Garmin Forerunner 245 Music review: a runner’s best friend

Practically every running stat, great battery life, offline Spotify and comprehensive health-tracking in a small and light sports watch

The Forerunner 245 is Garmin’s excellent performance running watch and sets a new benchmark against which the competition should be measured.

Two versions are available: one which can download music and one which cannot at a recommended retail price of £299.99 or £249.99 respectively. It came out in April 2019 to replace the popular Forerunner 235.

Screen: 1.2in transflective MIP (240x240 pixels)

Case size: 42.3mm

Case thickness: 12.2mm

Band size: standard 20mm quick release

Weight: 38.5g

Storage: 3.5GB/500 songs

Water resistance: 50 metres (5ATM)

Sensors: GPS/Glonass/Galileo, compass, accelerometer, heart rate, pulse Ox

Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, ANT+, wifi (Music only)

Syncing and updating the watch via wifi is much faster than via smartphone.

You can’t listen to music and sync via wifi at the same time.

Garmin and Beats headphones have a bug that breaks the on-earphone volume controls.

The watch can take a beating – I fell while running, landing on the watch and taking a bit out of the plastic but it was otherwise unaffected.

The Forerunner 245 doesn’t support Garmin Pay/mobile payments.

Pros: slim, light, real buttons, clear screen, accurate GPS, good heart rate, extensive stats, comprehensive health tracking, highly customisable, long battery life, optional offline music, Spotify, basic smartwatch features

Cons: expensive, no barometer, no touchscreen as well as buttons, interface can be a bit clunky, screen fairly basic compared with smartwatches

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