Should you buy the Garmin Forerunner 245 on Black Friday?

The Garmin Forerunner 245 is cheaper on Black Friday 2022 – should you get one, though, just because it doesn't cost a lot of money? Despite being over three years old and having a newer sibling with a number of updated features, the Forerunner 245 is still a relatively innovative device in terms of the features and tech it comes bundled with. This GPS smartwatch tracks your stats, crunches the numbers and gets to know all about your performance, your running form and your fitness goals.

Launched back in April 2019, some might consider the Garmin Forerunner 245 a little outdated now. There is also the new Garmin Forerunner 255, which isn't just a GPS running watch anymore, thanks to its multisport functionality. Is it wise to buy a three-year-old device if you find a cheap Garmin deal among the best Black Friday deals? Should you get a Garmin Fenix 6 on Black Friday instead? What new features would you be missing out on if you did, and is the lower price worth it in the long run? Read on to find out...

How much is the Garmin Forerunner 245 on Black Friday?

The non-music version of the Garmin Forerunner 245 retails for $280/£150/AU$500 at Garmin US, Garmin UK and Garmin AU, respectively. In the UK, that's the cheapest it's ever been, and is worth having a look at!

If, for any reason, the Garmin UK website sells out or stops that offer, you can also pick up the Forerunner 245 from Very for a discounted price of £179 – a saving of 71 quid.  And if you bought this over the standard version of the newer Forerunner 255, which retails for £300, you’d be saving a massive £150. 

In the US, you can currently save $20 on both the Music and non-music version of the Forerunner 245 if you buy direct from Garmin, an okay saving at best. At Amazon, however, the Music version is 47% cheaper than RRP – down to $185.50! That's a bargain if we've ever seen one. In Australia, the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is also nearly half price, selling for AU$262.48 at the moment. 

Which features does the Garmin Forerunner 245 have?

Garmin’s popular Forerunner range might be focused on run tracking, but there’s much more on offer than that. The Forerunner 245 can monitor many different sporting activities as well as provide you with dedicated tracking of your daily steps, heart rate, stress, and sleep. It has built-in GPS, and the Music version even allows you to store music offline on the watch/

Thanks to its compact form factor, it sits well even on smaller wrists, but it does come with its compromises: the 240 x 240-pixel screen only supports up to three data fields on the screen, so if you prefer more real-time data when you run, opt-in for larger models such as the Garmin Forerunner 945 or even the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro.

The newer Garmin Forerunner 255 model boasts some new tools that some users might consider worth paying extra for. The biggest is the ability to monitor multisport activity profiles and triathlons – a feature previously unavailable on the Forerunner 245.

As for lifestyle features, the main difference between the two watches is that the Forerunner 255 has the additional Garmin Pay contactless payment. In terms of design, though, the newer Forerunner 255 doesn’t appear all that different from its predecessor In fact, most people probably won’t be able to tell the two apart. So you’re not getting anything new or different in the looks department.

Should you buy a Garmin Forerunner 245 on Black Friday?

Since the Garmin Forerunner 245 is currently way cheaper in most countries than its newer equivalent, it's 100% worth checking out, especially if you're looking for a wearable to track mainly runs. The Forerunner 255's biggest advantage over its predecessor is the multisport functionality mentioned above, so if you can live without that, the older model will serve you just fine.

They also look almost identical, so it's not like you'll get a watch that has a dated design; you'll be wearing a similar watch, even if you bought the Forerunner 255. Considering Garmin added a number of features since the launch and that the Forerunner 245 is still used by many athletes, you can't go wrong by getting one this Black Friday. Check out more big tech and lifestyle bargains at our best Black Friday deals page.