That came out over three years ago. And although this is an update to the 245, with the feature set that this watch has, it basically replaces the garmin foreigner 745, and these are features. Many of us wanted like an altimeter full triathlon support, more training feedback and even the new multi band satellite system mode that just came out with their high end, phoenix 7 line of watches and even more features beyond just that. So ive been wearing the 400 255 for about the last month or so, and in this video ill be going over everything. This watch has to offer, including all the new health features. The sports and fitness features, as well as the smart watch features, but ive also got boatloads of data to share in regards to how accurate the 255 is in tracking sports like running both inside and outside cycling, both inside and outside pool swimming, as well as weight Training just to give you a good idea if this device is going to be right for you and if the information does help you out at all. Do me a favor just quickly hit that, like button down below its a small little thing that you can do that will help this video and the channel quite a bit, and i appreciate it and the 400 255 isnt. The only new watch that garmins launching today. So garmins also launching their new foreigner 955 and 955. Solar and ive also got another mdf review.
This watch, as well as a video comparing the 255 to the 955 that ill have linked on the description below, so you can go ahead and check out those videos once youre done over here, so lets. First, go over some of the different options that you have with the 400 255 and first up theres, two different sizes: a larger 255 with a 45.6 millimeter diameter case and a 255s with a smaller 41 millimeter case. And this is what the larger 255 looks like on my 187 millimeter circumference wrist. So what theyve done here is make a version thats slightly bigger than the original 245 and a version thats a bit smaller. But then we also have music versions of the 400 255. In both the sizes, so the music versions can store and playback music directly from the watch itself. Without you needing to have your phone nearby – and you can do this with music services like spotify, pandora, amazon, music as well as deezer, and then for the design. Its largely very similar to the original 245, but i noticed that its a little bit more streamlined because the buttons are a little bit less pronounced, but theyre still easy to find and easy to use, so no worries there, but the biggest difference. Youll notice on the outside is when you flip them over and on. The back is the latest fourth generation, elevated heart rate sensor, and just to give you a little bit of a spoiler ive, had very good results with the heart rate sensor on this watch.
With all the testing, ive been doing and more details on that later in the video and then for battery life. They really up the ante with the new 255 versus the previous generation, so with the larger 255 that can get up to two weeks in smartwatch mode. Without recording any outdoor activities versus the previous generation, which could only get up to seven days and then for gps battery life, you can get up to 30 hours of recording time on the larger 255 versus 24 hours on the original 245 and then heres some other Battery life scenarios with the different size options as well as different modes that you can check out right now so before we get into the new health, fitness and sports features lets quickly go over. These smart watch features so just like the previous generation 245. The 255 can show the weather and calendar information from your smartphone, and you can also receive notifications from apps texts and calls and for text on an iphone. You can receive notifications and view them on the watch itself, but you wont be able to reply, and that has everything to do with apple, unfortunately, and not garmin by the way apple just likes to keep text message. Reply functionality exclusive to the apple watch with an iphone. However, if youre using the 255 with an android phone, you will be able to reply with predefined responses. You can set up in the garmin connect app and then, like i mentioned before.
The music versions of the 255 have offline music, storage and playback, but the non music versions still have the capability of controlling the music playing on your phone if its nearby, but now onto the health, fitness and sports features and thats really kind of what the 255 Is all about so the foreigner 255 comes with the garmins latest fourth generation, elevated heart rate sensor that you can track your heart rate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it also has an spo2 sensor for tracking your blood oxygen saturation levels. It also has garmins advanced sleep tracking, where it can give you a sleep score as well as provide information on your sleep stages throughout the night. In addition to that, theyre also rolling out a few new data screens here on the sleep widget, where you can see the trends of your sleep stages as well as your sleep score over the last seven days, and then the 255 also comes with garmins. Health snapshot. Feature which can collect multiple health metrics all at one time, including your heart rate, stress level, spo2 level, as well as respiration rate, but now lets get into a brand new feature to come with the 255, and this also does come with the new 955 and thats. A new feature called hrv status, so your hiv status can be balanced, which is probably what you want to see, which means that things are running normal and can also mean that youre responding well to training, but then theres also unbalanced, as well as poor hiv status, Which could mean that you need more rest or theres, some other things going on with your health, which could use some attention and then from there? You can also see your hrv and chart format from the last nights – sleep, including the average, as well as highest point during the night, and then you can also see your average hrv trends over the last seven days and then, of course, you can view your hrv Historical data in garmin connect hrv has been around for quite some time, but its recently been gaining a lot of popularity, so its nice to see them integrate this feature and hrv also is playing a role in their new training status, which also has been updated and Well, talk about that here, just one bit and then another new thing to come with the 255 is a feature called your morning report, and this i got ta say, is a pretty great feature.
So what happens is that when you wake up theres this new special screen, that kind of greets you showing the weather for the day, along with a fun background, and what your morning report will give. You is basically a breakdown of your day as well as your last nights sleep, so the first screen here shows my daily suggested workout. The next screen shows my sleep from the night before the next screen down shows my hrv status. Next up is my body battery status and then theres a more detailed weather report for the day and then theres some other data. You can choose to show such as your intensity minutes for the week as well as steps for the week and then once youre done viewing your morning report, you can just take on the day as they put it and seriously. I think this feature is great because before when i woke up, i had to scroll to different widgets to access all this different information and now its just all in one place, and you cant edit. What information is shown in your morning report by the way? So for fitness features the 255 can track your steps as well as intensity minutes, just like the prefix generation 245, but with the 255. It now has an altimeter, so you can also track your floors climb throughout the day as an additional stat, and since the 255 does have an altimeter, you also will be able to see your total elevation gain and loss for outdoor activities and yet another new feature To come with the 255, since it has an altimeter, is that it also can natively collect running power with a compatible accessory, so youll be able to do this with an hrm pro.
An rd pod, an hrm run or an hrm. Try and running power is an interesting data point that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years and what it aims to do is provide just another way of assessing your effort during a run beyond just heart rate and pace. Now i think, garmins calling this native running power, but all this really means is that you dont, have to go to the connect, iq, store and download the running power data field to collect this data so previously, with watches that did support running power. What you had to do is that you had to go to the connect iq store. You had to download the running power data field, you got to install on the watch and then you could collect the running power data now when you just pair up one of these compatible accessories. It just automatically collects the running power data and then for another little tidbit. It will also collect running power while running on a treadmill, but it may not be quite as accurate as what youll get outdoors, though, because theres going to be other variables outdoors like wind and elevation. That can be a factor but hey its there. If you want it, and also for those of you curious a stride footpot, unfortunately, doesnt work with garmins native running power implementation, but a stride footpod still does work with the 255. You just have to go to the connect, iq, store and download the stride app to make that work and then for training and performance feedback.
The 255 can estimate your running vo2 max just like the 245, but with the 255 well youll also be able to get an estimate on your cycling, vo2 max, because 255 now adds cycling. Power meter support as an external accessory which wasnt available on the 245 and then, along with that. The 255 also gets garmins new visual race predictor feature, and this feature was first rolled out under high end phoenix 7 line of watches and heres, where you can see how your runs over the last four weeks factor into possible race times that you could achieve for Common race distances, and then we also have training status, and this was available on the 245, but theyve revamped it a bit with the 255. So training status gives you an indication of where youre at based on your current vo2 max estimate, acute training load, which is your training history over the last seven days. But since the 255 also collects your hrv, it also factors that into your training status and then for training features along with garmin coach, which you can use for training plans. Theyve also added some new race widgets that can show your race calendar along with another widget. That shows your primary race and these arent, just as simple as just showing events in your calendar theres a lot more things going on behind the scenes so like here. I have a couple races on my race calendar that i created in garment connect, and you can do this for lots of different kinds of activities like running cycling and more, but heres.
Whats neat is that you can also enter the location for these events. When you create them – and if you do so, itll pull the weather information for the date and time of the event, so you can plan ahead and then what you can do too, is that if you have multiple erases in your calendar, you can set one of Them to be your primary event and itll show up in the primary race, widget and heres, where you can see a countdown to the event and then, in addition to that for running, it will even give you a visual race, predictor screen here with a predicted time. Based on your previous training and your event, doesnt need to even conform to one of the common race distances like 5k, 10k and half marathon. Like this event right here, i just set up for five miles and still gives a prediction for that specific distance. And then you can scroll down one more screen for more detailed weather information, but if we go back to this screen, this gets us to. Another new feature is that the 255 can build out your daily suggested workouts up to a week ahead, whether you have an event or not in your calendar and then for one final thing surrounding this on your race day. Your morning report background will change to a race inspired theme and itll also display your race in your report. So the foreigner 255 also has the ability to load in routes for basic navigation, but it also comes with garmins up ahead feature.
So what this is is that when you create a route in garmin connect, what you can do here is also add course points along your route for certain things like bathrooms, shelters, food or hydration reminders or a host of other things of interest. And what happens is that during your activity, when you load in that route, for navigation is that it will give you cues to the next course point, which can be super helpful, and the 400 255 also comes with plenty of safety tracking features like live track. Where you can send a link to your friends and family who can actually follow along your outdoor activity? Theres also going to be instant detection where it can attempt to detect a crash and then send an alert to one of your emergency contacts, as well as requesting assistance from your one of your emergency contacts. But just note that you do have to have your phone with you for these features, because the 255 will use your phone cellular connection to send out those alerts and then for activity profiles. The 255 comes with a bunch of activity profiles like all the normal ones. Youd expect like running and cycling both indoors and outdoors. It has plenty of gym profiles like pool swimming weight, training and high intensity interval training, and then even yoga breath work and more. But the biggest news about activity profiles on the 255 is that now comes with an open water swimming profile as well as a triathlon mode, and before you had to get into the foreign 745 board, then you instinct two to get this.
So this is a big upgrade here for the foreigner 200 series and along with that, since the 255 has an altimeter, you also get additional profiles like the floor, climb profile and the ski and snowboard activity profiles which can automatically track your runs throughout the day, and I have a video that i did a while back, demonstrating the ski activity profile on a garmin fenix and its pretty neat how it works and ill have that video linked in the description below and yet another new thing to come with the 255. And this was also something that was just introduced with their high end. Phoenix 7 and epic sports watches is that the 255 can now leverage more satellite systems than before so with the 245 that could leverage gps, galileo, as well as glonass satellite systems, but with the 255 you can leverage all those as well as baidu and qzss sideline Systems so you just have more coverage, but not only that the 255 also has the new dual band satellite system mode, where its able to leverage multiple satellite systems on different frequencies at the same time, and what this aims to do is increase gps accuracy, and this Is especially useful in places like where theres a lot of overhead obstructions like buildings, rock faces or tree cover and for the accuracy well, its basically spot on when it comes to total distances, and i tested this with a ton of different activities like running road biking.
As well as mountain biking, it was right in line with some of the other devices that i consider to be very accurate and then for the finer detail of the gps tracks. It was super crispy here folks, and these are some of the most accurate tracks. Ive ever seen so in fact, on this run, it was spot on the entire time and then for mountain biking, where there can be a lot of tree cover and switchbacks, which can sometimes pose problems for gps again rock solid, and it was good to go now. One thing to note about this: multi band, all satellite systems mode – is that, yes, it produces some super crispy gps tracks, but it also uses more battery life than the other gps modes and its not like the other gps modes are inaccurate by any means. In fact, i still got very good results even out of the older 245, where this multi band all satellite systems mode is going to be especially useful er in those challenging situations, like i mentioned before, like tall buildings tree cover and rock faces. So, unless youre in one of those situations or if youre, just getting wonky gps for some reason or another, you could probably just use one of the other modes and save on battery life, but thats totally up to you and then for treadmill accuracy. As in how well the 255 did at estimating running distances indoors well, it was basically spot on on this run right here and if, for some reason, if it is off, you can adjust and calibrate the distance.
When you go to save your run and then for pool swimming, the 255 can automatically track distance as well as your laps, without you having to interact with the watch at all – and it did just great here. So it also has automatic stroke detection, which is fine, and it also can automatically detect rest periods in between intervals. Okay, so now on to hardware accuracy, so the 400 255 comes with garmins fourth generation elevate, heart rate sensor and in terms of accuracy, this performs quite well and ive got tons of examples for you here all the way from activities that are generally easier for these Types of sensors to track like indoor, cycling and running all the way to activities that tend to pose more challenges like weight, training as well as mountain biking. So lets start out with some running and, as you can see from this run, it was pretty much spot on for the entire run. There were a couple spots here and there, where it tracked, a few beats per minute high and then a couple spots at the tail end with the workout, where it wandered ever so slightly. But this is an extremely good result and then, on this treadmill run for nearly the entire run. It was spot on, but it did have some moments at the end of my run, where it tracked a little bit high and then for indoor cycling again, quite good. Overall and not too much to complain about a couple, little blips here and there, but were talking about just a few beats per minute off.
So nothing to worry about, but now lets get into some activities that pose more challenges for risk based heart rate, sensors and well. First start out with some road biking outside where we start to introduce vibrations and bumps in the road which can throw off these types of sensors. But as you can see, the 255 did a really good job. Here there were a couple spots like here where it dipped slightly and then a couple moments at the end where it read a little bit high. But overall this is quite a good result for road biking with a wrist based optical heart rate sensor. But now lets get into mountain biking, and this is where we start to introduce a lot more variables like gripping onto the handlebars, as well as a lot of rough terrain, which can make the watch bounce around the wrist which can pose challenges for these types of Wristbands optical heart rate sensors, but as you can see, this is pretty respectable result, so there was a little bit of weirdness at the beginning where it took a minute or so to lock on. But after that it was right in line for quite some time. The majority of this ride was on rolling terrain, in addition to some climbing, which we can see for about the first three quarters of the ride. But at this point right here is when i started to go downhill and pun intended. This is also when accuracy tends to go downhill for these types of sensors, where you can see some points like here and here, where wandered more than what we saw before and even though thats to be expected, the 255 still did a really good job in handling It and stayed really close to the other sensors and then now we get some weight training, which is arguably one of the hardest activities for these types of risk, based heart rate, sensors of track and heres, where we can certainly see more variants but in the whole Landscape of wrist based heart rate, sensors, this isnt bad.
There were some sets where the 255 tracked a bit high like here and here and then over here and then a few were tracked a little bit low like here and here, but still the fact that the 255 still was for the most part on track. For most of the workout, this is pretty respectable and then on the app side of things. The 255 also comes with the garmins new real time. Settings sync feature where youll be able to edit settings in real time on the app like activities, data screens, data fields and so much more, which can be a lot more convenient to do on the app than the watch itself so for some final thoughts. Well, the previous generation 245, that was a super capable watch and it offered a lot for the money, but with the 255. Well, they kind of went bonkers with it and decided to just throw in a ton of new stuff and, as you can tell it performed, pretty darn well and for the price. The base level 255 without music comes in at 349, and the 255 with music comes in at 3.99, and yes, that is considerably more than the 245 was when it originally came out. However, what needs to be considered, though, is that, with the feature set that the 255 has, it really should be compared to the foreigner 745 and the 255 in house features that the 745 doesnt have and if youre curious, how the 400 255 stacks up against the New 400 955 955 solar ive got another video going over all that, as well as my super in depth.
Review of the 950s solar, which ill have linked down in the description below, and if you have any questions about anything, i didnt cover in this video make sure to leave those in the comment section down below and on your way down there.fJsPo2qMfX0
