The two Garmin Forerunner 45 running watches have arrived and they nicely complete the entry-level end of Garmin’s 2019 range, I’m not sure I will do a full review at all so, for now, let’s go ahead now with a preview-cum-opinion piece.

Garmin Forerunner 45 – Where Are We?

The earlier, Garmin Forerunner 35 from 2016 was an acquired aesthetic taste albeit in a useful square format. It was ‘sort of’ alright but I found it hard to recommend except at 11:30 on a Friday night. Perhaps my view at the time was tainted by the device’s seemingly over-reliance on Garmin’s good CONNECT infrastructure to beef it up to more of a running offering than it really was.

Almost 3 years further on and we have two replacements; the Forerunner 45 and Forerunner 45s, the latter being a smaller format watch for smaller wrists.

What Is It? What’s New?

The new Forerunner 45 entirely replaces the older Forerunner 35 which will effectively be discontinued once current stock is sold-up.

It’s an entry-level running watch which is perfectly fine for beginners and seasoned runners alike and packs in a very decent tranche of Garmin’s pure-running functionalities. However, the ‘smarts’ and ‘connectivity’ that are packaged around that are OK but relatively thin-on-the-ground. I can see exactly why Garmin has made the various calls about what should be in all of the new Forerunner watches, it makes sense within the range but Garmin does not have superiority at the cheaper end of the price range and its offerings are easily threatened by those from competitors to the point where competitors might over-trump Garmin’s usual trump card…ie that of MORE FEATURES. To be clear, at this price point there are better and cheaper competitor products that offer MORE features…more, that is if you take into account non-running features.

What’s New – Hardware Base

The Forerunner 45, when compared to the 35, is a totally different bit of kit. The shell has obviously changed from square to round and so the watch looks entirely different. But everything on the inside is different too…everything. Indeed the Forerunner 45 is really a cut-back version of the newer and more expensive Forerunner 245 rather than a beefed-up FR 35. This means that inside, it contains all-new, high-tech components for 2019 ie: ELEVATE HR sensor v3; GNSS/GALILEO Chip (Sony); battery; larger screen with higher resolution; straps; all of it.

Some aspects of the new hardware, like the bigger and better screen, may consume more battery but battery savings elsewhere, such as with the Sony chip, mean that overall the battery life is materially unchanged from the earlier FR 35. So, with up to 13 hours of GPS usage on one charge – that’s decent.

What’s New – Firmware

All has changed and yet all has not changed.

To me, there is some confusion about what the Forerunner 45 is trying to be. Garmin’s strength has ALWAYS been the ‘sport’ piece rather than the ‘smart’ piece.

So, enabling the use of gym-based sports profiles is sensible, adding a bit extra activity tracking functionality is sensible,  adding a few more ‘smarts’ is sensible. Yet Garmin have done those sensible things rather than nailing some of the more niche ‘running’ features which are included in the 235. But Garmin is also putting the price up. Thus Garmin is leaving the door open for some competitors to do better running features at the same price (China, Polar) and clearly also leaving the door open for MANY competitors to do WAY superior ‘smarts’ at the same price (Amazfit, Apple, Samsung, WearOS and more).

So I can sort of talk myself into thinking that the FR45 makes sense from some perspectives. But when I look in a digital shop window at my sub-$200 choices, I’d probably go elsewhere.

Maybe Garmin plan to lower the price after a year’s worth of convincing the legacy customers to upgrade ie those who have already tied their workout history into Garmin Connect and who are thus reluctant to move platforms?

What’s New – Personalisation & Protection

Other than your initial choice of colour, size and the ongoing ability to change watch faces, there’s not so much that you can do to make the Forerunner unique to you. Although one of Garmin’s strengths is to personalise the display of the data that you have available during your runs but that’s standard stuff these days on many watches.

For those of you worried about running in remote locations there are also assistance and incident detection features which send your location to selected emergency contacts via your smartphone.

What’s New – Physiology

These are nice features to support & enhance the legacy, activity tracking stuff. The Firstbeat features, though limited on this watch, really start to take activity, rest & sleep onto the next level to help you understand more about what your efforts actually all mean to your overall fitness levels and how you feel.

 

What’s New – Garmin Coach

Well, it’s not new, but it is a very nice addition to the 45 which makes the overall running offering more attractive to novice runners. Garmin Coach offers adaptive running plans which sound great but which are a little let down in the execution. Nevertheless, they are great for beginner-level runners (>25 min/5k) and the plans deliver individual workouts to your watch which you can follow.

Basic Specifications

More complete specs are shown at the end with a comparison to the old Forerunner 35 and the new, higher-spec Forerunner 245.

• Dimensions: small: 39.5 x 39.5 x 11.4 mm @32g, large: 42 x 42 x 11.4 mm @36g
• Screen: 26.3mm dia, 208x208px – not great. Strengthened glass NOT gorilla glass
• Battery life: up to 7 days in smartwatch mode; up to 13 hours in GPS mode  – GOOD
  
• Waterproof 5 ATM (you can swim with it) – FINE

Price, Discounts & Availability

Use REI in the USA who now have stock and they give members 10% off (link to: rei.com). Definitely use Wiggle in the UK where you can get a new Customer Discount with the code NEWGB at this link (here) with platinum discounts of in-stock products up to 17% in boost periods. They will also get stock earlier than most other retailers. Wiggle is also pretty good on the whole throughout the Eu I’m just not sure of the in-stock status for May 2019 for non-UK markets.

Delivery should be mid-may if you order from from Wiggle

• Forerunner 45 & 45s – $199, Eu199, £169

 

 

Garmin Forerunner 45 (45s) Specifications & Comparison

Here are the full specs (Source: Garmin.com) and a comparison to the Forerunner 35 that it succeeds and the 245 which is the next model up.

 

	Forerunner® 45	Forerunner® 245 Music	Forerunner® 35
	$199.99 USD	$349.99 USD	$169.99 USD
	GPS running watch with Garmin Coach training plan support	GPS running smartwatch with advanced training features and music	Easy-to-use GPS running watch with wrist-based heart rate
General
Lens Material	chemically strengthened glass	Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3	chemically strengthened glass
Bezel Material		fiber-reinforced polymer
Quick Release Bands		yes (20 mm, Industry standard)
Strap material	silicone	silicone	silicone
Physical size	Small: 39.5 x 39.5 x 11.4 mm	42.3 x 42.3 x 12.2 (mm)	35.5 x 40.7 x 13.3 mm
	Fits wrists with a circumerence of 124-185 mm
		Fits wrists with a circumference of 127-204 mm	Fits wrists with a circumference of 140-200 mm
	Large: 42 x 42 x 11.4 mm
	Fits wrists with a circumference of 129-197 mm
Display size	1.04″ (26.3 mm) diameter	1.2″ (30.4 mm) diameter	0.93″ x 0.93″ (23.5 x 23.4 mm)
Display resolution	208 x 208 pixels	240 x 240 pixels	128 x 128 pixels
Display type	sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)	sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)	sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
Weight	Small: 32 g	38.5 g	37.3 g
	Large: 36 g
Battery life	Smartwatch Mode: Up to 7 days	Smartwatch Mode: Up to 7 days	Smartwatch Mode: Up to 9 days
	GPS mode: Up to 13 hours	GPS mode with music: Up to 6 hours	GPS mode: Up to 13 hours
		GPS mode without music: Up to 24 hours
Water rating	5 ATM	Swim, 5 ATM	5 ATM
Color display	Yes	Yes
Memory/History	200 hours of activity data	200 hours of activity data	7 activities
Clock Features
Time/date	Yes	Yes	Yes
GPS Time Sync	Yes	Yes	Yes
Automatic daylight saving time	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alarm clock	Yes	Yes	Yes
Timer	Yes	Yes	No
Stopwatch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sunrise/sunset times	No	Yes	No
Sensors
GPS	Yes	Yes	Yes
GLONASS	Yes	Yes	No
Galileo	Yes	Yes	No
Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compass	No	Yes	No
Accelerometer	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pulse Ox	No	Yes	No
Connectivity
Connectivity	Yes	Bluetooth®, ANT+®, Wi-Fi®	Yes
Connect IQ™ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps)	Only watchfaces	Yes	No
Smart notifications	Yes	Yes	Yes
Text response/reject phone call with text (Android™ only)	No	Yes	No
Calendar	Yes	Yes	Yes
Weather	Yes	Yes	Yes
Controls smartphone music	Yes	Yes	Android™ supported; iPhone® not supported
Plays and controls watch music	No	Yes	No
Music Storage	No	up to 500 songs	No
Find My Phone	Yes	Yes	Yes
Find My Watch	Yes	Yes	No
VIRB® Camera Remote	Yes	Yes	No
Smartphone compatibility	iPhone®, Android™	iPhone® and Android™	iPhone®, Android™
Compatible with Garmin Connect™ Mobile	Yes	Yes	Yes
Safety and Tracking Features
Incident Detection during select activities	yes (Smartphone Required)	yes (Smartphone Required)	No
Assistance	yes (Smartphone Required)	yes (Smartphone Required)	No
LiveTrack	Yes	Yes	Yes
Live Event Sharing	No	Android™ Only	No
Activity Tracking Features
Step counter	Yes	Yes	Yes
Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sleep monitoring (monitors total sleep and periods of movement or restful sleep)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calories burned	Yes	Yes	Yes
Distance travelled	Yes	Yes	Yes
Intensity minutes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TrueUp™	Yes	Yes	Yes
Move IQ™	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fitness Age	yes (in app)	yes (in app)	No
Body Battery™ Energy Monitor	Yes	Yes	No
All-day Stress Tracking	Yes	Yes	No
Gym & Fitness Equipment
Available gym activity profiles	Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Yoga may be added through app	Strength, Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Indoor Rowing and Yoga	Cardio Training
Cardio workouts	No	Yes	No
Strength workouts	No	Yes	No
Automatic rep counting	No	Yes	No
Training, Planning and Analysis Features
GPS speed and distance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Customizable data pages	Yes	Yes	Yes
Customizable activity profiles	Yes	Yes	Yes
Auto Pause®	Yes	Yes	Yes
Interval training	Yes	Yes	Yes
Advanced workouts	Yes	Yes	No
Downloadable training plans	Yes	Yes	No
Auto Lap®	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manual lap	Yes	Yes	Yes
Configurable lap alerts	No	Yes	No
V02 max	Yes	Yes	Yes
Training Status (lets you see if you’re training effectively by tracking your training history and fitness level trend.)	No	Yes	No
Training Load (your total training load for the last 7 days calculated from estimated EPOC)	No	Yes	No
Training Effect (aerobic)	No	Yes	No
Training Effect (anaerobic)	No	Yes	No
Customizable alerts	No	Yes	No
Audio prompts	Yes	Yes	Yes
Finish time	No	Yes	No
Virtual Partner	No	Yes	No
Race an Activity	No	Yes	No
Course guidance	No	Yes	No
Touch and/or button lock	Yes	Yes	No
Auto scroll	No	Yes	No
Activity history on watch	Yes	Yes	Yes
Physio TrueUp	Yes	Yes	No
Heart Rate Features
HR zones	Yes	Yes	Yes
HR alerts	Yes	Yes	Yes
HR calories	Yes	Yes	Yes
% HR max	No	Yes	No
% HRR	No	Yes	No
Recovery time	No	Yes	No
Auto max HR	No	Yes	No
HR Broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+™ to paired devices)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Running Features
Available run profiles	Running, Treadmill Running. Indoor Track Running may be added through app	Running, Treadmill Running, Indoor Track Running, Trail Running	yes
GPS-based distance, time and pace	Yes	Yes	Yes
Running dynamics	No	yes (with compatible accessory)	No
Vertical oscillation and ratio (the degree of ‘bounce’ in your running motion and the cost-benefit ratio with stride length)	No	yes (with compatible accessory)	No
Ground contact time and balance (shows how much time, in the running motion, your foot is on the ground rather than in flight and lets you check your running symmetry)	No	yes (with compatible accessory)	No
Stride length (real time)	No	yes (with compatible accessory)	No
Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Performance condition (after running 6–20 minutes, compares your real-time condition to your average fitness level)	No	Yes	No
Run workouts	Yes	Yes	No
Race predictor	No	Yes	No
Foot pod capable	Yes	Yes	Yes
Outdoor Recreation Features
Point-to-point navigation	No	Yes	No
Bread crumb trail in real time	No	Yes	No
Back to start	No	Yes	No
TracBack®	No	Yes	No
UltraTrac mode	No	Yes	No
Distance to destination	No	Yes	No
GPS coordinates	No	Yes	No
Cycling Features
Available cycling profiles	Biking. Indoor Biking may be added through app	Biking, Indoor Biking	yes
Courses	No	Yes	No
Race an activity	No	Yes	No
Time/distance alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goal)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Compatible with Varia Vision™ (head-mounted display)	No	Yes	No
Compatible with Varia™ radar (rear-facing radar)	No	Yes	No
Compatible with Varia™ lights	No	Yes	No
Speed and cadence sensor support (with sensor)	yes	Yes	yes
Swimming Features
Available swim profiles	No	Pool Swimming	No
Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count/rate, calories)	No	Yes	No
Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly)	No	Yes	No
Swim efficiency (SWOLF)	No	Yes	No
Drill logging	No	Yes	No
Pool swim workouts	No	Yes	No