Garmin Forerunner 645 Music review

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music is a great GPS sports watch that has just about all the chops of the most expensive Garmin watches. Plus it comes with support for music, while looking much more accessible. It doesn’t last as long as the Forerunner 935 or Fenix 5, though, which is worth considering if you run every day rather than one or twice a week. That's no biggie for those who use exercise to keep the cheese and wine pounds off. But the price may be - £400 for a friendlier Garmin Forerunner is steep, especially when the similar Vivoactive 3 costs £250 online. READ: Top 10 best fitness trackers

Hardcore fitness skills in a smaller watch; Great screen for sunny days; Excellent fitness and HR tracking;

Interface lag; High price; Battery life doesn’t match Garmin’s best;

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music review

If you own a fitness tracker, shouldn’t you be able to leave your phone behind when you work out? Yes, but many fitness trackers still need to be tethered to phones for features like GPS and music. Not this one. Garmin’s Forerunner 645 Music, is a lightweight yet powerful smartwatch designed to cut you free from a phone entirely. Featuring built-in GPS, active heart-rate monitoring, contactless payments, and native music compatibility (a Garmin first), the Forerunner 645 Music looks every bit the part of a dynamic fitness tracker on paper. We decided to put the wearable through its paces to see just how well it performs in practice – and if it’s a true competitor to Fitbit and Apple. Like most fitness trackers, Garmin’s Forerunner 645 Music comes packaged with only the wearable itself, a charging cable, and an instruction manual. With a partial charge, our watch took roughly 30 minutes to fully charge out of the box, and typically only required an hour to charge it up when it drained a...

Offline music playback; Extensive fitness tracking capabilities; Doesn’t require a tethered smartphone for its full features; 5- to 7-day battery life;

Expensive; Buckle showed wear and tear after two weeks;

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music review review

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music Review

There's no shortage of fitness trackers on the market, but there are relatively few that allow you to lace up and hit the pavement without needing your phone nearby. At $449.99, the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music certainly isn't cheap, but it delivers a ton of functionality for the price. It has sensors that track everything from your steps and heart rate to your location and temperature. It also has NFC so you can leave your wallet behind, and holds up to 500 songs, so all you need is a pair of Bluetooth headphones and you're good to go. If you love to exercise outdoors and want to take a deep dive into your fitness metrics, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensive tracker. Functionality First The Forerunner 645 Music uses a traditional sports watch design that isn't unattractive, but is definitely more casual than elegant. The default black or pink silicone bands are textured, but don't feel particularly sturdy, especially given the price. On the plus side, you can swap ...

The Garmin Forerunner 645 Music is an excellent standalone fitness tracker for outdoor exercise enthusiasts looking for a wealth of metrics.

Excellent accuracy in testing; Lots of useful sensors; Advanced fitness metrics; Holds up to 500 songs; Swimproof design; Long battery life

Expensive; Steep learning curve