Two of the best Garmin watches just got upgraded, with the new Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 replacing the Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965 in the brand’s range.
I’ve been testing Garmin's for almost a decade, and in that time, I’ve almost always had at least one of the brand’s watches strapped to my wrist to support my marathon training. I've often had two, in fact, including when I set my marathon PR lately wearing both the Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Forerunner 965.
I’m excited to start testing the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970, and also the new Garmin HRM600 heart rate chest strap, which unlocks the new feature I’m most excited about — running economy measurements.
Here’s why I’m looking forward to tracking my running economy in particular, and four other new features on the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 that have caught my eye.
1. Running economy stats on the Forerunner 970
To use this feature on the Forerunner 970, you need to wear the Garmin HRM600 chest strap. Running economy is a measure of your running efficiency, and basically, the more economical or efficient you are, the less energy it costs to run at a certain pace.
This is very interesting to me not only as way to look at my running form to see if I can make it more efficient to help improve my times, but also as a way to test running shoes — if a shoe helps you to run more efficiently, as many of the best carbon plate running shoes claim, then that’s a reason to stick with it.
Running economy measurements from the wrist are not something I’ve come across before from any brand, and if it’s done well, this will be a star feature for Garmin’s high-end watches, assuming it also comes to models like the Fenix 8 in time.
2. The flashlight on the Forerunner 970
When Garmin introduced a built-in LED flashlight to the Fenix line, it was a huge hit, and it’s since been added to Epix and Instinct models among others, but Forerunner users have had to wait until now to get a flashlight on their watch.
The Forerunner 970’s flashlight has multiple brightness settings and also a red mode, and it’s a very handy addition to the watch, whether you use it for camping or running at night, or just to get downstairs to see to crying toddlers without turning on any lights.
3. The Forerunner 570’s bright design and screen
I’ve been testing out the Forerunner 570, and the increased brightness of its display compared to a Forerunner 965 is noticeable. What's more, the colorful bezel and band options within the range make for a welcome change to the more conservative styles of most sports watches.
Rest assured, if you're dead against the bright colors, there is a black model available in both sizes of the Forerunner 570.
With the 47mm model of the watch, you also get a bigger screen than on past models — at 1.4 inches, it’s as large as the screens of the 47mm and 51mm Fenix 8 models, but in a much smaller and lighter watch.
4. Auto lap for courses during races
Using this new feature, you can load the course for a race into Garmin Connect with the mile or kilometer markers logged, and then when you run the race, the watch will detect when you pass the timing gate and mark a lap, then, rather than relying on GPS.
As someone who always worries about poor GPS during races affecting pace and distance stats, this feature could be a fantastic upgrade, especially in events in city centers where skyscrapers can play havoc with GPS accuracy.
Even when running marathons on open courses, I often notice a discrepancy between the official measured distance and what my watch measures, and I’ve used a Connect IQ app called Peter’s Race Pacer in the past that allows you to manually adjust the distance measured when passing a mile marker.
Having that done automatically using a course will make for a much easier experience, and mean you can rely on the pace stats from your watch being accurate.
You will need the course you add to the watch to be accurate, though, so hopefully, race organizers work with Garmin to create official routes you can use.
5. The sapphire screen on the Forerunner 970
A simple but much-needed upgrade, the Forerunner 970 now has a sapphire crystal screen instead of a glass one.
As someone who scratched the screen on the Garmin Forerunner 965, this is a great upgrade — I’ve used many Fenix models with sapphire displays and have never managed to so much as mark them.
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