Garmin ForeRunner 165 Design and Hardware

Garmin have stayed with the matt-plastic casing and while it looks a little better in white than the 265 did in black… it still looks like a watch for children. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an incredible piece of kit but the look and design of the watch give it a juvenile vibe – perhaps it’s the pale blue run button or maybe it’s me…

The bezel is tiny, perfect for the smaller wrist at 44x43mm and 11.6mm thick (0.8mm thinner than the 245!) with a 1.2” glass screen with AMOLD display. This screen edge doesn’t dip like the 265, but there’s a black border making the display very tiny indeed.

The border does serve a purpose explaining what each button on the watch does, is Garmin the only brand to continue with this? Note, the 165 comes loaded with all the Garmin updates inclusive of choosing your own photo or screen background which is a nice touch and gives it a smart-watch feel when not in training mode.

To pair, the straps are a very comfortable silicone. On top of the snug fit, it weighs only 39g, honestly, I forgot I was wearing it several times.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 Navigating the Interface

The watch is very self-explanatory. On the screen, there are indications of what the corresponding buttons do.

On the right side of the watch there are two buttons, the main run button is a different color] and accesses the training profiles, starts and stops an activity or is used to select an option in the menus.

The bottom right button is the back button, on the run this button will start a new lap.
Three buttons are on the left side of the watch, the top either wakes the screen or puts it to sleep. When held in, the systems menu is accessed, with Garmin pay, do not disturb, connectivity, etc.

The middle button is the up button when scrolling menus or on the run scrolling through data screens. When held in, this button opens the settings menu to make most of your personalisation changes.

The bottom left button is the down button. Used to scroll through menus or data screens as above. It also serves as a shortcut to the music control widget when held in. To be honest this looks so dated, it doesn’t fit with the rest of the watch design.

The watch is also completely touchscreen and super responsive. I have this turned off during exercise but you can change that through the settings menu. It must be noted you can only really access the ‘at a glance’ widgets via touchscreen by swiping up or down on the screen. Otherwise, you’d need to click buttons for menus etc. You can use the touch screen to scroll and select though.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 On the Run

Straight out of the box and onto a run the 165 offered me three data screens on the run. Well okay, two and a generic watch view.

Screen 1: Timer, distance, pace, heart rate measurement in BPM and indicator of heart rate zone. (great for a click-and-go runner)

Screen 2: Lap time, Lap distance, lap pace (for intervals or sessions where you don’t want an average pace to impact your work pace etc).

Screen 3: Time and date (for those who want to forget they’re running… I guess?)

The first screen is enough for the majority of runners, but they are customizable (and you can have more than three screens). I had a play with the data available and it’s crazy. Whatever training metric you’re working towards is available to have on your wrist – from the temperature if you’re racing in a hot environment, to cadence, pace pro or power output graphs!

When it comes to structured workouts, Garmin Coach has you covered for the most part, so this is nothing exclusive to the 165 model. The seamless ability to connect with third-party apps for training plans or workout syncing is also continued through the latest model.

Navigation – I don’t understand how Garmin can be so lacking in the navigation game to the likes of Polar, Coros, and Suunto – it’s ridiculous! How can we still be expected to rely on a compass arrow and a very zoomed-out line map without a map to zoom in and out of?

I didn’t fancy getting lost in the forest with this so I tested it in the streets and while it didn’t really care that I crossed a road (or noticed) it also didn’t register there was a bend in the road and instead wanted me to run right through a bust crossroads.

It also failed to tell me I was back on track until about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile of retracing my exact steps in a back alley.

It also didn’t register that I had returned to the very front door that I started from (apparently I was 18 feet away?) the accuracy here is so shocking! Other brands are putting Garmin to shame on this, and I would caution anyone to get a Garmin if they tend to get themselves lost.

That being said, the watch does knock one thing out of the park, and that is heart rate readings!

Remember I mentioned how the design of the watch was super snug? So much so that it had no trouble reading heart rate through a tattoo – and wait for it – it beat for beat with the H10 polar chest strap.

Mind blown. It might be the most accurate wrist wearable I have ever tested, very very impressed.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 After the run: software and connectivity

The data post-run is thorough. From time and distance, pace graphs, heart rate graphs, heart rate zone breakdowns in percentages, running power graphs, run power zones, elevation graphs, training effect and recovery needed in hours. More of a breakdown of the data is available in the Garmin Connect app, even walk and idle detection?! It’s a very sensitive piece of kit that has everything you need to decipher your training performance.

However, it is missing vital information that, I think, reflects the watches’ price point (and you’ll find it on most other models) – training load status.

Yes, we have the number of hours needed to recover from your run, but there is no indication of training status (maintaining, undertraining and overtraining). Garmin usually offers simplified, easy-to-read graphics of your training load but this 165 model has been stripped of that.

Instead, you get hours of recovery needed immediately after the run, and you get an update on your recovery (in hours) on your morning report. You do have Heart Rate Variability reading in sleep tracking information, but like the data fields, you’ve got to know what you’re looking for and understand what it means – you have to be a little more clued up.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 Other activities

With 25 sport profiles advertised, I counted 21 on the watch, 7 of which are for running – track run, treadmill, run, virtual run, trail run, ultra run, and indoor track, which will have you covered.

Again there are no set plans or workouts that come with the 165 model but Garmin make it very easy to import training plans from elsewhere.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 Accuracy and battery life

Let’s start with the good, the heart rate readings have been spot on, be it resting heart rate or on the go and I’m very impressed with its near-perfect beat-to-beat measurement with a gold standard chest strap, considering it was read over a tattoo. Very impressed with the 165 for that.

However, the accuracy starts to slip from there. I mentioned the navigation issues. I can’t quite understand how Garmin fails to register that I retraced my steps completely but it failed to register I was on track, or back at my front door. It’s worrying. Coros, Polar and Sunnto are leaps and bounds ahead of Garmin when it comes to navigation.

Then there’s sleep data. The snug fit means I get a solid, full night reading every time (there haven’t been any missing data incidences yet). However, the accuracy is a little off compared to the gold-standard WHOOP 4.0.
My resting heart rate measured exactly the same (59 bpm), but the HRV was significantly off (WHOOP 77ms, Garmin 165 64ms) so were the sleep stages, this is one particular night’s statistics:

Garmin 165:
Deep sleep – 57 mins
Light sleep – 4 hours 8 mins
REM sleep – 1 hour 45 mins
Time awake – 28 mins
Total sleep: 6 hours 50 mins

WHOOP 4.0:
Deep sleep – 1 hour 45 mins
Light sleep – 2 hour 32 mins
REM sleep – 2 hours 27 mins
Time awake – 46 mins
Total sleep: 6 hours 44 mins

Battery life

Garmin advertises the 165 can last 11 days, however, I have found around 9 days is the most use I have got out of it, and that is without notifications, and always on turned off with just general daily wear and workout.

It’s not too bad considering charging is so fast. Within an hour of being plugged in, the battery went from 40% to 100%.

What was interesting I took it off charge and then went straight outside. A 22-minute run, with GPS used up 4% of battery life. So I’m interested to see how the Garmin can last 19 hours in GPS mode (as advertised) because I highly doubt it.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 Other interesting functions

Women’s health/cycle tracking – this is a step forward in the sports watch world. Now you can track your cycle and any symptoms but also get a snippet of information based on research – which you can access directly. I appreciate this is a minefield to try and generalise woman to woman but it’s a development from the 265 model which was used as the most basic tracker.

Floors climbed – I got a notification whilst out running (up a hill) that I’d hit a milestone of 10 floors climbed… Okay? While it has hit the mark walking actual stairs in my apartment building… it gets a little confused between hills and stairs.

Garmin ForeRunner 165 Conclusions

I think this Forerunner 165 was Garmin’s response to the Coros Pace 3 but it falls short in comparison.

This watch is fantastically detailed regarding running statistics so it needs an experienced runner who knows exactly what metrics they’re after and how to decipher that data.