Garmin Forerunner 170 Music vs Garmin Forerunner 405
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| GarminForerunner 170 Music | GarminForerunner 405 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | May 2026 | April 2008 |
| Display | ||
| Case sizes | 42.6 mm | 48 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 and large-font setting; five physical buttons | Backlit monochrome screen, 1.06-inch diagonal and 124 × 95 pixels; a touch-sensitive bezel and two buttons control the watch. Panel technology is unpublished in the maker's specification.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; gyroscope; accelerometer; thermometer; ambient light sensor; thermometer measures activity/ambient temperature, not overnight skin temperature | High-sensitivity GPS receiver; optional ANT+ heart-rate chest strap, 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 and respiration; advanced sleep, sleep coach, breathing variations and nap detection; meditation; smart wake alarm; Health Snapshot; lifestyle logging; Health Status; women's health tracking via Garmin Connect; no ECG app | – |
| Fitness features | More than 80 sports apps; training readiness, status, load, load focus and recovery time; Garmin running, cycling and strength coaching; daily suggested running workouts and quick workouts; wrist-based running dynamics and running power; ground-contact balance requires a compatible accessory; PacePro and grade-adjusted pace; VO2 max and race predictions; cycling power-meter and Varia radar/light support; pool and open-water swimming; no dedicated triathlon mode; Breadcrumb course navigation, point-to-point navigation, back-to-start and TracBack; elevation profile, future elevation plot and Up Ahead; no full routable offline maps | Pace, distance, time, calories, custom and interval workouts, Virtual Partner, Auto Lap and Auto Pause. |
| Safety features | Incident detection during selected activities, assistance and LiveTrack require a paired compatible smartphone; live event sharing is Android-only; screen flashlight, not a separate LED torch | Stores up to 100 locations and provides direction to a saved location; no base maps. |
| Battery and connections | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 10 days | Up to 8 hours |
| In low-power mode | Up to 19 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 10 days, or 4 days with display always on; battery saver smartwatch up to 19 days; GPS-only GNSS up to 20 hours; all-systems GNSS up to 14 hours; with music, GPS-only up to 7.5 hours and all-systems up to 6.5 hours (exact series manual; UK web table mislabels 7.5 hours as days); actual life depends on enabled features and usage | Rechargeable lithium-ion battery; approximately eight hours with GPS or two weeks in power-save mode. |
| Charging | Garmin proprietary plug charging/data cable; rechargeable built-in lithium-ion battery; USB charging temperature 0–45 °C | Contact charging clip and AC adapter. |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, ANT+ and Wi-Fi; GPS, GLONASS and Galileo; no multi-band GNSS; Garmin Pay contactless payments; Android-only text responses and notification images; Connect IQ apps/watch faces/data fields; Garmin Share; controls smartphone music and plays downloaded personal audio or supported music-service content through compatible Bluetooth headphones; third-party services may require subscriptions; no speaker/microphone calls or cellular connection | ANT+ Sport wireless data transfer to a computer through a USB ANT stick; Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center analysis. No direct phone pairing. |
| Storage | 4 GB memory/history with offline music support | Around 1,000 lap records; Garmin Taiwan quotes approximately twenty hours of track points at one point every four seconds. |
| Design | ||
| Weight (lightest version) | 41 g (better) | 60 g |
| Software | Garmin | Garmin |
| Case materials | Fibre-reinforced polymer bezel; silicone band; chemically strengthened glass; 5 ATM water rating; operating/storage temperature –20–60 °C | IPX7 immersion protection, one metre for thirty minutes; not intended for swimming. |
| Size | 42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9 mm; Garmin lists 41 g without a separate body-only weight | 48 × 71 × 16 mm; approximately 60 g. Width is used as the case size; the English manual instead lists 47.75 × 70.5 × 16.4 mm. |
| Bands | Standard 20 mm quick-release two-tone silicone band; fits 126–203 mm wrists | – |
| Colours | Black with Black/Amp Yellow band; Whitestone with Whitestone/Cloud Blue band; Teal Green with Teal Green/Citron band; Red Pink with Red Pink/Mango band | – |
| In the box | Forerunner 170 Music; charging cable; documentation | Watch, USB ANT stick, AC charger and manual; heart-rate strap included in some bundles. |
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