New rumors suggest that the forthcoming Garmin Forerunner 955, the company's next top-end triathlon watch, will launch on June 1.
The news comes courtesy of a Reddit user who claims to have been visiting a running store in Germany when he saw an email Garmin had sent to retailers. As Gadgets and Wearables reports, the poster claims that the Forerunner 955 is due to launch alongside the new Forerunner 255 running watch.
Among the new features said to be coming to the Forerunner 955 is a Morning Report. This was introduced last year with the launch of the Garmin Lily, and also appeared on the slimline Garmin Vivosmart 5, but it looks like it'll soon be coming to the company's top-tier watches as well.
The Morning Report is available to view first thing when you wake, and includes a daily greeting, brief weather report, your current Body Battery score, your current step goal, calendar, and women's health tracking (if enabled).
Is it enough?
We've previously speculated that Garmin might choose to drop the Forerunner 250 range, as last year's Forerunner 55 is such a capable watch for new and intermediate runners. We're therefore curious to see what new tools Garmin could throw into the mix to make the 255 a more tempting proposition.
One new feature that appears to be coming to the 255 is the ability to store music for occasions when you want to work out without your phone, but it looks like this will be an optional extra rather than something that's included as standard.
According to the leak, the base model Forerunner 255 will cost around €350 (about $370 / £300 / AU$520), while the music edition will be about €450 (roughly $480 / £380 / AU$670). That's a big price jump from the Forerunner 55, which cost $199.99 / £179.99 / AU$329 at launch, and is now available for even less via third-party retailers.
The Reddit user claims that both the Forerunner 255 and 955 will have the same stamina meter as the Garmin Fenix 7 and Epix (Gen 2), which updates in real time to let you know how much energy you have remaining during a run. They will also reportedly have a running power metric, which will require an additional piece of equipment.
It sounds like this might be similar to the Running Power app Garmin published on the Connect Plus store back in 2017, which requires one of the company's chest strap heart rate monitors, or its Running Dynamics Pod.
Although useful, those two features don't sound like enough to justify the additional cost of the Forerunner 255 – especially since Running Power is available to download free. We're hoping Garmin has some extra tricks up its sleeve that will make the 255 a more tempting prospect for experienced, demanding runners.
