Updated after my Apple Watch broke, and it’s been the best tech update I’ve had in a while, miles better then anything I’ve used for training or tracking steps, sleep, etc
Additionally, setting this up sucks. I have to have multiple apps on my phone, an app on my PC, and my watch also has to be connected to Wi-Fi, even when it's plugged into my PC? Terrible experience. Completely unintuitive. Will probably return the watch.
I got this for my birthday and is a great starter watch. I currently don’t need the 970 or anything super fancy so this is perfect. The music feature is awesome, I can leave my phone and just run while still having music but no distractions.
Got this a few weeks back to help improve my overall running and get more information about how my progress is going. I love it for that! Lots of features that I'm still unpacking, which is a good sign.
Since my primary athletic activity is swimming, I had been using the Garmin Swim2 watch for the past three years. I traded up to the Garmin from a Fitbit model after I found my older Fitbit not as robust...nor as accurate as I would have liked. As far as the swim tracking functions, the Garmin Swim2 was by far the most accurate and robust device that I could have hoped for. The downside, though, was its less-robust functionality for other activities that I took part in, as well as the lack of many "smart watch" functions. Additionally, the reliance on having managing side button presses to utilize its robust functionality often drove me crazy. Now, that is all alleviated with the Forerunner 165. Its swim tracking is almost completely as robust as my old Swim2 (the two functions that it doesn't do I never utilized anyway)...and the more-robust tracking of other activities (plus health monitoring) is exceptional. Additionally, it has all of the smart watch functions that I missed from the Fitbit. Yes, there still is some reliance on buttons...but nowhere near that of the Swim2. In any case, I could not be more pleased with my purchase. I also got the watch with the "music" function...and enjoy using that as well.