Over the years, Garmin has built a solid reputation among runners and adventure enthusiasts from all walks of life.

With reliable GPS and rugged watches that have performed flawlessly for years, it’s no surprise that Garmin watches appeal to everyone from casual 5K runners to marathoners and triathletes. Their Forerunner series is especially popular within the running and triathlon communities.

The Garmin Forerunner 165 Music continues this legacy. It offers all the essential features runners need and is a relatively budget-friendly option, priced at approximately ₹26,000.

Design and display

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is available in four colourways: Black-Slate Grey, Mist-Whitestone, Turquoise-Aqua, and Berry-Lilac. Of all the interesting options, I ended up with the most basic one for review — Black-Slate Grey. While it looks fine, it doesn’t really stand out in terms of design. The device features five physical buttons for operation.

Forerunner 165 series GPS smartwatch sports a 1.2-inch AMOLED display. It is slightly small as compared to what I’m used to on Forerunner 965 which offers a larger 1.4-inch diameter. But it absolutely serves the purpose when it comes to your everyday runs, training modules and tracking capabilities.

Weighing 39 grams, the device is extremely lightweight, a sought-after feature for many distance runners because even a gram of extra weight on the runs feels like a lot. You can view your stats easily while running under the harsh sun or in the rain. The display has good touch sensitivity but honestly, I prefer the physical buttons to quickly start-stop or switch.

Connecting with the app

It only takes seconds to connect with the Garmin Connect app. After entering your personal data, such as your date of birth and weight, your watch is ready in just a couple of minutes. What I find most impressive and amazing about Garmin watches, which I’ve been using for the past 8–9 years, is how quickly they can be set up — even without an internet connection.

Battery and performance

Another key feature to consider is the Garmin’s impressive battery life, which means you won’t need to charge it constantly. According to Garmin, the smartwatch provides 11 days of battery life in standard mode and up to 19 hours with GPS tracking enabled. This means you can easily complete a full marathon, run 100 km, or even finish a full Ironman Triathlon with the GPS mode on.

When it comes to fitness and health tracking, the Garmin Forerunner 165 series offers wrist-based running power measurement, training effect monitoring, blood oxygen tracking, sleep monitoring, nap detection, and more.

It supports over 25 activity modes, including running, trail running, pool swimming, open water swimming, pickleball, biking, walking, tennis, and others. You can also customise workouts and use preset Garmin Coach plans.

Additionally, the smartwatch provides a morning report that compiles insights into your training readiness, fatigue, and more.

For women’s health, the device includes menstrual cycle and pregnancy tracking features.

In the Forerunner 165 Music model, you can download songs and playlists from Spotify or other music accounts for phone-free listening with wireless headphones.

My usage

The Garmin Forerunner 165 Music is one of the easiest Garmin watches to recommend in years. And considering that Garmin watch prices have risen steadily over the past few years, this one offers great value without costing a fortune.

I’ve used the Forerunner 165 on many of my runs, and it has performed well in tracking both my runs and swims. The GPS connects within seconds and tracks my runs accurately, even through cityscapes. The heart rate data is also precise. While the lack of dual-band GPS wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, it could matter in races like the Chicago Marathon, where skyscrapers may affect satellite reception.

In indoor settings, such as yoga or strength training, the watch behaves a bit oddly. There are no workout execution scores, which I actually appreciate. Those scores often gave me an existential crisis — no matter how hard I tried, the execution score would always be low.

I don’t typically listen to music while running, as I prefer to stay alert, but I did test the music feature, and it works seamlessly on the watch.

Other important factors to consider are that the Forerunner 165 Music lacks metrics like training readiness and training load—both of which I’ve relied on for some time. Additionally, the watch doesn’t offer proper triathlon tracking.

For triathletes, the Forerunner 265 would be a better choice. However, at its price point, the Forerunner 165 is a fantastic option for anyone running their first full marathon or ultramarathon.