Live Science Verdict
A serious Garmin watch without the scary terms , a Forerunner 165 could be the right alternative of Garmin wearable for many common people .
Good GPS and HR truth for runners
Great - look OLED screen
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is a pleasure to wear.
One of Garmin ’s dependable - value sentry
electric battery life drops substantially when using the right style
HR can be a little slow on the intake for gymnasium work
The Garmin Forerunner 165 features a raised bezel.
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The Forerunner 165 is a spotter for those ethnic music who like the melodic theme of have one of thebest Garmin watchesbut flinch at the tidy sum of some of their prices .
It cope to largely represent what Garmin is about these days , for a fourth part of the monetary value of the most expensive vigil . The Forerunner 165 has an OLED screen , a relatively high - closing array of feature and unspoilt stat - tracking ironware .
It is lighter and more compact than many of the more premium Garmin watches.
Where ’s the gimmick ? Like other Forerunner watches , the Forerunner 165 ’s build is functional rather than high - end . It lacks many software system features both key and peripheral , including on - vigil maps . You have to give more for music accompaniment , and some core feature are a generation behind .
Even with all that report for , though , the Forerunner 165 may well be a more compelling buy than rival like the Coros Pace 3 or Apple Watch SE . It ’s a groovy all - rounder at $ 249.99 ( £ 249.99 ) , while the Music variant costs a little more at $ 299.99 ( £ 289.99 ) .
Garmin Forerunner 165 review
Garmin Forerunner 165: Design
sieve : 1.2 - column inch , 390 x 390 picture element OLED
Connectivity : Bluetooth , Wi - Fi
attribute : 43 x 43 x 11.6 mm
The Garmin Forerunner 165 impressed us with its crisp, colorful display.
Sensors : GPS , hour , SpO2 , apparent motion
weight unit : 39 g
Waterresistance : 5ATM
Button-led control makes it much easier to avoid accidentally stopping a tracked exercise session halfway through.
Batterylife : Up to 11 twenty-four hour period
Storage : 4 GiB
Though the Garmin Forerunner serial may seem a minute intimidating to Garmin beginners , it might actually be the ideal entree breaker point .
Despite its limitations, the Garmin Forerunner 165 is a great choice for runners.
It has a comparatively small blind , meaning the lookout man itself is n’t too huge . There ’s scarcely any alloy here , as the case is plastic , which avail reduce the weight of the watch to just 1.38 oz ( 39 GB ) . The Garmin Forerunner 165 may not be as high - remainder as a Fenix 7 Pro orEnduro 2 , but it sure is more comfortable to wear 24/7 .
There are , however , some sacrifices on the ruggedness front as a event . The strengthened polymer case is n’t as hard as unstained steel or Ti , and the Forerunner 165 ’s “ chemically strengthened ” looking glass screen protection is not the respectable around either .
The bezel is also raised just the belittled amount above the concealment . A raised bezel is a classic protective tactics . That said , five months in , the watch still has no seeable legal injury .
Garmin’s health tracking is world-class.
These plastic Garmin picket are reasonably hardy , and exchangeable designs are used all the way up to the Forerunner 965 . This watch ’s water resistance is limited , however , compare to that of the best Garmins in the mountain range .
It ’s rated to 5ATM . While on paper this means it can manage depth of up to 164 feet ( 50 meters ) , this is not a watch for dive , or even swimming that far below the airfoil . That ’s because those water opposition numbers do n’t agent in the extra insistency of really moving through water .
That said , Garmin does n’t require you to reverence the pool — there are both swimming pocket billiards and outdoor swim trailing musical mode preinstalled .
The Garmin Forerunner 165 makes it easy to track your vital stats.
Garmin Forerunner 165: Screen and control
The Forerunner 165 has an OLED blind , like an Apple Watch . This technical school has gradually spread across the Garmin mountain chain over the last four twelvemonth because the tech has become better , less expensive to carry out and less of a power drain .
This is a 1.2 - inch screen that take care as piercing as the exhibit of any Garmin . There are zero issues with visibleness outdoors on a bright 24-hour interval , and the punchiness and sharpness indoors are far good than that of Garmin ’s Greco-Roman transflective concealment .
Older Garmin watch displays feed off ambient light and barely apply any power . They still have their place , but for the daily casual offset , cyclist or gym - goer , OLEDs may well be more appealing .
The Forerunner 165 merges this smartwatch - like screen tech with largely button - lead control . Five button sit on the sentry ’s side . consider that seems kind of retro ? Not in a fitness watch . It makes it much easier to ward off accidentally stop or pausing a tracked exercise session midway through . Almost nothing will make you fall out of erotic love with a watch faster than that .
This is really one of the key welfare of the Forerunner 165 over something like the Garmin Venu 2 . Flicking through your daily stats using the buttons is also far quicker than using cutaneous senses gesture . Touch control is an option , though , as this is still a touchscreen .
Garmin Forerunner 165: Fitness Features
The most important part of figuring out if this spotter is for you is pay off your head around its limit . For some folks , a Forerunner 165 will be just as useful as aForerunner 965or Fenix 7 Pro . For others , it will be a cut too far .
It does n’t have on - screen map , for exercise . You ca n’t practice it to operate a bike turbo trainer . Some of Garmin ’s good stats are entirely lacking — preparation load and performance condition are the most authoritative . And while there are lots of activity modality baked in , there are no full triathlon modes here : you ’d have to log the ravel , swim and cycle share separately .
This is still the inexpensive OLED Garmin watch that palpate like a serious tool for athlete and fittingness , though . Some of the stuff you get here might genuinely make a existent difference .
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is a great tool for outdoor runners.
For example , the Forerunner 165 bring home the bacon suggest workout for runners , informed through your activity level and how tired / quick the watch thinks you are . And while there are no full on - watch maps , you’re able to contrive route on your phone and send them to the Forerunner 165 . It ’ll tell you when you make turns , when you ’re off naturally — everything but project the map itself . This is a terrific characteristic .
And while , as remark to begin with , the Garmin Forerunner 165 does n’t have some of the jock - favorite Garmin stats , there are still great ways to check your progress .
The sentinel will show you an estimate of your VO2 Max and declare oneself predicted race fourth dimension for everything from a 5 kB run to a marathon . We always incur these a act affirmative ( as in all Garmin watches ) … unless maybe we ’re just not pushing as hard as Garmin think we can ! But they are consistently aggrandizing across the higher - oddment watches from Garmin , too .
Music playback drained our battery.
Garmin Forerunner 165: Health and smart features
The Forerunner 165 lacks Garmin ’s most recent headline - bothering feature , ECG nerve charge per unit reading . However , it take a leak a solid all - day tracking and health watch .
It can send alerts when it senses unco gamey - tenseness level or unusual gist rate results . There ’s also Garmin ’s long - resist blood oxygenation lector , Pulse Ox . I ’ve seen less obviously errant meter reading from it here than in early Garmins , but would still not advise frame too much stock certificate in any single - reading results , particularly if they are point as abnormal .
The Forerunner 165 will keep an eye on your stress levels and , if you wear it overnight , dog your rest and heart rate variableness . Like most watch , this one will often miss moments when you wake up in the middle of the night , but its Morning Report feature is potentially a great way to start up the day .
This watch offers excellent value for money.
This pop up when you first interact with the watch each morning and offers a sleep summary , weather report and other bits relevant to your day . It ’s such a nimble - fire bulletin , that you ’re unlikely to get unhealthily obsessed with its stats , and its overall take on a night ’s sleep seems mostly healthy .
Despite being a lower - end manakin , the Forerunner 165 also has accession to Garmin ’s Connect IQ app store , which is home to a fairish choice of ( admittedly mostly quite uncomplicated ) apps . The watch can also welcome notifications and substance from your telephone set , source from whatever apps you dark-green - twinkle . These look good on the acute OLED projection screen .
The Forerunner 165 is not a smartwatch , despite the app fund and support for the basics . But it can still do the things many appreciate the most in a smartwatch .
Garmin Forerunner 165: Performance
issue back just a slight on sensor computer hardware is one means Garmin kept the Forerunner 165 price down .
It has the company ’s Elevate v3 affection charge per unit hardware , as used in the Fenix 7 but not the Fenix 7 Pro . The deviation ? Garmin ’s in vogue design apply an additional bank of LED that fire during tracked exercise to improve heart rate truth .
The Forerunner 165 also lacks one of the trendiest ( in geeky circles ) fitness tracker features : twofold - band GPS . This makes use of another frequency circle to improve location - tracking dependableness in trickier spaces , like forests or cities pack with eminent - rise construction .
While the Forerunner 165 ’s GPS faltered a dyad of time under blockheaded canopies ( especially rain - soak ace ) during our tests , you do generally get a high - end experience here . That ’s typified by good signal retention , fast whorl - on and highly accurate location tracking — something you may see for yourself with each exercise , thanks to the route maps send over to the Garmin Connect app .
Heart rate tracking truth is good too . There ’s none of the Hellenic early academic session go-around of less equal to wearables . It does n’t gradually lose its way during longer runs and the Forerunner 165 give up fairly well during separation seance .
It ’s only in the gym that the watch can prove a small lacking at times . When readiness might only amount to 45 seconds , the watch can lag to the extent that its heart rate readings seem useless . And on occasion , it will show mat - out unseasonable results if you end up gripping part of the utilisation equipment — this could have as much to do with the result muscle / tendon contraction in your wrist confusing the sensor as the want of movement .
It ’s also important to have the good staying power expectations of the Forerunner 165 . Garmin rates it for up to 11 Day of use . However , we were able to run out it within four days . This is thanks to the “ always on ” mode .
As standard , the lookout man show will only light up when you flick your articulatio radiocarpea to your side or press the touchscreen / a button . you may also set it to exhibit the clip all sidereal day , and stay lit during exercise . That ’s the always - on style . In this way , the Forerunner 165 is at its good , but it has a Brobdingnagian effect on battery spirit . euphony playback is a real bombardment - sea wolf too , boil down battery life to a subject of hours .
Should you buy the Garmin Forerunner 165?
The Forerunner 165 is an excellent fitness watch that deflect perhaps the most off - putting aspect of Garmin tracker : their frequently sky - high terms . But it still has sophisticated feature article , it still has an OLED screen , and it can still do more than most people need .
Do n’t take over you involve more than what ’s on offer here . Exceptions will let in triathletes who desire the clean tracking , those who desire to be capable to build route on - watch or see full mapping , and wheeler keen on using the watch for integrated turbo flight simulator workouts . Some may also find its battery life restrictive , at least if you prefer to use the skilful and most top executive - athirst mode .
For everyone else , though , the Garmin Forerunner 165 comes extremely recommended .
If the Garmin Forerunner 165 isn’t for you
TheCoros Pace 3is one of the keenest rivals to the Forerunner 165 if budget is the guiding factor . It ’s an telling watch , too : its shelling lasts longer , and you’re able to institutionalize routes to it for on - scout navigation . It ’s compelling , but the Forerunner 165 has a much beguiler interface , better implementation of road planning and a slayer workout / training system .
Want to bind with Garmin ? TheForerunner 265is the next footstep up . It adds multi - band GPS , has unspoiled assault and battery life , supports turbo flight simulator control and has music support as criterion , as well as the more advance statistic that the Forerunner 165 deficiency . It ’s a good watch — whether it ’s worth an extra $ 200 or so is up to your bank Libra the Scales .
How we tested
We used the Forerunner 165 for more than five months , mostly tracking regular foot race and gym sessions .
It has been wear for upwards of 1,600 miles ( 1,000 kilometer ) of GPS - tracked running and hike , and used in multiple modes to get the best mind of its real - world battery life . This has been a long , mean solar day - in / day - out relationship .
