GarminGarmin Forerunner® 955 Solar, GPS Running Smartwatch with Solar Charging Capabilities, Tailored to Triathletes, Long-Lasting Battery, Black - 010-02638-00

I’ve been using this watch daily for 3 months now and have lots to say about it! This was my first Garmin/fitness watch, although I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch for many years. So this review is primarily a comparison of Apple Watch vs Garmin.First of all, the pros:*this thing is so powerful! The first time I did a run with it, the data blew me away. I’m currently obsessed with watch my VO2 max climb and seeing my HR and run power after every workout.*the Garmin Coach is SO COOL. I used one of the integrated plans to train for a 10k (I was already a competent runner and not slow) and managed to shave 30s off my pace. Knocked out a PR I was super proud of, with just a couple weeks of following a plan.*I love the training readiness score. I’m slowly learning that I generally like to push myself harder than I should and this thing keeps me from injury and over exertion. I’m often surprised at how slow it tells me to go on Z2 runs, and yet I keep getting faster.*I love this thing when following a plan or doing a race! It regularly tells me (via AirPods) when I’m going too fast or too slow. It helps me stay solidly in my training zone. Then, during a race, you can tell it what finish time you want to hit and it will keep you on track the whole time! I don’t think I would’ve hit my PR without that. Just a quick glance at my watch and I immediately knew how many seconds I was ahead or behind my plan.*i love the touch screen but will say that the majority of the time I’m using the buttons to navigate. Took me a minute to figure out what they all did.*the battery life!!! Coming from Apple Watch, I was floored that this thing lasts for literally over a week on one charge. Come on Apple, get it together with the battery life!A few cons:*this watch is not small. I actually kinda like the large size but as a woman on the smaller side of average, it’s pretty bulky. Which leads me to..*I never sleep with it (it’s too big to be comfortable) which means that my training readiness/body battery isn’t as accurate as it could be. I did try sleeping with it the first week but it did a terrible job of tracking my sleep. Seemed to only notice when I was sleeping from 6am on…??*the Garmin is definitely not a smart watch. Sure, it tells you when someone is calling or has texted but there’s no communication from the watch to the phone (no answering calls, responding to texts). I found myself constantly irritated that I couldn’t send a quick reaction to a text from my watch like usual. (I now only wear my garmin for workouts and put my Apple Watch back on for the rest of the day)*BEWARE the dreaded blue triangle. About a month after having this, a blue triangle showed up on screen and I couldn’t get it to turn off/on or go away. After some googling, I realized it’s a common software glitch. There is a way to reboot it, but I had to do it three times in just a few days and that was annoying. So far so good though, it hasn’t happened in a long time.Overall, I’m thoroughly pleased with this purchase and feel like a legit athlete. I bought it mainly for its triathlon capabilities but haven’t trained for another tri yet. Unfortunately, the integrated Garmin coach only has running and cycling plans, but I did read that you can get a triathlon plan directly from the Garmin website (just haven’t tried it yet).

I was a little worried initially if this would look a bit small on my wrist. Something about a big bold watch on my wrist I was really drawn to. This watch fits just that and is a little more elegant than the Fenix line, in my opinion.My first Garmin watch was the Venu Sq Music, which I still currently use for work. Work is a bit physical, and I want to keep this watch for just my workouts, mainly running. The Venu Sq Music is a little small for my liking, but I really like the look and feel of this watch.I would personally recommend to get the solar option, but as others have said, if you never go outside it's probably not needed. I ordered this watch mid Oct 2022, so not as many opportunities in WI to gauge the charging/maintaining abilities- I will have to wait for summer or a vacation for that. I did have a nice sunny day in late October here, and sitting for roughly 1hr in the sun charged a percent. Pretty decent in my opinion. I do not use any of the music, txt alert, or other Bluetooth options other than to sync to my phone every few days. Battery life is amazing. To a point that I actually have to think hard when my last charge was when it finally needs to be plugged in. I'm sure not using the Bluetooth alerts help a lot. I run just about everyday and use the GPS on run mode, so I still do challenge the battery a bit.Tons of features that I am still learning. The watch does take a few weeks to "learn you". I take the training suggestions with a grain of salt, but have noticed suggestions are not all that far off from my pre-planned training program.I like the quick morning report each morning. Kinda fun to wake up and look at phone for this info.Sure it's expensive but GPS tracking, battery life, and overall software/options on this watch are very expensive.I was on the fence at first, but very glad I pulled the trigger.

Where to begin... I bought this watch on some kind of super sale. I am not a watch guy, and always thought people with smart watches were just in the craze. Decided to take the leap since I already have a garmin bike computer, and I recently started running and swimming. I'll try to keep it short. ThereAre a million how to videos that show this watches features so I'll skip thatThis watch, is jammed pack with features. I don't even use them all there is so many. I love the ease of use, great tracking for running and swimming. Easy to start, pause and stop workouts. The touch screen works deceptively well under water? Its weird I've never seen a touch screen work when wet.The screen is plenty bright with sunglasses on outside, and I've been getting almost 2 weeks of battery with 7ish hours of logged activity a week.I love the morning report (I sleep with it on)The best part, hands down, is it works with the dexcom g7. For all you diabetic folks. There is dexcom and freestyle apps and watch faces to get your blood sugars right on there in a slightly delayed display.Love this watch, if you're in the fense like me, buy it. If you're friends have lower versions, talk smack

I decided on the 955 for one reason and it was the screen. Owning 255 and Apple Watch I noticed even on bright days I could clearly see my screen on the 255 far better. While I had to cover or move around the Apple Watch in order to see the time and data. And for mountain biking you need a good second to glance at the watch. The 955 has perfect screen size, accuracy and ease of use. The durability and look is amazing. Had it for a couple of months with multiple trail rides and everything about it made me not regret the purchase. And about a week ago I’m still getting updates so they definitely still fine tuning and adding features. The amount of data you can get from this watch is a must for MTB like myself who feeds on data to better improve every week.