Garmin Forerunner 245 Music Review

Description of the Watch

The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music has a better design than the previous 235 models. The edges are rounded, making it look softer and much sleeker. It is lightweight for a running watch, keeping it from getting in the way while you train.

That being said, this watch does still use button input instead of a touch screen, which can be bothersome to some users, even though it was designed that way by Garmin, as many runners prefer that over touch screens. It also utilizes a transflective display screen, so that you can still read what it has to say even in bright sunlight. This is very helpful for running outside in the summer months.

Summary

We spent a lot of time researching this sports watch to make the shopping process easier for you. We determined that the Forerunner 245 Music is great for serious runners who like to listen to music or podcasts while they train. The storage is great and the battery life is also pretty good, so you can be confident it will not die in the middle of a long run.

However, some of the menus can be unnecessarily difficult to navigate. This is because there are so many different menus to sort through, so you can easily get lost- especially if you downloaded a lot of extra widgets. Repeatedly pressing the back button will eventually take you back to the main menu.

The navigation can be annoying during training if you want to quickly check a stat, as you might need to stop for a second to find the menu that you need.

These are all of the aspects to consider when thinking about purchasing the Garmin Forerunner 245:

Reasons to Buy

• Good battery life: It will last longer than any Apple watch. If you turn off the GPS, the 245 can hold a charge for about a week. With it on, you can expect it to last at least 24 hours. However, playing music at the same time causes the battery to drain very fast. With both the GPS and music on, you would get 6 hours of usage- still more than enough for your runs.
• Tons of training info: The 245 Music is great if you need to gather a lot of training data. It helps you figure out if you are making good progress and shows you how effective your running sessions were- plus, much more.
• Great display: The display can be seen easily, even on the sunniest days. Plus, the screen is colorful and efficient, making it easy to see.
• Works with Spotify: This model works with Spotify to provide you with entertainment on your runs. You would need to download the music from your computer onto the watch, so you would have to have a Premium account already.

Reasons NOT to Buy

• Hard to navigate menus: With all of the menus you need to search through, the button input system is inefficient- getting you lost all the time. This can be frustrating during a run because you do not want to constantly stop to find the information that you need. 
• The music is not always intuitive: Using your computer to download songs onto the watch is slow- and many people still prefer to use their phones for music on a run anyway, making this feature unnecessary.  If you plan to run with your phone, buying the 245 without the music feature would be the smartest choice, resulting in a much lower price.

Bottom Line

The battery life on this watch is wonderful and it lights up a colorful display. It is very accurate at tracking your activities and gives you access to a useful GPS. However, the menus can take a while to learn to navigate efficiently.

If you check your watch often during a run to see how you are doing, the menus can get annoying. However, this still is a great watch for runners and includes informative training metrics.

Technical Specs