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Possibly switching to Garmin(Venu Sq or FR45) and have manual burnout

Greetings All,

Sorry for being lazy but moving to a new tracker(primarily for running) is daunting with all the options out there and manuals to read to find the best fit. So I'm resorting to posting a hit list to see if my wants/needs fit the two subject trackers. I know the FR45 doesn't do blood oxygen and is not a deal breaker. I also don't want a tracker that's as big as a baseball like the Solar M430.

I need/want:


Three silent alarms
Steps count
Constant heart rate
Sleep monitoring
Blood oxygen (more want than need)
Turn off all phone notifications (one device pestering me is enough)
Turn off GPS (not important to me)
Time/weekday/date/steps/hr/battery on display
All or most of the above done in the app.

Thanks, Joe.

  • Hi, I can’t speak to the FR45 but the biggest difference that I can see would be the touch screen, the resolution, the respiration rate, blood oxygen levels and Garmin pay.  You can also download data fields to the SQ and it has a quick release watch band you can change out for others.  You can compare them on Garmin’s website and there “might” be some comparison videos on YouTube.

    Three silent alarms - yes
    Steps count - yes 
    Constant heart rate - yes
    Sleep monitoring - yes
    Blood oxygen (more want than need) - yes
    Turn off all phone notifications (one device pestering me is enough) - you can turn off phone notifications
    Turn off GPS (not important to me) - yes you can turn off in running and it will remember that setting though having it on makes the distance more accurate vs just it gauging distance by your steps.
    Time/weekday/date/steps/hr/battery on display - there are some customizable watch faces that come with the Venu SQ and you pick the data fields you want to see.  You can also download watch faces.
    All or most of the above done in the app. - yes though easy to do right on watch.

  • With the fr 45, it's only got 8 colors, and an MIP display instead of LCD - MIP is better in full sun but not as great inside, IMHO.  The FR 45 can't display "real time hr" with CIQ watch faces, and not sure with native ones.