Garmin has rolled out a huge update to its Forerunner 255 and Forerunner 955 running watches, as new features filter down across the range.
The update is currently part of the company’s beta program but will roll out to watches in the coming weeks.
Garmin is now rolling out the brand-new Hill Score and Endurance Score features, that launched with the Fenix 7 Pro and Epix Pro.
Endurance Score can be used to measure how easy it is to sustain prolonged efforts, with this personalized by taking a user's VO2 Max, Acute Load, and Chronic Load into account, while Hill Score is a gauge of your strength and endurance during inclines.
In our review, we did question the usefulness of these metrics and the difficulty of affecting them.
In our review of Hill Score and Endurance score Conor Allison wrote:
“Our issue isn't as much with the score's accuracy as it is with how useful it can be when you don't clearly know how to improve it. Our score hasn't moved even with a lot more hills and mileage increases over the past six weeks, for example.”
The company confirmed to Wareable that these features would land on the standard Fenix/Epix editions, but the flagship Forerunners are also treated to the update.
In addition, the Forerunner duo is also set to get new muscle maps for HIIT, Cardio and Pilates activity profiles, as well as new map types and data fields, and weather maps.
And the watches also get an array of new workout profiles, including soccer, cricket, some very niche forms of tennis, motorsports, and many others.
You can view a full rundown of the new features here.
Forerunner 255/955 new features at a glance:
- Muscle maps to HIIT, Cardio, and Pilates activities
- Endurance Score glance
- Hill Score glance
- Map types and map data field options
- Weather maps to the Weather glance
- Workouts app to the Activities & Apps list
- New activities
Wareable says:
It’s great to see these new metrics filtering down, and it vindicates our reviews of the Fenix 7 Pro / Epix Pro that their appeal is waning.
Garmin’s mid-range watches such as Forerunner 255/955 and Instinct 2X are now getting so feature-packed and powerful that they feel no longer feel easily recommendable.
Remember that this is a beta release, so it will take a while for them to roll onto watches via standard updates. If you want to access these features now you can sign up for the testing program, but remember that installing beta software can be unstable.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.