Customer reviews from Garmin
Garmin - Forerunner 170 Music GPS Smartwatch 43 mm Fiber-Reinforced polymer - Whitestone/Cloud Blue - (2026)
Average customer rating
4.6
(17 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 17 reviews
5 Stars
13
4 Stars
3
3 Stars
0
2 Stars
1
1 Star
0
Customer Reviews for Garmin - Forerunner 170 Music GPS Smartwatch 43 mm Fiber-Reinforced polymer - Whitestone/Cloud Blue - (2026)
Customer Rating
5
Would recommend
on August 29, 2026
Posted by: Cdog5823
Great watch.
Love the active profiles
Love the active profiles
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Amazing watch
on August 26, 2026
Posted by: Jay-Jay
I bought this watch for Cross Country in College and as a self-bought birthday gift and I am enjoying the watch due to the comfortability and the many features that it has especially the option for track runs which is something that I never thought that I would need especially after using the Forerunner 235
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
4
Music feature not good
on August 22, 2026
Posted by: Capt kev
I bought for the music feature but it is not good.
Limited media and sound breaks up.
Limited media and sound breaks up.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Accurate metrics & great standalone features
on August 18, 2026
Posted by: CoquitoSG
I bought this to track walk-run interval training and recovery metrics. Heart rate and cadence accuracy have been rock-solid even in heavy summer heat with zero dropouts. The Body Battery and Sleep Score features provide genuinely actionable insights for recovery, and onboard music means I can leave my phone behind. The factory silicone band gets a bit sticky in the heat, but swapping it for an aftermarket strap made it perfect. A dependable, high-performance training tool.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Far Exceeded My Expectatons
on August 14, 2026
Posted by: Birdman Bob
I decided my existing smartwatch was becoming technologically obsolete, so I chose a "best of breed" strategy and purchased this Forerunner at the same time I upgraded my Smartwatch in July to the latest and most premium model. I am no longer a runner due to my age, but I still love to speed walk and track my level of fitness.
I was surprised to find this little Forerunner 170 Music was far superior to my new and very expensive smartwatch. I have ended up wearing it about 80% of the time, when I originally planned to only wear it for workouts. Not only does it provide more comprehensive data, but it is very comfortable to wear and goes a full week between charges.
I use a tool on my Android phone called "Health Connect" to send workout data from the Garmin to the health app on my phone. The only thing lacking on the Garmin side is the sleep tracking is not as accurate as the smartwatch. I wanted to send my sleeping data from the smartwatch to Garmin, but the data only flows one way. I compensate for this by wearing both watches to bed at night and comparing data the following morning. The smartwatch is better for sleep tracking and some unique health metrics, such as blood pressure, but I otherwise use the Garmin for all other data, with the body battery being my favorite feature.
I was originally going to buy one of the more expensive Garmin models, but with a smartwatch, I decided this Forerunner met all of my needs at a great price. The one thing I learned through this process is the Garmin is a true fitness tracker that does a few smartwatch things, while my smartwatch is strictly a smartwatch that does a few fitness tracker things. They are simply not the same thing, although it is easy to confuse the two wearables without experiencing them first hand. Having two great products products at the same time gives me the data I want, along with the full functionality that fits the specific occasion I am wearing it for. Never having wore a Garmin before, this really opened my eyes to an excellent product and platform. In the future I may upgrade both to one of the higher-end Garmins.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
on August 11, 2026
Posted by: Flakotech
I love it, its extremely easy to use. I would definitely recommend this watch to all my friends and family
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
2
Treadmill tracking troubles
on August 3, 2026
Posted by: Salvo
I’ve been using my forerunner 170 now for about 3 weeks. I got it as an entry level getting into running type purchase coming from the Apple Watch Ultra. Overall I like the product, but I’m giving it a 3 solely because tracking runs on a treadmill is not accurate in any way. Now I realize it’s difficult to track distance on a treadmill but every informative video I’ve seen says there’s ways to adjust the distance after running a 1.5miles on treadmill and that’s just not the case. I’m sure my experience will be much different when I do trail runs but something that was so easy to track on my Apple Watch is now so frustrating. I do like being able to see the zones for my heart rate which is something you don’t get on Apple Watch so that is nice as I am learning to run within a good rate.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin
Customer Rating
5
Forerunner 170 Music
on July 27, 2026
Posted by: Mike1967
I am very happy with the Forerunner 170 Music. It absolutely does everything I need it to do for running and I can listen to music. I use it for strength training as well and it does a great job automatically detecting the beginning and ending of a set.
Written by a customer while visiting Garmin