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Garmin Forerunner 645 Music Overview - Is it a good smartwatch to consider?

Hailey Avatar By: Hailey | Last updated June 28, 2019

garmin forerunner 645 music smartwatch overview black watch black strap


The more the technology develops, the more complex our gadgets and wearables become. If watches used to be able to tell you the time and that was pretty much it, nowadays, they can be our entertainment center, our fitness coach and our organizers.

Smartwatches have bloomed into a flourishing industry and manufacturers relentlessly compete with each other to come up with the best-selling gadget.

What to consider when buying a smartwatch?

  • The first thing to consider is of course compatibility with your smartphone/operating system
  • Price, which pretty much depends on the features of the watch and your priorities, is another aspect to consider
  • Does it have GPS?
  • Does it have a HR monitor?
  • How good is the battery life?
  • It is LTE-enabled? Can you take calls on it?
  • What kind of materials is it made of? What kind of wristbands/straps are compatible with it?
  • What kind of display does it have (AMOLED or LCD)?

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music Overview - Is it a good smartwatch to consider?

Garmin is one of the major players of the smartwatch industry and they earned their reputation over time. They have a lot of wearables in their offer, from simple fitness trackers to complex luxurious smartwatches.

The Forerunner 645 Music is an upgrade to the simple Forerunner 645 model. The Forerunner 645 Music brings a new cool addition to the mix: the ability of the smartwatch to store music, podcasts, audiobooks and so on and to play them from the watch so that you can get more freedom and not have to carry your smartphone with you everywhere.

The Forerunner 645 is conceived for two important activities: fitness and music listening.

Specs:

  • Dimensions: 42.5 x 42.5 x 13.5 mm
  • Weight: 42.2 g
  • Resolution: 240 X 240 pixels
  • Functions: Bluetooth, WiFi, ANT+, GPS, Gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer, barometric altimeter
  • Memory: 200 hours of activity data
  • Battery life: up to 1 week in smartwatch mode, up to 14 hours in GPS mode and 5 hours in GPS mode with music on

Price

As you can see from its specs, the Forerunner 645 is a complex watch and has pretty much everything you can look for in a watch. That is why it has a matching price, as this watch doesn’t come cheap. The Forerunner 645 can be purchased for approximately $410 on Amazon.

Right out of the box, you can see that the Forerunner 645 is not you average watch. It has an elegant design that blends the sporty look with the classic watch look. The watch comes with a quick release silicone strap but you can replace it with any 20 mm band.

The Forerunner 645 has a stainless steel bezel and a Gorilla Glass 3 display (1.2” diameter). The resolution is 240 X 240 and the watch is perfectly visible in direct sunlight. Garmin is renowned for its transflective technology used in most of its smartwatches. While some people might find this type of display less vivid in colors and a bit dull, it is good to know you can read the display in any light conditions.

The Forerunner 645 has 5 buttons that are multifunctional. They are the ones that let you control all the functions of the watch, as you don’t have a touchscreen at your disposal.

Main features of the Forerunner 645 Music

When it comes to fitness tracking features and sports in general, Garmin doesn’t disappoint its customers. The Forerunner 645 makes no exception. It comes with all your common sensors (GLONASS, GPS, compass, accelerometer, altimeter, gyroscope, thermometer). The watch can track you in various activities such as walking, cycling, running and so on. It is also 5 ATM rated, which means you can also use it for swimming, as it works up to 50m depth.

One of the most important things about the Forerunner 645 and all the Garmin smartwatches in general is the fact that it is not only packed with all the fitness features you might need, but they are also accurate. There are a lot of unknown and even popular brands out there that have smartwatches with really inaccurate GPS sensors, HR sensors and so on.

The Forerunner 645 Music is also great for other purposes. It also has a Find My Phone/Watch feature, VIRB Camera Remote, Calendar, Weather and others.

If there is a drawback worth mentioning when it comes to the Forerunner 645 Music, we have to go with the battery life. The battery life is not bad, but it’s not as good as with other Garmin watches, either. Garmin’s claims of up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 5 hours on GPS and music mode are a bit too optimistic in our opinion.

All in all though, the Forerunner 645 Music is definitely a premium product designed to please both the active customer and the music lovers. It is a bit expensive, but it is a complex and accurate gadget, durable and with an attractive design.

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