Club Benefits
Garmin just announced a refresh of the brand’s entry-level running watch lineup. Replacing the Garmin Forerunner 55 and Forerunner 165, meet the new Garmin Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170.
The former is designed to help newbie runners get into the sport, while the latter is for runners looking to take their training to the next level. Both sport bright, colorful AMOLED screens and identical case designs, available in an alluring range of colors.
Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170: price and availability
The Garmin Forerunner 70 is $249 and expected to ship by the end of May or early April. The Forerunner 170 comes in two varieties, one with onboard storage for music, priced at $349, and one without, for $299; it's also expected to ship around the same time.
Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170: Design
The Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 look identical. They share the same manageable 43mm diameter case design, with five physical buttons on the side, paired with the same 1.2-inch bright and well-saturated AMOLED touchscreen.
Lightweight and comfortable on the wrist, based on my hands-on experience, the case is built from fiber-reinforced polymer (i.e., plastic) and boasts a respectable water resistance rating of 50 meters.
Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170: Health and fitness
Both devices support over 80 exercise types, including individual workouts and team sports, and offer useful metrics like a Training Readiness score, Body Battery Score, Sleep Score, and Heart Rate Variability insights. You also get 24/7 health monitoring, daily sleep reports, and a cool, new “Quick Workout” feature.
For Quick Workouts, users select an intensity level on a scale from one to four, along with the amount of time they have for their workout. The watch then generates several exercise options to choose from.
The Forerunner 70 and 170 also support Adaptive Training Plans via Garmin Coach, along with daily workout suggestions, and useful training and recovery insights.
Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170: Battery
The more entry-level Forerunner 70 promises up to 13 days of battery per charge, while the Forerunner 170 offers up to 10 days per charge.
Garmin Forerunner 70 vs Forerunner 170: Key differences
Despite looking identical, there are a handful of notable differences between the Garmin Forerunner 70 and the Forerunner 170. For starters, the Forerunner 70 doesn’t have any onboard storage for music, while the Forerunner 170 Music edition does. The higher-end model additionally has NFC for mobile payments via Garmin Pay, something that’s absent on the more affordable Forerunner 70.
You also don’t get an onboard altimeter inside the Forerunner 70 for precise elevation tracking, but you do on the Forerunner 170. Both watches, however, have onboard GPS, so you don’t need to carry a paired smartphone for location tracking.
Finally, the Forerunner 170 offers several training tools that are absent on the Forerunner 70, including Garmin’s Cycling Coach feature for bikers and the VO2 Max metric for tracking cardiovascular fitness.
Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170: Outlook
Sporting bright displays, lightweight cases, ample buttons, solid battery performance, and plenty of training tools, the new Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170 just might be the best entry-level running watches on the market in 2026. Of course, I’ll hold off making any concrete claims until I’ve had the chance to thoroughly test both (full reviews coming in the next few weeks).
However, I do have one concern: the price. Ignoring the new models for a moment, Garmin’s most entry-level running watch, the still-excellent Forerunner 55, can be picked up for well under $200, while the higher-end Forerunner 165 starts at $249.
With the Forerunner 70 and 170, Garmin has upped the starting cost for the brand’s entry-level and entry/mid-level running watches by $50 across the board. The question is, will this price hike dissuade potential buyers, especially when you can pick up a decent, budget-minded alternative from a lesser-known brand — like the Amazfit Active Max — at close to half the cost? Time will tell.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom's Guide
