- I have had 970 for month plus, coming from 965. The only upgrade I feel is the flash light. The rest is pretty much a mess. Good news is we are getting frequent update, bad news is none of the updates seem to have fixed massive issues I am observing. It is not even nailing the basics that were bolted not just nailed in the last 10 years of Garmin watches I have owned. Case in point, swimming stroke, etc. See screen shot. None of my pool swims have recorded any stroke stuff correctly, at least not in a way that correctly shows in app/web. One blip at the beginning and then nothing. Funny thing is lap numbers show up but not sure if trust them.
Thank God, I have Form Goggles and that does an ok job.
More issues:
Cycling recording was a mess in the first ride. So bad I am dual recording with my Edge instead of using it as second screen and check in the app before letting go.
It does not track sleep after an early brief brake, always tells me you slept like 4 hours even if I sleep all the way till noon. Hence training readiness and Garmin plans, etc. is a dumpster. At least I think root cause is just sleep and recovery tracking until proven wrong.
The mic and voice thing is utterly useless. Barely got it working once. The UX is worse than Siri 10 years ago. No feed back of when to start, stop etc and never were able to do an actual voice command to the watch itself, only triggered Google Assistant once or twice.
Finally, the band, imho, sucks. Definitely a regression compared to 965. With 945 and 9935 I experimented with 3rd party bands so I have a ton. 965 was well rounded and did not need any replacement. Could not bare 970 for more than two weeks. I also have and use an Instinct Crossover and it's band is miles better to the point that I really prefer that one just for comfort and have replaced 970 to an old nylon band I had.
Yeah, massive disappointment while paying a lot more. The only upgrade is the flashlight.
Ps. I have not observed HR issues others have observed most likely b/c Ialmost always use and HRM Pro+.
