After years of procrastinating I finally decided to upgrade my Garmin watch. Having used Polar, Coros, Apple and Suunto watches my choice was always going to be a Garmin. Read my review on the 955 Solar and why you shouldn’t spend more on the 965. Some areas of frustration with it, it isn’t perfect but read on for these points and best customisation recommendations. It also kicks the iWatches ass and even has a secret hidden killer feature I thought only iWatches had. Read on.
Summary of Review
Trivelo Score – 5/5
Super simple to set up and get using. More configuration options than a Halfords inspired 90’s hot hatch. Lightweight, well made and stylish. Battery life to rival the old school Garmin watches including the epic Forerunner 920XT. Accurate and insightful fitness metrics for all your training suitable for any triathlete. At £200 less than the 965 and plenty of other benefits I outline below it is a perfect choice for anyone looking for a fitness smart watch. Buy one.
Pros
- Awesome battery life with over a week easily achieved even when actively using
- Combination of touch-screen and physical buttons make it easy to use while active
- Completely reliable tracking all activity and connectivity to your phone
Cons
- No Apple Music integration
- No wireless charging relying on a physical connection lead to charge
- Level of customisation options is great but can lead to confusion and redundant functionality
First Impressions
Unboxing the Garmin 955 Solar is as expected. Watch is boxed and follows the usual Garmin design ethos. Good quality materials. Not littered with plastics and minimal paperwork leaving you to explore your new watch through mobile app connectivity. All good so far and no surprises.
Setting up the Garmin 955 Solar watch
You need the Garmin connect app to get the watch set up. See my review of the Garmin Connect app for more information if this is needed. You are presented with a QR code in case you haven’t got the app already. This leads you to download the Garmin Connect App. It quickly pairs via Bluetooth to your way and steps you through the watch configurations. I completed this in under 5 mins to get up and running with the default settings to get on the go. No fuss and from there the watch retained connectivity with my phone throughout the review.
Swim Performance
The Garmin 955 Solar supports swimming in pools and open water. From the home screen you can commence a swim pressing the top right button and select your activity. Pool or Open Water. From here you can revise the pool distance and the views you have while swimming.
Upon starting your swim you just go and it tracks your key metrics from beginning to end. From swiming over 3 months and doing hundreds of miles of swimming the watch never lost a single lap. A contrast to a number of other watches. Tumble turns and pools of varying lengths made no impact on this.
Upon completion of the swim and saving it is transferred via bluetooth direct to my phone and the Garmin Connect app. Again this happened every time. No issues and no need to force the update.
If you have specific training sets to follow you can set these up in Garmin Connect and load onto the watch. When you swim the sets are stepped through by the watch for you to follow. You can also run a critical swim speed test using the watch that steps you through the timing and rest periods to calculate your CSS.
There are options that allow you to also set the data screens you view while swimming from the watch. You can even build your own view if what you need isn’t shown. I liked the second view with key current interval metrics the most:
- Interval distance
- Interval time
- Interval pace
Swimming with the Garmin 955 issue
One small issue with swimming with the Garmin 955 Solar is the custom pool length settings. You can adjust the pool length including choosing a custom pool length but this is limited to whole meters. If you swim in a pool of 27.5m length as an example it won’t accept this. Small issue but I swam in a pool needing this distance set and had to settle for 27m.
Cycling Performance
You can rely purely on the Garmin 955 Solar for your cycling computer if needed. So, if the prospect of buying an expensive bike computer is not worthwhile to you it is possible just to use the 955. You can tailor your bike data including switching on the climb pro function. This plus data screens allow tailoring to your needs.
If you have performed a VO2 Max test you can get cycling training recommendations in the same way as running training. These are useful and if you don’t have a coach acts as a proxy for a paid cycling coach.
Running Performance
The 955 Solar is a Forerunner evolution and inherits running functionality at its core. When selecting to complete a run the watch suggests a training run based on your body battery and recovery state. I used this increasingly as the watch learned my running performance and ability. You don’t need to run following the training recommendation and can just ignore and free run.
There are 3 standard running data screens you can view. If none of these suit like others you can build your own. I added the standard heart rate zone screen that I found especially useful for zone based training. This presents a large current heart rate number and a guage around the perimeter with heart rate zones.
I used the watch for outdoor and treadmill running in both free run format and following guided training runs. In all tests the watch captured my run and uploaded it without fault. You can also use the watch for navigation and upload training routes with the watch guiding you if in unfamiliar locations.
The heart rate wrist sensor works pretty well. Not as accurate as a chest strap sensor but plenty good enough where you have the strap relatively tightly strapped. Where you start to sweat a bit and add some moisture the accuracy seemed to improve.
Triathlon Performance
The Garmin 955 solar watch is built for triathlon. I have used earlier models for triathlon and they are great capturing all elements. The Forerunner 955 takes all this and continues to be an excellent triathlon buddy. One key feature that has advanced is the auto-detection of your progression through phases. With a choice of data screens and connectivity to peripherals the 955 really delivers. The killer feature of the 955 Solar for me is the battery life for Ironman triathlon. It can handle a full-distance race. Love it and completely recommended for any triathletes.
Garmin Morning Report
One of the features I love about the Garmin 955 Solar is the morning report. At first I couldn’t understand how the watch had a different watch face when I woke up. While sleeping the watch goes into a “sleep” mode itself and switches to a limited data view. When you wake up and are ready you can swipe on the touchscreen to get the morning report.
The first screen is your “Training Readiness” score out of 100. Based on your physical exercise the day before you are given a score and a recommendation on your readiness to train today. This became my bible. I wouldn’t always adhere to the result but it was a useful gauge. Combining my physical effort and my sleep.
Second screen is either a training recommendation for the day or a recommendation to Rest. Which you can duly ignore. I frequently do. The 3rd screen is a legend and one of the reasons I wanted to test the watch. It scores the quality and gives duration of your sleep. Plus a summary of the sleep you enjoyed. I noted that after drinking this score was hammered.
Fourth screen measures your heart rate variability. More on this elsewhere as some really useful insight for your general wellbeing. You then get a weather report and a final message of motivation to get you set.
You can add more data to the report and get a full low down of all your key data. I added everything I could get an update on in the end and used it religously.
Morning report. I love it and a real gem from the watch little advertised.
Battery life of the Garmin 955 Solar
The Garmin 955 Solar has an outstanding battery. I compared the watch to earlier Garmin Forerunner models and most recently up against the Apple iwatch. There is simply no comparison. On a full charge being used heavily I would regularly get more than 10 days of life from the battery. Charging takes a couple of hours and my only frustration here is the lack of wireless charging. Garmin persists with its own connector which means if you are travelling you must remember the lead or face lack of recharge options. If using the watch lightly it could readily achieve 14 days battery life.
Crucially for anyone looking at an Ironman the battery on the Garmin 955 Solar will comfortably support you over the line. Even at a finish time of 17 hours you would be well served by this watch.
Garmin 955 Solar iWatch killer feature
One feature of the iWatch I get continually reminded of by Apple fans is the phone ping feature. A legendary function if you are forever misplacing your phone. Just hit the ping button on your iWatch and your phone bursts into life chirping away. Hard to deny it is a handy feature.
Garmin watches have not shouted loud about their own secret squirrel functions like this. But low and behold your Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar has this same party piece in its locker. You can ping your iphone from your Garmin 955 and find it. In your face iWatch fans. So how do you do it?
Steps to ping your phone
- Press and hold the top left hand menu button.
- Select the phone? icon on the touchscreen
- Your phone pings and alerts you
Hidden Torch function on the Garmin 955
The Garmin Forerunner 955 includes a Torch function up its bag of tricks. You can essentially change the entire screen to be a large white circle acting as a torch. Bright enough to help you find something in the real dark. I wouldn’t rely it for a camping trip though!
To turn on the torch you long press the top left button and this takes you straight to the torch function. Much hidden. And worth knowing about.
Best watch faces for Garmin 955 Solar
You can select from hundreds of watch faces in the Garmin ConnectIQ app. You can also design your own if you cannot surface something that fits the bill. From trying out dozens of different watch faces the following are the my top 3 watch faces for the Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar:
- Futura – This is my absolute favourite. I customised the key data to include body battery and colours but other than this perfect as it comes designed.
- Tones – Beautiful and data rich. My only complaint was the figures for some key data such as current steps were too small to read. Maybe my eyesight!
- EASY Round – Similar to Futura watch face but I found all data points other than time were smaller than I would ideally like.
Why choose the Garmin 955 Solar rather than the Garmin 965
Two key reasons for making this choice and my recommendation.
- Cheaper. You can get the Garmin 955 Solar for up to £200 less than the 965 depending on sale prices.
- Battery life. The 955 Solar can last 10-14 days on a single charge. The 965 is more like 5-7 days depending on use. Headline is the battery lasts twice as long.
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