In light of Garmin's recent launch of the new Forerunner 955, I took some time out to explore the quality attributes that the Garmin Forerunner 745 still has to offer and at the affordable price of R 8 949.
The Garmin Forerunner 745 is the intermediate between the premium Forerunner 935 and the entry level Forerunner 235. The 745 is the replacement of the original 735xt and comes in a much more sleek and sophisticated design, ideal for the minimalist.
As a Fenix user myself, the most identifiable feature was the physical attributes of the watch. The 735 comes in light, sleek and sophisticated design. My Fenix 6x Pro weighs in at 93g whereas the 745 comes in at a ridiculous 47g. I found the watch to fit my wrist comfortably and because of the weight I hardly noticed it during training and normal daily hours.
Incredibly, the only difference between the 935 and the 745 is the battery life and maps. Otherwise, the 745 packs all the same daily and technical features such as the following:
Smartphone compatible
Offline music storage and playback
Contactless payments
Weather reports
Daily tracking:
heart rate
Steps
Calories
Sleep
Body battery
Battery life
16 hours for GPS activities (no music)
7 days in smart watch mode
Performance & training features:
VO2 max for cycling and running
Race predictor
Training status
7 day training load
Recovery time
Altitude and heat acclimation
Training profiles:
Running - indoor and outdoor options
Cycling - indoor and outdoor options
Swimming - pool and open water
Triathlon
Multisports
Hiking
Strength workouts
Yoga
Snow sports (skiing, snowboarding, etc)
Given the above, one can see that the Forerunner 745 has a great balance between both smartwatch and active features making it a great companion for those looking to up their active lifestyle.
As a runner I try to keep my training as simple as possible to avoid over analysing the analytics as I have done so in the past. Therefore when I ran with the 745 I focused mainly on time, distance, elevation gain, heart rate and cadence.
Something I really enjoy is how my coach will upload my training sessions to the TrainingPeaks app which automatically links to my Garmin Connect and then assists me live during those training sessions.
I tested the 745 on both indoor and outdoor running activities and found accuracy in readings between Garmin, Strava and TrainingPeaks all lined up almost perfectly giving me very accurate training results.
Overall, Garmin has once again proven with the Forerunner 745 to deliver on quality, innovation and value.
It is easy to over invest in tech when starting out but I would recommend this watch to the novice runner, cyclist or triathlete who is looking for great technical abilities to support their performance growth.