Garmin comes with quite a number of quality watch models that are all worth the money hence choosing the one that’s right becomes hard.
To make your work easy we have prepared this table to summarize the feature you expect in the 8 best Garmin watches you can buy this year:
8 Garmin Watches Best For You
| Garmin (Model) | Battery Life | Music Storage | Garmin Pay (NFC) | GPS | Elevate 24/7 Wrist Heart Rate | Preloaded Sports Functions |
 Vivoactive 3/3 Music | 7 days – watch mode 13 hours – GPS mode | Up to 500 songs (Music Version only) | Yes | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | Run, treadmill, cardio, bike, walk, yoga, stair-stepper, pool swimming, elliptical, golf, rowing |
 Forerunner 45/45s | 9 days – watch mode 13 hours – GPS mode | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | Run, treadmill, cardio, bike, walk stair-stepper, strength training | ||
 Forerunner 245/245 Music | 7 days – watch mode 24 hours – GPS mode | Up to 500 songs (Music Version only) | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | stair-stepper, cardio, strength training, yoga, pool swimming | |
 Forerunner 645/645 Music | 7 days – watch mode 14 hours – GPS mode | Up to 500 songs (Music Version only) | Yes | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | stair-stepper, cardio, strength training, yoga, pool swimming, ski/cross country |
 Forerunner 735XT | 11 days – watch mode 14 hours – GPS mode | + GLONASS | Yes | Run, treadmill, bike, walk, Pool swimming, open water swimming | ||
 Forerunner 935 | 15 days – watch mode 24 hours – GPS mode | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | Run, treadmill, cardio, bike, walk, strength training, Pool swimming, open water swimming | ||
 Forerunner 945 | 2 weeks – watch mode 10 hours – GPS mode | Up to 1,000 songs (Music Version only) | Yes | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes | Run, treadmill, cardio, bike, walk, Strength training, Yoga, Open swimming, pool Swimming, track, rowing, Run, treadmill, |
 Fenix 5/5S/ 5X Plus | 12 days – watch mode 18 hours – GPS mode | Up to 1,000 songs (Music Version only) | Yes | + GLONASS, Galileo | Yes |
8 Things Consider Before Buying a Garmin Watch
1. Display and Design
The display’s capacity and quality are important to consider when you are looking for a Garmin watch.
You will want to ensure that the display is good because it is where you will be viewing your fitness and wellness data most of the time.
The right Garmin watch for you should also be able to let you read on it with much ease whether indoors or outdoors under direct sunlight.
If the Garmin watch you want to get yourself is touchscreen ensure that it has a prompt response to touch and has strong, protective, and high-quality glass that way you will be certain that the watch will serve you for long.
Lastly, on display, consider a Garmin watch that comes with an AMOLED display panel instead of an LCD display panel.
And that’s because AMOLED display panels are superior to LCD display panels as they offer better colors, power efficiency, and contrast.
Also, ensure that the Garmin Watch you choose has removable straps so that you can customize it to match your day’s fit.
2. Battery
How long a Garmin watch can keep charged is also an important factor to consider when purchasing a Garmin wearable.
Unfortunately, most Garmin watches that limited battery life with only a handful of them promising to serve for up to a month.
Garmin smartwatches that come packed with built-in GPS, cadence sensors, music support, heart rate monitors, cellular support, and Pulse Ox sensor among other biometric sensors will offer a day or two of service – not in the smartwatch mode.
Watches that can serve for long are the budget and mid-range smartwatches. Such watches come with an important feature like power saver mode while increasing the period of service.
Talking of charging, most Garmin watches cradles or docks for charging. There are also a few Garmin watches that can charge wirelessly using Qi wireless charging. This is might be the best option when you get your bundled charging unit damaged.
3. Tracking
A primary feature you will find on any Garmin watch is the ability to keep track of our health.
For example, we have the step count feature which is a basic included in all the Garmin watches.
With the step count technology, you are going to find out the number of steps you did throughout the day.
The ability to monitor people’s health is a primary feature offered by all. With technology improving over the years, health tracking has gone beyond counting steps.
Recent Garmin releases come with SpO2 sensors, ECG sensors, heart rate monitors, sports tracking, activity tracking, your levels of stress, and much more.
When you are buying a Garmin watch consider one that comes with health monitoring alongside sports and activity tracking.
4. Price
How cheap or expensive a Garmin watch depends on the features it comes with and the design used to build it.
A high-end Garmin watch will offer the most advanced technology features whilst those that come at a low price will only offer basic functionalities. When buying a Garmin watch ensure that you are not straining your pockets.
You can use the features you are looking for in a Garmin wearable to set your budget that way you will be choosing the right smartwatch.
5. Connectivity
The most common connectivity features you will find on Garmin watches include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.
A number of high-end Garmin watches will offer cellular LTE connections. A Garmin that combines cellular LTE connectivity and GPS gives the user the ability to use it even without connecting to a smartphone.
Which gives you the ability to respond to calls and messages right from the wrist and monitor your location without bringing your phone along.
6. Music
A huge number of Garmin watches support music players. They can play locally stored songs and stream music via services like Spotify, Pandora, and Deezer.
This feature would serve you best if you don’t carry your phone along much while working out.
Garmin watches with music support can control music playing on your smartphone.
7. Contactless Payment
The contact payment feature is something you want to consider if you are the type that doesn’t like carrying a wallet and phone.
It might be a useless feature to consider if you have your wallet or phone with you all the time.
However, in this era of Covid-19, you will want to keep your transactions contactless for your health’s sake.
The newer Fenix models, Vivoactive, Vivomove 3 Style, and higher Forerunner models. The cheapest Garmin watch that supports NFC technology is the Garmin Venu Sq.
8. Communication
In case you reach a lot of calls and messages throughout the day it would be best if you consider a Garmin watch that is capable of notifying of you your incoming calls and messages so that you don’t miss out on any important information.
Garmin watch that comes with smart notifications saves you the time of going to your pocket to pick up calls or respond to messages.
While there are Garmin watches that will let you compose messages others will only let you send short pre-set replies.
Other premium Garmins will let you make or respond to calls even when your phone is turned off.
