Garmin Forerunner® 255, GPS Running Smartwatch, Advanced Insights, Long-Lasting Battery, Slate Gray

As a fitness tracking watch this is an awesome introduction to the Garmin platform. We are a Garmin and Apple family with four Garmins and two Apple Watches. I use this Garmin for walking, running, cycling, stretching and general workouts. I’m very happy with this watch and the data it provides.As I said I can compare this watch to several others. Let’s start with battery life. Our Apples are on the charger every night. The Garmins all go at least a week, I average 9 days. We also have an Instinct, a 965, and a Golf. Biggest “complaint” is forgetting to charge them.My 255 connects to my Apple iPhone 15 without issue. It also connects seamlessly with my MacBook Pro, zero issues. I have and use separate HRM’s because for intense workouts I don’t think a wrist based HRM is the answer. My chest strap is much better than my watch for workouts. The 965 however is much more accurate during runs (compared against arm strap HRM) so Garmin maybe uses different HR sensors in different models? For walking and general use during the day my 255 works great!Value for $… I’d strongly recommend this watch without hesitation if you’re thinking about entering the fitness watch/smart watch world.I entered this fitness data world because of age. I have a friend who is alive because of data changes he noticed in his heart during exercise. A triple bypass later and this fit cyclist is still riding with me. At 60+ I thought this data was for younger more aggressive athletes. Not so. I am now a data nerd and train regularly partly because of it.Didn’t think it was important, in honesty didn’t know it was a thing but I now am aware of HRV, FTP, Training Status, Sleep tracking, and Watts. It’s addictive. But knowledge is power and knowledge can be healthy. I owe a 25 pound weight loss to this knowledge (and a lot of work). This watch alone won’t cause weight loss but for me it was a part of the puzzle.I really like my Garmin Forerunner 255. That said, my next one will probably be a 965, but at the price difference I’m not 100% sure the difference is justified, certainly not if this is your intro to the data! The reason I will likely “upgrade” is simply because my daughter has the 965 and I want to be able to share that (cool, we both have the same watch) with her 😉Final thought as I wrap up this review, as I said I’m getting older and as such my near vision isn’t great without readers but I can actually see the time on this watch so.. there’s that.

I upgraded to the Forerunner 255 from a Forerunner 35 that I had used for about 5 years--I liked the Fr35 even though it did not do a very good job of tracking my HR without a chest band. The Fr255 has the latest 4th generation HR monitor and the wrist-based HR tracking is really very good. The Fr255 also has many additional features that I like--much improved sleep tracking, an estimate of heart rate variability, and O2 saturation, though the latter seems a bit sporadic. It has many more features that I have not and may not fully use, but everything I use works very well. The integration with the Connect app on my phone is very well done also. The battery life appears to be at least as good as the Fr35, surprising since it does so much more--I charge it about every 3-4 days when it is still ~50% charged. In addition, the mapping of the displays has been done with an eye to readability and is very customizable. All in all, I am very pleased with this tracker.

The media could not be loaded. I really am enjoying this watch. I'll start off by saying it I used to have an Apple watch but no longer have an iPhone so I was looking for an alternative. I've used Fitbit and apple watches and feel they are accurate at tracking things like heart rate and GPS. This watch feels the most accurate out of both of those. The Garmin app isn't as pretty and easy to use as Fitbit but the quality and information is so much better. Also the customization of this watch is insane. From multiple backgrounds to the way you can set up what information you want to see during any given workout is awesome. As you can tell by my watch face there is a great amount of information just by looking at the first screen and more if you scroll around. This is the 46mm case size and I really think it's the perfect balance between being able to see the information and not being too bulky. Obviously the tranflective display is not as pleasing as an AMOLED display like and apple watch, galaxy watch, pixel watch, or Garmins own venu or epix watches but it honestly is not that bad. Also I've heard of bad backlight reviews on the Garmin watches where the screen looks washed out and blue when the backlight is on and I think I got a good one. It's almost been two weeks and I'm still at 67% battery life. I have yet to swim with the watch but it feels like good quality and the gps has been accurate on my runs. I was thinking of getting a Fenix 6 since they are much cheaper now but the features and less bulkiness of this Garmin Forerunner 255 sold me. The gray color is okay but I might end up going with a different band style and color in the future. The video taken with the backlight on is with the brightness at 20%. Take your fitness goals to the next level and get this watch!

Years ago I got sick and tired of Garmin watch batteries failing after only a few months, and getting generally poor long term performance out of their watches. I switched to a Suunto Ambit 3 which lasted for... nearly a decade? Quite a while anyway. Then when that battery started to fail so I bought a Suunto Vertical. What an overpriced POS that turned out to be! So, lacking better ideas, I went back to a mid-priced Garmin. The 255 has been great. Battery life isn't really as long as advertised, unless I maybe have a bunch of features enabled that I don't care about but are draining the battery faster. Even so, I don't care, it lasts a couple days rather than X hours in one day, and that's good enough for me. The feature set is more than I need, it's reliable, it's easy to read in all light, the GPS tracks and HR averages are close enough for my purposes, and the charging cable actually connects and stays connected. No major complaints whatsoever.

This is my 4th Garmin watch over the years. For the price point it's a great watch. I ran for a week using this watch and my previous watch and they were both always within .01 miles of each other at the end of a run.