Garmin Forerunner 265 - Whitestone/Tidal Blue

Had one of the original toaster-sized Garmin Forerunner back in 2003, then the smaller ones up until I got my first Apple Watch about three years ago. I track everything (running, cycling, hiking, sleeping, etc.) and the battery life of the Apple Watch is just too terrible. I have like a watch charger every place that I sit for any period of time. That was always the case, but then it started not recording my runs well (about daily runner) on Strava so I switched to the native Apple tracker app, then THAT started glitching with GPS not recording right and too many bogus segments. The whole touch-screen thing just doesn't work for a serious tool imo, like you know I wear layers over the watch when I'm running in the cold you know, and moving the jacket back to hit ... MoreHad one of the original toaster-sized Garmin Forerunner back in 2003, then the smaller ones up until I got my first Apple Watch about three years ago. I track everything (running, cycling, hiking, sleeping, etc.) and the battery life of the Apple Watch is just too terrible. I have like a watch charger every place that I sit for any period of time. That was always the case, but then it started not recording my runs well (about daily runner) on Strava so I switched to the native Apple tracker app, then THAT started glitching with GPS not recording right and too many bogus segments. The whole touch-screen thing just doesn't work for a serious tool imo, like you know I wear layers over the watch when I'm running in the cold you know, and moving the jacket back to hit the touchscreen with gloves on urf. On to the 265 review... yeah you don't get all the app integration you get with the Apple Watch but I figured out that is NOT why I have a "smart" watch. My doctor suggested that I use a blood oxygen meter to check it during my sleep, this watch has it and Apple can't as they violated someone's patents (https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/27/us-trade-tribunal-apple-watch-ban-masimo/)... I have used the watch now for sleep, health (so many metrics you'll spend a day figuring it all out), running, elliptical, tread running, open ocean swimming, hiking, biking, alpine skiing, blah blah. It's such a well-engineered TOOL, you can just tell the quality. Here is the kicker... So I go to Hawaii, LOSE the charging wire (3 days ago) when the watch was at 15% charge, and has now been on low power mode for sipping battery at like 3% or something for a day now. It seems to have some kind of ultra low power mode... The charging wire(s) should come today....

Recently got this Garmin Forerunner (265S) to try and encourage me to be more active in my 40's. I'm very impressed with the watch so far. The battery life is great for me, From 100% on Sunday midday to around 40-45% on Friday midday. Does use a bit more battery when doing the 5k parkruns on Saturdays but no real complaints. The battery was one of the reasons I chose this watch and I have not been disappointed with that.The screen very clear and I love the AMOELD screen, very vibrant and with the customisations of the watch face you can make it look as you prefer.Sleep tracking isn't great so I don't put too much emphasis on that as you set a sleep schedule and for the most part, the watch assumes you go to sleep at those times. It can't differentiate between ... MoreRecently got this Garmin Forerunner (265S) to try and encourage me to be more active in my 40's. I'm very impressed with the watch so far. The battery life is great for me, From 100% on Sunday midday to around 40-45% on Friday midday. Does use a bit more battery when doing the 5k parkruns on Saturdays but no real complaints. The battery was one of the reasons I chose this watch and I have not been disappointed with that.The screen very clear and I love the AMOELD screen, very vibrant and with the customisations of the watch face you can make it look as you prefer.Sleep tracking isn't great so I don't put too much emphasis on that as you set a sleep schedule and for the most part, the watch assumes you go to sleep at those times. It can't differentiate between lying in bed watching a movie (which I would expect no watches can so it's not that big a deal).Has a handy feature that shows estimated recovery times after workouts/activities so you don't push yourself too hard and give yourself enough time to recover.Heart rate tracking I've found to be quite accurate and helps build a picture.The app is quite good and you can also see your stats on a Garmin website which I prefer. If you're a stats freak like me, the website is great.Would definitely recommend this watch to anyone that's trying to improve their fitness, perhaps not for ultra runners as I've heard the battery life isn't great for those runs but for a more casual runner it's great.

I opted to move from my Garmin Forerunner 255 to the newer 265 based on the promise of a better screen and comparable battery life ("Up to 13 days" for the 265 vs "Up to 14 days" for the older 255).Unfortunately this claim is no where near achievable if you actually want anything near the functionality that existed in the previous model 255.The screen of the old 255 is always on. Anywhere, any time, you can glance at the watch without wrist gestures, and the screen with all data would be clearly visible.The newer 265, however, displays nothing on the screen at all until you perform wrist gestures. A downside of the OLED technology. You can enable "always on" mode which gives a faint display of data without needing gestures, but it's hardly readable in glare ... MoreI opted to move from my Garmin Forerunner 255 to the newer 265 based on the promise of a better screen and comparable battery life ("Up to 13 days" for the 265 vs "Up to 14 days" for the older 255).Unfortunately this claim is no where near achievable if you actually want anything near the functionality that existed in the previous model 255.The screen of the old 255 is always on. Anywhere, any time, you can glance at the watch without wrist gestures, and the screen with all data would be clearly visible.The newer 265, however, displays nothing on the screen at all until you perform wrist gestures. A downside of the OLED technology. You can enable "always on" mode which gives a faint display of data without needing gestures, but it's hardly readable in glare and a poor substitute for what the older model could do. The clincher is that enabling this mode drops your battery life to around 4 days.The 265 is a decent watch with a nice screen (especially indoors) but leaves you with the choice of severely compromising on battery life if you actually want comparable screen function to the older 255.The advertised battery life is severely misleading in this regard, leading me to explore my options under Australian Consumer Law so I can 'downgrade' to the previous series in order to regain a product that I don't have to charge every few days.