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Forerunner 945 coming from Fenix 3?

Hi!  

I have a Fenix 3 and am looking to upgrade to the Forerunner 945.  Is it worth it?

I run 50 - 75 km a week, 5-6 times a week, and regularly run marathons.

Thanks!

  • Hi there, here is a comparison of the two watches. Garmin | Compare

  • Hi,

    I just went from a Garmin Fenix 3 (without 'HR') to a Forerunner 945. My short answer to your question is NO.

    Of course the 945 is a much more fancy and up to date watch, it's also lighter and smaller. But I was looking forward to a couple of features that all disappointed me:

    1. Optical heart rate: This was my biggest hope. But: I did two runs comparing the values to those of my chest strap. The values disagreed up to 20 beats. I even shaved my hair under the watch. Didn't help.

    2. Music: It's nice if you just listen to music. Syncing works well. But I would like to listen to podcasts. Syncing podcasts is way to inconvenient.

    3. Sleep tracking: Is a joke. The values are way off.

    After one week I decided to sell the watch and keep my Fenix 3. If optical heart rate had been more accurate I would have probably kept the watch.

    Cheers

    Matthias

  • Oh. Okay. Thanks!  That helps me a lot. 

  • I also went from a Fenix 3 (without OHr) to a 945, and I would say that for me it was totally worth it. With the addition of maps, I can now clearly see exactly where I am and which street / trail path I should take.

    And for me the Optical heart rate is fine on activities (a bit slow in reacting, but on easier activities it matches the chest strap perfectly) and working great in between - that being said, I do always run with a chest strap ensuring as much accuracy in my training as I can.

    The sleep tracking follows the time for when I go to sleep and wake up (can't say too much about the quality of the data though).

    I do not listen to music, so can't say anything about that. But the fact that the watch weighs so little, has also proved a big plus. I even use it (occasionally) when playing golf, since all the functionality for golf is there and the weight doesn't make itself reminded in the swing.

    I think that a lot of the people that hang around here in the forum are really keen and interested "nerds" (myself included!), and probably place quite a lot of pressure on the watches and their functionality (rightly so, it's quite an expensive watch). But I do believe the tendency in these forums is to hear all the complaints, while the satisfied people don't hang around here so much and thus their voices aren't heard.

  • I come from 2 years of 645M, complete disappointment: I broke 2 cases and I had a lot of SW blocks, a disaster! 945 is another thing entirely, long-lasting battery, a little big but light and comfortable even at night (I wear it 24 hours a day), the optical reader works like all the others on the wrist, not reliable but it is an intrinsic limit and for the activities you need the band, as well as the instant step you need the foot pod, the music player works fine, I don't care about sleep but I would like it to contribute to recovery, the suggested training I don't use, the altimeter is very subject to temperature changes but even here it is an intrinsic limit, the barometer is indicative of weather changes, the maps work well and are essential in the mountains. In conclusion I do not know if it is worth the price it costs (now 500 euros in Italy), but I am satisfied with my purchase, you have to waste some time to configure it well and at each SW change turn on and off a few times before everything works properly , Garmin SW engineers should improve the quality because these problems on smartphones have never happened to me.

  • It seems optical HR performance is very dependent on the user.

    When I got my FR945  (Oct 2019) I did several runs wearing my F3HR on one wrist (optical HR), FR945 on other wrist (optical HR), and hand-holding a FR310XT (paired to a chest strap). I put all the .fit files into the DC Rainmaker Analyzer tool to compare them. Obviously you don't care about performance of the F3HR optical, but I found that unless I was doing very short, intense work (for example, hill sprints) the optical performance of the FR945 was nearly perfect compared to the chest strap. Seriously, look at this: https://imgur.com/a/b0WGdDC (right-click a given image and hit "show image" to see it bigger). The run dated 8-26 is the one with a few hill sprints (the three humps visible on the chest strap).

    I came to the conclusion that for most, everyday runs the optical is perfectly sufficient for BPM. I didn't look at HRV data, so I can't comment on that (and it's impact on various performance data calculations). Maybe if I'm feeling really motivated I'll redo the test and see if there's been any improvements (or detriments) from firmware updates in the past 1.5 years.

  • Well, that completely depends on what is important for you of course...

    OHR: Works great for some, bad for others... Overal it seems to be fairly ok for steady runs, intervals are a mess. I have a polar OH1 for most runs, OHR is nice for 24/7 measurement still though (and works fine for me for that)

    Maps: Great to have for me, I don't use them every day or antything but just so nice to have them when needed 

    Battery life: 20-25 hrs GPS, 10-14 days between charging with about 3 activities a week

    Speed: I'm guessing using it will be quite a bit more fluid compared to the F3

    Size and weight: I'm a small guy, it's great. (Had a fenix 5 shortly, but prefer the 945 feeling wise)

    I don't care about sleep tracking or music so no experience with that...  

    If it's worth it for you, is all up to you... you can try to see if you can get it 2nd hand.

  • A 945 has a ton more statistics. Is it nice to look at those numbers? Yes. Are you going to do something with it (adjust your training) Probable not. (we could also discuss how accurate these statistics are for you as an individual)

    Like your fenix 3, my forerunner 935 has breadcrumb navigation. I like that, generate a route with garmin connect/strava/some other option and see where I end up. Most of the time this is fine. Sometimes roads are close together and I end up on the wrong road, but I find out soon enough. Maps could help here, but I don't think it opens new possibilities.

    I listen to music on my old iPod. I listen to dj sets, which are not on spotify. Getting music on a garmin watch other than from spotify is cumbersome. 

    Heartrate sensor doesn't work for me during workout. Most of the times it locks on my cadens. But I do like the 24/7 monitoring for reasting heartrate. That's a good indication of fatique and an early warning I get a cold.

    Is the upgrade worth it? Pure from a (amateur)sport point of view and economics: No! It will not improve your running or your training quality..

    If you want a new gadget? a 945 is a great new gadget. 

  • I've upgraded to 945 from F3 (no OHR) 22 months ago. No regrets and still would do the same.