Garmin Forerunner 405CX vs Garmin Forerunner 70
Better figure, where one is clearly better
| GarminForerunner 405CX | GarminForerunner 70 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Released | 2009 | May 2026 |
| Display | ||
| Case sizes | 47.75 mm | 42.6 mm |
| Panel | – | OLED |
| Always-on display | Yes | Yes |
| Display detail | 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 Panel technology is unpublished in the maker's specification. | 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 |
| Screen protection | – | Chemically strengthened glass |
| Health and fitness | ||
| ECG | No | No |
| Blood oxygen | No | Yes |
| 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 | High-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix; ANT+ heart-rate chest strap, optional foot pod and cycling speed/cadence sensor. No optical wrist sensor. | Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate; Pulse Ox; accelerometer; ambient light sensor; no built-in barometric altimeter or body-temperature 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; smart wake alarm; Health Snapshot; lifestyle logging; Health Status; women's health tracking via Garmin Connect; no ECG app |
| Fitness features | 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. | More than 80 sports apps; training readiness, status, load, load focus and recovery time; Garmin running, cycling and strength coaching; daily suggested running workouts including run/walk; quick workouts; wrist-based running dynamics and running power; PacePro; VO2 max and race predictions; breadcrumb course navigation, back-to-start and TracBack; pool swimming; no open-water swim or triathlon mode; no full offline maps |
| Safety features | Up to 100 stored locations and navigation to a saved location; no base maps. | 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 |
| Battery and connections | ||
| Battery life (maker's claim) | Up to 8 hours | Up to 13 days |
| In low-power mode | Up to 14 days | Up to 28 days |
| Mobile data option | No | No |
| Works with | No phone pairing | iPhone and Android |
| Battery life detail | 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. | Smartwatch up to 13 days, or 5 days with display always on; battery saver smartwatch up to 28 days; GPS-only GNSS up to 23 hours; all-systems GNSS up to 16 hours; actual life depends on enabled features and usage |
| Charging | USB contact charging clip and AC adapter. | Garmin proprietary plug charging/data cable; rechargeable built-in lithium-ion battery; USB charging temperature 0–45 °C |
| Connectivity | ANT+ computer transfers through a USB ANT stick; Garmin Connect and Garmin Training Center. No direct phone pairing. | Bluetooth and ANT+; GPS, GLONASS and Galileo; no multi-band GNSS; Android-only text responses and notification images; Connect IQ apps/watch faces/data fields; Garmin Share; controls smartphone music without offline playback; no Garmin Pay, speaker/microphone calls or cellular connection |
| Storage | Up to 1,000 laps, 100 locations and approximately twenty hours of track points at one point every four seconds. | 512 MB memory/history; not storage for offline music playback |
| Design | ||
| Weight (lightest version) | 60 g | 40 g (better) |
| Software | Garmin | Garmin |
| Case materials | IPX7 immersion protection, one metre for thirty minutes; the manual says the watch is not intended for swimming. | Fibre-reinforced polymer bezel; silicone band; chemically strengthened glass; 5 ATM water rating; operating/storage temperature –20–60 °C |
| Size | 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. | 42.6 x 42.6 x 11.9 mm; Garmin lists 40 g without a separate body-only weight |
| Bands | Standard wrist strap and two additional form-fitting fabric straps for smaller or larger wrists. | Standard 20 mm quick-release silicone band; fits 126–203 mm wrists |
| Colours | Deep blue. | UK Black, Whitestone, Citron and Cool Lavender; global range additionally offers Tidal Blue and Soft Pink |
| In the box | Watch, heart-rate chest strap, USB ANT stick, AC adapter, USB charging clip, additional wrist straps and documentation. | Forerunner 70; charging cable; documentation |
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