Garmin Forerunner 245: what we want to see

The Garmin Forerunner 235 was launched back in 2015 so it’s well past time we got a successor. The good news is, we might get one soon, as there are rumors of a Garmin Forerunner 245.

We’ve seen possible images of the device, alongside information on some of the specs and features, and you’ll find all of this below. We’ll also add to this article as soon as we hear more.

Plus, we’ve included a list of things we want to see from the Forerunner 245 to make it a worthy successor and fit for 2019.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The successor to the Garmin Forerunner 235
• When is it out? Possibly soon
• What will it cost? Likely upwards of £299.99 / $329.99 / AU$469

Garmin Forerunner 245 release date and price

We don’t know when the Garmin Forerunner 245 will be announced, but given that images and details about the running watch are starting to emerge, and considering it has visited the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) we’d expect to see it before too long.

Price remains a mystery for now too, but it’s likely to cost at least as much as the Garmin Forerunner 235, which launched for £299.99 / $329.99 / AU$469.

Garmin Forerunner 245 news and rumors

The best look yet at the possible design of the Garmin Forerunner 245 takes the form of the leaked images below, which show a somewhat similar design to the 235, complete with a circular color screen, a likely silicone strap, three buttons on the left edge and two buttons on the right edge.

All these buttons suggest that as with the Forerunner 235 this won’t have a touchscreen, but that’s just speculation for now.

You can also see that the strap seemingly comes in black, white and blue shades, though we can’t rule out the possibility of others.

The source of these images adds that there will apparently be two versions of the Forerunner 245 – a standard one and a Forerunner 245 Music, which is predicted to match the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music for song storage, with space for up to 500.

Dimensions will also apparently be identical to the Forerunner 645, putting it at 42.5 x 42.5 x 13.5mm, which would make it smaller but chunkier than the 45 x 45 x 11.7mm Forerunner 235.

Additionally, the Garmin Forerunner 245 will supposedly have similar battery life to the Forerunner 645 (a watch which in our tests lasted around 3-4 days between charges). That notably is less than the roughly week of life that we got from the Forerunner 235.

Finally, this source says to expect it to track more Firstbeat metrics than its predecessor.

The only other real information on the Forerunner 245 so far comes from the FCC, which – as spotted by Gadgets and Wearables – has published photos of the Music version, some of which you can see below. These aren’t great quality but seem to match the images above and coming from the FCC we’d expect them to be accurate.

What we want to see

While we’re starting to hear quite a lot about the Garmin Forerunner 245 there’s plenty more that remains a mystery, and lots of things that we want. As such, we’ve made a wish list below of the key upgrades we’d like to see.

1. A higher-end build

The Garmin Forerunner 235 is a generally good-looking device, but it does look and feel quite plasticky. That’s somewhat understandable given that it’s a sporty wearable, but we’d like it if Garmin could make the Forerunner 245’s build a bit more premium.

That way we’ll be happier wearing it at the office and on a night out, rather than feeling like we should take it off when we’re not on a run.

2. Better sleep tracking

The Forerunner 235 tracks your sleep, but in our tests it’s not very accurate, and nor does it offer the assortment of features some rivals do. The Polar M430 for example offers sleep efficiency totals, along with a higher level of accuracy.

So we want to see big improvements here from the Garmin Forerunner 245. There’s no guarantee that it will track sleep at all of course, but we’d expect (and hope) that it will, and if it’s going to be worthwhile then it needs to do better.

3. Slicker syncing

The Garmin Forerunner 235 lets you sync data with your smartphone automatically over Bluetooth, which would be a slick feature if it worked reliably. Sadly though we found in our review that it didn’t, at least on Android.

Sometimes it would sync fine, other times we’d have to re-pair the Forerunner with our phone to make it work. This is unfortunate and makes the experience far fiddlier than it should be, so we want this sorted for the Garmin Forerunner 245.

4. A less intrusive heart rate monitor

The heart rate monitor is an essential aspect of the Forerunner 235 and is similarly vital for the 245, but we hope Garmin redesigns it, as on the Forerunner 235 it sticks out a bit too much, which can cause it to dig into your wrist a bit, making the wearable less comfortable than it could or should be.

5. More accurate VO2 max

Beyond a basic heart rate reading the Garmin Forerunner 235 boasts VO2 max readings – that is, a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen you can use, and it’s a feature we’d like to see return for the Garmin Forerunner 245.

But we want it to be better, as in our Forerunner 235 review we found the readings seemed distinctly off. It’s tricky for a watch to get an accurate VO2 max reading, but we definitely think there’s room for improvement.

6. A better Race Predictor

Another interesting feature of the Forerunner 235 is its Race Predictor, which uses the rest of the data it’s gathered about you to predict how long it would take you to run 5k, 10k, or a half or full marathon.

It’s a nice idea, but in our review we found its estimates were seriously suspect, so we’d like to see them improved for the Forerunner 245.

7. Support for standard wireless chargers

As with so many wearables the Garmin Forerunner 235 has a proprietary charger, which means if you don’t have the charger with you then you probably won’t be able to charge it.

For the Garmin Forerunner 245 we’d really like to see support for standard wireless chargers, so there’s at least a chance someone will have something you can juice it up with if you forget or lose yours.

• Check out our guide to the best Garmin watches