The Forerunner 70 & Forerunner 170 may be two of the most similar watches I’ve ever seen Garmin produce, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The units have a mere $50 price difference, or $100 if you include the music edition of the Forerunner 170. Still, while they are similar, there are a handful of differences that may matter depending on what you care about – or more specifically, mostly what types of sports you intend to track.
Still, these two units are the most feature-packed and price-focused watches Garmin has released this decade. It’s an astonishing shift from the sky-high prices of 2025 across their lineup. Garmin is very clearly trying to undercut the bulk of its budget competitors here, and likely doing so successfully, especially with the Foreunner 70.
I’ve been putting both watches through their paces side-by-side (one on each wrist) just to understand those differences in real life, beyond the specs.
With that, let’s dive into it!
The Hardware Differences:
The two units are nearly identical in hardware, especially when viewed externally as they appear identical. Only a few internal differences exist. Generally speaking, that’s Garmin’s mantra – re-use hardware/components across multiple product lines and even within a product line, with the majority of differentiation coming from software.
Viewed at any distance, they’d look identical, save the unique colors for each model.
Still, here’s how the two differ:
– The Forerunner 70 is $249, whereas the Forerunner 170 is $299, and the Forerunner 170 Music is $349
– The Forerunner 70 has 6 color ways, Forerunner 170 has 4 (different) color ways
– The Forerunner 170 has the option for music (in the ‘Music’ edition), the Forerunner 70 does not
– The Forerunner 170 has Garmin Pay (NFC/Contactless payments) included; the Forerunner 70 does not
– The Forerunner 170 has a barometer/altimeter, the Forerunner 70 does not
– The Forerunner 170 has a magnetic compass & gyroscope, the Forerunner 70 does not
– The Forerunner 170 has a temperature sensor (as part of the altimeter), the Forerunner 70 does not
– The Forerunner 170 Music has WiFi (for syncing music, activities, firmware updates, etc), the others do not
– The Forerunner 70 actually has a bit longer battery than the Forerunner 170, due to handling the extra processing load of the barometer, altimeter, and more memory for the music edition.
Here’s a look at all the color options for the Forerunner 70:
And then here’s the Forerunner 170 color options:
Now, as noted, there are battery life differences as well. Here are the two variants:
Forerunner 70:
Smartwatch mode: Up to 13 days (5 days always-on display)
Battery Saver Smartwatch mode: Up to 28 days
GPS Only GNSS Mode: Up to 23 hours
All-Systems GNSS Mode: Up to 16 hoursForerunner 170:
Smartwatch mode: Up to 10 days (4 days always-on display)
Battery Saver Smartwatch mode: Up to 19 days
GPS Only GNSS Mode: Up to 20 hours
All-Systems GNSS Mode: Up to 14 hours
Again, the higher battery burn of the Forerunner 170 compared to the less expensive Forerunner 70 is that they both share the same exact battery, but the Forerunner 170 has added components that burn more battery (namely the gyro, altimeter, and barometer).
Still, beyond that, from a hardware standpoint, they’re otherwise identical:
– Both are 43mm watches with identical dimensions
– Both have 1.2″ touchscreen AMOLED displays
– Both have Garmin’s standard 5-button layout
– Both have Garmin’s Elevate Gen4 optical HR sensor package (Gen 5 is the latest with ECG & skin temperature)
– Both have PulseOx (Blood Oxygenation tracking)
– Neither has ECG support
– Neither has multiband/dual-frequency GPS inside
Again, this might be the closest I’ve seen to two different tiers/series of watches being released with nearly identical hardware. As always with Garmin devices, though, the software differentiates things even more.
The Software (non-Sports):
The biggest thing to understand about the software here on the Forerunner 70 & 170 is that it’s leveraging the same underlying platform as numerous other watches launched in 2025, which originated on the Fenix 8 in August 2024. This is Garmin’s new common OS, and allows for new features & bugs/etc to be fixed universally across all watches. This has dramatically improved getting fixes to more devices, since a fix in a Fenix 8 Pro results in the exact same fix in a Vivoactive 6, Forerunner 570/970, Venu 4, a gazillion Fenix variants, and more (and now Forerunner 70/170).
More notably, though from a features standpoint, this has resulted in a lot of smaller features trickling down from the Fenix series into lower-end watches, simply because it would have been more work to change the UI to remove them than was worth the business effort to upsell them. Most of these can be tiny, like adding the color shift at night options, or the battery burn widget, or the focus modes. But in total we’re talking likely hundreds of tiny features.
Anyways, to that end, the Forerunner 70 & 170 watches are nearly identical in the actual features they have, save a handful of ones that the 170 has mostly due to added hardware components (e.g. music features on the music one with extra storage), and then a few expanded sport features n the Forerunner 170 (next section).
From a non-sports standpoint, here are the differences:
The Forerunner 170’s Music Capability: Obviously, the Forerunner 170 Music edition (but not the base Forerunner 170) has the ability to download music to it. This includes both MP3 files, as well as streaming services like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. As of this writing, the YouTube Music app isn’t yet available for it, though I suspect that’ll come soon (it usually takes a bit longer for some odd reason). This allows you to cache offline that music, and then play it without a phone while working out (or, not working out).
You must connect a pair of headphones (or any Bluetooth audio device) to the FR170 music in order for music to play, as it doesn’t have a full speaker (just a beeper).
The Forerunner 170’s Contactless Payments (Garmin Pay): The FR170 has Garmin Pay on all editions, which allows you to load a supported credit card from a supported bank onto your watch. As always, your bank has to be on the Garmin Pay list, though it’s pretty expansive, depending on your country.
To use it, you’ll simply open the controls menu, then tap the little credit card, and enter your pin. After that you can just tap the card reader like any other NFC/contactless payment card/phone.
Beyond that, everything else is the same. At least, assuming we count altimeter, barometer, and compass data as sport data…which, we will.
Sport Features Differences:
Most of the differences within the Forerunner 170 can be found within the sports realm, either tied to the Altimeter/Barometer/Compass functions, or tied to the extra power meter support. There are a few things that are sorta ancillary to that, but those are the big areas.
Just to list these out nicely and efficiently, here we go:
– The Forerunner 170 Music can generate voice alerts/prompts during a workout via connected headphones; the Forerunner 70 cannot connect to headphones
– The Forerunner 170 has the ABC (Altimeter, Barometer, Compass) widget, the Forerunner 70 does not, as it doesn’t have those three hardware components
– The Forerunner 170 has added data fields around elevation/ascent/descent
– The Forerunner 170 has a temperature sensor, and thus temperature data fields
– The Forerunner 170 has the Storm Alert feature (trigger by the barometer)
– The Forerunner 170 has ‘Cycling Performance’ (data/widget), as it supports power meters that the Forerunner 70 doesn’t.
– The Forerunner 170 Cycling Performance widget will estimate your cycling VO2Max (separate from running), as well as estimate your current FTP (Functional Threshold Power)
– The Forerunner 170 can control an ANT+ FE-C smart trainer, including structured workouts
– The Forerunner 170 has a slate of added cycling power meter data fields in the bike profiles
– The Forerunner 170 can support Garmin Cycle Coach, since it supports power meters
Next, looking at the sensor types, here’s a quick listing of the supported sensors
– The Forerunner 70/170 sensors: External HR (ANT+/Bluetooth), Footpod (ANT+/Bluetooth), Lights (ANT+), Cycling Radar (ANT+/Bluetooth), RD Pod (ANT+), Speed/Cadence Sensor (ANT+/Bluetooth), Tempe (ANT+/Bluetooth)
– The Forerunner 170 adds the following types: Cycling Power (ANT+/Bluetooth), Smart Trainer (ANT+)
Here’s the full list of sports modes, and then the additional modes each FR170 variant has after it:
Forerunner 70: Run, Track Run, Treadmill, Road Bike, Walk, Cardio, Strength, Pool Swim, Trail Run, Bike (Outdoor), Bike Indoor, Virtual Run, Indoor Track, Obstacle Racing, Ultra Run, MTB, eBike, eMTB, Cyclocross, Gravel Bike, Bike Commute, Bike Tour, Mobility, HIIT, Yoga, Pilates, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Row Indoor, Walk Indoor, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Jump Rope, Hike, Rucking, Mountaineering, Disc Golf, Horseback, Archery, Inline Skating, Ski, Snowboard, XC Classic Ski, XC Classic Skate, Snowshoe, Ice Skating, Snowmobile, SUP, Kayak, Row, Snorkel, Soccer/Football, American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Cricket, Lacrosse, Rugby, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey, Ultimate Disc, Tennis, Pickleball, Padel, Racquetball, Squash, Badminton, Table Tennis, Platform Tennis, ATV, Snowmobile, Overland, Motocross, Motorcycle, Horseback, Breathwork
The Forerunner 170: Adds Floor Climb, Openwater (Swim)
The Forerunner 170 Music: Adds Guided Meditation too
The reason only the FR170 Music has Guided Meditation is that it leverages the audio playback pieces on the headphones.
On the Forerunner 170 ABC features, the Compass helps in a few ways. While navigating a course, it’ll instantly rotate the map page (breadcrumb route) as you move around, whereas on the Forerunner 70, it won’t do that very quickly. Likewise, on the FR170, you can lock a heading if you want to:
You can also calibrate the altimeter as well, and change the altimeter/barometer modes.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the elevation data, there are some interesting nuances here. First, the Forerunner 70 won’t display your current elevation during an activity, nor any ascent/descent values.
However, if you load a course/route, then it will actually display the ascent/descent data. Here you can see it on a hilly run from today:
(You can see total ascent thus far, 104m, ascent remaining, 28m, the current high/low altitudes, and a course profile for my route. When I went off-route, I simply lost the ascent remaining metric.)
What’s notable is that you can go off-course, and it’ll still correctly track this. Meaning, it’s not actually linked straight to the route file. Instead, it’s leveraging GPS-based elevation data. This is confirmed at the end of the activity/workout, when you’ll see the elevation graph as well as the summary values. Here on this 5KM trail run, you can see the difference of only a few meters, despite some steep inclines/declines.
I suspect that for most people, this difference wouldn’t be meaningful. Plus, once you upload these files to most platforms, it’ll automatically correct the data.
Speaking of which, when it comes to heart rate accuracy and GPS accuracy, I’m seeing no differences at all between the two units, they’re producing identical results. You can see this in my Forerunner 70 post, where I include data sets from both watches on the same activities.
And for the singular GPS sport mode that isn’t on the Forerunner 70 (Openwater Swimming), I’m seeing pretty good results there:
Sure, you see a tiny bit of a difference between the multiband unit and the FR170, but that could also easily be left vs right arm swing. I’ll do another swim and switch it halfway, to see if there’s any difference.
Note, critically for triathletes, neither watch has a multisport/triathlon mode, that’s notable because the Forerunner 265 (and of course Forerunner 570/970) does have these modes. It’s really just about the single Forerunner 265 feature that’s not in the Forerunner 170. Meaning, if you aren’t a triathlete and want to ensure you’re on the latest software update train, I’d go Forerunner 170 over Forerunner 265. Whereas, if you’re a triathlete, then you’d want to avoid the Forerunner 170.
Wrap-Up:
Ultimately, I think a decision between the Forerunner 70 vs Forerunner 170 really comes down to about three key questions you’d want to ask yourself:
1) Do you care about Garmin Pay or Music?
2) Do you care about the altimeter/barometer/compass features, including slightly improved trail navigation responsiveness and elevation data during a run?
3) Do you care about either cycling power meter support or openwater swimming?
If the answer to any of those three questions is a ‘yes’, then the Forerunner 170 is probably the better option. Or alternatively, looking at some of Garmin’s prior-get watches on sale (such as the Forerunner 265 instead, which is the same price). As always with Garmin prior-get watches, you’re basically looking at a tradeoff between no-new-feature updates vs very solid deals. Meaning, if you go into buying a Forerunner 265 knowing it won’t get any meaningful new feature updates (it won’t), then you’ll gain triathlon support and a few other things (but won’t get the new FR70/170 Quick Workout Feature).
You can of course play the comparison game all-day long between not only different Garmin watches (e.g. FR265 at $349, Epix Gen 2 at $399, Forerunner 965 for a bit more, etc…), but also to other competitors like the COROS Pace 4 at $249, Suunto Run or Race in the same ballpark, or towards the more smartwatch realm such as the Apple Watch SE at $249 or the Google Pixel Watch. But…that’s not the title this point. Perhaps/probably another day.
Ultimately, I think the Forerunner 70 is the strongest value watch that Garmin has now in its lineup. Even holding its own against many budget watches out there in terms of price to value. However, that does get murkier with the Forerunner 170, compared to Garmin’s own prior-get watches, and some of their competitors.
With that – thanks for reading!
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