Garmin Forerunner 165, Running Smartwatch, Colorful AMOLED Display, Training Metrics and Recovery Insights, Black by Garmin

I’ve had my Forerunner 165 for a little over a month and I love it.

I’m not a runner, I purchased this watch to help me improve my health by keeping track of it. I do hike/ walk, and workout.

Had a Garmin vivo years ago which was excellent (2015-).
Have had several lower priced smart watches recently but they just weren’t accurate. So, I decided to go back to Garmin, and they still had my info from my Vivo days.

Pros-
Extremely clear (AMOLED) screen, even in full sun.

Large array of watch faces (many paid) in connect IQ.
The watch face in my first photo is a paid face (BLACK GRID).

Swipe face- you do not have to press buttons. Just too much work if I had to press buttons continually for changes and settings.

Speaking of- SO many cool settings!
Lock device – took me a few weeks to realize I had this option. Locks your watch face screen so your movements don’t change your watch settings.
Weather, GPS, maps, TONS of stats (some of these need paid faces to show).
You can join Garmin Connect + for a ton of additional stats and info and health tracking.

Too many positives to list here. For the price this is an excellent smart watch. It fits my 7.5″ wrist well. No irritation from the silicone band.

Durability- GET a screen protector. There’s no guarantees you won’t accidently hit the face on a hard surface. I’ve learned from cheaper smart watches the faces can crack.
The outter shell is very durable on this watch.

Overall this watch is comfortable, you can change bands if you wish. It’s mostly extremely accurate (few glitches and inaccuracies as I’ll mention in cons).
Very clear, bright, easy to read face even with my 66 year old eyes.

Cons-
These cons are not negatives just issues to deal with.

Most people dont have “perfect health” so Garmin is going by your stats it picks up-yes, but doesn’t know pain, fatigue, overall doesn’t know your daily health conditions.
No way to input your health conditions
If you’re sick, can’t input this info either, so you’ll be getting move, water, etc. reminders. Kind of silly in my opinion. Why not have an option in the Connect app to add these daily stats?

Recovery times can be extreme-
I try to follow the suggested recovery times but Garmin sometimes makes them extreme.
Example – walking slowly around my small yard, dead heading flowers with clippers during recovery time (this moving around felt good) the Garmin felt I was exerting myself too much and added 7 hours to my recovery time. So it’s not guaging my movements and stats correctly all of the time. Take it with a grain, its a “machine”.

Any activity drains battery. I’ve scaled way back on watch activities like messages, GPS maps, etc because they REALLY drain your battery. I’d have to charge it daily (or more) which I don’t want to do. These are all fun activities to use on your watch, but they are very draining.

My watch has days where it disconnects and connects to Bluetooth constantly. Don’t know if its a watch issue or an issue on my end but it drives me crazy some days. I’ve restarted my phone and watch and sometimes this resolves the issue, sometimes not.
It does NOT affect the watch performance though. It is still adding steps, etc.

EXCELLENT smart watch.

My upgrade from a iWatch to a Garmin Forerunner significantly boosts running tracking. The Forerunner delivers more precise GPS, deeper run metrics (cadence, ground contact time, vertical oscillation), and advanced training tools (adaptive workouts, training status, VO2 max trends). Battery life is notably better for long runs, and the Garmin Connect ecosystem offers richer training insights and performance analytics.

The trade-off is fewer everyday smart features and apps compared to the iWatch, plus a learning curve for Garmin’s interface.

I do miss iwatch integration with my apple phone. It’s a whole ecosystem so I chose to wear both. I wear my Garmin for working out and my Apple Watch rest of the time. That could change over time but for now, I am using both watches.

Better than the Apple smartwatch, the Garmin 165 helps keep my day organized with excellent tracking. I love this product!

I’ve been running for over 20 years and have only ever used by Apple Watch and before that my timex iron man running watch. Getting a dedicated running watch like this is a game changer. So many more metrics and options to use while running and to review after running has really made me a better runner. I’ve had this watch about 8 months now and have had no issues at all. Heart rate functions great for all day monitoring. I have used a chest strap for a long time for activity monitoring. Even w this watch chest strap heart rate monitoring is the only way to go for accuracy. Wrist based monitors are ok, but if your training and trying to hit certain heart rate zones I would to recommend a chest strap. W that said. Compared to my Apple Watch this wrist based monitor is better. It locks on faster and seems to be pretty accurate. Screen is easy to see in bright sunlight and inside as well. U get access to free training plans within the Garmin app which is easy
to use but looks a bit outdated. W this watch you don’t get training load or training status or readiness like the more expensive Garmin watches but u do get training effect for each workout for aerobic and anaerobic metrics. I use iPhone and have the watch set to notify for calls and text only and the rest of my phone notifications are send silently to my notification widget on the watch which I love. Helps minimize distractions. The watch stays connected very good to my iPhone 14 and always syncs w the Garmin app. The strap the comes w it is comfortable but I did switch it out for a nylon strap which I feel is better and lighter. I would highly recommend this watch for its functionality, metrics and price when u can find it on sale. Overall Garmin products are over priced. But having a worry free experience when paired w an iPhone and accurate training metrics is worth it for this particular device.

I’ve been on a health journey and this watch is amazing at tracking all my activities, sleep, heartrate etc.. Simple to use and the best part is that I use my desktop app- NO PHONE NEEDED!! I uploaded all my music that I had saved on my computer as well. This watch was one of my all time best purchases. Love that I can listen to my music from my watch. I ended up buying some shockz and bluetooth connects flawlessly. I couldn’t be happier 😀