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Forerunner 970 - Possible Purchase

sprinter400uk
22 days ago

The Forerunner 970 is in my 'basket' and I'm moments away from making the purchase.

I came to this forum to learn what I'm likely to expect. I guess it's the same with any item, you read about all the faults and issues and it can be a little off-putting. People who are happy rarely make a post to sing its praises but I'm sure there are many of you out there who are more than happy with this watch which looks amazing!

Many issues appear to be software related which will be hopefully rectified with a future firmware update. I see the odd hardware issue and Garmin appear to be supportive and replace the watch.

Could I be correct in thinking that the majority of problems have come from a bad batch and the newer ones could be better? To buy the FR970 direct from Garmin, they say it'll be ready to ship between 4–7 business days (it was longer a few days ago) so fingers crossed this new run would have addressed many of the issues reported here!

  • 0 20 days ago in reply to Former Member

    Cheers Gaz, you've given me the confidence to make the purchase!

  • 0 20 days ago in reply to sprinter400uk

    I exchanged money after 2 weeks still having the same issues with the phone assistant .

  • 0 19 days ago in reply to Fozzee1970

    Phone assistant never worked for me :( and it was one of my mostly used option during long runs with the phone strapped to my upper arm.

  • 0 19 days ago

    Buy it.BEST watch I have ever had bar none.  It fantastic and works great - but as you have been reading it certainly has some issues. 

    But I say that as someone who does not at all use phone assistant as my wife and i do not understand those that use it, isn't your phone right on you anyway?  Why introduce even MORE distractions? :-)  But that said I do agree that it should work if there.

    I also got the reboot issues but for some odd reason they just stopped. I have not had one for two weeks now. That was reported.  For them to say there are no issues reported is very bad faith as its obviously an issue as you can see in here. 

    The onboard watch assistant does not work well whatsover. (See my post on that). 

    Agree with the poster here who says it often is a delay for the screen to turn on. I want it to be faster. 

    Other gripes I have are with the garmin watch software in general and not specific to the 970.  BUT the watch itself is fantastic even with all this. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member 18 days ago in reply to matty

    Well now, after replacing at the retailer for a new one everything was fine but now it automatically updated to 6.17 from 5.13. Though I had turned off the toggle not to update Flushed.  Now I have ghost touches, it vibrates for no reason and amongst other issues on this forum. I have to soft reset for it to stop!. This firmware needs an urgent update. Been on phone to Garmin Support, like talking to a brick wall! No customer service . Might get the Amazfit Balance 2 as I’ve had no issues with the first one. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member 17 days ago in reply to Former Member

    Well now, after replacing at the retailer for a new one everything was fine but now it automatically updated to 6.17 from 5.13. Though I had turned off the toggle not to update Flushed.  Now I have ghost touches, it vibrates for no reason and amongst other issues on this forum. I have to soft reset for it to stop!. This firmware needs an urgent update. Been on phone to Garmin Support, like talking to a brick wall! No customer service . Might get the Amazfit Balance 2 as I’ve had no issues with the first one. 


    update 2/7/25 went out for a run and it crashed  about 2 miles in . It didn’t save the activity so this is going back for the 2nd time. Had enough of this