From the 945 -> 965

I did this upgrade two weeks ago.

I used maps a lot and it's a world better than on 945 for actual useability.

Battery seems very good.

The UI/screen seems much more helpful when doing workouts - just so easy to see and read. However, the gesture wake up is slightly slow - so I had to keep my arm up slightly longer than I'd like to. I've changed the display to always on for activities for this reason but would actually like to be able to customise this to just workouts - I don't need always on for an ultra for example and it would be wasting the battery - the gesture wake up is fine long runs, but I do need always on for intense workouts/races.

GPS seems a lot better.

Extremely happy with this upgrade so far.

I have a few settings to figure out - for example, I did pace pro on a race on Sunday and at my lap intervals I had a voice telling me my split pace (fine, but didn't ask for voice) but also how far behind target I was - I don't know what units it was given in but it took ages to read out - you are 1247 behind target or something. I don't want the voice and I don't want the behind distance and if I have to have it I don't want it in those units lol.

Super helpful, thanks. Seems like most issues could be resolved with software which is always more encouraging than a hardware based limitation. I think I really would enjoy getting rid of the big bezels on the 945 - some watch faces, esp analog look pretty bad with them. The stock watch faces seem a bit "meh"/cartoonish from what I've seen, so I'd probably download some others.

And of course the much higher resolution screen would be great too, esp for someone who wears glasses, and better GPS is something I'm looking forward too, some of my runs look like they were done after some heavy drinking at times :)

Good to hear about battery life, that really hasn't been much of an issue as I charge my watch every few days routinely (I have a charging puck on my desk, easy to do) but it's nice not to fear running out of juice if you are heading out and haven't had time to charge properly.

I upgraded from a 945 to 965 and frankly the problem with not being able to read the screen in the sun during an activity on the 965 is a real problem - if I'd know about the 'real-world' screen brightness and the limited 15 seconds time-out I would not have brought the 965. Garmin have focused on producing a good looking 'smart' watch rather than a real 'sports' watch that is useful.

Interesting. My 965 is in the mail, I'll be curious to check it out.  Is the 15 second time-out not something that can be adjusted?  I definitely do a lot of my running when the sun's out.

I did a long run on Sunday and a lot of it was in very bright sunshine and I really didn't have any issues with the screen. I wasn't constantly looking at it but I was looking at map and at data screens and didn't have a problem.

I've only had one run with the the 965, yesterday in the bright sun, and it was fine, but obviously, I will need more time to fully assess this, but at this moment I think it'll be fine. It's a bright sunny day in Chicago, and I'll be heading out soon for another run.

Running in the sun is fine with the 965, make sure you have the correct settings selected. 

Go to Settings > System >  Display > During Activity

Always on Display set to On

Gesture Set to On