Review on Garmin Forerunner 55 Aqua - GPS Running Watch with Daily Suggested Workouts and Up to 2 Weeks Battery Life by King Reeves

The only watch I've ever had was the Fitbit Ionic. Well it died a few weeks ago for no apparent reason so I started looking for a replacement. I didn't want to use Fitbit again and figured Garmin would be the next best option. After looking at several models, I settled on the Forerunner 55. It had everything I could ask for in terms of performance. A quality brand with HR, sleep tracking, notifications and like most Garmin products has a solid reputation as a great fitness tracker among other things. Now for the watch itself. The first thing that struck me when I put it on was that it was small. At least it was smaller than my Ionic by about 10mm. I like watches that almost cover my wrist, so that was a disadvantage for me. I knew the watch didn't have a touchscreen (as I'm used to from Fitbit) and that all input was via the physical buttons on the sides of the watch, but I wanted to give it a try anyway. Turns out I didn't like pressing keys to enter commands. I set an alarm and it probably took 30 clicks on 4 different buttons to complete the task. I found this cumbersome and inefficient. Because the display isn't touch-sensitive, it doesn't look like a touchscreen. This means it's not very bright and doesn't have a bright, vibrant color. At least inside. The display is actually quite dark and with my poor eyesight it was a little hard to see. You can increase the brightness of the display for a few seconds - again with the press of a button - but it doesn't make much of a difference. The numbers on the dial were pure white, but they looked dull gray. I have to say, however, that after seeing how dim the display was indoors, I went outside to see how it would look in direct sunlight, and surprisingly, direct sunlight made it so thanks to the reflective properties of the pixels in the Display even brighter. This made the display look like I've always wanted it - high contrast, bright white and dark black. And finally, probably the biggest downside for me as it doesn't have that bright touchscreen, which I really liked. Ionic was when I lifted my wrist or turned it, the screen turned on and I could see the display clearly. Because the Forerunner 55's screen is so dim to see the time, I had to press a button to increase the brightness. Again, this seems like an unnecessary thing. If you're not outside, then that's no problem. Aside from what I consider flaws, the watch is really good. Appears to be good quality. It was quick and responsive when entering commands. It comes with loads of apps and features, and the companion phone app is way better than Fitbit's. After all, I didn't use this watch all day before deciding it wasn't for me. Nothing against the clock. It would probably be a great watch if I kept using it. But for the things I mentioned above, it just wasn't for me. If only the display always looked like it does in direct sunlight.