I’ve had the Forerunner 970 since launch, and overall it’s been a great watch in terms of features, accuracy, and reliability. That said, one issue that has consistently bothered me is the laggy user interface.
I honestly expected this to be resolved by now through firmware updates, but it still feels very noticeable in day-to-day use.
The most obvious example is when starting an activity. After pressing the start button, there’s roughly a one-second delay before the activity actually begins. It might not sound like much, but it’s very noticeable and breaks the otherwise polished experience, especially on a device at this price point.
More recently, I’ve also noticed that navigating through glances isn’t smooth. Scrolling between them feels choppy and inconsistent, rather than fluid. What makes this more frustrating is that I have friends using other newer-generation Garmin watches, and their interfaces are noticeably smoother and more responsive in the same scenarios.
This leads me to wonder:
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Is this a known limitation of the Forerunner 970 hardware?
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Is the UI lag something Garmin is actively working on via firmware optimisation?
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Or is this simply the expected performance for this model going forward?
I’m not trying to nitpick, this is still a great watch, but responsiveness is a big part of the overall user experience, and it feels like the 970 should be capable of better performance.
I've had the last 4 Forerunner 9xx generations, this seems to be the most in terms of lag
