Garmin Forerunner 170: better training smarts than its predecessor

It’s taken two years for Garmin to provide a follow-up to the Forerunner 165. The Forerunner 170 doesn’t upgrade the hardware and the sensors tracking your runs, rides, swims and everything in between. Instead it focuses on charging you more for a upgrade that puts more training features on your wrist and in your pocket – but is it one of the best triathlon watches?

Competition for the Forerunner 170 comes in the form of the excellent Coros Pace 4 and the gem that is the Suunto Run. Two watches that offer great value and strong performance in a lightweight and small design package. Does the Forerunner 170 do enough to keep the competition at bay?

Garmin Forerunner 170 design

I’ve lived with the Forerunner 165 extensively, mainly covering runs and swims. Wearing and staring at the Forerunner 170 feels very familiar. It’s got a small case, colourful AMOLED touchscreen and the same array of physical buttons that’s good to see. That’s because touchscreens can be temperamental in rain and when you really start to sweat.

Where things start to differ from its predecessor is the software. You’re now getting Garmin’s latest software, which now does a nicer job of pulling sports and non-sports features all into one screen. It also means you’re going to get access to new software features that the older 165 is likely to miss out on.

What the Forerunner 170 can offer as a training tool is really the big story here. Like the new quick workouts, which lets you pick the difficulty of the session and then serves up three variations to choose from. There’s now access to Training Readiness, a simple score that could look at my interrupted sleep now that I have a small human to look after, and inadequate recovery time to tell me to take a rest day.

Garmin Forerunner 170 tracking

It’s a bit disappointing that given the space between updates, Garmin hasn’t added its latest dual-band GPS mode or added its latest heart rate sensor technology. That being said, I’ve used it for runs, swims and indoor rides and the accuracy has been strong. Especially for GPS and heart rate tracking. Battery performance however isn’t fantastic. This is a watch that can last just shy of a week, when I tracked 4 to 5 workouts a week.

If you’re looking at the Forerunner 170 as an affordable triathlon watch, prepare to be disappointed. There’s no triathlon or multisport tracking mode. You also don’t get access to Garmin’s more triathlon-focused training plans either. 

Garmin Forerunner 170 verdict

What you’re getting is a Garmin watch that’s built for runners that’s also well equipped to track rides and swims and will even track a game of padel. It will let you pay your way and opting for the music version lets you load up audio from the likes of Spotify. So that’s another feature not soaking up the phone battery. 

Spend a little less on the Suunto Run and you’ll get that triathlon mode and great sports tracking in general. The Coros Pace 4 also has that added multisport tracking support with battery life that can go longer. The Forerunner 170 will appeal over those options because Garmin’s software runs slicker, is more useful outside of running and delivers its added training sights in a more user-friendly way.