Garmin Forerunner 955: everything we know so far
The Garmin Forerunner 955 will be a top-end triathlon watch, following in the footsteps of the venerable Forerunner 945, and we;re rounding up all the latest news, rumors, and predictions for you right here.
Details are scarce so far, but following the launch of the Garmin Forerunner 55 in 2021, and the long-awaited Fenix 7 in January 2022, it’s surely only a matter of time before the 955 arrives on runners’ wrists.
Latest update: In late January 2022, a page briefly appeared on Garmin’s Australian website, which appeared to confirm the existence of a Forerunner 955 LTE edition.
Cut to the chase
What is it? Garmin’s next premium triathlon watchWhen is it out? Possibly sometime in 2022How much will it cost? Likely around $599.99 / £519.99 / AU$949
Can’t wait for the Forerunner 955 to arrive? Here are the best deals on the current Forerunner series right now:
Understanding the Forerunner series
First, a word on Garmin’s naming system, which might be a little confusing for newcomers. There are four Forerunner lines: 50, 250, 750, and 95. The lower-level models have a focus on running, but those higher up are also fully equipped with tools for swimmers, cyclists, and triathletes.
Watches in the Forerunner 50 range are affordable entry-level devices with everything a beginner needs, including GPS, all-day heart rate tracking, and sleep monitoring. The most recent entry in the range is the Forerunner 55, which launched worldwide in June 2021.
The Garmin Forerunner 55, which launched in January 2022, was the first in a new generation of Forerunner watches (Image credit: Future)
The Forerunner 250 range is for runners who want to take their training to the next level, with more advanced training tools and metrics available on your wrist. They cost a little more, but are still in the low-mid price bracket. The latest watches in the range are the Forerunner 254 and 254 Music, which were released in April 2019.
There used to be a Forerunner 400 series with touch-sensitive bezels, but this range has since been phased out (the latest release was the 410, back in 2011).
The Forerunner 750 range is made with triathletes in mind, and equipped with a full range of tools for running, cycling, and swimming. They also have a dedicated triathlon mode that allow you to track a full triathlon event, simply pressing the lap button to switch between stages. They sit in the mid-high price band, and the latest watch in the line, the Forerunner 745, landed in September 2020.
Finally, the Forerunner 950 range is the top of the tree. Watches in this range are a little larger than their 750 counterparts, but with better battery life, offline maps, and more storage space for maps and music. They carry a premium price tag, and the most recent model, the Forerunner 945, was released in April 2019. An update is definitely due, which is why we’ve got our fingers crossed for a Forerunner 955 in 2022.
Forerunner 955 news and rumors
News about the Forerunner 955 has been thin on the ground, and there’s been no official confirmation from Garmin that the watch is in development, but in January 2022 a few details seemed to briefly appear on the company’s Australian website.
Much like the Garmin Venu 2 Plus leak a few months earlier, this seems to be a situation where an incomplete page was accidentally published before it was ready. There were no images this time around, but several Garmin fans managed to capture screengrabs of a listing in the Australian webstore for a Forerunner 955 LTE bundle priced at AU$1,049 (about $750 / £550).
This seems like a plausible listing. An LTE version of the Forerunner 945 arrived a few months after the base-spec model, allowing owners to download apps from the Garmin Connect Store, grab extra maps, sync and transfer data without a Bluetooth connection to their phone. It’s an extremely useful extra feature for anyone who’s going to be out of range of their handset for a while, and means you’ll spend less time fiddling with the smartphone app.
It’s possible that the Forerunner 955 will be available to buy in a bundle with one or more heart rate monitors, just like the Forerunner 945 (Image credit: Garmin)
The fact that this is a ‘bundle’ suggests that, like the Forerunner 945, the 955 will be available to buy with additional chest strap heart rate monitors for more accurate readings. The Forerunner 945 can be bought in a bundle together with the HRM-Tri and HRM-Swim monitors, so it’s possible that the 955 may come with these, or the more recently released Garmin HRM-Pro.
It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that this could just be placeholder text, and nothing has been officially confirmed. The page was taken down before it could be cached by Google or The Wayback Machine, so there’s no way to revisit it and scour for any further details, but the fact that we’ve seen screenshots taken on different desktop and mobile devices suggests that it could well be genuine rather than a doctored image.
We contacted Garmin after the details emerged, but the company declined to comment.
What we want to see
One of the biggest selling points of the Forerunner 945 was its outstanding battery life, and we’re expecting the Forerunner 955 to last even longer between charges – particularly if you opt for one of the solar variants that are likely to come alongside the standard model.
The Garmin Epix has a vivid AMOLED display, but we’re expecting the Forerunner 955 to stick with a less power-hungry memory-in-pixel screen for maximum battery life (Image credit: Garmin)
The Garmin Fenix 7 solar range, which launched in January 2022, offers seriously impressive battery life thanks to new, more efficient solar cells – and we’re expecting Garmin to carry this tech over to the new Forerunner 955 as well.
This also means we’re not expecting a big upgrade in screen technology. The Garmin Epix and Venu 2 have bright, crisp AMOLED displays, but this tech puts more drain on your watch’s battery than old-school memory-in-pixel, so we’re not expecting a big change to the Forerunner 955’s display. We’ve got our fingers crossed that it’ll have a white backlight rather than blue like the Fenix 7 (the blue hue tends to muddy the screen’s colors), but we’re not holding our breath.
We’d like to see the Garmin Forerunner 955 adopt the flashlight feature from the Garmin Fenix 7X (Image credit: Garmin)
We would, however, like the Forerunner 955 to borrow the flashlight feature from the Fenix 7X (the largest watch in the range). This is an extremely handy tool; press the backlight button twice, and a powerful LED shines out from the top of the watch housing, in either white or red. It’s handy for seeing keyholes in the dark, locating your running shoes first thing in the morning without waking your partner, and making yourself more visible to motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians at night.
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