I wore the Garmin Forerunner 970 for over a week — here's 5 things I like and 3 things I don't

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

Ever since the Garmin Forerunner 935 converted me to using the best sports watches instead of a smartwatch, I've been a fan of the Garmin 9XX series.
This line of watches usually offers all the features you get on the flagship Fenix models in a lightweight, mostly-plastic design that's smaller and also cheaper. As a keen runner the Garmin Forerunner 965 was often the watch I turned to when not testing something new.
The Garmin Forerunner 970 is an impressive update to the line and adds some key features from the Garmin Fenix 8 as well as some completely new ones.
I'm testing the watch now for our full review, which will take a few weeks to make sure every new feature is fully explored. But there are already some positives and negatives that have stood out to me after just over a week of use.
Garmin promised a brighter display on the Forerunner 970 compared with the Forerunner 965, but didn't give details in terms of nits. Since the 965 was always bright enough for me, I didn't expect too much.
In testing, however, the upgrade in brightness is very noticeable, especially during activities when the white stats on a black background are clearer on the Forerunner 970.
It's also a clear upgrade when using the watch in bright sunlight. The Forerunner 965's screen is still bright enough, but the Forerunner 970's display has exceeded my expectations.
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One of the big new sports features on the Forerunner 970 is running tolerance, which estimates how many miles or kilometers you can/should run in a week based on your training history, with the aim of avoiding injury.
This ties into established ideas about building your load gradually rather than suddenly doing a lot more running than your body might be able to handle. What I like about the feature is that it takes into account the type of runs you're doing.
Instead of simply saying you ran 10 miles, it looks at those miles, and if you've been running quickly or on challenging, hilly terrain, it increases the load factor of that run, so it will get logged as 11 or 12 miles of "impact load."
The Forerunner 970 will show the actual distance you've run, along with the impact load of those runs, and you can check this against your estimated tolerance to see if you're overdoing it.
This is a useful feature for runners of all levels to ensure they're adding a safe amount of mileage each week if building, and also considering the impact of the harder runs on their plan correctly.
One major reason to upgrade to the Garmin Fenix line from the Forerunner 965 is the sapphire crystal display available on the Fenix, which is more durable than the glass one used on the Forerunner.
I scratched the Forerunner 965 without even realizing it during my testing. But having a sapphire screen on the Forerunner 970 gives peace of mind that you don't need to use a screen protector.
Another big reason to upgrade to the Garmin Fenix 8 has been eliminated by the Forerunner 970 getting a built-in flashlight. That feature is just incredibly handy to have on your wrist.
During the time I've been testing the watch I've had two sick kids to get up and see to during the night, so the flashlight has been in regular use.
I've yet to unlock the running economy stats on the Forerunner 970, but you can see the new step speed loss measurement during each run if you pair the watch with the Garmin HRM600 chest strap.
This measures how much you slow down when your foot hits the ground when running, with a lower value being better — lower braking force on each stride means you have to put less effort into speeding up again.
I've been looking at this stat during runs and you can see how it changes when running at faster speeds — my step speed loss improves when I hit my marathon pace compared to easy run paces, for example.
These step speed loss measurements feed into Garmin's running economy stats, but are interesting in their own right.
The Forerunner 970 is not a cheap watch, and to unlock some of its most interesting new features like step speed loss and running economy measurements, you also need to buy the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is $169.
This is a great, rechargeable chest strap, but incredibly expensive for a heart rate monitor — the Wahoo TRACKR heart rate monitor is $89, for comparison.
It's a significant extra outlay just to get these running technique stats, especially as the Forerunner 970 has Garmin's Elevate Gen5 optical heart rate sensor, which has always been pretty accurate for me when testing it on various watches.
The cost of the bright display on the Forerunner 970 is short battery life. It lasted me just over four days on my first charge with the screen always-on; the Forerunner 965 lasts me seven days reliably.
You can increase the battery life considerably using the screen in raise-to-wake mode, but if you're regularly logging workouts using GPS and the always-on screen, the Forerunner 970 will still need regular charging.
A small dislike this, but it would be great if there were more size options of the Forerunner 970, like there are with both the Forerunner 570 and Fenix 8.
Some people with small wrists still want the greater sports tracking capabilities of the Forerunner 970, so if there was a 42mm or 43mm model along with the 47mm watch I'm sure it would be a success.