Garmin has announced the launch of the new Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965 to refresh its range of smartwatches focused on sports activity and health tracking.

The most striking novelty of the new Garmin Forerunners is the use of OLED screens. A jump in quality while maintaining a good autonomy (usual for the manufacturer), advanced sensors to quantify all kinds of parameters, advanced training functions and those dedicated to health and physical fitness. We will review the main features of the new product from the leader in heart rate monitors.

Garmin Forerunner 265

This is a smart watch / heart rate monitor with screen 1.3-inch touchscreen AMOLED display It comes in two different sizes, 42 (Forerunner 265S) and 46mm. It has Pulse Ox sensors to track heart rate or maximum V02, among other parameters, plus integrated multi-band GPS. It offers the usual set of Garmin features, such as the energy capacity of what they call the “body battery”, sleep and stress monitoring, or pregnancy and menstrual cycle monitoring. Also alerts for abnormal heart rate and breathing rate.

As a good heart rate monitor, it really has a lot to offer training, such as recommended and personalized diaries once you provide information about the next test to be performed, a series of videos from Garmin coaches, a race widget or a willingness to train score. When it comes to smartwatch-focused features, it includes notification and Garmin Pay support for contactless payments. You can also stream music downloaded from Spotify, Amazon Music or Deezer.

The autonomy is high despite the improvement of the screen to OLED, up to 15 days of use, which is reduced to 24 hours if you actively monitor the exercise with GPS enabled. With 8GB of onboard storage, it’s available on Garmin’s website in a dozen frame and case colors to choose from, with matching silicone bands. Its price in Spain is 499 euros for two versions with sizes 42 and 46 mm.

Garmin Forerunner 965

It’s a top-of-the-line model, and Garmin is increasing the screen size here Touch AMOLED with a diagonal of 1.4 inches. It also quadruples the built-in storage capacity to 32GB and uses lightweight titanium as a premium material to strengthen the frame.

It uses the same group of Pulse Ox sensors and integrated GPS and all the functions of the previous model in monitoring health, sports and notifications, adding additional extras aimed at the most demanding athletes: real-time resistance information to manage the level of effort ; load ratio (to avoid overexertion and injury) and detailed climbing metrics including climb, distance and elevation.

The 965 is available on the Garmin portal in three colors, white, gray and yellow, and matching silicone bands, priced 649 euros. If you’re running out of budget with these new OLEDs, you should know that Garmin offers a huge catalog with models starting at just over 100 euros. And if you want to train properly, a heart rate monitor is a must.