Why Garmin Forerunner 965?
I have been looking for a full-fledged smartwatch for a while now. I have a Pebble and a BangleJS; I use them all the time. But they are semi-smartwatches. I wanted a full-fledged watch that lasts for days and works fully offline. This post isn’t a review; that will take time. This one is more like why I chose the 965. Before I go any further, let me list out my requirements.
Requirements
- Known and proven brands that have supported the hardware for at least a decade. And not known for dropping products. No Google, Apple, or Samsung.
- It’s meant for outdoor use, so at least semi-rugged. Buttons and not just touch screen. Good readable screen.
- Good battery life
- It should work without a phone for at least a few days. I.e., good offline functionality. It should work without a network for sure.
- GPS and Offline Maps. Ability to run GPS/Maps for at least 24 hours.
- Good community, openness
- Cost. I had a fairly high budget of 50K.
Solution
I looked into Garmin, Coros, and Casio.
I chose the Garmin Forerunner 965. Other watches I considered were the Garmin Instinct 3, the Garmin Fenix® 7X Pro, and the Coros Nomad. I considered the Casio ProTek (WSD-F20) series, but neither the community nor the OS seemed interesting enough. But I do love how rugged they are. I will keep an eye on them.
Garmin Instinct 3 has everything except offline maps. It has a cool screen and GPS. But it has no routeable maps. It’s also expensive. Garmin Fenix® 7X Pro is better in every way, but it’s double the cost and weight. Coros Nomad is the closest competitor; it has all the features I wanted, at a similar price, and it’s rugged and pretty. But I don’t know anything about Coros; no one I know has it. Also, I don’t know much about the community around it. It’s also the brand that is on my list.
I was able to load Indian OSM maps onto my Forerunner 965. I have used it while running and for casual walking. I haven’t done much routing on the watch, though it’s possible. I could follow a GPX track easily. I will blog more. Overall, these features seem to work.
Everything on the phone works offline and also works without the phone. Of course, you can send messages without the phone (it doesn’t have a network), but it can connect to Wi-Fi if needed. It can also store music and play it through my Bluetooth earbuds. So you can go out without the phone.
I have not charged the watch much. I am quite active every day, so it’s not bad. I haven’t taken it out for a full day of motorcycling or trekking with maps/routing on. When I do that, I will write more.
The community around it is good, though they are more focused on outdoor activities and mapping. I haven’t explored their apps yet.
As I said, this is not a review. This is just the list of things that I looked for while buying this watch, held up against them. For how it performs in those areas, you will have to wait. And it won’t be a single blog post. For now, there are no red flags with the Forerunner 965.
