Garmin Forerunner 165 Music vs Garmin Forerunner 405CX
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| GarminForerunner 165 Music | GarminForerunner 405CX | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | February 2024 | 2009 |
| Display | ||
| Case sizes | 43 mm | 47.75 mm |
| Panel | OLED | – |
| Always-on display | Yes | Yes |
| Display detail | 1.2-inch (30.4 mm diameter) colour AMOLED touchscreen, 390 x 390 pixels; optional always-on display; five physical buttons | Backlit monochrome screen, 27 mm diagonal and 124 × 95 pixels; touch-sensitive bezel and two buttons. Panel technology is unpublished in the maker's specification. |
| Screen protection | Chemically strengthened glass | – |
| Health and fitness | ||
| ECG | No | No |
| Blood oxygen | Yes | No |
| Skin temperature | No | No |
| Sleep apnoea alerts | No | No |
| High blood pressure alerts | No | No |
| Body composition | No | No |
| Fall detection | No | No |
| Crash detection | No | No |
| GPS | Single-band | Single-band |
| Water resistance | 50 m | – |
| Sensors | Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate; Pulse Ox; barometric altimeter; compass; accelerometer; thermometer; ambient light sensor; GPS, GLONASS and Galileo | High-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix; ANT+ heart-rate chest strap, optional foot pod and cycling speed/cadence sensor. No optical wrist sensor. |
| Health features | Continuous heart rate with high/low alerts; HRV status; Body Battery; stress, respiration and blood oxygen; advanced sleep and sleep score; sleep coach and nap detection; Health Snapshot; hydration and women's health tracking; no ECG app | – |
| Fitness features | Daily suggested running workouts and Garmin Coach plans; training effect and recovery time; wrist-based running dynamics and running power; PacePro; VO2 max and race predictions; pool and open-water swimming; running, cycling, strength, HIIT, yoga, Pilates, tennis, pickleball and padel profiles; point-to-point and breadcrumb course navigation, back-to-start and TracBack; no full offline maps or dedicated triathlon mode; no training readiness, load or status (Wareable and Tech Advisor) | Heart-rate-based calorie calculation developed with Firstbeat; custom and interval workouts, courses, Virtual Partner, Auto Lap, Auto Pause, Auto Scroll and configurable training screens. |
| Safety features | Incident detection during selected activities, assistance and LiveTrack require a paired compatible smartphone and connectivity; live event sharing is Android-only | Up to 100 stored locations and navigation to a saved location; no base maps. |
| Battery and connections | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 11 days | Up to 8 hours |
| In low-power mode | Up to 20 days | Up to 14 days |
| Mobile data option | No | No |
| Works with | iPhone and Android | No phone pairing |
| Storage | 4 GB | – |
| Battery life detail | Smartwatch up to 11 days; battery saver smartwatch up to 20 days; GPS-only up to 19 hours; all-systems GNSS up to 17 hours; GPS-only with music up to 7 hours; all-systems with music up to 6.5 hours; actual life depends on display settings, enabled features and use | Rechargeable 300 mAh lithium-ion battery; up to eight hours with GPS or two weeks in power-save mode, according to the English owner's manual. Garmin Slovakia instead quotes nine GPS hours. |
| Charging | Garmin proprietary plug charging/data cable; rechargeable built-in battery | USB contact charging clip and AC adapter. |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth and ANT+ and Wi-Fi; stores music for Bluetooth headphones; Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music downloads require compatible subscriptions; Garmin Pay; Connect IQ apps, watch faces and data fields; smart notifications; Android-only text responses and notification images; Garmin Share and Garmin Messenger; no cellular connection or multi-band GNSS | ANT+ computer transfers through a USB ANT stick; Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center. No direct phone pairing. |
| Storage | 4 GB memory/history; offline music playback | Up to 1,000 laps, 100 locations and approximately twenty hours of track points at one point every four seconds. |
| Design | ||
| Weight (lightest version) | 39 g (better) | 60 g |
| Software | Garmin | Garmin |
| Case materials | Fibre-reinforced polymer bezel; chemically strengthened glass; silicone band; 5 ATM water rating | IPX7 immersion protection, one metre for thirty minutes; the manual says the watch is not intended for swimming. |
| Size | 43 x 43 x 11.6 mm; Garmin lists 39 g without a separate body-only weight | 47.75 × 70.5 × 16.4 mm and 60 g, according to the English manual; Garmin Slovakia rounds this to 48 × 71 × 16 mm. Width is used as the case size. |
| Bands | 20 mm quick-release silicone bands; fits 126–203 mm wrists | Standard wrist strap and two additional form-fitting fabric straps for smaller or larger wrists. |
| Colours | Black/Slate Grey; Mist Grey/Whitestone; Turquoise/Aqua; Berry/Lilac (currently not sellable on the UK maker page) | Deep blue. |
| In the box | Forerunner 165 Music; charging/data cable; documentation | Watch, heart-rate chest strap, USB ANT stick, AC adapter, USB charging clip, additional wrist straps and documentation. |
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