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new Garmin 255 – Inbound – A Forerunner with new formats

Images via @Lukas and Garmin Forums and a Garmin retailer

Garmin Forerunner 255 and 255s are coming

A new source confirms that the best-selling Garmin Forerunner 245 is morphing into a new size and with a cut-down option to keep the prices right for the more price-sensitive amongst us.

Edit: These are available now (limited model and colour availability)

There are 5 colourways – aqua and merlot are dropped from the 5 colourways that previously existed on the FR245.

I’m Confused, Please Explain

This makes perfect sense and is a great move by Garmin, here’s why.

The smaller 42mm size model appeals to those with smaller wrists and, somewhat obviously, the larger 47mm model appeals to those with larger wrists. Twice the potential market…kinda! Actually, it’s a little more interesting than that; the Eagle-Eyed amongst you will remember that the FR245 only came in the smaller size. So Garmin is adding the more-normal ‘medium’ size. I’m fine with that, that’s my size!

There was previously a Forerunner 245 Music and this differentiation is kept. Whilst WiFi can be used for things other than music (like uploading completed workouts), WiFi is kept as a feature specific to the Music models.

What, No AMOLED? No Solar?

Yep, that’s right. It seems there is neither a solar option nor an AMOLED option. That’s fine though, Garmin knows that if you want advanced features like those you will pay the premium for a Fenix 7 Solar or Forerunner 955 Solar or Epix 2.

Combien?

We can assume the ‘S’ and regular-sized versions are the same price as these (approx):

  • Forerunner 255 (music) for €400 (£350 / $400)
  • Forerunner 255 (no music) for €350 (£300 / $350)

What about the Forerunner 955?

Patience, dear friends, Patience.

Wait over: try this – Garmin Forerunner 955 Specs, Features and Photos

This leak specifically did NOT confirm the Forerunner 955. However, I’m hopeful that we will shortly see a joint release of the Forerunner 255 together with the Forerunner 955.

Speculation Caveats

The precise 42/47mm sizes have not been confirmed nor have the display sizes and resolutions. However, there ARE two sizes. Probably the usual two sizes for a Garmin watch!

We might assume that the smaller size is a 1.2″ screen with 240x240px and that the larger one is a 1.3″ 260x260px. However, it might just be possible that Garmin makes the smaller one with a smaller bezel and the same screen size as the larger model. We saw similar on the Fenix lines in the past.

There is more information available on the new software features but I’ve not had that confirmed yet. Broadly you can assume that the 255 will be triathlon-lite when compared to the 955.

Enjoy!

 

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43 thoughts on “new Garmin 255 – Inbound – A Forerunner with new formats”

    1. well, thats a great question.
      255 – no, it seems not
      955, maybe but it seems not. I would certainly buy one if available (solar option may contain extra goodies)
      Epix Small – it seems not too. I don’t think this is imminently planned by a long way. However there absolutely IS demand for it and i would bet there is demand that garmin now knows it needs to meet. Ray mentioned it in a post today and i took my Epix to the pub last night and the first comments were (literally!!) – it’s **too big** and why can’t I do pinch zoom on the maps? and these are my non-techie cycling friends

  2. Any idea on whether Garmin Pay will be on the 255 series? That’s probably the thing I most wish my 245 Music had.

  3. Interesting, I got the FR245 to replace the FR935 I lost but found it a bit small bust mostly with unpleasing proportions, that would take care of the problem…provided it has Garmin Pay and the 1.3″ screen would be great too.

  4. There are plenty of info about incoming Polar Pacer – premiere in about two days. Do you have more info?

  5. 255 – I keep my fingers crossed that this model includes Garmin Pay and the GPS track navigation function (from a .GPX file) (model 745).

  6. How soon is soon? Days, weeks, months… Just ordered a FR, so need to know if I should return 🙁

    1. forerunners are typically released in Spring, the running season. you can check back at previous Forerunner releases.
      typically releases are on a tue/wed toward the start of the month.

  8. Ok so since this is a news site and you wont publish news (quite funny) this is what we know: Polar Pacer new features support notifications during activity, walking test and new watchfaces. Faster processor. Looks like vantage v2 without touch, 35h GPS, up to 7 days of battery smartwatch mode. Two versions – Polar Pacer and Pacer Pro. Running focused but swimming mode enabled. Cheers to your nda.

    1. thank you for the intel and comment…I think
      yes I had an NDA. Yes I have a Pacer Pro, yes I have known details about the Pacer and Pacer Pro since November 2021.
      Preparing and writing a detailed review takes at least 5 full days. I can easily re-print the spec list or a table of features or re-post the press release all of which I have had for a while.
      There are quite a few other new products out there right now (or about to be) plus it’s just me here, I have another job (and this site is the equivalent of 3 jobs), family committments and other responsibilities (like training a lot). I try my best…sorry it wasn’t good enough for you on this occasion.

  9. No need to justify yourself! You’re doing a great job here and the info you give are free. I appreciate your work.

  10. That was a long reply. You could have saved many words and just told John not to be such a dickhead:D

    I think anyone with half a braincell could realise why you havn’t published something that is well known elsewhere. Some of your articles can be a bit clickbaity or just articles for the sake of chasing google hits but on the most part you do a pretty good job 5kR!

    The NDA bit is an interesting angle to take. Do you really benefit from taking early access in exchange for remaining shush. For me T5kR site is a good place to find latest rumours but honestly if im looking for in depth opinion on the latest release, we’re all off to DCR:) Does having a slightly earlier indepth review of the latest ‘not-a-must-have’ watch benefit you more than being able to generate traffic through the latest rumours?

    1. thank you. here’s another long one for you

      I really write stuff that I find interesting and I know some people think it’s ****clickbait****. Really…I make a ****tiny**** amount of money from that stuff. If my ‘clickbait revenues’ increased by 1000% it would make little difference to me. Maybe I’d buy Maurten gels rather than Wiggle own brand 😉

      On the flip side if an author wants to write something then the title is really really important – ask every newspaper editor ever. No one will read it otherwise. I’m competing against the pro’s who are better than me at that stuff.

      So yes i want people to read the stuff that I find interesting. if you get there and don’t find it interesting then rest assured I haven’t bought a Ferrari as a result of your visit.

      DCR: he is in a different financial league to me and everyone else. My annual stats are in the millions (good and better than I ever planned) but pale into insignificance against his. He (must) make vast amounts more money than me or he’s stupid (hint: he isn’t! for sure, and you know that too)

      NDA/early access: an nda is what it is. In the case of Polar I don’t make any money (or very little) from affiliate sales, especially at launch. You will find, I think, that Polar watches are only available from polar.com today and for a while to come. I do have a link with polar.com in the USA (where sales of polar are very very small) but not in the EU/UK. so I have to wait until amazon, wiggle etc get stock before i can make any money whatsover. The problems then are manyfold: my content has fallen in the rankings; every tom dick and harry is also chasing the same buck; early adopters have already bought from Polar.com; and Polar’s global sales are tiny in any case compared to Garmin and Apple. So, I think, even DCR will make very little money from Polar. His motivations for publishing a timely review for Polar are thus perhaps similar to mine.

      all the affiliate money comes from selling Garmin stuff and maybe a few of the bike brands too. That’s why many many sites are biased towards Garmin. if you write a negative review (usually) no-one buys the product. strange that? 😉 I’ve tried BTW. You really do get no sales! (Fenix 5)

      So my strategy is to write what I genuinely think. often motivated by finding an angle on why something is good for someone…other than for me. hopefully, it will come alright in the end even if that means I’m periodically accused of being a Garmin fanboy/girl, Garmin hater, Apple Fanboy/girl, Apple hater or whatever.

      Water. Duck. Back. Make your own sentence.

      Your question “Does having a slightly earlier indepth review of the latest ‘not-a-must-have’ watch benefit you more than being able to generate traffic through the latest rumours?”
      Answer: No.
      Polar, Suunto traffic is trivial. Ask Ray the same questions he will confirm it is true. he might even do so below…..
      Answer: Traffic generates very little revenue in any case. you are thinking of ads. If few people initially want to buy Polar watches and no-one has stock why would anyone pay a premium to advertise for a sale that they can’t fulfill? so it generates generic ads for generic traffic. Garmin stuff does generate more traffic but, again, why would the likes of Wiggle pay for an ad for a product that they can’t immediately fulfil? (I ban Wiggle ads in any case). There may be an awareness argument I suppose. as above…it generates tint amounts of money.
      Answer: If you check most (all?) of my reviews you will see I disable ads on them in any case.

      bed time reading: https://the5krunner.com/2019/10/21/rant-1-5-is-your-favourite-sports-gadget-blog-truly-independent/ and https://the5krunner.com/2019/03/07/rant-2019-fake-reviews-how-make-money-blog-sports/

    2. Tom, I dont think calling someone a dickhead is a good idea. Calling your mom a dickhead is also wrong, so dont let us go that way youre pointing by calling ourselves with this kind of words. We are civilized ppl, stick it to this level please.

      5krunner – thanks for reply. If you cannot post any info (btw having insider which pay you vs nda with Polar which, as you said, give you a little amount of money but still – is a tough decision who is more important. But I accept that having two way money – from insiders for having extra stuff and with Polar/nda not to giving ppl extra stuff too early may be the way of thinking 🙂 ). Best thing is there is a freedom of speech and even if you have nda, we dont so publishing here an intel is a good idea. Have a good day!

      1. thank you, yes I believe in freedom of speech. However it has its limits as we all know.

        However, having an NDA is a contract ie it is legally binding. I didn’t actually have a formal NDA with Polar, more of an informal (and clear) understanding. Either way a verbal contract is still a contract. I honour my contracts in life, hence I never embarked on a political career 😉

        Anyway, just trust to me to post stuff if and when I can.

        Just to be clear: The insider info stuff doesn’t pay me any kind of material money. Yes it will get a bit of ad revenue or what ever but it really is peanuts and is not my motivation AT ALL. Honest! I know some people won’t believe that.

        Regular readers will have noticed much lower number of ads (plus the option to freely register as a follower and also get less ads as a result). the delay in me getting to that point was that it was technically hard and I have limited resources here. I want to make a good user experience and some money with ads at the same time (to be clear I do overall make some money on ads which is more than peanuts…the peanuts comment specifically refers to the insider stuff)

        Plus also please note that those who say ads will limit users action may be wrong. I never had ads 3 (4…whatever) years ago but the no-ads and ads situations don’t seem to make that much difference to traffic and bounce rates unless the ad volumes are particularly bad (which i never want in any case)

        optimal ad placement really is quite tricky. I have 2x ad brokers one being Monumetric and the other Google. Google is self optimising so that’s easy. however incorporating higher-yielding monumetric ads is a real pain in the proverbial (followers don’t see those). I think these are the ones that crop up in the content. I will probably get rid of all those too. it just takes time and that is limited. Again that means less money for me..and a lot fo you guys get all this stuff for free from me. Some support is always appreciated.

  11. If 255 will have an altimeter to support running power, it can be a replacement for both 245 and 745. Of course if Garmin won’t limit the software by removing tri options.

    BTW. have you seen FCC IPH-A4211? They forgot to remove “Edge 1040” text from Label Sample document 😉

  12. Don’t worry about the complainants’ opinions. For me, you can insert the full specification of the Pacer Pro model, because so far I can’t find information such as:
    1. Is there a dual-GPS module?
    2. Is there a GPS tracker function (from a .GPX file)?
    Thank you in advance for your answer.:)

  13. Do you know how the 255 will stack up against the Pacer Pro. The Pacer Pro list of features is impressive for the price point.

    1. no i don’t, sy.

      the pacer pro contains all the running features i would need and i could easily use it for a tri bearing in mind that my bike computer would be showing the bike power.

  15. Thanks 5kR! Interesting that the FR955 shows to have “Forerunner” on case but 255 doesn’t. I like the cleaner look of the 255 better

  16. So the 255 would have a 1.3″ screen and the 955 a 1.2″ screen? Seems unlikely!

  17. You continue to rock with this information. Really eager to see how they handle it all, And really love the slight neon green accent color to the design.

    So I am curious, with a 47 mm body, what your bet is for the size of the screen. I guess it could sort of replicate the 945 but what do you think it’s going to turn out to be? Best guess.

  18. If the price of 400€ is real, I hope it comes at least with a barometric altimeter, even though the pics suggest it doesn’t have one.

  20. At the sugggested prices I wonder if this will also replace the 745? If not then there is even more confusion between products in the line up

  22. Love my 745 and Forerunners in general but no idea why they need so many SKUs! 655? 755? How much is it realistic to charge to lift some basic software limitations (e.g. OW swim, Tri mode)

    1. it’s not about the cost of differentiation, it’s about the retail price that it can support.
      unsurprisingly many have made the same comments before 🙂

  24. They updated the article today, now providing the full specs as it seems.

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