First Impressions, Physical Design, and Fit

While it's certainly larger on the wrist than my old 245, and comes in one size, the Forerunner 970 is surprisingly light at 56g for its size and feature set. I wouldn’t call it chunky, but its presence is more pronounced, similar to other watches in this top-tier category. However, it feels more slender and sleek than Garmin’s Fenix line. 

This low weight is largely attributable to its high-quality materials, including a titanium bezel and a tough fiber-reinforced polymer case. The Sapphire crystal face also appears worthy of the price point; it has been extremely scratch-resistant and durable in my testing so far.

From a practical standpoint, a challenge with a device this feature-packed is designing the user interface to be intuitive. It’s a difficult task for a device with a screen a fraction of the size of an iPhone and five nearly identical buttons. 

While I wish the lap button was a bit more prominent or larger, as it's the most critical one during workouts, Garmin has done a commendable job making the most common features easily accessible. It will, however, likely take a couple of weeks to get a hang of the various menus, which button enables which function, and to fully customize the settings to your liking.

Display and User Interface

The star of the show is the new AMOLED screen. Its readability is about as good as it gets, and it was easily legible in all but the brightest direct sunlight, where some reflections on the glossy sapphire watch face interfered a bit. 

The AMOLED display definitely feels more modern, with a higher resolution and greater brightness than the Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) displays of old, though it still can't completely overpower a clear day at high noon. The sapphire face on this 970 is glossier than that of my old 245, which counteracts its improved brightness somewhat, but its display feels top of the line, and Apple-esque in its quality.

This display does come at a cost to battery life. With the "always-on" screen setting disabled, the watch projected a 10-day lifespan with my typical usage. Enabling "always-on" dropped that estimate to just two or three days. You’ll notice that some of the battery life metrics are actually projected to be worse here than on the 965. While the wrist-turn gesture generally activates the screen reliably, it’s not 100% perfect, and you may want to leave the screen on at all times if you aren’t battery-sensitive.

This model does offer a touchscreen for most of its features, which you can customize to your heart's content—enabling it for daily use, activities only, or turning it off completely. While useful for map navigation and scrolling through menus, I would argue that the touchscreen isn’t as fluid or intuitive as that found on an Apple Watch.

You can easily spiral down the rabbit hole of designing endless watch faces using the separate Garmin Connect IQ app. However, I was a little surprised at how difficult it was to design a simple and clean primary watch face using the stock options; many of the pre-loaded designs felt cluttered, but there are so many to choose from that you’re bound to find one that you’ll love — and be able to customize.

Running Features and Performance

Putting my practical hat on, this watch largely delivers on its core purpose. The first thing I noticed was how much faster the GPS signal locked in compared to my old 245. 

The Forerunner 970 features multi-band GNSS support, which allows it to connect to multiple satellite systems simultaneously. There are several different GPS options that trade off accuracy for battery life, but as a non-ultra runner, I tend to use the highest accuracy setting ("All + Multi-Band") given how much life the battery offers.

Even without putting it in a dedicated "Track Mode" and leaving it in the normal Run mode, I was impressed by how the watch automatically detected when I was near a running track in an effort to snap my GPS path to the oval and increase the accuracy of distance measurements. 

However, when examining the workout file afterward, the GPS path still deviated from the actual lane enough to make a small difference. It’s a great feature, but not one I’d trust for hitting my splits down to the second.

A minor quibble, which is probably more psychological than anything else, was the watch's tendency to have a slight delay between the time I press the lap button and the audible beep it produces. The delay is likely only a couple of tenths of a second, but it occasionally made me hesitate, wondering if I’d actually pressed the button at the start or end of an interval. This probably doesn’t affect the actual measurement of the time interval but is a small flaw in the user experience during a hard workout.

A standout feature that separates the Forerunner 970 from lower-tier models is its full-color, onboard topographic mapping. For road runners who enjoy exploring new routes or running in unfamiliar cities, this is a significant advantage. You can create courses in Garmin Connect (or sync them from platforms like Strava) and get turn-by-turn directions right on your wrist, which is immensely helpful for staying on track without constantly pulling out your phone.

The touchscreen, while not as fluid as an Apple Watch, finds its best use case here, allowing you to pan and zoom on the map with relative ease. For those of us who mix in some hillier terrain, the ClimbPro feature is a powerful tool. When following a pre-loaded course, it automatically provides real-time data on upcoming climbs, showing the distance, ascent, and average gradient left to tackle.

New Features and Training Metrics

Garmin has packed the 970 with an array of features, some more useful than others.

• Flashlight: Integrated on the top side of the watch is a new multi-LED flashlight. It seems to have about the same brightness as the one on my iPhone and is genuinely handy for navigating a dark room or for pre-dawn runs. While it’s not a replacement for a headlamp or an illuminated running vest, it’s an excellent and practical "nice-to-have" feature.
  

• Training Load: The Forerunner 970 also introduces a comprehensive suite of performance analytics, headlined by the Training Load feature. This metric is intended to help you track the cumulative physiological impact of your training. Each workout is assigned a load score based on EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption), which is calculated from your heart rate data to quantify the strain of the activity. The watch then tracks your 7-day load and tells you whether you are in an optimal range to be building fitness productively. 

I’ll be perfectly honest here: while it sounds sophisticated, I find this metric can be misleading if taken as gospel. The amount of training your body can tolerate is based on a set of factors far more diverse and complicated than a watch algorithm can measure. It ignores crucial variables like diet, life stress, sleep quality, genetic makeup, your historical running background, the shoes you’re wearing, and the surfaces you run on, etc.

While Garmin's system could be a helpful tool for monitoring general long-term trends, I would strongly caution against letting it dictate your training. 

For an experienced runner, relying on your own perceived effort and body feedback is often far superior to blindly trusting watch metrics that lack the full picture. It’s a guide, not a coach!

• Running Dynamics: There are a variety of more advanced metrics available related to running efficiency and power, such as Vertical Oscillation, Ground Contact Time, and Stride Length. However, it should be noted that you’ll have to spend an additional $130+ for the HRM-Pro Plus chest strap or a Running Dynamics Pod to unlock these. In my testing so far, these metrics have been fun to look at and contemplate, but they haven’t seemed convincing enough for me to rely upon them for training adjustments.

• Sleep, HRV, and Morning Report: For those interested in recovery metrics, the upgraded heart rate and SpO2 sensor is very appealing. The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and heart rate figures seem believable, as do the sleep cycle measurements, although it’s of course impossible to validate this data perfectly. These sleep metrics are consistent with those from other devices I’ve tested, including the Whoop band (which was wildly inaccurate for anything aside from sleep metrics). I also didn’t find the Morning and Evening Report features particularly helpful and decided to disable them from their default "on" state.

Here’s an example screenshot of the Garmin Connect report:

Accuracy

• Wrist Heart Rate: The wrist-based heart rate has been a huge improvement over my 245 for all-day tracking and easy runs. It seems to respond to fluctuations more quickly, and doesn’t experience dropouts as often as previous watches did. However, I’ve had two specific workouts in which the reading was wildly off, despite my wearing the watch snugly above my wrist bone as I’ve done for years. During one particular session of mile repeats at 10k effort, my heart rate was reading in the 130s when it would have been in the 160s or close to 170 in reality. For true accuracy during intervals, a chest strap is still non-negotiable.

• Treadmill Accuracy: The accuracy in treadmill mode started out as inaccurate but seems to have improved as I’ve added more mileage. The watch has presumably "learned" my stride, cadence, and arm swing. After about 30 miles on the treadmill, I’d say it’s accurate to within about 15 seconds per mile.
  
  

Battery Life

The watch's battery life is super impressive as well. Garmin's interface allows you to see the projected life based on a variety of settings, including screen brightness, always-on display, and GPS modes. With the always-on mode disabled, constant wear, and about an hour and a half of multi-band GPS use per day, I can see this watch lasting for 10 days before needing a recharge, which is fantastic.

Competitor Comparisons

Comparing the 970 to the 965, key hardware upgrades include:

• Built-in LED Flashlight: An integrated multi-LED flashlight with adjustable intensity and a red safety light mode. This feature was previously reserved for the Fenix line.

• ECG (Electrocardiogram) App: This allows users to check for signs of atrial fibrillation directly from their wrist.

• Upgraded Durability (Sapphire & Titanium): The screen on the 970 has been upgraded from Gorilla Glass to a more scratch-resistant ‘Sapphire Crystal’ lens

• Speaker and Microphone: Enables on-wrist phone calls when connected to a smartphone, and for interaction with a phone's voice assistant.

• Elevate Gen 5 Optical Heart Rate Sensor: Garmin's latest heart rate sensor, which also includes a skin temperature sensor.

• Apple Watch Ultra 2: The Apple Watch offers a more seamless user interface, a superior touchscreen experience, and deeper smart-watch integration. However, the Forerunner 970 is the more serious running tool, with a far superior battery life (especially with GPS), five tactile buttons for reliable use in all conditions, and more in-depth native training metrics.

• Coros Apex 2 Pro / Vertix 2: Coros watches are known for their exceptional battery life and simple, robust UI centered around a digital dial. While Coros might edge out the 970 on raw battery longevity, Garmin's ecosystem, including Connect IQ, and more vibrant display give it a more polished feel. Garmin's platform also offers features like onboard music and Garmin Pay, which are more mature.

• Suunto Race: A newer competitor, the Suunto Race also features a beautiful AMOLED display and impressive battery life, often at a lower price point. Where Garmin wins is the depth and breadth of its ecosystem, its third-party app support via Connect IQ, and its more refined training and health metrics.

Forerunner 970 vs. Forerunner 965

Conclusions and Recommendations

For the dedicated runner, the Forerunner 970 is a formidable tool that justifies its premium price tag. The combination of a lightweight, durable build, a brilliant AMOLED screen, and class-leading GPS and battery performance makes it a worthy successor in the Forerunner line.

However, it’s not without its quirks. The user interface, while powerful, requires an initial time investment to master. The wrist-based HR still isn't perfectly reliable for high-intensity training, and some of the advanced training load metrics should be seen as a guide, not a coach. As an experienced runner, I find relying on perceived effort is often far superior to blindly trusting watch metrics, but they can be helpful as long-term reference.

That said, the leap in performance from an older model (eg, the Forerunner 245) is astronomical. The speed, display quality, and sheer capability are in a different league. If you are a serious runner looking for a top-of-the-line GPS watch and can look past some of its minor software and sensor limitations, the Forerunner 970 is an outstanding choice that you are unlikely to regret.