While we do prefer the more advanced Garmin Forerunner 745, the Garmin Forerunner 735XT (opens in new tab) was always the more reasonable option with its budget-friendly price tag. But now, with this limited time 25% discount on Amazon, the Forerunner 735XT may be a no-brainer for those of you looking for a relatively fully-featured smartwatch. Besides its price, the Forerunner 735XT is also no slouch by any means.
With GPS, heart-rate monitoring, water resistance, and over 10 days of battery life, the Garmin Forerunner 735XT is a fantastic deal for people looking for an entry-level smartwatch.
$169 $225 $56 off
In terms of design, the Forerunner 735XT is practically made for runners with its 5ATM of water resistance as well as its slim 11.9 mm form factor, weighing only 40.2 grams. While this may be attributed to its plastic body, it doesn't feel particularly cheap and feels very comfortable on the wrist.
Even with its accessibly thin design, it's capable of producing a whopping 11 whole days of battery life on smartwatch mode, or 14 hours on GPS mode. The Forerunner 735XT also comes with a 1.23-inch transflective display. While the pixel density is lacking, the display is acceptable in all situations.
The Forerunner 735XT does miss a lot of features that are apparent in many of the more modern smartwatches including blood oxygen monitoring, adnormal heart rate alerts, Garmin Pay, and music storage. However, it also doesn't skimp out on the basic features eithers. With GPS, GLONASS, heart rate monitor, compass, and an accelerator, the Forerunner 735XT is a fairly fully featured smartwatch in the basic sense.
It also offers advanced running dynamics with a variety of metrics including VO2 max estimate, lactate threshold, race predictor, and recovery advisor. Since the watch has 5ATM water resistance as well, it can measure ground contact time balance, stride length, and vertical ratio, and underwater heart rate for swimming. It's important to note that this advanced running analysis does require a compatible chest strap heart-rate monitor, however, the fact that it's capable of this feature is pretty telling for such a budget smartwatch.
While the Forerunner 735XT was released over four years ago, it's a great entry-level smartwatch for people looking to get into the world of fitness wearables.
We're expecting to see many more great smartwatch deals like this over this Black Friday season, so stay tuned for more!
