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Garmin Forerunner 170: One minute review
The Garmin Forerunner 170 and 170 Music sit nicely between the cheaper Garmin Forerunner 70 and the more expensive duo the 570 and 970, the latter of which can be found in our best Garmin watches guide. As such, both Musical and Non-Musical genres are part of the house; it’s not cheap enough to be automatically picked up by budget-conscious buyers, and it’s not expensive enough to be loaded with high-quality features.
However, it is packed with many fitness features that will suit any active exerciser, especially runners. Sebastian Sawe, who broke the world record for running a marathon in under two hours in London, won the Garmin Forerunner 55 – Garmin’s cheapest, stripped-down running watch.
What you’re paying for here is the Garmin Forerunner 70 – an excellent smartwatch at the low end, and a successor to the popular Garmin Forerunner 55 – with more smartwatch features attached. These include Garmin Pay, a virtual wallet that lets you pay with cards stored on the watch, and the Smart Notifications feature, which lets you view and manage alerts from a paired smartphone. The Forerunner 170 Music adds an additional 4GB of music storage.
If you don’t care about these features and want a great training tool, I’d get the Garmin Forerunner 70 instead, as it’s the best value of the three starters overall. But the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music lets you hit a Saturday morning parkrun, pay for your coffee, and run home with headphones – all without using your phone at all. It’s incredibly simple, but it’s not a package that everyone will need or want.
Still, during my testing I found the watch comfortable to use, comfortable to sleep on, and accurate against test units like my Polar H10 heart rate monitor. Our writer Michael Sawh found the same with the Garmin Forerunner 70. You can read my full thoughts on 170 Music below, but whichever watch you choose, you’ll be in good hands.
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Details
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Garmin Forerunner 70 |
Garmin Forerunner 170 |
Garmin Forerunner 170 Music |
|
Price |
$249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399 |
$299 / £259.99 / AU$479 |
$349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549 |
|
Size |
42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm |
42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm |
42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9mm |
|
Weight |
40g |
it’s 41g |
it’s 41g |
|
Case/bezel |
Fiber reinforced polymer |
Fiber reinforced polymer |
Fiber reinforced polymer |
|
Show |
AMOLED 390 x 390px |
AMOLED 390 x 390px |
AMOLED 390 x 390px |
|
GPS |
GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS, SatIQ |
L1 GPS, GNSS, Galileo, and BeiDou |
GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo |
|
Battery life |
Up to 13 days, systems GNSS mode: Up to 16 hours |
Up to 10 days, systems GNSS mode: Up to 14 hours |
Up to 10 days, GNSS mode for all apps: Up to 14 hours (6.5 with music) |
|
Communication |
Bluetooth, ANT+ |
Bluetooth, ANT+ |
Bluetooth, ANT+ |
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Price and availability
- Garmin Forerunner 170: $299 / £259.99 / AU$479
- Garmin Forerunner 170 Music: $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549
- Garmin Forerunner 70: $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399
The Garmin Forerunner 170 without music storage costs $299 / £259.99 / AU$479.
The Garmin Forerunner 170 Music, upgraded with 4GB of internal memory for music storage, costs $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549. The Forerunner 70, which lacks the 170’s smartwatch features like Garmin Pay and Smart Notifications, is cheaper at $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399.
We’re looking at the Garmin Forerunner 170 today, and I think the watch is generally good value for money compared to some of the more expensive Garmins on the list, but maybe not compared to the 70, which is $100 / £80 / AU$150 cheaper for a very similar watch. If you don’t want Garmin Pay or notifications, you’re better off saving your money and getting the 70.
Neither Garmin has the widest set compared to watches from Apple and Samsung at the same price, but their batteries last longer – up to 10 days out of 170 – and their workout guarantees are excellent. This ensures that you can get the most out of battery-sucking GPS each week while still retaining enough smartwatch functionality that matters, all without needing to charge for years. Every Garmin watch is durable as well.
I’d say it’s generally a good value proposition, even if it ends up being expensive with 170 Music.
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Design
- It repeats the design of the existing Forerunner
- Amazingly dim AMOLED screen
- Raise the heart rate sensor V4
The Garmin Forerunner 170 looks a lot like every other Forerunner, but if this is your first Garmin that won’t mean much. It has five button configurations — up, down, light, start, stop or select, and back (or lap). You can use these, the touchscreen, or a combination of both to navigate the watch, which is great if you’re wearing gloves.
It comes in one size, with a 42.6mm screen, and packs an AMOLED display rather than the dim memory-in-pixel digital-style screen of older watches, but it’s not very bright even at full power. It comes with a dual-tone silicon strap, and on the back it has Garmin’s oldest heart rate sensor, the Elevate V4. More expensive watches get the more accurate V5, but the V4 is included here probably to keep costs down.
It’s very light, with a listed weight of 41g, and feels less than that in the hand. A simple watch is ideal for working and collecting health information as it is easy to wear, and this checks the boxes.
Those familiar with Garmin products will be pleased to know that no liberties have been taken with the design of Garmin’s proprietary software, either in the look or in the Garmin Connect operating system. I think it’s the perfect combination of stripping down and experience heavy, though there are a lot of menus to get lost in. Buttons make it easy to navigate for old hands. It’s a tried and tested design, that doesn’t break the mold in any significant way.
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Features
- Active dynamics are advanced
- Limited smart notifications functionality
- 170 Music offers mp3 and streaming downloads
Many functional features are packed here. As the name suggests, Garmin has included its advanced dynamic tools such as running power (a measure of your total active effort using movement and heart rate data), as well as advanced statistics such as stride and cadence data after your run. During workouts, you can set routes on Garmin Connect with virtual pacers to keep you on track.
You also get the usual health stuff, like heart rate and sleep score, 80 workout routines (though not all are powered by metrics or GPS) and morning and evening reports that provide information about your training and the weather and a motivational quote. Garmin Forerunner 170 gets Smart Notifications, which allows you to answer other exercises with simple answers and Garmin Pay functionality that works like a virtual wallet like Apple Pay.
170 Music’s 4GB of storage lets you upload songs directly to the watch, including saving playlists from the likes of Spotify. Even without a dedicated music model, you can listen to apps like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music and more on your phone, and control the music on the watch there. The Garmin Connect IQ Store has dedicated widgets for these services, along with thousands of other apps from a mix of big-name brands and enthusiastic newbies.
If not, what is missing? I didn’t expect full-color maps at this price, breadcrumb navigation and route directions are common on most Garmin watches without maps, so I don’t feel like the feature is missing, either.
However, to justify the price increase from 70 to 170 Music, I think it needs more hardware features. A microphone like the Garmin Forerunner 570, along with the ability to make calls on the watch and use Garmin’s simple voice assistant, would set it apart better. As it is, most people looking for dedicated smartwatch features will find one of the best Apple watches or the best Samsung watches instead.
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Performance
- Accurate against a heart rate monitor
- GPS works well compared to Apple Watch Ultra 3
- It is comfortable and easy to wear every day
I tested the Garmin’s heart rate accuracy against a Polar H10 chest-mounted heart rate monitor – the gold standard for heart rate accuracy – during a 25-minute treadmill test, and I was very happy to report that despite the old sensor, both the average and maximum heart rate were within 1-4bpm of the heart rate monitor; a very acceptable margin of error and not statistically significant.
The GPS was accurate compared to my Apple Watch Ultra 3, and the battery life lived up to its claims, with the entire output lasting more than a week with most GPS usage. I feel that the listed battery life of ‘up to 10 days’ reflects the truth.
Lighter and smaller than most Garmins I’ve tested, they’re comfortable to wear every day and great to sleep on.
- Performance rating: 4.5 / 5
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Scorecard
|
Section |
Comment |
The result |
|
Price |
It’s not barnstorming value compared to the 70, but it probably won’t disappoint. |
4/5 |
|
Design |
It builds upon the Forerunner’s existing solid design with minimal iteration. |
4/5 |
|
Features |
Rich training information and smartwatch features. |
4/5 |
|
Working |
Strong performance compared to industry standards and contemporaries. |
4.5/5 |
Garmin Forerunner 170 review: Should I buy?
Buy if…
Don’t buy if…
Think again
How did I check?
I wore the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music for over a week, draining the battery and using as many of its features as possible. I raced it and used it for strength and yoga sessions, tested its smart features, and pitted it against many of our competitor’s devices, including a chest strap heart rate monitor.