Shall I buy 955?

Thank you so much! Would you recommend any other Garmin model or different brand altogether?

I don't have much experience with the other models. I came from a Forerunner 645 that served me well for 4 years, but I have no experience with any of the current models besides the 955. A friend of mine uses the Forerunner 245 and it seems to work for her.

I need to use the Stryd Workout app so my choices are pretty limited for an alternative.

Forerunner33 said:

however after reading posts here in community I became little skeptic

You shouldn't.
It is a forum bias. Obviously, somebody with a problem will be much more motivated to log in and post, then somebody who is perfectly happy.
That does not mean, there are no bugs.
But it does mean, those bugs DO NOT AFFECT EVERYBODY and also not every bug affects everybody.

I am overall very happy with my FR955 (and also was with my FR255 and FR245).
Of all the problems reported here, I only had a few and most of them not very critical.

Forerunner33 said:

or would you guys recommend some other option

Maybe Apple Watch ;)
Seriously, for heavy sporting, Garmin is not a bad choice. If you look at the forums of other brands (Polar, Suunto, Coros...) you would also think, there are just bugs.

FoleyRose said:

an update in February completely messed up the HR readings

Not for me, my FR955 is fine.

Thank you!

Thank you so much! Just that HR readings got a lot of hit and impacted people, so if I do buy will I have the same issue I wonder...I guess I could just return it within 30days..still bit of a hassle though

I'm fairly happy with my 955 and I'm actually the kind of person who complains about every bug on the forums haha.

IMO, Garmin will always have bugs and usability issues, but as a runner, Garmin gives me certain things that Apple Watch currently doesn't:

- ability to use watch for running workouts without looking (start, pause, take laps)

- ability to control exactly when an activity starts after opening the app (on Apple Watch, an Ultra-only feature marketed as "precision start").

- fully-fledged running app on the watch. Workoutdoors on AW isn't quite the same - as a 3rd party app, the screen goes to sleep (and gestures aren't recognized) until you turn your wrist, so it can't be used without looking.

- ability to glance at run stats without deliberate wrist turn (during the day). this is going away once most or all garmins are oled tho

- integrated running/fitness metrics (I know some of these are very questionable, but looking at the trends is helpful to me)

- navigation

- offline-first design (most things can be done without being tethered to a phone, which is important to me because I almost never take my phone on runs). Afaik, AW doesn't even let you review Workout history on the watch itself.

I will admit that Garmins cannot touch Apple Watches as far usability and polish goes. If I wanted a smartwatch, Garmin would be the worst choice.

Forerunner33 said:

I used Garmin FR 405CX in the past and I was happy with the HW but not SW

It's funny you should say that because all these years later, this is still the impression most people seem to have about Garmin: they're much better at hardware than software. For example, Garmin has the uncanny ability to make something as simple as entering strength exercise weight values *worse* over time. Anything which involves real-time communication between the watch and the phone is painfully slow, like the new feature where watch settings and data screens can be configured in the Garmin Connect phone app, or just scrolling through playlists to download on the Spotify watch app. (Yeah, I'm aware bluetooth is slow, but you'd think they'd prefetch/cache stuff to hide that from the user.)

I've used Garmins since 2013, and I do think they have come a long way, but they will never be great at software or UX, IMO.

I haven't had any HR issues, but I don't deny that anyone else is having problems. I've encountered annoying bugs in every high end Garmin I've used since 2017, but for now, the core 955 functionality is ok for me. (95% of my usage is just running tho.)

So if I were you, I would try out the 955, but make sure you can return it if you're not happy.

As much as I liked it at first, I hate it as much. From my point of view, definitely not. I have too many problems with my "recreational device" (quoted from garmin support), an expensive toy.

iosint said:

As much as I liked it at first, I hate it as much.

Just out of curiosity, what do you hate about it? I've hated a lot of stuff about Garmin for years, so I can probably relate.

Heart rate readings are wrong, the altimeter isn't working fine, stuff that only happens sometimes. Any calculations this watch makes are most likely not accurate due to that. I'm upset that Garmin Support doesn't see an issue with this. For them everything is working fine. "Clean your watch, tighten your watch band, ...". I've been using Garmin for 10 years and I think this is the last. Some don't have my problems and might recommend it.