Simply because many of the finest smartwatches have built-in GPS as a normal function doesn’t imply they’re going to be the fitting selection for all runners. Whether or not you’re coaching to your first triathlon otherwise you need to step up your sport from newbie to intermediate runner, a devoted GPS operating watch can present plenty of advantages over a normal smartwatch. Quicker and extra correct GPS might be a type of issues, along with extra superior well being metrics, extra trackable exercise profiles and extra-long battery life. And people are on high of ordinary “smart” options like telephone notification alerts, digital assistant help, onboard music storage and extra. I’ve been an everyday runner for almost 5 years and I examined out a bunch of the most recent GPS operating smartwatches to seek out those which might be really value your cash.
What to think about earlier than shopping for a GPS operating watch
GPS velocity and accuracy
A very powerful factor for a GPS operating watch to have is quick, correct GPS positioning. Which may appear apparent, however it’s fairly straightforward to get distracted by all the different options most of those gadgets have. Since most of them might be worn all day lengthy as normal smartwatches, there’s plenty of (probably pointless) fluff that appears good on paper however gained’t imply a lot if the core function if the machine is left unfulfilled. To that finish, I paid explicit consideration to how lengthy it took every machine’s built-in GPS to seize my location earlier than a run, if it ever misplaced my spot and the accuracy of the generated maps. Additionally, the machine must be sensible sufficient to allow you to begin monitoring a run whereas the GPS appears to be like to your location.
Exercise profiles and trackable metrics
Chances are you’ll not have the ability to suss out GPS accuracy simply by taking a look at a spec sheet (that’s the place this information can assist), however you possibly can test for options like supported exercise profiles. That’s one thing you’ll need to look into, even when your one and solely exercise is operating. Verify to verify the GPS operating watch you’re contemplating helps all of the sorts of operating actions you love to do (out of doors runs, treadmill runs, and so forth) and another exercises you might need to observe with it.
Most health wearables right now aren’t one-trick ponies; you’ll discover a wholesome variety of trackable train modes on any operating watch value its salt. That mentioned, the variety of exercise profiles might be straight proportional to a tool’s worth: the extra premium the product, likelihood is the extra particular, exact exercises it could monitor.
In the same vein, you’ll need to test the trackable metrics of any watch you’re contemplating before you purchase. Since we’re speaking about GPS operating watches, most will have the ability to observe the fundamentals like distance, coronary heart price and tempo, and people are naked minimums. Some watches can monitor further stats like velocity, cadence, stride size, cardio and anaerobic coaching impact, depth minutes and extra. When you’re already a critical runner who trains for a number of races every year, you’ll need to dig into the spec sheet of the watch you’re contemplating to verify it could observe all your most crucial metrics.
Measurement and weight
It’s value testing a watch’s case dimension and weight earlier than going all-in on one. GPS operating watches, and normal smartwatches as properly, can have a couple of completely different sizes to select from so that you’ll need to be sure you’re getting the perfect match to your wrist. I’ve a smaller wrist, so I are likely to keep away from extra-large circumstances (something over 42mm or so), particularly if I intend on carrying the machine all day lengthy as my predominant timepiece. Weight, however, is rather less controllable, however sometimes smaller case sizes will prevent a couple of grams in total weight.
Battery life
In contrast to common smartwatches, GPS operating watches have two sorts of battery life you’ll want to think about: with GPS turned on and in “smartwatch” mode. The previous is extra necessary than the latter as a result of most GPS operating watches have stellar battery life when used simply as a wise timepiece. You’ll be able to count on to get a number of days on a single cost, with some surviving greater than two weeks (with all day and evening put on) earlier than they want a recharge.
Battery life with GPS turned on will likely be a lot shorter by comparability, however any GPS operating watch value its salt ought to offer you at the very least 10-15 hours of life with the GPS getting used repeatedly. The extra you’re prepared to spend, the upper that quantity sometimes will get, with some GPS operating watches lasting for 40 hours whereas monitoring your location.
Finest GPS operating watches for 2024
Photograph by Valentina Palladino / Engadget
Out of all of the watches I examined, the Garmin Forerunner 165 was the one I wished to put on probably the most after I went out for a run. The experience of the Forerunner line is within the title, and Garmin actually excels at making complete but pleasant GPS operating watches in flavors that may swimsuit every kind of athletes, from newbie to skilled. The Forerunner 165 stands out with its light-weight design, brilliant AMOLED touchscreen, simple button controls, correct built-in GPS and its means to trace exercise stats simply in addition to all-day exercise information.
Beginning a run with the Forerunner 165 is as straightforward as urgent a single button — the top-right button on the case actually has “run” embossed onto it, and it takes you to the exercise profile menu the place you possibly can select the train you need to observe. Run is the primary choice, however you have got greater than 25 profiles to select from together with observe run, treadmill, stroll, power, swim and extra. When operating outdoors, the GPS took a mean of 15-20 seconds to lock onto my location, however you don’t have to attend for it to take action — press the run button once more to start and the GPS will catch up by itself.
Throughout a run, it’s straightforward to look down on the brilliant, 1.2-inch AMOLED show to test stats like distance, tempo and coronary heart price. Audio prompts are enabled by default and so they’ll inform you the time it took you to finish every lap (mile). You’ll be able to customise these prompts additional within the Garmin Join app if you wish to know issues like your present tempo, coronary heart price or coronary heart price zone and different information. That is one thing I recognize about Garmin Forerunner wearables typically — you possibly can go as deep as you need with them. I want retaining audio prompts to a minimal, however somebody with a distinct desire can get all the information they need learn out to them with only a few faucets within the app.
That extends to different components of the Forerunner expertise as properly through the Garmin Join app, which has come a good distance in recent times. The beforehand clunky, complicated app has been properly refined so as to customise its homepage the exercise and exercise stats you care about probably the most, together with issues like Physique Battery, Sleep Rating, menstrual cycle data and extra. It’s straightforward to dive into your most lately tracked exercise and get within the weeds with tempo, cadence, coaching impact (cardio or anaerobic), energy and stamina stats. On high of that, Garmin’s adaptive coaching plans can assist you put together for 5K, 10K and half-marathon races with prompt day by day exercises and customized ideas primarily based in your most up-to-date exercise information. What pissed off me most previously with Garmin Join was the truth that it wasn’t very user-friendly, and that made it tough to essentially use a tool just like the Forerunner 165 to the fullest. That’s not an issue anymore.
I discovered the 30.4mm case on the Forerunner 165 to be simply the fitting dimension for my wrist, and at 39 grams, the watch is tremendous light-weight and cozy to put on even in the course of the sweatiest of coaching periods. The bands are interchangeable, too, since they’re a normal 20mm dimension. However I loved those included with the Forerunner 165 as a result of they’ve a wholesome variety of notches on them, making it straightforward to get a just-right match to permit for correct coronary heart price monitoring.
Garmin places the battery lifetime of the Forerunner 165 at 11 days in smartwatch mode, and I discovered that to be largely correct even with a handful of GPS-tracked runs thrown in. The corporate claims you’ll stand up to 19 hours of battery life with steady GPS use, which must be sufficient for many runners and athletes competing in long-haul races. You can too get the 165 with music storage in-built or not, with the previous permitting you to retailer music regionally on the watch so you possibly can hear with a pair of Bluetooth headphones.
The Garmin Forerunner 165 will set you again $250 with out music storage, or $300 for the mannequin with music storage in-built. That’s on the decrease finish of the worth spectrum for GPS operating watches; you could possibly simply spend $500 or extra in case you’re not sure about what you want and what’s simply further fluff. Whereas Garmin does have a couple of cheaper gadgets, the Forerunner 165 strikes the fitting steadiness of function set and worth that may enchantment to seasoned runners and those that are simply diving right into a extra regimented operating routine. It does all the fundamentals properly and helps a variety of further options like coaching impact that may appease runners on the lookout for one thing barely above common from the soar, however may even be helpful for novice runners who need one wearable that may develop with them because the advance their coaching.
Photograph by Cherlynn Low / Engadget
Learn our full Apple Watch Collection 10 overview
Do not consider the Apple Watch as a operating watch. Consider it as a smartwatch that occurs to have a operating mode. Years after the unique Watch made its debut, Apple has efficiently remodeled its wearable from an overpriced curiosity to an really helpful companion machine for the lots. However being a gadget for the lots implies that in terms of operating, the Apple Watch has by no means been as function wealthy as competing gadgets constructed particularly for that function.
That is still true now, even with the Apple Watch Extremely 2 within the combine. However we’re speaking about the usual Apple Watch right here, and we prefer it partly as a result of it’s the mannequin on this listing that we predict most individuals will need to put on every single day, all day lengthy. The latest mannequin is trendy, or at the very least as trendy as a wrist-based pc might be, and positively extra so than another operating watch. The aluminum, waterproof physique and impartial Sport band go along with most outfits and can proceed to look contemporary after all of your sweaty exercises and jaunts by the rain. And the always-on show is straightforward to learn in direct daylight.
As for operating particularly, you are getting the fundamentals plus a couple of extras. You’ll be able to see your distance, calorie burn, coronary heart price readings, common tempo and likewise rolling tempo, which is your tempo over the previous mile at any given second. You can too set tempo alerts — a warning that you are going sooner than you meant to, for instance. When reviewing a exercise within the Health app, you possibly can see further stats like common energy, vertical oscillation, floor contact time and stride size.
For extra detailed monitoring, your finest guess is to look outdoors of the Apple ecosystem and experiment with third-party operating apps for the iPhone, like Strava, RunKeeper, MapMyRun, Nike Run Membership and others. These allow you to observe actions with the Apple Watch and sync information between the devoted app and Apple Well being — arguably the perfect of each worlds.
Apple guarantees an all-day battery life and, certainly, I by no means have an issue making it by the day even with a GPS-tracked run thrown in. That mentioned, most devoted operating watches declare longer utilization time — between 30 and 40 hours of total battery life in some circumstances. Relating to exercises particularly, Apple charges the battery life with GPS at as much as seven hours. Provided that, I’d belief the Watch to final by a brief run or perhaps a half marathon, however it would possibly wrestle in the direction of the tip of a slower, 5-hour or extra marathon.
If battery life is your greatest concern, you might need to think about the Apple Watch Extremely 2, which Apple claims can last as long as 35 hours with GPS turned on. That’s on the excessive finish of Apple’s spectrum, with the low finish being 12 hours with GPS turned on and no different compromises (like Low Energy Mode enabled). Nonetheless, 12 hours is almost double the GPS-enabled battery lifetime of the Collection 10, so the Extremely may very well be a great choice for runners who need a watch they will comfortably (and stylishly) put on all day and nonetheless use for coaching. Nonetheless, extra informal runners will discover all they want in the usual Apple Watch.
And for anybody trying to avoid wasting money, the Apple Watch SE isn’t a nasty choice if this method will work finest for you. The SE has all the identical core operating options as the usual Apple Watch, however you’ll have to sacrifice in a couple of methods. In comparison with the Apple Watch Collection 10, the Apple Watch SE’s show is about half as brilliant at peak power, which can make it tougher to learn open air. The SE additionally runs on the S8 SiP, which gained’t be as environment friendly as the brand new S10 within the Collection 10. Elsewhere, there’s no fast-charging or ECG capabilities on the SE, and it’s not IPX6 mud resistant. Discover how none of these options are particularly associated to figuring out or operating, however they may have an effect on your total expertise and the longevity of your smartwatch.
Photograph by Valentina Palladino / Engadget
When you’ve used one Garmin Forerunner watch, you’ve just about used all of them. The most important variations between our high decide and the extra superior Garmin Forerunner 965 are available further options, plus a bigger case dimension that sports activities a glossy titanium bezel.
For starters, there are a selection of extra particular exercise modes out there on the Forerunner 965 that aren’t on the 165, together with indoor climbing, archery and bouldering. The premium watch additionally helps trackable metrics like non-obligatory all-day acclimation for pulse ox, and extra superior information factors like coaching readiness and standing.
To get a great understanding of the minute variations between varied Garmin gadgets, the corporate’s web site has a useful comparability instrument that will provide you with the rundown of all probably the most nerdy stats. You probably have a focused coaching plan or a particular purpose you’re attempting to achieve, it’ value consulting the comparability instrument to verify the GPS operating watch you’re considering of shopping for can deal with every little thing you throw at it, and reviews every little thing again to you that you simply want most.
The 2 {hardware} variations between the Forerunner 965 and the 165 that may make or break your choice are available GPS and battery life. The 965 has multiband GPS, which Garmin claims is extra correct when utilizing the watch in “challenging” environments like amongst tall buildings in cities and in areas with a lot of tree cowl. I didn’t get the prospect to check this since I dwell in suburbia the place properties could also be semi-close to one another, however skyscrapers are nonexistent. Nonetheless, the Forerunner 965 was noticeably sooner at buying a GPS sign earlier than beginning a run — it sometimes solely took 5-10 seconds for it to lock onto my location.
Battery life is rated larger on the Forerunner 965 as properly: you possibly can stand up to 23 days in smartwatch mode, which is double that of the Forerunner 165’s 11-day battery life in the identical mode. The 965 also can run for a most of 31 hours in GPS mode (it may very well be much less relying on the opposite sensors you have got employed concurrently), whereas the 165 will final about 19 hours. Very similar to with multiband GPS, deciding how a lot battery life you want will largely rely in your coaching routine and private preferences. When you’re a long-range runner who spends hours on the path throughout each coaching session, it’s truthful to say both Forerunner machine will serve you properly — however you’ll have a big battery buffer in case you go along with the extra premium choice.
Fitbit
We’d be remiss to not point out the Fitbit Cost 6 on this information, which sits on the high of our listing of finest health trackers. When you’re not bought on the normal timepiece design, the Cost 6 provides a compelling different. It has a decrease profile total, to not point out its band design is extra svelte than many of the high picks on this listing. It nonetheless has a full-color AMOLED contact show, a facet button for simpler navigation, 20 train modes and a days-long battery life. The built-in GPS offers correct distance and tempo monitoring for out of doors runs and bike rides, and you’ll even pair the Cost 6 with some train machines through Bluetooth whenever you’re exercising indoors.
The place you sacrifice with the Cost 6 is in superior options and customization. It may’t compete with Garmin gadgets in terms of train information tracked, and it doesn’t assist that some exercise information lies behind the Fitbit Premium paywall both. Watchfaces are customizable solely to some extent and the bands are proprietary. Nonetheless, it’s one of many cheaper objects on this listing, so in case you’re trying to solely spend what’s essential to get built-in GPS in a wearable, this may very well be a great choice in case you’re prepared to cope with some limitations.
Different GPS operating watches we examined
Polar Pacer Professional
The Polar Pacer Professional seemed and felt fairly much like our high decide, and it mapped my out of doors runs precisely. Nonetheless, Polar’s companion app is leagues behind Garmin’s with a complicated interface and a design that feels very a lot caught previously. It’s additionally $100 costlier than our high decide.
Amazfit Cheetah Professional
The Amazfit Cheetah Professional tracked my out of doors runs precisely and Zepp’s companion app has a training function very similar to Garmin’s adaptive coaching plans that may define a routine so that you can full in preparation for a race or to realize a particular purpose. My greatest situation with it was that its touchscreen wasn’t very responsive — it took a number of arduous faucets on the show to wake it, and sometimes the raise-to-wake function didn’t work, leaving me looking at a darkish display screen.
