It's not quite as user friendly as something like Fitbit, or as visually clean, but it's more detailed with a lot of the data so it's a trade off. The help button is usually helpful in explaining. It does a good job of displaying your data and you can customize what you want to see.
On the listening note it couldn't be easier to pair with Bluetooth head phones, maintains connection the entire time with no problems. I didn't try runcasts as I'd heard it wasn't ideal, and didn't want to spend 5 bucks a month. Keep in mind that you have to do the downloading from the watch interface, it's not auto syncing from Spotify.
The best thing to do is to create a playlist of podcast episodes and download that, and get rid of that when you get back. Obviously most of us are going Spotify, but adding podcasts to your watch is a nightmare and even if you have multiple episodes it won't play the next. The menus can be Byzantine especially if you prefer podcasts. That being said there are just a couple draw backs. Note that unlike Fitbit which would auto detect exercise if you don't start a run on the watch it won't count it as an "activity" There's dozens of watchfaces to download showing various levels of info and can create your own with pics on your phone, though they usually end up blurry and mediocre, but in terms of watch performance it's great. It performs as expected, does everything advertised, and isn't terribly heavy on your wrist. The amount of data this watch can provide is amazing. The upgrades make the lightweight, low-profile running watch an ideal partner for your training. She used it during training for a 100-mile race, and the ample battery life kept her running through 80-mile training weeks. In a review of the Garmin Forerunner 245, our tester loved how comfortable the watch is and how easy it is to keep track of daily and weekly mileage. (The base Garmin Forerunner 245 does everything the Music version does, but without Wi-Fi or storage for tunes.) You can also sync the watch with your smartphone to get text, email and other notifications right on your wrist.ĭesigners also improved the Bluetooth capabilities, tacked on a Wi-Fi connection, gave it space to hold up to 500 songs and added more training metrics to help you run and recover smarter. One of the biggest additions to the 245 is Garmin's Running Awareness features that let you share your location with a list of contacts so you can stay safe (or just let them track you during a race). The new Foreunner 245 Music refreshes the outgoing Forerunner 235 by adding new features and improving on some old ones. Garmin's newest watch tracks your daily miles using GPS, GLONASS or Galileo satellite systems it has a built-in heart rate monitor to keep tabs on how hard you're pushing and it has a waterproof rating of 5 ATM, which means it's good down to 50 meters. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is the feature-packed GPS running watch that does everything most runners need-and then some. Up to 7 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 6 hours in GPS mode with music. Garmin's wrist-based heart rate monitor lets you keep tabs on how hard you're working during your run, and it keeps you informed at rest, too. Accurate distance, pace and interval data thanks to the built-in GPS tracking.
I've never owned a garmin, so I might need some corrections here:ġ- Triathlons, duathlons.etc are reserved to higher end models that offer a feature called "Auto/manual multisports", which is not available on the 245. However, I've been considering getting into biking and swimming more and hopefully finish a triathlon next year. I've been considering getting a forerunner 245 m as it covers most of my needs in terms of running and it suits my wrist.