That extends to 100 hours in low-power mode. You get 40 hours of run time using full GPS and built-in optical heart rate. There’s also TrackBack to guide you back home safely following the route you’ve just run. Elevation profiles show you what awaits on the road and trails ahead.

You get reliable turn-by-turn navigation, with route planning powered by the excellent Komoot. It also adds a suite of extra navigation tools for tackling more adventurous runs. The successor to Polar’s ruggedised, trail-friendly Grit X, the good-looking Grit X Pro offers all of the running, training and recovery features you find on its top-end watches like the Vantage V2, just in a more hench frame. You’ll need to higher up the Garmin food chain for that and for things like Garmin Pay and other smart features which are missing here too. The safety features are impressive too with live tracking and incident alerts. And there’s women’s health tracking covering menstrual cycle and pregnancy. The 55 will also estimate your fitness age. That includes five running modes with track running and a virtual running mode for use with platforms like Zwift, plus Garmin Coach adaptive training plans, daily suggested workouts based on your recovery, handy GPS-based pace guidance for a selected course, cadence alerts to help with improvements in form and recovery advisor for advice on managing your rest between training efforts.īeyond the run, you also get fitness, stress and body battery energy level tracking.

Unsurprisingly you don’t get a full suite of training features here but the Forerunner 55 still has enough tools to cater for a wide range of running needs, with plenty of features geared towards the less experienced. It’s small, light and comfortable and though the small screen isn’t as easy to read or as luxe as pricier watches, the transflective display does a good-enough job in most light conditions. It comes with all the basics including built-in GPS and optical heart rate monitoring plus 20 hours’ GPS run time on a single charge and a general usage battery life that’ll get most runners through at least a week’s training. If you’re just starting out and want to make the step up from smartphone tracking apps to a running watch, or you’re on a tighter budget or simply want a simple option to keep tabs on your runs, the Forerunner 55 fits the bill.

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