Sunday Runday
On this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to operating and well being, in his quest to get sooner and more healthy.
The Garmin Forerunner 570 and 970 are dearer than their predecessors. Different 2025 Garmin watches skimped on new options to maintain costs low, so I am glad Garmin did not maintain again on its Forerunners. However it’s additionally turn out to be clearer that Garmin would not really feel a must compete with different manufacturers’ options — solely in opposition to itself.
The soar between the $599 Forerunner 965 and $749 Forerunner 970 is important. You get the most recent Elevate v5 era for higher HR accuracy, ECGs and pores and skin temperature readings, flashlight, mic & speaker for calling and instructions, sapphire crystal safety, and new metrics like operating tolerance.
Or when you’re weighing the $549 Forerunner 270 in opposition to the $449 Forerunner 265, you additionally get the gen5 HR accuracy increase, doubled display screen brightness on a bigger show, the identical mic & speaker, and pores and skin temperature with warmth acclimation.
The Intuition 3 and Vivoactive 6 caught to last-gen HR sensors, treading water on {hardware} in order that Garmin might maintain them of their fastened value ranges. I feared Garmin would do the identical with its Forerunners, making us wait till 2027 for actual modifications.
That is why I am excited for the Forerunner 970, but in addition feeling pissed off at how Garmin holds again mid-tier watches just like the Forerunner 570.
As costs rise, held-back options are more durable to simply accept
The $499 Intuition 3 did not have offline maps regardless of being an “journey” watch, whereas cheaper rival watches just like the $349 COROS PACE Professional and Suunto Race S did. I complained on the time, however Garmin hadn’t given it space for storing for maps, prioritizing a light-weight CPU for battery life.
The $549 Forerunner 570 does have space for storing for maps, and no want to carry again the processor. There is not any logistical cause it should not assist maps; even when they are not pre-downloaded like on the 970, Garmin might allow you to obtain a selected area’s topo knowledge, not less than.
The one actual rationalization is that their absence makes folks extra prone to pay for the 970.
The identical applies to the 570 well being sensors. I clearly admire the improved HR accuracy and pores and skin temperature. However each different gen5 watch has ECGs, together with the $449 Venu 3. And out of doors of Garmin, ECGs are the norm, from mainstream watches to health rivals just like the COROS APEX and Polar Vantage sequence.
However Garmin ignores the context of its rivals; the one competitor that issues is the Forerunner 970. That should stand out, so the 570 misses out. Coronary heart well being warnings turn out to be a $750 bargaining chip.
It is a common-enough technique for Garmin. With the superb Forerunner 165, you may’t see your coaching load although it clearly calculates load within the background to find out your VO2 Max, restoration time, and each day urged exercises with anaerobic or low cardio focuses. Blocking that knowledge upsells you to the Forerunner 265.
I accepted that synthetic characteristic block as a result of the 165 prices $249, and coaching load remains to be pretty area of interest. However Garmin watch costs maintain creeping up. It is more durable to swallow blocked options when these mid-tier fashions value rather more than a Galaxy or Apple Watch.
With Garmin watches, each part has a price ticket
Smartwatch “tiers” are widespread sufficient nowadays, and each firm desires to upsell you. However they’re additionally selective about which options are price-locked as a result of they know it will look unhealthy if a competitor affords one thing for a lot much less.
You clearly pay extra for metal or titanium casing, or different {hardware} boosts like higher battery life. However in any other case, they squeeze most options into the mainline mannequin whereas sticking to the identical pricing yearly (apart from the occasional inflationary increase).
With Garmin, each new characteristic to modernize its watches comes with a value bump. MIP-to-AMOLED show swaps for the Forerunner and Intuition lineups value tacked on one other $50–100 to the standard value. On the Fenix 8, collectively including AMOLED, higher sensors, and a mic & speaker added $200 to the worth.
You will not discover dual-band GPS on any watch $300 or much less, nor offline maps on any sub-$600 watch. And although Garmin’s Gen5 HR sensors got here out in 2023, it would maintain utilizing the Gen4 sensors on “cheaper” fashions just like the $500 Intuition 3 immediately.
I do not know the way a lot the parts value Garmin, however it desires us to know that it will go that value onto us.
Different elements like tariff considerations bump up pricing, too. However Garmin’s 2025 technique establishes a transparent Garmin precedent: As soon as a watch prices a sure value, you should not count on new {hardware} at that value, nor options already established on the flagship tier.
The subsequent model will both value the identical however make minimal upgrades, or add new instruments and price rather more.
Garmin treats any new characteristic as a chance to ask athletes for more cash in trade for extra worth. And it could do that as a result of it would not really feel as a lot stress to cost its health watches competitively as different manufacturers.
Garmin customers like its ecosystem an excessive amount of — or are too invested in it — to depart. And so Garmin accepts the damaging press round Join+ paywalled options and price-locks the best new options as a result of its loyal prospects can pay $750 or extra for them, even when they grumble about it.
When you assume the Forerunner 970 and 570 are too costly, then not less than the last-gen Garmin watches are nonetheless out there — and discounted for Memorial Day, so a Forerunner 965 prices $50 lower than the 570.
In any other case, we’ve to simply accept this new regular with new Garmin watches.
