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Buy 2022 Garmin Forerunner® 955/955 Solar GPS Running Watch — Now with Touchscreen! Plus Don't Miss These NEW Performance Features!
Buy Garmin Forerunner 955 Running Watch (46.5 mm)
Get the NEW! Garmin Forerunner 955 now with touchscreen + buttons for improved interface—plus check out the new performance features!
Buy Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar GPS Watch! (46.5 mm)
You read correctly! Get the battery life you need from your favorite running/triathlon watch with the Garmin Forerunner 955 solar!
Watch Garmin Forerunner 955 Review!
See all the next-level performance upgrades in this 2022 Forerunner 955 in-depth review from our partner Chase the Summit.
Shop Garmin Forerunner 955 Accessories
Enhance your training experience! Shop best accessories for the FR 955 like Heart Rate Straps, Running Dynamics Pod & QuickFit Bands.
SHOP GARMIN FORERUNNER 955 RUNNING & TRIATHLETE GPS WATCH
Garmin Forerunner 955
(46.5 mm)
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar— Best Gift for Runners 2022!
Forerunner 955/955 Solar | Table of Contents
- Garmin Forerunner 955 Review by Chase the Summit
- Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar — Best Running GPS Watch of 2022
- Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Maps
- Forerunner 945/945 LTE vs 955/955 Solar Running GPS Watch
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Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Battery Life
- Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Price
- Garmin Forerunner 955 Review of New Performance Features
- Garmin Forerunner 955 Running Watch with Music
- Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Specs
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Comparisons & FAQs
- Who Is the Forerunner 955/955 Solar For?
- Garmin Forerunner 955 vs fēnix 7/7S/7X
- Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 245 Music
- Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 745
- Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Venu 2 Plus — What's the Difference?
- Forerunner 955 vs Garmin epix (Gen 2)
- Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Instinct 2/2S
- Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 55 Running Watch for Beginners
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Can You Use the Garmin Running Dynamics Pod with Forerunner 955?
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Review
from our partner, Chase the Summit!
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Comparison
vs. fenix 7/7S/7X, epix (Gen 2), Forerunner 245, Venu 2 Plus & More ...
The Forerunner 955 vs the fenix 7
What You Need To Know:
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Display
- Both the Forerunner 955/955 Solar and the fēnix 7/7S/7X have a touchscreen and button operation.
- The fēnix 7 series offers 3 screen sizes: 1.2", 1.3", and 1.4".
- The Forerunner 955 is button operation is available in one display size: 1.3".
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Battery Life
- Even thought the FR955 has enhanced battery life and a solar-charging option, the fēnix 7 stikk offers Garmin's most superior battery life range—both with and without solar-charching options.
- The cost of more superior battery life is, of course, more bulk and weight on your wrist. While it has less battery life, the Forerunner 955 is a sleeker, lighter watch for runners.
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Price
- A Forerunner 955/955 Solar will set you back $499.99-599.99. The fēnix 7 series runs from $699.99-$999.99.
The Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 255 Music
What You Need To Know:
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Touchscreen
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar now features a touchscreen along with traditional button operation.
- The FR255 is still button-operation only.
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Battery Life
- With and without solar-charging, the Forerunner 955 offers more battery life than the Forerunner 255/255S.
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Training Tools
- These watches are very similar, but the FR 955 has a few more specified training tools, especially for triathletes and competitors, such as Training Load Focus, Primary Benefit, Garmin Live Events, and Strava Live Events.
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Size
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar is available in one size only with a 1.3" display and 46.5 mm case.
- The Forerunner 255/255S offers two sizes: a 41 mm with 1.1" display and 45.6 mm case with 1.3" display.
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Maps
- The Forerunner 255 does not have preloaded topo maps, Round-Trip Course Creator or Trendline Popularity Routing.
- However, both of these Garmin watches now come with multi-band GPS for superior tracking.
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Music
- While both watches offer on-watch music storage for phone-free listening, the FR955 stores twice as many songs—up to 1,000 on watch!
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Price
- The FR255/255S goes for $349.99 for the non music model and $399.99 for the music.
- While the FR955 costs $499.99 and the FR955 Solar is $599.99.
More on the Forerunner 255/255S GPS running watch with Music option.
The Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 745
What You Need To Know:
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Battery Life
- The Forerunner 955 offers considerably more battery life in both the solar and non-solar models.
- The Forerunner 745 has 7 days in smartwatch mode and 16 hours in GPS mode.
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Somewhat Similar Training Tools
- The Forerunner 745 has nearly all the training tools as the previous Forerunner 945.
- But the Forerunner 955 has outpaced the 745 with more advanced training tools, like real-time stamina and HRV status.
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Maps
- The FR745 does not have topo maps or multi-band satellite imaging, whereas the FR 955/955 Solar does, so you can go with more confidence!
The Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Venu 2 Plus
What You Need To Know:
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Display
- The Garmin Venu 2 Plus has an Brighter AMOLED touchscreen display—with button operation as well.
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar now features a sunlight-visible, full-colar 1.3" display with touchscreen.
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Calls/Texts On Watch
- The Venu 2 Plus is currently the only Garmin watch that allows you to make calls and texts from you wrist as long as it is paired with your phone.
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Training Tools
- The Forerunner 955 provides A LOT more training tools for more competitive or avid runners and triathletes.
- The Venu 2 Plus strikes a brilliant balance between smartwatch and fitness-tracking watch.
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Battery Life
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar offers a lot more battery life than the Venu 2's 9 days in smartwatch mode and 24 hours in GPS mode.
The Forerunner 955 vs Garmin epix (Gen 2)
What You Need To Know:
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Display
- The Garmin epix 2 has an Brighter AMOLED touchscreen display—with button operation as well.
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar now features a sunlight-visible, full-colar display with touchscreen + button operation.
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Maps
- The Forerunner 955 comes preloaded with full-color maps and has multi-band GNSS.
- The standard epix 2 does not. However, you can download topo maps them onto it. The epix (Gen 2) Sapphire does come with topo maps—and has multi-band satellite technology.
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Price
- epix (Gen 2) — $900-$1000
- Forerunner 955/955 Solar — $500-$600
The FR 955 vs Garmin Instinct 2/2S
What You Need To Know:
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Model Options
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar has one size in both the standard and solar models, with Blank and Whitestone color options for each.
- The Instinct 2/2S series offers several performance-specific models like for Surf, Tactical, and Truck-Driving, along with 2 sizes available in some models and many color options.
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Battery Life
- Even thought the Forerunner 955/955 Solar has enhanced battery life, the Instinct 2/2S offers A LOT more battery life with solar-charging options.
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Maps
- The Garmin Instinct 2/2S does not have topo maps, Round-Trip Course Creator or Trendline Popularity Routing while the FR 955 does.
The Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 55
What You Need To Know:
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Training tools
- The Forerunner 955/955 Solar has the training tools that competitive runners/triathletes want.
- The Forerunner 55 was designed for beginning runners, but also with enough performance feedback and monitoring for runners who want to level-up with a device that is easy-to-use.
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Maps
- The Forerunner 55 does not have topo maps, Round-Trip Course Creator or Trendline Popularity Routing.
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar — Best GPS Watch for Runners 2022!
The Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar puts more productivity, more battery life, more performance features, and more GPS accruacy on your wrist—for the same price as the old model!
That's right, in a time when the price of everything is going up, Garmin has added a touchscreen, new multi-band GPS for even better GPS tracking, new performance and recovery features, and solar-charging—and you'll pay the same as the former Forerunner 945 ($599.99). The non-solar Forerunner 955 option is actually $100 cheaper!
With traditional buttons and a touch display, it has never been easier to tap into your training status and know whether you’re training productively, peaking, or strained.
Your new Forerunner 955 can do everything the FR945 can, plus offers a training readiness features, a race widget, a morning report, and heart rate variability (HRV) status for a picture of your overall health. (This device is intended to give an estimate of your activity and metrics).
Plus, more Forerunner 955 battery life in both the solar and non-solar options!
Find out more about all the 2022 Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar features below.
And jump over to this page to see all the FR955 product specs!
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Maps
The Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar running watch comes with built-in, full-color detailed mapping—including digital elevation data.
Move around the map using the upper right button, which allows you to zoom/pan/scroll or use the new highly responsive touchscreen. You can see the terrain around you, as well as navigate to points of interest or other places.
Plus, you can create Round-Trip Courses for both running and cycling that allow you to set a given distance and desired direction of travel. You can get three different courses using Trendline Popularity Routing data—with no internet connection required!
Finally, you can follow any downloaded courses as well, using Garmin’s smartphone course creator or any other downloaded GPS files. Following these routes, you’ll get instructions on when to turn and when you’re off-route.
Forerunner 945/945 LTE vs 955/955 Solar Running GPS Watch
We're so excited about Garmin's new Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar GPS watch for runners and triathletes, we're going to start with the features you can get on this 2022 Forerunner!
- In addition to trusted button operation, you have a new, responsive touchscreen!
- Get a daily training readiness score to know what kind of workout day it is.
- Customize your own morning report and get an outlook on your training, recovery, the weather, and more!
- The race widget gives you personalized infromation you need while you train for your next race.
- New HRV status offers a deeper understanding of your overall wellbeing while training.
- Track and manage your exertion with real-time stamina.
- Get superior accuracy for how far and how fast you’ve run — even in challenging environments — with new multi-band GPS.
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Improved Garmin 955/955 Solar battery life:
- Smartwatch Mode: Up to 15 days / Up to 20 days with appropriate solar
- GPS Mode: Up to 42 hours / Up to 49 hours with appropriate solar
- All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band with music: Up to 8.5 hours
- All Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band without music: Up to 20 hours/22 hours with solar
- In Ultratrac Mode: Up to 80 hours / Up to 110 hours with approapriate solar
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Compared to the FR945:
- Smartwatch Mode: Up to 2 weeks
- GPS mode with music: Up to 10 hours
- GPS mode without music: Up to 36 hours
All the oldies but goodies on the Forerunner 945/945 LTE and the new Forerunner 955 GPS watches for running include:
- Always-on, full-color display that’s light on the wrist and easy to read even in direct sunlight.
- Customizable, including every bit of data.
- Garmin's full suite of health monitoring features like wrist-based heart rate, Pulse Ox, Advanced Sleep, Fitness Age, Body Battery, Women's Health, and more.
- Smart features like smart notifications, Garmin Pay, LiveTrack, Incident Detection, Assistance, and more.
- 30+ activity profiles, VO2 Max, Training Status, Training Load, Training Effect, Finish Time, Virtual Partner, PacePro, Race Predictor, Cadence, Running Dynamics with compatible accessory, and more!
The Foreruner 945 LTE is still the only Garmin watch that can provide spectator messaging (with LTE subscription) and Assistance Plus (with LTE subscription)—while you leave your phone at home!
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Battery Life
Train more, charge less with the enhanced battery life of the 2022 Forerunner 955/955 Solar GPS watch for runners and triathletes!
Garmin Forerunner 955 Battery Life
- Smartwatch mode: Up to 15 days
- GPS-only mode without music: Up to 42 hours
- All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band with music: Up to 8.5 hours
- All Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band without music: Up to 20 hours
- Ultratrac mode: Up to 80 hours
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar Battery Life
- Smartwatch mode: Up to 15 days/20 days with solar*
- GPS-only mode without music: Up to 42 hours/49 hours with solar**
- All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band with music: Up to 8.5 hours
- All Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band without music: Up to 20 hours/22 hours with solar**
- Ultratrac mode: Up to 80 hours/110 hours with solar**
*Solar charging, assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux conditions
** Solar charging, assuming use in 50,000 lux conditions
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Price
While Garmin fattened the Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar with several sweet upgrades, they didn't increase the cost!
Everything about this lightweight Garmin running watch is ideal for ultra runners, trail runners, marathon runners—both serious runners and those starting out who want a serious running watch on their wrist. Plus, the multisport nature of it makes it especially attractive to triathletes.
And even though its upgrades puts it on par with the more rugged Garmin fēnix 7 and AMOLED display-adorned epix 2 multisport watches, it still goes for several hundreds less. In fact, the upgraded solar-charging model of the 2022 Forerunner 955 is going at the same price as the previous FR945! And the non-solar FR955 is $100 under that!
Check out the price comparison between these best Garmin watches for runners:
Garmin Forerunner 945: $599.99
Garmin Forerunner 955: $499.99
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $599.99
Garmin epix (Gen 2): $899.99 – $999.99
Garmin fēnix 7/7S/7X: $699.99 – $999.99
Garmin Forerunner 955 Review of New Performance Features
The Forerunner 945 was likely already the most popular multisport GPS watch, because at its core, it had more of the features that competitive runners and triathletes want, like customization and connectivity out the wazoo. But because of its lightweight design, the FR945 was lacking in one major area, especially for trail, backcountry, and ultra runners ... it did not offer the best battery life.
The 2022 Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar changes everything about multisport watches for the running kind. Not only does the design remain light and sleek while offering more battery life—including a solar-charging option! It leveled-up like the rest of Garmin's elite watches this year, with the addtion of a highly responsive touchscreen to trusted button operation.
But that's not it with the FR955 ... it's also got some training and perfromance feature game that none of these other premium multisport watches have—geared toward serious runners. Whether your goals are personal best-oriented or podium-bound, these new features will have you pushing the limits in the best way possible:
Access multiple global navigation satellite systems, and get access to multiple frequencies sent by navigation satellites for improved accuracy in areas where GNSS signals are reflected, weak or typically don't penetrate—giving you superior accuracy for how far and how fast you’ve run—even in challenging environments.
From the moment you wake up, get a training readiness score based on your sleep quality, recovery, training, and more, so you can determine whether it’s a good day to go hard—or take it easy.
Get ready for your next race with race widget—which provides training tips, personalized daily suggested workouts, and completion time predictions based on course details, weather, and performance.
Using new indicators such as HRV status, your recent exercise history and performance, get an easy insight into your overall effort with training status—and know whether you’re training productively, peaking, or strained.
Receive an overview of your sleep, recovery, and training outlook as soon as you wake up with morning report—alongside HRV status, training readiness, and weather; you can even customize your report to show what you want to see.
With HRV status, gain a deeper understanding of your overall health, recovery, and training performance through HRV while you sleep, based on technology developed by our Firstbeat Analytics™ team.
Use real-time stamina to track and manage your exertion—and help avoid overexerting at the start of your run or bike ride.
Note: This device is intended to give an estimate of your activity and metrics.
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Running Watch with Music
The Forerunner 955/955 Solar comes standard with music to control and play through your smartphone or store and play on watch. And it's a nice package!
The Garmin FR955 can store up to 1,000 songs on board—twice as much as the Forerunner 255 Music, but only half as much as the fēnix 7 and epix (Gen 2). Onboarding your tunes goes like this:
- Manually copied music files: These are saved MP3 files, playlists and the like that you sync via USB cable to your computer.
- Streaming services cached files: These are offline playlists/favorites from music services like Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Deezer, cached for playback when not near connectivity.
And, unlike other Garmin GPS watches with music, you get audio alerts for things like pace and laps. You can also add a music page to your workouts data pages.
You’ll need a Bluetooth audio device of some sort to listen to music through or on your Forerunner 955 GPS watch. Headphones are best for workouts, but it will also pair with a speaker, your car ... anything with Bluetooth technology and a speaker.
Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar Specs
Along with more features & battery life, the Forerunner 955/955 Solar offers both models—standard and solar—in Black and Whitestone.
You'll also be happy to know that even though Garmin stuffed a lot more into this watch, it has the same 1.3" display size and added 3 g (53 g vs 50 g of the FR945), so it won't clunk up your runner's wrist!
Here are a few more preliminary specs:
Display: 1.3" always on, full-collor touchscreen display that is easy to read even in direct sunlight. Solar model is made with Power Glass™.
Physical dimensions: 46.5 x 46.5 x 14.4 mm (1.8" x 1.8" x .6")
Weight: 1.9 oz. or 53 g
See the full Garmin Forerunner 955/955 Solar product specs here.
Who Is the Forerunner 955/955 Solar For?
When it comes to multisport GPS watches for runners and triathletes, Garmin is the best brand out there—for training, health, and performance analysis, accurate GPS and heart rate, battery life, data customization, adequate connectivity for your sensors, and build quality.
And two watches are at the top of the of this list for runners: the Forerunner 955/955 Solar and the fēnix 7/7S/7X. Is the Garmin epix (Gen 2) gorgeous and awesomely filled with similar features? Yes. But it tends not to sport the battery life that many runners are used to. And is the Garmin tactix 7 incredible? Hell, yeah. But it tends to have more tactical features than your average runner needs—and more of a price tag!
So, how do you choose between the Forerunner 955 and the fēnix 7 lineup?
If you want a more slender, lightwieight Garmin watch with plenty of battery life and loads of running/multisport features with a price tag under $600—you'll want the new Forerunner 955 or 955 Solar.
If you want a rugged design that can handle extreme conditions, that is somewhat bulkier and heavier, that has a lot more color, size, and model options (try 16!), blows everything out of the water in terms of battery life, and has the price tag to match (the smallest fēnix 7S starts at $699.99), then you will gravitate toward a Garmin fēnix 7 watch.
Does PlayBetter Offer the Garmin Running Dynamics Pod?
When using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro™ monitor (sold separately), the Forerunner 955 GPS watch measures crucial running metrics such as cadence, stride length, ground contact time and balance, and more!
If you prefer to run without a chest strap, the Garmin Running Dynamics Pod has an accelerometer in the module that measures torso movement to calculate these 6 running metrics: cadence, ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical oscillation, vertical ratio, and ground contact time.
If you prefer a chest strap, PlayBetter has Garmin heart rate monitor chest straps for sale:
Check them out to get even more out of your training!