I'm late in the 265 lifecycle

I used my Forerunner 745 for going on five years. I jumped ship last year into the running focused Pixel Watch 3/Fitbit ecosystem. That does work well for a very limited use case of me simply running. It's comparable. I was pissed that the 745 was teased as possibly getting the Garmin IQ YouTube Music app, but it never did. So I left for the Pixel Watch 3.

I like using the Garmin training plan, calendaring, and coaching on Garmin Connect, and I want to use the YouTube Music app, so when Garmin put this 265 on sale this week I leaped and bought one direct from Garmin.

I imagine initial rollout bugs have been squashed, are there any lingering software issues with the FR 265, that users are hoping Garmin will address before the development efforts go completely dark?

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0 Bitti 18 days ago

Even though 265 and 965 will most likely not get new software features from the new flagships, Garmin will probably continue producing new firmwares and fixing bugs for the next two years. At least that's how it's been with previous models. And sure there are enough bugs to fix for those two years.

0 chris_in_cal 18 days ago in reply to Bitti

That sounds reasonable.

What are the big ones users hope to see resolved in future updates? Outstanding bugs/issues?

0 lytleric 1 day ago

Two things:

Optical HR is completely unreliable. Several posts here on this issue. If you need accurate heart rate, unfortunately you'll have to wear a chest strap.

Second is bluetooth headphone connection drop-outs. This is frequent, unpredictable and frustrating.

I've experienced both these issues and am starting to consider a different model.

0 chris_in_cal 1 day ago in reply to lytleric

Thank you,

I don't track my HR much so haven't noticed. My experience with Garmin and BT headsets has always been problematic. I am familiar with how much of a PITA this is for users. I'll check that out with my FR 265. Thanks again.

Anyone else?

0 gxgene1 15 hours ago in reply to chris_in_cal

As mentioned Optical HR has been a significant issue, low readings with sudden jumps to a different level being one of them. I've not had any noticeable the Blue Tooth connection issues connecting to my iphone 13 (I do music through the iphone). The only procedural thing I've noticed is it seems to get lap times announced during a treadmill run (through the iphone), I need to make sure the connect app is open before starting the activity. But as long as the connect app is open first, I really enjoy getting the spoken lap times blue tooth from the watch to the connect app and then on to the Cpaxo ear buds I have.

There are a lot of features I don't use (so no opinion on a many features or non running sports) and I've left my firmware frozen at 21.20. I will probably update it again before the warranty runs out, or if there is a consensus for a release with real fixes and minimal collateral damage. I did update it once and had to go through the secret menu button pushes to initiate a reinstall of the firmware because it failed to install for the optical hr sensor the 1st time around.