Garmin Forerunner 70 vs 170 Comparison: All 27 Differences Hands-On!

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]So, this here is a brand new Garmin 4Runner 70. Yet, this over here is a brand new Garmin 4Runner 170. And I'm going to explain the difference between these two models. So, technically three models if you include the music edition to help you figure out which model is best for you. Now, I've been putting both these models side by side through a whole slate of testing, both myself as well as my wife. And in this video, I'm going to dive into all the features from hardware as well as software that makes them different. Keeping in mind, I have dedicated videos on both of these watches up in the corner there if you want to check those out. So, the first thing to know then is the price. The 470 is 249 bucks versus the 170 is $299 for the base edition or $3.49 if you want music. We'll talk about music in just a second. From there, each one of these editions has different color sets or colorways as they're called. So, here are all the ones for the 470 and this includes this lime one right here. I like the look of the lime one, but the 400 170 has yet another set of different color options in their case, including this reddish pink purple one. This one looks really, really nice in person.

[00:00:57]Definitely probably my favorite Garmin watch color schemes in the last well many years. So then let's get into the hardware. Now both these watches are virtually identical. If you were just to look at them from even this far away, they would look the same to you. They've got the exact same 43mm case size, the exact same band size. Everything is the same except what's on the inside. In the case of the 4170, it does not have the music option versus the 4001 170 does have music if you want to pay an extra 50 bucks for that. That includes offline music from Spotify, Amazon Music, uh YouTube music, as well as your own MP3s that you can put in this watch and then connect to a pair of headphones to listen to that music. You do not need your phone with you once you've got the music downloaded to the watch and it automatically updates those playlists like Spotify playlist, etc. every time you plug in your watch and it syncs via Wi-Fi, which is another notable thing.

[00:01:44]In the case of the 4Runner 170 music, it does have Wi-Fi in it versus the non-music edition of the 170 as well as the 70 does not have Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi can be used for syncing other things like activities and stuff like that. Most of the time though, you're just going to sync via Bluetooth to your phone, that's more than fast enough. Oh, hey, and just a quick note. If you could just simply watch this video all the way through, it's a short one. That tells YouTube guns that you like this video and it really helps out this video and the channel quite a bit. Next, both editions of the 4Runner 170 have Garmin Pay contactless payments versus no editions of the 70 have Garmin Pay. So, if you want Garmin Pay or contactless payments, better tap and buy something, you're going to need the 170. Next up on the hardware front, the 170 series, all the models, has a barometric altimeter inside of it. That means you're going to get super accurate elevation data on this watch in real time. Something you won't necessarily get on the 70. More about that in just a second. In fact, one of the benefits of a barometric octimter is it requires a temperature sensor and so Garmin does expose that to you and you can see the temperature live during activities. The 170 has a magnetic compass and gyroscope or gyro inside of it. With that magnetic compass, you'll be able to use the compass. And then on strength training, that gyroscope is going to give you a little more accurate results than the 170 would. Finally, on the hardware front is the battery burn rates. These actually have identical batteries inside, but the 170 because it has a gyro and the barometer as well as more memory and is going to burn through more battery a little bit faster. So, you see those battery numbers right there. In my testing, these battery numbers are pretty much what I'm seeing. Again, that's going to depend a lot on how much GPS activities you do, as well as other activities that you may burn more battery or less battery. Now, again, from hardware standpoint, they're otherwise the same. They have the same five button layout, the same 1.2 in AMOLED display. They have the same Garmin Elevate Gen 4 optical heart rate sensor on the back. Have the same touchcreen that is a touchcreen. They both have pulse and neither of them have any sort of ECG or AIB features. And neither of them have any sort of multiband or dual frequency GPS. Though, as you probably saw in my standalone videos, that hasn't been an issue. These things pretty much are on par with most multiband GPS units out there. And so, accuracy isn't too much of an issue there from a GPS perspective. So instead, let's turn to the software side and take a look at that. Now again, the vast majority of these features are identical across the board on these two watches. They're going to have your activity tracking, your sleep tracking, your HV tracking, your nap tracking, pulse tracking, health status. All the other widgets that you see on a Garmin watch are there except for the things I'm going to talk about in just a second. That also includes a sport side of it. Both these units have training status and training readiness as well as running performance. However, once you start going down the sport side, you see some of the differences. In the case of 4Runner 170 music, that'll be able to give you uh voice alerts and prompts during a workout using headphones. So, it's going to basically be able to audibly tell you about lap splits and things like that. Whereas the ones without the music edition don't have that. Likewise, the former 170 because of that compass, it does have the ABC feature, which is alimeter, barometer, compass as a widget that you can see on that watch versus the 70 doesn't have that. Meanwhile, the 170 does have other sensor types that compare to, including cycling power meters as well as cycling smart trainers down there that the 70 cannot. With that smart trainer pairing, you can also control the smart trainer.

[00:04:43]So, you can do structure workouts from a training plan as well as just manually set the values to whatever you want.

[00:04:48]Additionally, you can also have structure workouts from Garmin Cycle Coach that are power-based using that power meter or smart trainer uh data there. That is not available on the 4Runner 170. That means the result of that power meter data coming into the watch, it's going to have the cycling performance widget versus the 70 does not have that. Otherwise, both units paired to all the blow sensors that you see right there across the board. So, all the common sensors from a cycling and running standpoint, those are supported there, including cycling radar as well as cycling lights, which then finally gets us to the sport modes. Both units have almost identical sport listings. Here's the full list that both units have, except at the bottom there, I've listed the three sport profiles that the 4Runner 170 has in addition.

[00:05:27]The first one is open water swimming.

[00:05:29]This allows you to track your open water swim track out and about. Keep in mind both units can do pool swimming tracking. Just the open water piece, as you see right here, does require the 170. Next, the 170 has floor climb mode as a sport profile because of that barometric altimeter. And then lastly, the 170 music has a guided meditation.

[00:05:46]And the reason for that is it's going to use your headphones with the 170 music for the audio cues. It's important to note that neither of these two watches have any sort of triathlon or multisport mode. for that you need to go up to either the 265. Keep in mind it's an older generation watch um or one of the other higher newer 4Runner watches or Phoenix or something else. Basically not these two watches. If you want to do a multisport workout where you combine all three segments together, swim, bike, run into one cohesive activity. You could certainly stop and save the activity if you wanted to start the swim and then stop and then start the bike and then stop, save, etc. Moving way through, but it won't be one cohesive activity. Next, with that altimter, you are going to get ascent and descent data fields on the 41170 that you do not have as an option on the 4170. That said, if you add the elevation data page to the 4170, it's one of the graphical pages there uh for route following. It will show your ascent and descent over the course of the route. Now, you do have to have a route loaded in order to see this data page, but even if you go off course, the data is actually correct going off course. That said, regardless of whether or not you have a route loaded, at the end of every activity, you will see your elevation plot. It will vary slightly from the one with the barometric octimter, but it's pretty darn close. So then from there, we get into the accuracy side or both heart rate as well as GPS. Now, I talk about this in more depth in my other videos, but in short, when I look at the accuracy of both of these watches, they are identical across the board, uh, from a GPS standpoint as well as a heart rate standpoint, you can see here, even without multiband going underneath this swimming pool and this building, this downtown area here, no problems whatsoever. They track identically to a multiband uh unit. And then likewise on this interval workout using the new quick uh interval workout feature that also is identical between the two watches. So then where do we stand? Well, essentially it's going to come down to like three core things.

[00:07:26]Number one, do you want a parasycling power meter like down here? If so, then you want to go to 170. Two, do you want open water swimming? If so, go to 170.

[00:07:34]And then three, do you want either contact us payments or music? In which case, again, go to the 170, including the 170 music edition. Otherwise, get the 70 and save some money. They're both like identical from a performance standpoint beyond that. And in case of the 170, it's an incredibly good deal.

[00:07:49]With that, thanks for watching and there's plenty more sports tech goodness coming up.