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$549.99
42mm & 47mm
AMOLED
Garmin had a problem. The Forerunner 265 was the internet’s favorite running watch — brilliant AMOLED screen, serious training metrics, reasonable price — but it was starting to look plain next to rivals with built-in calling and ever-brighter displays. The answer, launched May 15, 2025, is the Garmin Forerunner 570: a $549.99 sequel that adds a speaker and microphone, the new Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor, and a fresh coat of paint in two case sizes.
Here’s the honest question this review exists to answer: is the 570 the new default recommendation for runners, or should you save money on the 265 — or stretch to the 970? This is a spec-based analysis built from Garmin’s official specifications and independent reviews (we’ll say exactly which, below). No lab tests, no invented mile splits. Just what the numbers, the feature list, and the lineup logic tell us.
⚡ KEY TAKEAWAYS
- $549.99 for both the 42mm and 47mm — the new mid-range anchor between the $249.99 Forerunner 165 and the $749.99 Forerunner 970.
- Speaker + microphone finally arrives in the mid-range: take calls from your wrist, a feature the 165 and 265 never had.
- Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor, multi-band GPS with SatIQ, and 8GB for offline music from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer.
- No flashlight, no ECG — those stay exclusive to the Forerunner 970. If either matters to you, that’s your $200 decision.
- Battery: up to 10 days (42mm) / 11 days (47mm) smartwatch use; 18 hours of GPS on both sizes.
Quick Verdict: Who Should Buy the Forerunner 570?
On paper, the Forerunner 570 is the most balanced running watch Garmin has ever made. It takes everything that made the 265 a bestseller — the gorgeous AMOLED display, multi-band GPS, the full Garmin training suite — and closes the two gaps that mattered most: no speaker/mic and an older heart-rate sensor. At $549.99, it undercuts the 970 by $200 while keeping the features most runners will actually use daily.
Buy it if: you want a serious training watch with AMOLED, wrist calls, and offline music; you’re upgrading from a Forerunner 165, 255, or an older model; you run triathlons on a budget (the new triathlon coach is a genuine step up).
Skip it if: you already own a Forerunner 265 and don’t care about wrist calls — the core training metrics overlap heavily. And if you need onboard maps, an LED flashlight, or ECG, the Forerunner 970 is the only Garmin that has all three.
The Coros Pace Pro ($349 at launch) remains the value disruptor with its 38-hour GPS battery and 32GB of storage, but it gives up wrist calling, Garmin Pay, and ANT+ sensor support — trade-offs covered in the comparison table below. For the broader field, see our roundup of the best smartwatches for runners.
Price & Models: Two Sizes, One Price
Garmin kept pricing simple: $549.99 regardless of size. That matters, because the two models are genuinely different watches on your wrist:
The 12.9mm thickness is shared across both sizes — noticeably slimmer than the 13.2mm Forerunner 965 it spiritually replaces, and the aluminum bezel with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 gives it a more premium feel than the 265’s polymer case. The Raspberry/Mango and Amp Yellow/Turquoise colorways are Garmin’s loudest Forerunner designs in years, which tells you who this watch is for: runners who wear their watch everywhere, not just on workouts.
Lineup logic, in one line: the 165 ($249.99) is the entry ticket, the 265 ($449, now often discounted) is the value pick, the 570 ($549.99) is the sweet spot, and the 970 ($749.99) is the flagship. If you’re cross-shopping smartwatches rather than pure running watches, our Pixel Watch 5 review covers the best of the other camp.
Full Specs: Garmin Forerunner 570
All figures per Garmin’s official spec sheet. Battery claims are Garmin’s rated figures; real-world life varies with GPS mode, music use, and display settings.
What’s New vs the Forerunner 265
The 265 was — and at street prices still is — a phenomenal watch. So what does the extra ~$100 (at launch pricing) actually buy you? On paper, five things:
- Speaker + microphone. The single biggest functional addition. The 265 couldn’t take calls; the 570 can, straight from the wrist, plus voice assistant passthrough. This alone may justify the upgrade for runners who leave the phone at home but want to stay reachable.
- Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor. The 265 uses the older Elevate v4. Garmin’s fifth-generation optical sensor promises better accuracy during high-intensity intervals and strength training, where wrist-based HR has traditionally struggled.
- Triathlon coach + evening report. Garmin Coach gains a dedicated triathlon mode, and the new evening report previews tomorrow’s training, sleep needs, and weather — a planning layer the 265 lacks.
- Sleep coach and upgraded insights. Sleep tracking gets Garmin’s coaching treatment (personalized sleep guidance), feeding into morning reports, HRV status, and Training Readiness scores.
- Refined hardware. Aluminum bezel and Gorilla Glass 3 (up from the 265’s polymer case), a slimmer 12.9mm profile on both sizes, and bolder colorways.
On paper, the jump from 265 to 570 is about modernizing: wrist calls, the newer Elevate v5 sensor, triathlon coaching, and a more premium build. The core training engine overlaps, which is why existing 265 owners can wait — but as a new purchase in 2026, the 570 is the fresher, longer-supported platform.
Forerunner 570 vs 165 vs 265 vs 970 vs Coros Pace Pro
This is the table that matters. Every figure below is per the manufacturers’ official spec sheets (Garmin for the Forerunners, COROS for the Pace Pro):
| Spec | FR 165 | FR 265 | FR 570 ★ | FR 970 | Coros Pace Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $249.99 | $449 | $549.99 | $749.99 | $349 (launch) |
| Sizes / weight | 43mm / 39g | 42mm & 46mm / 47g | 42mm/42g & 47mm/50g | 47mm / 56g | 46mm / 37g (nylon) |
| Display | 1.2″ AMOLED 390×390 | 1.3″ AMOLED 416×416 | 1.2″ 390×390 / 1.4″ 454×454 | 1.4″ AMOLED 454×454 | 1.3″ AMOLED 416×416 |
| GPS | Single-band | Multi-band + SatIQ | Multi-band + SatIQ | Multi-band + SatIQ | Dual-frequency |
| Battery (watch) | 11 days | 13 days | 10 / 11 days | 15 days | 20 days |
| Battery (GPS) | 19 hours | 20 hours | 18 hours | 26 hours | 38 hours |
| Storage / music | 4GB (Music model) | 8GB Spotify etc. | 8GB Spotify etc. | 32GB Spotify etc. | 32GB (MP3 only) |
| Speaker + mic | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Flashlight | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| ECG app | No | No | No | Yes | Yes (non-medical) |
| Offline maps | No | No | Breadcrumb only | Yes | Yes (topo) |
| Payments | Garmin Pay | Garmin Pay | Garmin Pay | Garmin Pay | No |
| ANT+ sensors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Water rating | 5ATM | 5ATM | 5ATM | 5ATM | 5ATM |
Read it this way: the 570 is a 265 with wrist calls, the newer HR sensor, and a triathlon coach — while the 970 is the 570 plus maps, flashlight, ECG, and double the storage. The Pace Pro wins on raw battery and price but loses on ecosystem (no Garmin Pay, no ANT+, MP3-only music).
Speaker + Microphone
Elevate v5 HR Sensor
Triathlon Coach
Premium Build
Running Features: The Full Garmin Training Suite, On Paper
The spec sheet is where the 570 quietly justifies its price. This is essentially the complete Garmin running platform — the same training intelligence that powers watches costing $200 more:
- Garmin Coach + Triathlon Coach. Adaptive training plans for 5K through marathon, now with a dedicated triathlon mode — the headline new coaching feature for multisport athletes.
- Training Readiness & Training Status. The recovery-aware “should I train hard today?” score, built from sleep, HRV, acute load, and training history.
- HRV status, Body Battery, sleep coach. Overnight heart-rate variability tracking, Garmin’s energy-budget metric, and personalized sleep guidance — all feeding the morning report.
- Morning & evening reports. Wake up to readiness, weather, and today’s suggested workout; the new evening report previews tomorrow. It’s Garmin’s closest thing to a daily training briefing.
- Race predictor & 30+ activity profiles. Predicted finish times across distances, plus dedicated profiles for track running, trail, ultras, triathlon, brick workouts, and open-water swimming.
- Multi-band GPS with SatIQ. Dual-frequency positioning for accurate tracks in cities and under tree cover, with SatIQ automatically switching modes to preserve battery.
- Safety: incident detection & LiveTrack. Automatic crash alerts to emergency contacts and real-time location sharing during activities.
The honest caveat, per the spec sheet rather than testing: the Elevate v5 sensor is a generation newer than the 265’s v4, which should mean better wrist-HR during intervals — but if you want lab-grade heart-rate data, no wrist sensor replaces a chest strap (the 570 pairs with one over ANT+ or Bluetooth, which the Coros notably can’t match on ANT+). Serious ultra runners should also note our Garmin Enduro 4 vs Enduro 3 comparison — that’s the battery-king side of the Garmin family.
Battery Life: Good Enough, Not Class-Leading
Garmin rates the 570 at up to 10 days (42mm) and 11 days (47mm) in smartwatch mode, and up to 18 hours of GPS tracking on both sizes. In practice — based on how these rated figures translate across the Forerunner line — expect a full week of daily training with the always-on display, and a comfortable margin for a marathon plus a long run or two on one charge.
The trade-off is visible in the comparison table: the Coros Pace Pro’s 38-hour GPS figure more than doubles the 570’s. Garmin’s counter is SatIQ and an AMOLED screen you’ll actually enjoy reading mid-run. Which matters more depends on your calendar: training for a 100-miler, the Coros (or the Enduro line) wins on paper; training for anything up to a marathon, 18 hours is plenty.
Video: 4 Months of Daily Use
Specs tell you what a watch can do; long-term use tells you what it’s like to live with. This review from a creator who wore the Forerunner 570 daily for four months calls it their #1 fitness purchase of 2025 — worth a watch before you buy:
🤔 Forerunner 570 or 265: Which Should You Buy?
Pros & Cons
- Speaker + mic with wrist calls — first time in the mid-range
- Elevate v5 HR sensor (a generation newer than the 265)
- Full Garmin training suite: Coach, Triathlon Coach, Readiness, HRV
- Bright AMOLED in two sizes, aluminum bezel, Gorilla Glass 3
- 8GB offline music (Spotify/Amazon/Deezer)
- Garmin Pay, ANT+, 5ATM, incident detection
- $200 cheaper than the 970 with most daily-use features intact
- No LED flashlight, no ECG — 970 exclusives
- No full offline maps (breadcrumb navigation only)
- 18-hour GPS battery trails the Coros Pace Pro (38h) badly
- Modest upgrade for existing Forerunner 265 owners
- 42mm drops to 10-day rated battery (265 manages 13)
- $549.99 is a $100 launch-price jump over the 265
💰 Still Excellent: Garmin Forerunner 265 — The Smart-Money Pick
Check Forerunner 265 Prices on Amazon →
Forerunner 570 FAQs
How much does the Garmin Forerunner 570 cost?
The $549.99 launch price applies to both sizes. It sits between the Forerunner 165 ($249.99) and the flagship Forerunner 970 ($749.99), and replaces the Forerunner 265 ($449) as Garmin’s mid-range pick.
When was the Garmin Forerunner 570 released?
Garmin launched the Forerunner 570 on May 15, 2025, alongside the Forerunner 970. It is the direct successor to the Forerunner 265.
What sizes and colors does the Forerunner 570 come in?
42mm (42.4 × 42.4 × 12.9mm, 42g): Cloud Blue, Raspberry/Mango, Slate Grey. 47mm (47 × 47 × 12.9mm, 50g): Slate Grey, Amp Yellow/Turquoise, Indigo.
Forerunner 570 vs 265: is it worth upgrading?
The big upgrades are the speaker and microphone (wrist calls), the Elevate v5 heart-rate sensor, the triathlon coach, and the evening report. The core training metrics overlap heavily with the 265, so existing 265 owners who don’t care about calls can comfortably wait.
Does the Forerunner 570 have an LED flashlight or ECG?
No. Both the LED flashlight and the ECG app are exclusive to the Forerunner 970 ($749.99). The 570 skips them to hit its $549.99 price.
How long does the Forerunner 570 battery last?
Garmin rates it at up to 10 days (42mm) or 11 days (47mm) in smartwatch mode, and up to 18 hours of GPS tracking on both sizes. SatIQ automatically balances GPS accuracy against battery drain.
Can you take calls on the Garmin Forerunner 570?
Yes. Unlike the 165 and 265, the 570 has a built-in speaker and microphone for wrist calls when paired with your phone — the same capability the flagship 970 offers.
Does the Forerunner 570 have offline maps?
No full offline maps — like the 265, the 570 offers breadcrumb-style navigation. Detailed onboard maps are reserved for the Forerunner 970 and Garmin’s Fenix line.
Does the Forerunner 570 play music without a phone?
Yes. 8GB of onboard storage holds offline playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer — pair Bluetooth headphones and leave the phone at home. The Forerunner 165 only offers 4GB, and only on its Music variant.
Is the Forerunner 570 good for triathletes?
Yes — arguably the most affordable serious triathlon watch Garmin makes: dedicated triathlon coach, 30+ activity profiles with multisport and brick workouts, 5ATM for open-water swims, and multi-band GPS. The 970 goes further with maps, flashlight, and ECG.
Sources
Specifications are per Garmin’s official product pages. Analysis cross-checked against these independent reviews:
Transparency note: This is a spec-based analysis built from Garmin’s official specifications and independent reviews (Tom’s Guide, Android Central, T3). We have not personally worn or tested the Forerunner 570 — and we won’t pretend otherwise. Specs and prices verified October 2026; prices and availability change, so confirm on the live listings before buying.
