Garmin kept its Black Friday pricing active on several models including this Forerunner 165 that’s still sitting at its all-time low of $199 instead of the usual $249. This watch targets occasional and regular athletes who want serious training features without dropping a grand on the latest Fenix flagship model.
The compromise here hits perfectly for people who run a few times a week or mix various activities but don’t need ultra-endurance battery life or sapphire crystal displays. The bright AMOLED touchscreen combined with traditional buttons gives you the best of both interface worlds without forcing you to choose between touch convenience and physical control reliability.
Why This Watch Is Good for Real Training Programs
Instead of sticking to a strict schedule that doesn’t take into account how your body feels, the daily suggested workouts change based on how well you did and how quickly you recover. The watch looks at your training load, sleep quality, and heart rate variability to suggest workouts that will help you improve without overtraining. This is very helpful if you want to get better without hiring a personal trainer because the watch basically sets up your training based on sports science. With Garmin Coach integration, you can get structured training plans for races of certain distances, like 5K, 10K, or half marathons.
Training effect labels tell you exactly what each workout did for you, like whether it helped you build your base endurance, improve your aerobic capacity, or raise your anaerobic threshold. This feedback helps you figure out if you’re really getting closer to your goals or just running a lot of miles for no reason. Recovery time calculations tell you how long your body needs to rest before the next hard workout which stops people from making the mistake of doing too many hard workouts too close together and getting hurt or burned out. The morning report shows you your sleep quality, HRV status, training readiness, and the weather forecast all on one screen.
The AMOLED screen has bright colors and deep blacks that make it easy to read data in bright sunlight or dim indoor light. This is more important than you might think when you’re trying to keep your pace while running without stopping. In smartwatch mode, with heart rate monitoring, notifications, and daily tracking turned on, the battery lasts for 11 days. GPS mode uses up power faster, only lasting 19 hours per charge but that’s still enough for several marathon-distance runs or several weeks of normal training before you have to plug it in. The 43mm case size fits smaller wrists well but it’s still big enough that you can read the screen without squinting while you work out.
Built-in GPS tracks your pace and distance without requiring phone connection, so you can leave your device at home for runs and still get accurate route mapping and performance data. Wrist-based heart rate monitors keep track of your heart rate all day and during workouts. However, they can have trouble with high-intensity interval training because quick changes in heart rate can confuse optical sensors. The watch has more than 25 activity profiles for running, cycling, swimming, HIIT, strength training, and other sports. Each profile has its own set of data fields and metrics that are relevant to that activity.
With smart notifications, you can stay connected to your paired smartphone without having to check your phone all the time. Your wrist will show you incoming calls, texts, and app alerts. With Garmin Pay’s contactless payment support, you can get coffee or snacks after your run without having to carry cash or cards. Just make sure your bank supports the service. The watch has safety features like incident detection, which sends your location to emergency contacts if it detects a crash while you’re outside, and manual assistance requests, which you can use if you need help.
At $199, the Forerunner 165 is one of the best training watches because it has features that used to cost $400 or more and this $50 discount makes it even better. You’re getting adaptive training advice, recovery metrics, and full activity tracking in a package that doesn’t feel like a compromise compared to more expensive models.