Garmin has announced two new entries to its runner-centric smartwatch series with the Forerunner 265 and Forerunner 965. Both of which are the first wearables from the series to feature all-new AMOLED touch screens that offer brighter, and more colourful visuals regardless of lighting conditions, especially in broad daylight. But despite being equipped with a more demanding display technology, both models still impressively offer over two-weeks of battery life when used as regular smartwatches.
The first of which, the entry-level Forerunner 265, is available in two sizes: 42 mm and 46 mm. Both variants include the brand’s Firstbeat Analytics performance monitoring tools like V02 max, performance condition and training effect, onboard sensors for numerous health and fitness tracking features such as Pulse Ox, Body Battery, women’s health, as well as sleep and stress monitoring. Being a Garmin device, there’s also SatIQ technology and multi-band GPS support for positioning.
Besides that, there are also plenty of connected features including smart notifications, on-device music storage for Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music, the brand’s incident detection and assistance LiveTrack tool, and Garmin Pay support for contactless payments. The 42 mm Forerunner 265 is claimed to have a battery life of up to 15 days in smartwatch mode and 24 hours in GPS mode, while the larger 46 mm variant can last up to 13 days and 20 hours respectively.
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Next up is the high-end Forerunner 965 model, which is only offered in a 47 mm case with a lightweight titanium bezel. It features the largest AMOLED display so far in series, coming at 1.4 inches. Features-wise, the watch comes with all of the same sensors and tools as the Forerunner 265, but includes a new load ratio feature to track short-term to mid-term fatigue loading, built-in map support, and the climber-centric ClimbPro tracking tool.
All of the aforementioned connected features from its entry-level sibling are also available, though it’s worth noting that the larger model comes with even more storage space for music downloads. As for battery, Garmin says the Forerunner 965 is able to last up to 23 days in smartwatch mode, and up to 31 hours in GPS mode.
The Garmin Forerunner 265 is available now for certain markets, and is priced at US$ 450 (~RM 2,014) for both sizes. Meanwhile, the high-end Forerunner 965 is slated to be released in late March for US$ 600 (~RM 2,685). It is still not known whether either model will be launched in Malaysia at this time.
(Source: Garmin [press release])
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