Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Fitbit Sense 2
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: 2024
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Garmin Forerunner 165 is an accessible GPS running watch designed for new and casual runners, offering essential activity tracking. It precisely records steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes, with a strong focus on core running metrics like pace, distance, and cadence using built-in GPS. It provides valuable data for monitoring and improving running performance.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Fitbit Sense 2 provides robust activity tracking, diligently monitoring steps, distance, calories burned, and floors climbed. Its Active Zone Minutes feature remains a core component for optimizing workout intensity based on heart rate zones. The integrated built-in GPS ensures accurate real-time pace and distance tracking for outdoor activities such as running, cycling, and hiking, offering essential data independently of a paired smartphone.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and sleep tracking for insights into daily well-being and recovery. It includes Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, contributing to a more complete picture of overall health alongside its running features.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Leveraging advanced PurePulse 2.0 technology, the Sense 2 offers continuous 24/7 heart rate monitoring, capturing resting heart rate trends and real-time heart rate zones during exercise. It includes a skin temperature sensor for additional wellness insights and integrates advanced sleep and stress management features, providing a comprehensive health overview.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Forerunner 165 offers practical battery life for runners, providing up to 11 days in smartwatch mode and up to 19 hours with continuous GPS tracking. This ensures sufficient power for regular runs and daily wear without constant recharging.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 delivers a commendable battery life of over 6 days on a single charge, reducing the frequency of recharging. Its fast charging capability is highly convenient, providing a full day's power in just 12 minutes, minimizing interruptions to tracking.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: Detailed sleep tracking on the Forerunner 165 monitors sleep stages and provides insights into sleep quality and patterns, helping users understand their recovery for optimal training and daily performance.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Detailed sleep tracking on the Sense 2 meticulously monitors sleep duration and analyzes sleep stages (light, deep, and REM). It provides a comprehensive Sleep Score and actionable sleep insights within the app, empowering users to understand and enhance their sleep quality.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Forerunner 165 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking for running, walking, and cycling without needing a paired smartphone. It delivers reliable pace, distance, and route data essential for runners.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: With built-in GPS, the Sense 2 accurately tracks real-time pace and distance for outdoor activities without relying on a phone. The Fitbit app provides detailed route maps and intensity zone analysis post-workout, offering valuable performance data.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: While primarily a running watch, the Forerunner 165 supports additional activity profiles including cycling, pool swimming, HIIT, and cardio, providing relevant metrics for these exercises alongside its core running features.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Supporting an extensive library of over 40 workout modes, the Sense 2 accommodates a wide variety of physical activities, from running and cycling to swimming, HIIT, strength training, and yoga. It provides real-time performance metrics, including heart rate, pace, and calorie burn, to help users monitor and optimize their training.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities such as walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log seamlessly.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The integrated SmartTrack technology automatically detects and records common exercises such as walking, running, cycling, and elliptical workouts. This feature ensures effortless tracking of activities, even if the user forgets to manually start a workout session.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Forerunner 165 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 offers broad compatibility with both Android and iOS devices, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Android users benefit from the inclusion of Google Fast Pair for a quick and straightforward initial setup process.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Forerunner 165 experience, providing detailed analysis of running data, activity metrics, health statistics, and sleep insights. The app allows for setting goals, reviewing training history, and connecting with the Garmin community.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Synchronization with the comprehensive Fitbit app provides users with a centralized platform for detailed fitness tracking and in-depth health insights. Compatibility with popular third-party applications like Strava, Google Fit, Apple Health, and MyFitnessPal allows for seamless data integration into existing fitness ecosystems.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: Beyond its running focus, the Forerunner 165 includes essential smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments (on the Music version, if applicable, but the data for 167 is just Forerunner 165, so sticking to basics) and allows for controlling music on a paired smartphone.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Beyond its health and fitness capabilities, the Sense 2 offers practical smart features, including call, text, and app notifications. Integration with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa provides convenient voice control. Support for Fitbit Pay and Google Wallet enables contactless payments directly from the wrist.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Forerunner 165 is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a durable companion for triathletes and those who incorporate swimming into their fitness routine.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: With a 5 ATM water resistance rating (up to 50 meters), the Sense 2 is designed to be resistant to water, making it suitable for swimming, showering, and general water exposure. It is not recommended for deep diving or high-pressure water sports.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Forerunner 165 features a sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) color display, offering good readability in various lighting conditions, especially bright sunlight, which is ideal for outdoor running. The display technology is also power-efficient.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The device features a bright and vibrant AMOLED touchscreen display. An always-on display mode offers convenient at-a-glance access to information, and customizable watch faces allow for personalization of the visual interface.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The device utilizes a five-button interface, which is reliable and easy to operate during runs or workouts. The user interface is designed for straightforward navigation and quick access to running data and essential features.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 is designed for intuitive interaction, featuring a responsive touchscreen complemented by an improved haptic side button for efficient navigation. Seamless wireless synchronization with the Fitbit app facilitates effortless data tracking and analysis.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Forerunner 165 features a lightweight and comfortable design with a soft silicone band, making it ideal for extended wear during training sessions and everyday activities, prioritizing a secure and comfortable fit for runners.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 features a lightweight and stylish aluminum case paired with a comfortable soft silicone band, ensuring suitability for all-day wear. The design supports interchangeable bands, offering options for personalization to match individual style preferences.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and spot-checks, providing valuable data related to acclimatization and overall physiological well-being, complementing its health tracking suite.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: An integrated SpO2 sensor allows for tracking blood oxygen levels specifically during sleep. This provides valuable data that can help users identify potential breathing irregularities during the night and gain insights into their respiratory health.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: It is important to note that the Garmin Forerunner 165 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: A key health feature of the Sense 2 is its support for ECG (Electrocardiogram) monitoring, allowing users to check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and generate reports that can be shared with healthcare providers.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Forerunner 165 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress and promote overall well-being.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 features a continuous EDA (Electrodermal Activity) sensor for real-time stress detection. It provides access to guided breathing exercises and mindfulness tools within the app, offering practical resources for stress management and promoting mental well-being.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest, contributing to optimized recovery for runners.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Daily Readiness Score on the Sense 2 provides a data-driven assessment of the body's preparedness for strenuous activity by analyzing sleep quality, heart rate variability, and recent activity levels. This helps users make informed decisions about when to train intensely and when to prioritize rest for optimal recovery.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Forerunner 165 are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for essential running metrics, activity tracking, or health insights, providing comprehensive value for an entry-level running watch.
2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The core functionalities of the Sense 2 are available without a subscription. However, access to advanced stress tracking features, a wider range of guided workouts, and more personalized wellness insights requires a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99/month or $79.99/year).
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 165: $349.00
Check Garmin Forerunner 165 Price *2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: $299.95
Check Fitbit Sense 2 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you