Earlier this month, Garmin announced the release of two smartwatches designed specifically for runners, the Forerunner 955 Solar and the Forerunner 255. Today, the firm has brought these smartwatches to India as well. The former adds solar charging and a new training readiness metric, while the latter adds a slew of new racing features and multi-band GPS. Let us take a closer look at both smartwatches.
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar Features and Specifications:
The Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar has a 47mm dial with a 1.3″ full colour touchscreen display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass DX, a fiber-reinforced polymer bezel, a silicon strap, 5ATM water resistance, 5 physical buttons for easy operation, and weighs 52g. There’s also a Solar Forerunner 955 with Garmin’s proprietary Power Glass lens.
It also includes a new racing widget, SpO2 sensors, HRV status during sleep, multi-band GPS, similar to the Forerunner 255, and a few extra training metrics, such as PacePro and ClimbPro, which provide real-time guidance on your pace and elevation.
The new training readiness metric in the Forerunner 955 takes into account sleep, recovery time, HRV, and a few other metrics to provide users with a score indicating how “ready” they are for a training session. Steps, calories burned, floors climbed, distance travelled, intensity minutes, and much more are all tracked by the watch.
Every morning, the smartwatch will give you a report on the weather, temperature, and so on, as well as workout suggestions, access to training programmes through Garmin Coach, and detailed metrics on the Garmin Connect app.
The battery life is estimated to be 15 days in smartwatch mode and 42 hours in GPS mode. With solar charging, the 955 Solar can last up to 20 days in smartwatch mode and 49 hours in GPS mode.
Specifications:
- 1.3″ (260 x 260 pixels) full colour touchscreen display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass DX
- GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Multi-frequency Positioning
- Bluetooth, ANT+, Wi-Fi
- 5 ATM Water and Dust Resistant
- 32 GB storage (Up to 2000 songs)
- 5-button design
- Daily workout suggestions; Running Dynamics Pod; Garmin PacePro
- Garmin Pay
- Dimensions: 46.5 x 46.5 x 14.4 mm; Weight: 52 g
- Battery Life: Smartwatch mode: Up to 15 days
GPS-only mode without music: Up to 42 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band with music: Up to 8.5 hours
All Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band without music: Up to 20 hours
Ultratrac mode: Up to 80 hours
Garmin Forerunner 255 and 255S Features and Specifications:
The Forerunner 255 is a lightweight smartwatch with a sleek design that comes in two sizes: 46mm (49g) and 41mm (32g) (named Forerunner 255s). It is water-resistant to 5ATM and features a 1.3″ screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The watch tracks steps, calories burned, floors climbed, distance travelled, intensity minutes, and much more in terms of activity tracking.
It includes a new racing widget, SpO2 sensors, HRV status during sleep, multi-band GPS, and the ability for triathletes to switch between sports more easily with a single button press. The race widget will include information on how to prepare for the race, such as performance predictions, race day weather, and a countdown clock.
The smartwatch will provide a daily morning report with weather, temperature, and other information for the day, as well as daily workout suggestions and access to training programmes via Garmin Coach and in-depth metrics via the Garmin Connect app.
The Forerunner 255 has an NFC sensor that allows you to use Garmin Pay. It has a battery life of up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours in GPS mode. Buyers can get the music edition of the smartwatch – Forerunner 255 Music and Forerunner 255S Music, which allows them to store up to 500 songs.
Specifications:
- Forerunner 255: 1.3″ (260 x 260 pixels) full colour touchscreen display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Forerunner 255S: 1.1″ (218 x 218 pixels) full colour touchscreen display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Bluetooth, ANT+, Wi-Fi
- GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Multi-frequency Positioning
- 5 ATM Water and Dust Resistant
- 4 GB storage (Up to 500 songs)
- Live Event Sharing, LiveTrack, Assistance
- HRV status, Recovery time, HR calories
- Dimensions: Forerunner 255 – 45.6 x 45.6 x 12.9 mm, Weight: 49 g; Forerunner 255S – 41 x 41 x 12.4 mm, Weight: 39 g
- Battery Life: Forerunner 255 – Smartwatch mode: Up to 14 days
GPS-only GNSS mode: Up to 30 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode: Up to 25 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band: Up to 16 hours; - Battery Life: Forerunner 255S – Smartwatch mode: Up to 12 days
GPS-only GNSS mode: Up to 26 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode: Up to 20 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band: Up to 13 hours
Pricing and Availability:
The Garmin Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar come in black and white colours, and the prices are as mentioned below. These will be available from Garmin Brand Store, Helios watch store, Just in time, Croma, Amazon.in, Flipkart, Tata CLiQ and Synergizer.
- Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar- Rs. 63,990
- Garmin Forerunner 955 – Rs. 53,490.
The Garmin Forerunner 255 Basic comes in Slate Grey and Tidal Blue, Forerunner 255S Basic comes in Powder Grey, Forerunner 255 Music and Forerunner 255S Music come in Black, and the prices are as mentioned below. These will be available from Garmin Brand Store, Helios watch store, Just in time, Croma, Amazon, Flipkart, Tata CLiQ and Synergizer.
- Garmin Forerunner 255 and 255S – Rs. 37,490
- Garmin Forerunner 255 Music and 255S Music – Rs. 42,990