Tom's Guide Verdict
The Garmin Forerunner 570 is a great sports watch, but not a great value one. The more colorful designs and brighter display are enjoyable upgrades, as is the improved heart rate sensor. However, it’s missing some features offered on cheaper watches, and the battery life is shorter than on the Garmin Forerunner 265, which is now often available for $200 less.
Pros
- +
Brighter AMOLED display
- +
Colorful design options
- +
Accurate GPS and HR
- +
New mic and speaker
Cons
- -
No maps
- -
No ECG measurements
- -
Higher price
- -
Shorter battery life
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The Garmin Forerunner 570 is a great sports watch that offers reliably accurate tracking and a host of useful training and smart features.
It’s also gorgeous, with upgrades to the AMOLED screen and a range of colors available, making it the best-looking Garmin watch I've tested.
However, it is very expensive. The Forerunner 570 is $100 more than its predecessor, the Garmin Forerunner 265, and a lot pricier than rival watches from other brands, like the Suunto Race S and Coros Pace Pro.
Given that it lacks some important features you can get on the best sports watches at a lower price, like offline maps and ECG measurements, the Forerunner 570 relies too heavily on its attractive design to justify its price.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Price and availability
The Garmin Forerunner 570 launched on 15 May 2025, and all models of the watch cost $549.99 / £459.99. It comes in two sizes — 42mm and 47mm — and there are three colors available for each size.
It is the successor to the Garmin Forerunner 265, with Garmin changing the first number in the name to make it clearer that the Forerunner 570 sits between the Garmin Forerunner 165 and the new Garmin Forerunner 970 in its range.
The Forerunner 570 is $100 more than the Forerunner 265 cost at launch, and the older watch is now regularly available for $349. It’s also expensive compared to mid-range watches from other brands, with the Coros Pace Pro and Suunto Race S both costing $349, and the Polar Vantage M3 costing $399.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Specs compared
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Forerunner 265S | Forerunner 265 | Forerunner 570 (42mm) | Forerunner 570 (47mm) |
Price | $449 | $449 | $549 | $549 |
Case size | 41.7 x 41.7 x 12.9 mm | 46.1 x 46.1 x 12.9 mm | 42.4 x 42.4 x 12.9 mm | 47 x 47 x 12.9 mm |
Screen size | 1.1 inches | 1.3 inches | 1.2 inches | 1.4 inches |
Resolution | 360 x 360 pixels | 416 x 416 pixels | 390 x 390 pixels | 454 x 454 pixels |
Weight | 39g | 47g | 42g | 50g |
GPS battery life | 24 hours | 20 hours | 18 hours | 18 hours |
Smartwatch battery life | 15 days | 13 days | 10 days | 11 days |
Touchscreen | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Speaker/Mic | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Design and display
Garmin is not a company known for making bold design statements with its watches, so the bright bezels you see on some models of the Forerunner 570 are a move that separates the watch from the rest of its range.
I tested the 47mm Forerunner 570 with a yellow bezel and translucent white and turquoise band, and loved the look of the watch. The white 42mm model with a raspberry bezel is another standout in the range.
The bezel is made from aluminum, which gives the Forerunner 570 a more premium feel than the Forerunner 265.
All in all, the design updates are significant, and there are still black models available in both sizes for those who dislike the more colorful styles.
Along with brighter colors, the watch also has a brighter AMOLED display than the Forerunner 265. The nits aren’t specified, but I found it to be more vivid on the wrist than the older watch, and easier to read in bright sunlight.
The Gorilla glass display is also larger on the new watch, and the 1.4in screen on the 47mm Forerunner 570 is as large as any in Garmin’s sports watch range — it’s the same size as the display on the 51mm model of the Garmin Fenix 8.
It’s still a lightweight watch that’s comfortable to wear 24/7, and it’s good that there are two sizes available; the 47mm is a pretty large watch, so those with smaller wrists might prefer the 42mm model.
The Forerunner 570 houses Garmin’s Elevate Gen5 heart rate sensors, which are the latest and best optical sensors in the brand’s line-up and have proved more accurate (for me) in testing multiple watches than the Elevate Gen4 sensors on the Forerunner 265.
However, despite this Gen5 sensor being used to take ECG measurements on other Garmin watches, including the cheaper Garmin Venu 3, the Forerunner 570 isn’t able to do this.
Other sensors include a barometric altimeter and pulse oximeter, and the GPS chipset allows for dual-band tracking. You can pair external sensors via Bluetooth and ANT+, including cycling power meters.
Another new feature of the design is a microphone and speaker, which you can use for voice commands and to take calls.
The Forerunner 570 has a 5ATM waterproof rating suitable for pool and open-water swimming, and 8GB of storage. This is mainly for music rather than maps, with offline maps being one of the biggest missing features on the watch.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Sports tracking and training analysis
Compared with the Forerunner 265, the Garmin Forerunner 570 has 23 new sports modes, including obstacle racing, gravel biking and several new outdoors-y modes, like fishing, hunting and rucking.
Another new addition is Garmin Coach’s Triathlon training plans, which you can use to help you prepare for a multisport event, and you can also now create structured multisport workouts to follow — in the past, you could only create workouts for a single sport like running or cycling.
All of the sports modes are customizable and show a wealth of data throughout activities. The detailed training analysis you get afterwards can help you ensure you’re working at the right level to get fitter and faster.
A new addition on the analysis front is training load ratio, which trickles down from more expensive Garmin models and shows the balance of your recent training against your long-term chronic training load.
The Forerunner 570 can also estimate how well adapted to heat or altitude you are, which has been another feature available on more expensive Garmin models previously. It also estimates your race times, VO2 max and how ready you are to train each day.
There are some features you don’t get on the Forerunner 570, such as the new running tolerance stat and running economy tracking introduced on the Forerunner 970. But it’s a comprehensive sports watch that will satisfy athletes of all levels with the data it offers.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: GPS and heart rate accuracy
To test the heart rate accuracy of the Forerunner 570, I compared it to the reading from a chest strap on each of my runs, using the Garmin HRM200 and Garmin HRM600 linked up to other watches.
For GPS accuracy, I compared it to several other watches during my testing, including the Garmin Fenix 8, Forerunner 970 and Forerunner 265, and looked at the GPS tracks after runs to check for errors.
After around 150 miles of running and 80 miles of indoor cycling, plus various strength and yoga sessions, I've yet to see a significant error in either GPS or heart rate tracking from the Forerunner 570.
It has matched the heart rate reading from a chest strap more or less beat for beat and produces reliably accurate GPS tracks, including at a twisting city half marathon, where it was more accurate than the Forerunner 265.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Activity and sleep tracking
The Forerunner 570 is designed to be worn 24/7 and tracks stress, steps, calories, active minutes and floors climbed throughout the day, plus sleep and heart rate variability (HRV) overnight.
You can set targets and display the stats that matter to you most on your watch face, and you can also turn on move alerts to notify you if you’re stationary for long periods.
The combination of sleep tracking and overnight HRV measurements has been a good indicator of how well I’ve rested each night, too.
Any kind of extra stress on the body, like a few too many alcoholic drinks or illness, both of which have cropped up during my time with the watch, impacts HRV in particular and lowers your sleep score.
In contrast, healthy living and reliable bedtimes send them shooting up, which is a useful extra motivation to focus on getting better sleep where possible.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Battery life
The bright display on the Forerunner 570 does hit its battery life hard, and I had to charge it every three to four days when having the always-on screen enabled.
That’s with daily outdoor runs, other workouts and notifications coming into the watch. It’s less than I get from the Forerunner 265, which lasts me four to five days with the always-on screen enabled.
When I toggled on the raise-to-wake setting for the display outside of activities, the watch lasted me over a week on a charge, so you can extend its battery life quite easily, if you're prepared to forego the convenience of the always-on screen.
It still outlasts smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 10 comfortably, but other AMOLED sports watches, like the Suunto Race S and Coros Pace Pro, last longer on a charge.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Smart features
The Forerunner 570 backs up its smartwatch-style looks with several useful smart features, including NFC payments, MP3 music storage and the ability to link up with streaming services, including Spotify and Deezer, so you can transfer your playlists to listen to on the watch without your phone.
These are all features available on most Garmin watches now, but the mic and speaker on the Forerunner 570 are not so common across the range. You can use these to take voice notes, give commands like ‘start a timer’, and interact with your phone's voice assistant.
It also has access to the Garmin ConnectIQ app store, which has a few useful apps and extra data fields for your activities, and you can now adjust the font size on the watch to be larger.
While it isn’t a full smartwatch, lacking cellular connectivity and the huge app stores available on Apple and Android wearables, the Forerunner 570 covers the most important bases. When it comes to smart features, Garmin devices are well ahead of Suunto, Coros and Polar.
Garmin Forerunner 570 review: Safety and navigation
The Forerunner 570 has Garmin’s Incident Detection and LiveTrack safety features. Incident Detection can notify your emergency contacts if a fall is detected during an activity, or if you hold the light button down, LiveTrack allows you to share your location with key contacts during activities.
You can also use the watch to follow breadcrumb trails for routes sent over from the Garmin Connect app, with turn-by-turn directions, but you don't get offline maps on the Forerunner 570.
This is a feature Garmin still reserves for its top watches, starting with the Forerunner 965 and Forerunner 970, while other brands, including Coros, Polar and Suunto, have made maps available on mid-range watches that are cheaper than the Forerunner 570.
Garmin’s maps and routing features are the best available on sports watches, so it’s a disappointment that the Forerunner 570 doesn’t get them, given the price increase and the fact that it has storage that could be used for maps.
Should you buy the Garmin Forerunner 570?
Unless you are completely won over by its design, which is a welcome change from Garmin’s traditional styles, I don’t think the Garmin Forerunner 570 is a smart buy at full price.
That’s even though I certainly enjoyed using it and have no complaints about its performance. There are simply better value options within Garmin’s range and from other brands, in my opinion.
There are some useful upgrades on the Garmin Forerunner 265, including a better HR sensor. But the 265 is what I’d buy for $200 less, because it’s still a great sports watch with an attractive design.
Perhaps an even more compelling alternative is the Garmin Forerunner 965, which is only $50 more than the 570 at full price and often reduced to $499. It has maps and longer battery life than the 570, though it lacks the 570’s mic and speaker.
The Suunto Race S and Coros Pace Pro are not as good-looking as the Forerunner 570 but offer better battery life and offline maps at a much lower price while also being reliable sports trackers.
I love what Garmin has done with the design of the Forerunner 570, but its good looks needed to be backed up by more features to justify the high price.
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