherever NFC payments are accepted. So, like, it’s capable of paying for things, but just realize that you might not be able to add all the cards that you want. You know, there’s certain rewards, percentage back, you gotta make sure you use the right card. Next, battery life and charging. I think from a charging experience perspective, I wish all these would support G wireless charging. ‘Cause when you’re traveling, like, you wanna bring less chargers, but they do offer their own proprietary
plug, you plug that in. I have found some, like, USBC adapters online, where it’s like really small. So, that’s like a thought, if you wanna bring like a USBC cable, and then just have the small adapter that you bring for your watch. It’s not the most ideal charging experience, ’cause you gotta plug it into the bottom, and then you’ve gotta flip, put your watch upside down. But, it works, and that’s where the battery life comes in. So, the Garmin watches are extremely good at battery life, depending on how much you run, how much fitness tracking
you do, if you wear it while you sleep, like, there’s so many variables. Which satellite feature that you use, which GPS feature that you use, in terms of accuracy, when you’re running, like, all of that impacts the battery life. But, for the most part it’s pretty good. I would say most of these watches can get you, like, three, to five, to seven days of battery life, especially if you’re working out a lot, like the fitness tracking features is gonna drain your battery much faster. So, it’s just about, like, this inconsistent, every few days you’re gonna
have to charge your watch, but if you’re going on, like, a weekend trip, I know as long as I charge my watch beforehand, I can go on that weekend trip, and I don’t need to bring the charger, so I really like that. And, if you’re willing to go into the settings, and change it to optimize, you know, less GPS pings, less heart rate tracking, like, then you’ll be able to optimize the battery to last even longer if you really want. Now, price, and should you buy this? So, the Garmin 265, currently is at 600 US
dollars, which is an insane amount for a watch. If you plan to wear this every day, I think it’s worth it. I think if you’re going to be training with it, and then you’re gonna plan to use it outside of training, as well, there are a ton of features in the Garmin Watch that are extremely valuable. And, if you like the look, the style, and you plan to continue wearing it outside of training, then go for it. But, there’s a lot of people who will buy a watch, they’ll train with it, and then once their
training program is done, the watch collects dust. So, be mindful of what’s gonna happen after the fact. That’s kinda why I really appreciate the Apple Watch. Like, it’s good enough, and you can still use it outside of the fitness daily life, like, it’s still a smart watch on your wrist, as well. If you’re someone who was trying to save money, go buy a cheaper watch that’s used, that kinda gets your data. Or, even just use your phone, like, this is also a great fitness tracking device. You can buy a heart rate monitor on your chest,
get accurate heart rate data, get somewhat accurate distance spacing data with your phone. And, if you feel limited by the tools that you already have, then go ahead and buy this watch. I think if you have the money to spend, and you want the latest and greatest, like, this is one of the, one of the better watches out there that you can buy. Go use the links down below, it really helps support the channel. Since you enjoyed this video, go watch my video where I compare four of the top best running watches, and it’ll be
linked right here.
