Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Vivoactive 5: Five Key Aspects
By Naila Syifa
Updated February 2024
Garmin Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 are some of the most recommended smartwatches in the market today. These watches are designed to cater to the needs of fitness enthusiasts, athletes, and individuals who want to keep track of their daily activities, health, and fitness goals.
How do these two smartwatches compare? Which one is better suited for your needs? Let's take a look at 5 defining aspects that set these two smartwatches apart.
Key Takeaways
While Forerunner 165 focuses more on running and training, the Vivoactive 5 is a more versatile watch that supports a wider range of recreational sports like golf, skiing, volleyball, meditation, and even e-sports. Forerunner 165 is more limited to running but has more advanced running metrics and features.
Garmin Forerunner 165
Entry-Level Running and Training
GPS smartwatch with health monitoring and fitness tracking for first-time runners and racers.
Garmin Vivoactive 5
Everything You Need
GPS smartwatch for varying fitness activities and lifestyle sports with all the essential features.
#1 Price
Garmin Forerunner 165
The price gap between both smartwatches is not that big, with the Forerunner 165 retailing at US$249.99 while the Vivoactive 5 sells slightly more expensive at US$299.99. This makes the Forerunner 165 a more affordable option, but investing US$50 more in the Vivoactive 5 is worth it if you want a watch that offers more versatility. Keep reading to find out which watch suits you best.
Additionally, if you have more budget, you may also want to consider the Forerunner 265, which has even more advanced running features than the 165 model and is more expensive at US$449.99.
Read also:
#2 Design & Display
Garmin Vivoactive 5
While both watches share a common circular display with a few buttons on the side, the Forerunner 165 has a more sporty look with its textured silicone strap, while the Vivoactive 5 is more elegant with an aluminum bezel and a sleek silicone strap.
Both models feature a 1.2" AMOLED display, which provides clear and vivid colors at 390 x 390 pixels resolution. The Forerunner 165 is slightly larger and heavier, but the difference is minor and both watches are comfortable to wear during exercise.
Perhaps, the Vivoactive 5 has an advantage with its varying color options, with the watch coming in orchid, black, ivory, and navy blue color options. The Forerunner 165, on the other hand, is only available in black-gray and white-gray color combinations, offering less variety in terms of color options.
#3 Health & Fitness Features
Garmin Forerunner 165
Health and Wellness
Both smartwatches allow you to monitor your key health metrics, keeping you informed about your general health conditions and overall well-being. Some health metrics you can track include wrist-based heart rate, respiration rate, Pulse Ox blood oxygen saturation, menstrual cycle (for women), and Body Battery energy monitoring. The Health Snapshot feature is also available on both watches, allowing you to quickly check your current overall health stats during a two-minute session.
You can also track and monitor your overall sleep quality with both watches, with features like Sleep Score to quickly grasp how well you slept and Nap Detection to help you track your daytime naps as well. However, the Vivoactive 5 has an advantage with its Sleep Coach feature, a helpful assistant that recommends the sufficient amount of sleep you need based on your activity levels and other factors.
Beyond physical health, both watches also motivate you to take care of your mental well-being, with features like guided breathing exercises and stress tracking. The Vivoactive 5 even supports Meditation, allowing you to practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques on the go.
Fitness and Workout
Garmin Vivoactive 5
Both Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 track basic key fitness metrics available in most other Garmin smartwatches, including steps taken, calories burned, distance traveled, HR Zones, HR Alerts, VO2 Max, HRV status, and more. Features like Recovery Time, Interval Training, and Advanced Workout are also helpful in guiding you to optimize your fitness and workout routines specially customized to your needs and goals.
The Forerunner 165, however, offers more advanced training and running-specific features like Daily Suggested Workouts, Training Effect, Running Dynamics, Running Power, PacePro Pacing Strategies, Race Predictor, Course- and Weather-Specific Race Predictor, and more. These features are valuable for those who are serious about their running training and are interested in joining marathons or other running events.
Garmin Vivoactive 5
The Vivoactive 5 doesn't offer those features, but it has distinct advantages with its support for varying workouts for different users. Firstly, it supports workouts for wheelchair users. Secondly, if you do Yoga, Pilates, Cardio, and Strength, you can follow the on-screen workout animations available in the Vivoactive 5 to help you perform each move correctly.
If you do Cardio, HIIT, Pilates, and Strength, the Vivoactive 5 also offers on-screen muscle maps. In addition, for people who enjoy playing golf, the Vivoactive 5 has specific golfing features for measuring shot distance, tracking stat, automatically recording detected shots, and more.
Lastly, the Vivoactive 5 offers Gaming Activity features and is compatible with the Gameon desktop app. This means, if you are a gamer, you can use the watch to track health stats to see how gaming activity affects your stress level, Body Battery, and other metrics. The watch can also act as your personal coach, providing you with personalized recommendations on when you're "match-ready" or when it's time to take a break.
Activity Profiles
Garmin Forerunner 165
An Activity Profile in Garmin watches is a preset combination of settings and metrics that are relevant to a specific activity, such as running, cycling, or swimming. In simple terms, they are a list of sports and activities that the watch natively supports.
The Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 support some common Activity Profiles, including strength, HIIT, cardio, running, treadmill running, indoor track running, tennis, biking, indoor, pool swimming, open water swimming, pilates, yoga, pickleball, and padel.
Garmin Vivoactive 5
As a running-focused smartwatch, the Forerunner 165 also includes some more specific running profiles like trail running, outdoor track running, ultra running, and virtual running. It also supports additional activities like floor climbing and hiking, two of which the Vivoactive 5 doesn't offer.
However, the Vivoactive 5 offers a more varied selection of activity profiles, including golf, skiing, snowboarding, paddleboarding, rowing, badminton, table tennis, soccer, rugby, baseball, basketball, volleyball, boxing, mixed martial arts, eBiking, hand-cycling, and more others. These additional activity profiles make the Vivoactive 5 a more versatile watch for those who enjoy a wider range of casual and recreational sports and activities.
#4 Smartwatch Features
Garmin Forerunner 165
When paired with a smartphone, both the Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 allow you to receive notifications and even respond to a text, reject phone calls with a text, and view images from notifications directly on the watch with an Android smartphone.
Some other features available in both watches include calendar, weather forecasts, GarminPay contactless payment, and Morning Report, a feature that summarizes your upcoming day's schedule, weather, important health metrics, and some other customizable information.
Garmin Vivoactive 5
Both also support smartphone music control, but the Vivoactive 5 has a slight edge with its built-in music storage, so you can download songs to the watch and play them directly with a headphone without needing to bring your phone along. This feature is not available in the Forerunner 165, but is available in the Forerunner 165 Music version, which costs US$50 more than the regular Forerunner 165.
A range of Safety and Tracking features are also available in both smartwatches, including Incident Detection, Assistance, and Livetrack. The Forerunner 165 even offers Live Event Sharing, allowing you to share your race events with your family and friends.
#5 Battery Life
Garmin Vivoactive 5
In terms of battery life, the Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 are quite similar. In smartwatch mode, both watches can last for up to 11 days while in all-systems GNSS mode, both watches can last for up to 17 hours.
When the battery-saving mode is turned on, however, the Forerunner 165 can last for up to 20 days while the Vivoactive 5 can last for up to 21 days. This is a minor difference and may differ in real-world usage depending on the user's settings and usage patterns.
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Vivoactive 5
Final Thoughts
Garmin Vivoactive 5
Both watches are perfect for helping you achieve your fitness goals and helping you to keep on track and stay motivated. However, choosing between the Forerunner 165 and Vivoactive 5 ultimately comes down to your personal goals and needs.
If running is your primary focus, and you're looking for a watch with advanced running metrics and features, then Forerunner 165 is the better choice.
However, if you're a fan of recreational sports and activities and want a watch that can support a wider range of workouts, then the Vivoactive 5 is the more versatile option.
If you like to read more on Garmin smartwatches, check out our other relevant guides here:
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Forerunner 265
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Forerunner 55
Garmin Forerunner 165 vs Venu Sq 2
Garmin Vivoactive 5 vs Venu 3
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