Garmin Forerunner 265 review 2024: great battery life

At the time of this writing, the Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265S, as well as its bigger brother the Garmin Forerunner 965, are the newest versions of Garmin’s best-selling Forerunner line. The 265 comes out less than a year after the well-reviewed 255 series. It has a few new features, a remade watch case, and a brand-new AMOLED screen.

Since the inside of the watch is pretty much the same as last year’s world-class Forerunner, we wasn’t sure if the 265 would be different enough to make our list of the best Garmin watches. But after wearing it for about three weeks, including during a marathon, we can say with certainty that it’s one of the best watches Garmin has ever made.

Garmin Forerunner 265 Specifications

Garmin Forerunner 265: Design

The 265 and 265S watches are only slightly bigger than the 255 and 255S models, which were 45.6mm and 41mm, respectively. The screen is stunning: 416 x 416 px or 360 x 360 px AMOLED, with a Corning Gorilla Glass lens to make sure the watch is tough enough to go on trips and compete in triathlons without worry.

Its refresh rate isn’t quite as smooth as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro or Apple Watch Ultra when you scroll through the screens, but since it has about five times the battery life, we can overlook a little bit of motion fuzz. You can buy this smartwatch from its official website

Garmin Forerunner 265: Display

However, the display is the primary focus here. OLED display measuring either 1.1 inches with 360 pixels per inch or 1.3 inches with 416 pixels per inch may be found on the Forerunner 265. This compact display meets all of our needs, despite being smaller than the screen on the Apple Watch Series 8. It’s vivid, colorful, and bright enough for use during outdoor workouts.

This screen’s purpose is to demonstrate why it is superior to the transflective screen of the Forerunner 255, and it does it capably, especially given that it is also a touch display. The Forerunner 255’s one, that is. What makes OLED better than the previous generations of transflective memory-in-pixel designs. The OLED display on the Forerunner 265S is reminiscent of a smartwatch’s display.

Garmin Forerunner 265: Performance

The Garmin Forerunner 265 is a high-performance GPS running watch with a variety of useful functions. It allows you to keep tabs on your progress and make necessary adjustments thanks to its sophisticated tracking features and extensive data analytics.

The Forerunner 265 has precise GPS tracking, so you can monitor your running times, routes, and paces with ease. A heart rate monitor is integrated inside the device to help you track your progress and fine-tune your workouts based on how hard your body is working.

Garmin Forerunner 265: Battery Life

Even though the Forerunner 265 has a better screen, the battery life hasn’t changed much. In smartwatch mode, the 265S can run for 15 days on a single charge. In GPS mode, it can run for 24 hours. In smartwatch mode, the 265 lasts 13 days, and in GPS mode, it lasts 20 hours. Usually, the bigger watch has a longer battery life, but it looks like the larger 265 will need charging a little bit sooner because its screen is bigger and brighter.

Final Words

The Forerunner 265 shows that sports watches with OLED screens can be great, but it’s best to think of it as a “plus” version of the great Forerunner 255 Music. It has a touchscreen and real buttons, can play music offline, is the best in its class for tracking sports, and has a very useful feature called “training readiness.” It has everything you need to run, except full maps, which are only available on Garmin’s best watches.

Because of the new screen, the battery only lasts about seven days before it needs to be charged again. However, this is still at least four times as long as an Apple Watch. The Garmin has basic smartwatch features like simple phone messages, but it doesn’t have a voice assistant or other smart features.

Garmin Forerunner 265 review: The good and The bad

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