GarminForerunner 165, Running Smartwatch, Colorful AMOLED Display, Training Metrics and Recovery Insights, Black

I've been using the Garmin Forerunner 165 for several months now, and it has become an essential part of my active lifestyle.The first thing that stands out about this watch is the vibrant AMOLED display. The colors are crisp and bright, making it easy to read metrics during outdoor activities, even in direct sunlight. The screen responsiveness is excellent, with smooth transitions between different data screens during workouts.For running, which is my primary activity, the Forerunner 165 provides comprehensive metrics that have genuinely helped improve my performance. The GPS accuracy is impressive - much more reliable than my previous fitness tracker, with minimal distance discrepancies when comparing to known routes. The training insights have been particularly valuable, suggesting recovery times and training load adjustments that have helped prevent overtraining.The versatility of this watch is where it truly shines. I've used it for hiking, with the altimeter providing useful elevation data. For walking, it accurately tracks steps and distance. The swim tracking functionality works exceptionally well for lap swimming, counting strokes and identifying stroke types with surprising accuracy.Sleep tracking has been eye-opening, providing detailed breakdowns of sleep stages that correlate well with how rested I feel each morning. The step goal feature adjusts based on your activity levels, which I find more motivating than static goals. The calories burned estimations seem reasonably accurate when compared to other methods I've used.Battery life deserves special mention - I typically get 5-6 days between charges with regular GPS usage, which is excellent for a watch with this bright a display.The only consistent issue I've encountered is with the weather feature. It sometimes fails to update properly. This is a minor inconvenience since I typically check the weather on my phone anyway, but worth noting as it's the one feature that doesn't quite meet the high standard set by everything else.The companion app ties everything together nicely, presenting the data in an intuitive format that makes it easy to spot trends and improvements over time.For anyone serious about fitness tracking across multiple activities with recovery insights to help optimize training, the Garmin Forerunner 165 is an excellent investment.

Great product. My Apple SE watch died after 3 years of use due to water intrusion. It was purchased for swimming. Who would have guessed that the seal would not last long. Apparently it is a common issue from what I have been reading on line. Because of this, I started to look outside of Apple for a watch to track my swimming and biking.I have had my Garmin for about a week now and am impressed. The battery life is amazing. My Apple Watch would not even get me through a day, wheres the Garmin has lasted a week already. The display is easy to read even without my glasses. The user interface takes a little getting used to, but works well. Great product Garmin. I just wish I had gotten one sooner. Only time will tell if the water seal holds up.

My husband says: I’m not a runner or a busy exercise person but I like to keep track of my heart rate, blood oxygen levels and walk. I’m 74 years old hearing impaired and really love this Garmin Watch. It vibrates for all my notifications, there’s a lot of free analog watch faces (I’m not a digital watch face fan) and others you can buy using Garmin’s second companion app. It provides me with a morning report summary, tracks my heart rate on all six of the analog watch faces I use and measures my stress levels daily. A lot of capabilities that I’ll never use but so what, it does precisely what I want it to do. I use an Apple iPhone so I have to keep Garmin’s app up and running for those notifications but doing so hasn’t affected the battery life on my iPhone. I’ve already performed a factory reset on my Apple Series 9 Watch, put it back in the box and back on a shelf. Yes it’ll take a little time to learn how to use it, but if you like what you just read in this review, buy this Garmin Forerunner 165 smartwatch and it’ll make you smile every time you get a notification and every time you look at it.

I bought the 55 as an intro not knowing what I wanted. Within one day I realized that the 55 was too old, too dim screen (MIP pixels), it chewed through the battery using the backlight all the time (it was a renewed product though) and lacked support for the latest features and lacked sensors as well. I was totally into the Garmin vibe with the 55 but right out off the box (minus some confusion on the UI) I LOVE the watch. I def recommend this model as the entry level. The 55 is kind of steam locomotive with none of the charm. The menus and features are deep enough that you really DO need a touch screen even once you have the watch configured. The mix of hard buttons and touch screen is really nice. I def dig the sport vibe of this watch over some of the Garmins that are more "lifestyle". I'm sure anything higher in price would be excellent. Supposedly the glass on this isn't has good as Gorilla glass, so, perhaps if you are really a Gorilla with your gear you should go up to the 265, spending more to protect the money you've spent. But, i def wouldn't go any lower - especially if you want to use the breath trainers, (which are awesome) and the other health metrics. Not using for running, general fitness. I can def see gradually moving up to one of the $1K watches with maps, etc, that are more robust, but so far the light weight is great. Band is a little more irritating and sweaty than my Casio Pro Trek.

This watch is a great value. It has just the right amount of tracking data for my workouts, and the basic smartwatch features that I need. It's comfortable and looks pretty good.

This is a great watch, does a lot for a fair amount of money. The screen is bright and responsive to touch, the gps signal catches quickly (I live 30 min outside Boston) and there are way more metrics than I have use for.I did end up returning it only because I found the 20mm strap too small. Coming from an Instinct solar, with a 22mm strap, it did make a big difference for me. I got a forerunner 255 instead, but I do miss the AMOLED screen of the 165.