Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE, Premium GPS Running/Triathlon Smartwatch with LTE Connectivity, Whitestone

My Apple Watch Series 6 GPS + Cellular developed a swollen battery, rendering it pretty much unusable. I considered getting another Apple Watch, but I’m not willing to spend a few hundred dollars every 2–3 years due to battery issues. Plus, the new Apple Watch lost its blood oxygen sensor due to patent infringement case. That left me with only one other option on the market that has cellular connectivity: the Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE.It took me a while to get used to Garmin, but I’m in love now. The battery lasts over 2 weeks compared to just 2 days on the Apple Watch, which is huge! It integrates with phones to sync calls, texts, and emails, allowing you to read them on the screen. However, you can’t write SMS messages or make calls directly from this watch - the cellular connection is strictly for emergencies. The Garmin cellular plan costs around $6 per month, which is also cheaper than the $13 per month I paid with my carrier for the Apple Watch.The Garmin watch offers advanced fitness metrics, onboard offline maps, and support for external sensors tailored to athletes. I thought I’d miss Apple Pay and Spotify, but Garmin includes Spotify on the watch and has its own Garmin Pay feature. I also love the Garmin Connect app, which provides excellent insights about training and body vitals and is regularly updated.Overall, I’m very happy with the purchase and hope Garmin releases more watches with cellular connectivity in the future!

I purchased this watch for the battery life and LTE functionality, although it is only for use in emergency situations. If you want to make/receive texts and calls without your phone nearby, this may not be the watch for you. If you don't care about full-fledged smartwatch functionality when you aren't in bluetooth range of your phone, and want a fitness-centric device, it is worth the money. My Samsung watch 4 LTE has fantastic smartwatch capability when out of bluetooth range, but you pay the price in battery drain. When tracking a workout with music on my connected headphones, I'd be lucky to make it through a day. One other thing I love about the 945 LTE is the Garmin Coach running plans that are included through the Garmin Connect app. Just choose one and start completing activities, and it automatically adjusts your training based on your fitness level, and continues to adjust the activities throughout the program.Syncing albums from Spotify was a pain at first, but I joined Garmin's Beta testing program and after a software update, it was easy peasy. I am extremely satisfied!

I was an avid user of Garmin since the 910xt back in 2013. Has used the 920, and Fenix 5 before quiting and switch to apple watch because my Fenix 5 GPS was so unreliable. Whilst Apple Watch is great but it was a smartwatch first and sportwatch second, and not quite fit my need for longer workout with granular workout data tracking.So glad to be back in Garmin again. This time my GPS is spot on.

I bought this watch back in February 2023, using it as both my running and everyday watch. Between the LTE connection and the ability to store music on the watch, I felt I had finally found a way to leave my phone behind and not have to worry about uncomfortable straps digging into my arm or hip.The enjoyment lasted until the end of May, when I noticed the watch became stuck in a reboot cycle. The Garmin logo would be displayed, there would be second where the screen said maps were being loaded, the screen would go black, and the cycle would repeat again.I reached out to Garmin and, to their credit, they issued me a free replacement. The replacement lasted less than 12 hours, as I woke up the day after setting up the new watch to find it stuck in the same reboot cycle.I've reached out to Garmin support again, but even if they send me yet another replacement, I'll always be worried it will develop the same problem.UPDATE: My second replacement arrived yesterday. I woke up this morning to discover this watch ALSO stuck in a reboot cycle.Avoid this watch at all costs.

There was LTE subscription and it's cheaper than other company. Satisfied !

Love this watch. Simply due to the LTE emergency feature. I’ve owned various Garmin and Apple watches over the years, only reason I ever went to the Apple watch is I DON’T want to have to lug my phone along on every run. But want to feel I can still get help if I get hurt or need assistance while on a run. Apple battery life sucks compared to Garmin by a long shot.The 945 lte has music, great battery life, smart features (which I actually disable them all), and the ability to get help if needed phone free! For me, that’s all I need or want.Wished they’d add the LTE emergency feature to the Fenix line.

Love this watch and app. Love looking at my running swimming and biking stats. Tracks my sleep and heart rate. Love itI wish it had integrated calorie tracking

I love this watch: it tracks everything very accurately and explains how to use all the data, looks great, functions well as a day to day smart watch, etc. It seems very durable and I plan to use it as my daily driver for a long time.However, I can only give it two stars for 2 chief complaints. There is a bug with pool swim workouts that renders that feature unusable. You can still track pool swims but the on screen pool swim workouts breaks after one lap/interval. It seems like there are a few other bugs that other users are experiencing but this is the only one that I've encountered/affects me.The other complaint is that the sleep tracking is awful. It can barely tell me when I go to sleep and wake up, let alone accurately determine what state of sleep I'm in.The software support seems lazy for these reasons.I strongly recommend this watch but for a $650 product I can't give it more than 3 stars until these things are addressed.