It has 15 new sport profiles compared to the Forerunner 965, including things like Backcountry Snowboarding, Pickleball, and even some motor sports. The list isn’t as extensive as the Fenix 8, though, which can track surfing and now works as a full-on dive watch for recreational scuba and freediving. It really feels like the lack is just to differentiate between the Forerunner and Fenix lines, because a software update could do it.
Fortunately, the map features have been cribbed from the Fenix 8, and they’re excellent. It comes with extensive topographical maps installed. The maps are colorful, bright, and easy to navigate by pinching and tapping. A new feature is Round Trip Routing, with corrections (theoretically). If you’re in an unfamiliar city, you can tell the watch that you want to do a 5-mile run and it will suggest a loop for you. If you accidentally take a wrong turn or see some pretty thing you want to go check out, it will fluidly reroute you to get you back to your hotel while hitting your goal distance (within reason, of course).
It’s such a great idea, but I could never get it to work. If I went off the route, the whole watch would crash, and I had to power cycle it. Hopefully this is something Garmin can fix in a future software update (the updates come roughly once a month). On the upside, I found GPS performance to be accurate, even among trees, cliffs, and tall buildings.
A Lot of Competition
Photograph: Brent Rose
It’s worth mentioning that Garmin also launched the new, midrange Forerunner 570. It has a shorter battery life, less-premium materials (Gorilla Glass 3 vs. Sapphire, aluminum bezel vs. titanium), less memory at 8 GB vs. 32 GB, no built-in mapping, and no flashlight. You get the speaker and mic though, and there’s the option of a 42 mm display instead of just 47 mm, which is nice for those with smaller wrists.
With all that said, a lot of these features are available on the Fenix 8. The Fenix 8 has more expensive materials, like a full titanium body; some of the same hardware, like the mic and speaker, and better battery life. There are some features that aren’t currently available, like Running Tolerance, but those are coming via a huge new software update that Garmin just announced.
The Fenix 8 is way more expensive than the Forerunner 970, but it’s also much older. If the Fenix 8 goes on sale, as it occasionally does, it’s a no-brainer to get it instead. The Forerunner 970 is a premium watch with advanced features that will give you a lot of insight and assistance if you’re trying to go pro, but it might be overkill if you’re not and you occasionally like to surf instead.