Garmin Vivosmart HR Activity Tracker, Regular (Black)

After such a prolonged use I.e after 2 years of usage I am writing this review. Let’s get into detail pro n cons of the band.
1. Always on display is the biggest advantage of this product at this price range than other products available in the market.
2. It calculates accurate steps,heart rate n other stuffs in all respects.
3. Touch sensitivity in all conditions is quite great.in winters u can use this by wearing gloves too
4. If u using it without any activity logged in n heart rate d battery goes up to one month.with everyday activity 15 days n with heart rate sensor on can go up to 7 days which means d quite decent.
5. The Garmin connect app is one of d best app I have used so far. Easy to use and a lot of information stored there.
Cons:
1. No preset cycling,yoga or any swimming activity is available.
2. It is only best for running, cycling, cardio exercises.
3. Very important, it’s strap is fixed one so if u damage it then u have to replace it with third party seller and which didn’t fit like original one. For which I am planning to buy another one and it’s a Garmin product only.

Without your effort u can’t be fit but believe me this band is a motivator to stay fit for sure. In the connect app u can be connected to soooo many users worldwide n can find where u stand against their fitness level. Then definitely u can boost up yourself to be fit.
After such a long years of usage I am damn happy with my band n using it absolutely with all respect. Planning to upgrade to forerunner 235 or 245 very soon.
Finally can say thanks Garmin for helping me to run marathon n half marathon races. All credit to you.

This was my first “upper end” fitness tracker (my original was the Misfit Flash, at a budget price point.) I loved it when I first got it, with a few caveats, but as my experience has continued, I have become more dissatisfied. I want to emphasize I am writing this review from the perspective of someone who has used and owned the device for an extended period of time, not received it yesterday and immediately jumped on Amazon to gush about it without having fully utilized it and discovered its ups and downs. I wish I could give this 2.5 stars, but I can’t, so I’ll round down to 2, because I had not realized how many things I truly disliked about the device until composing this review. I purchased this item February 2016 and it has already malfunctioned/broken, which is disappointing, and knowing I might have to get a new one, I took some time to sit down and think about what I liked about this device and what I did not. Having completed my list, maybe someone else will find it useful.

What did I like about it?
+Came with a heart rate monitor; I specifically wanted one because I do DDP Yoga
+Lots of notifications and alerts
+Move / idle alert (not all devices have one)
+I enjoyed how the sleep / heart rate stats were displayed in app when you drilled down into them
+Great computer/web interface (MUCH better than the phone app)
+Software updates are easy compared to other devices
+Waterproof – don’t have to worry about washing hands/sweat/showering
+You can look at the screen and easily find time/date/info
+Easy to turn off/on the bluetooth/heart rate/auto-light/things like that
+Can customize step/run lengths and heart rate zones

What did I not like about it?
-Heart rate not accurate; in fact, during intense exercise it logged my heart rate decreasing multiple times, which was severely confusing
-While the notifications were fine, I never used them, for two reasons: (a) I work in an environment where Bluetooth must be disabled, and (b) When I wasn’t at work, the battery drain on the device from the Bluetooth was tremendous
-Idle alert barely even detectable; the vibration is SO small that half of the time I never felt it. There is no setting to control this.
-Phone app was confusing and difficult to navigate; I cannot emphasize this enough. It takes a LOT of trial and error and is not user friendly.
-Device and app were frequently hard to sync unless I connected to my computer
-Stair counting not accurate. Yes, everyone says this about this device, but in my case, it used to work fairly well, because I live in a 3 story home that also has a basement. As you can imagine, I run up and down stairs a lot each day. At the end of the day, my device tells me I’ve only done 1 flight.
-Steps not accurate. I hit my step goal a couple times when I was a passenger in a vehicle and when I was typing.
-Screen scratches very easily; I only had the device a few days and the screen had already become scratched.
-Device apparently fragile, because I bought it in Feb and it’s already malfunctioning.
-Cannot remove the tracker or wear it anywhere other than wrist; it is permanently within the band it comes with, cannot swap out bands or use it anywhere other than the wrist.
-Poor battery life; definitely does NOT last 5 days as purported, battery drains extremely quickly
-Clunky and uncomfortable. This is not a slim, unnoticeable tracker, at least for someone my size, and I’m not that small (5’5″). The heart rate tracker also digs into my skin and leaves imprints, since you have to wear the device quite tight in order for it to get an “accurate reading” (though, as previously mentioned, mine isn’t accurate.)
-Can’t wear my other watches and bracelets with it, as it is not an accommodating design for that kind of fashion consideration. I know some people will read this and scoff at this, but this facet is important to me. I work in finance, and having a professional appearance is important. I can’t gussy up this tracker – the best I can do is try to hide it under my sleeves, which is obviously not a great solution.
-Not enough activity options – you can only choose between “Run”, “Cardio”, and “Other.”
-Cannot manually set sleep times; Vivosmart HR consistently tells me I either slept 3 hours per night or 11 hours per night because the sleep detection is so poor.
-Intensity minutes are quite off; 15 minutes of cardio gave me 180 minutes of intensity. Didn’t know I was She-Hulk!

I have not yet heard back from Garmin Support, but if they do not replace my device, I think my next step is going to be using Lumoid, which lets you test out fitness trackers and wearables for two weeks for a small fee to see if you like them or if they fit what you need prior to shelling out beaucoup bucks for a device that ultimately doesn’t suit you or fails to meet the need.

Update, 5/18:
Increasing my rating to three stars based on my support experience: I wrote to Garmin Support a second time and immediately received a response and an apology – apparently their system had a glitch and my first submission had not gone through (or so I was told.) They requested I call the line for direct help. I called during a peak time (after work, between 1700 – 1800), and it was only a 5 minute wait before I reached an associate. They requested that I checked a couple of things before moving forward – one I will mention in case anyone else is getting odd readings:

On each side of your band, near the charge ports, there are two small rectangular holes that the band uses to calibrate itself and coordinate tracking, sleep, the altimeter, &c. – if there is any kind of gunk in those holes, it can severely throw off the readings, so you need to make sure those are clear. That wasn’t my problem, but if you have noticed irregularities, check those little rectangular holes first and clear them with canned air or lung power, whatever works.

I was told many of the issues with my band *might* be due to software issues that could *potentially* be getting fixed soon (they can’t issue direct statements), but some might be hardware related and not fixable. They issued me an RMA to swap out the band, so I have shipped my band back and am waiting for the replacement. They only send you the band itself and nothing else, so I doubt that I will receive a new product; in all likelihood, they will send a refurbished one. I will update this review with more information once that arrives.

Update, 06/06/16:
Garmin sent me a brand-new band, unopened, in-box. Very impressed with the customer service! It took quite a while to actually get the band (it arrived yesterday), but I am happy that the company followed through and replaced my old, defective one. Kudos to Garmin.

Pretty Close to Perfect, but not quite there….

I’ll note that I’m writing this review over an extended period of time so that I can go back and edit/update things as I discover them or my thoughts change about them.

First, let me start by saying that I am not a health enthusiast or fitness nut. I work out 4-6 times a week with a mixture of high-intensity bootcamp classes, running, and some yoga mixed in. I am was trying to find a replacement for my Garmin Forerunner 70 that I use for bootcamp class. I also have a Garmin 620 running watch. The FR70 tracks my time, heart rate, and calories burned using a chest strap for the HR. I wanted to purchase something that would monitor my heart rate throughout the day so that I could not only get a better idea of what my resting heart rate is, but also so I can just get an idea of how far I’m walking in a day and how many calories I’m burning just by doing my normal everyday things. Staying with a Garmin product was not even a question as I love their Garmin Connect (I’ve heard others may be better, but it’s what I’m used to and it’s what I love).

As far as fitness bands go, it looks great. Sleek. Large, but not so large that it looks bad. I’m a female with small wrists and it doesn’t look over powering on me. When I wear a ‘normal’ watch, I have to have it low down on my wrist or it drives me crazy, so I was worried about this having to be worn above the wrist bone. Honestly, it doesn’t bother me at all. The watch fits snugly but you don’t feel it at all. I will say that I bought the ‘Regular’ fit and am somewhat surprised how small it is since it’s worn above the wrist bone (if I put it below the wrist bone on my wrist, then I have a majority of the strap left over). I would consider my wrists to be small and I use about half of the available slots. If you’re male, and you plan on wearing it above the wrist bone, definitely make sure you look at the sizing to verify you purchase the correct one.

The watch is super easy to pair with a smartphone (I paired it with an iPhone). The touchscreen is super easy. I’ve never had a problem with it not reacting to my touch. In fact, when worn in the shower, the water hitting the screen can cause it to flip to the next screen. I almost wish it were a little less sensitive to touch.

The information that can be displayed is pretty cool. Screen 1 (Time, Day of the Week, Date, activity bar when visible), Screen 2 (Total Steps Taken, Step Goal) Screen 3: (Flights of Stairs Climbed, Goal) Screen 4 (Workout Minutes for the Week vs Total), Screen 5: (Calories Burned for the day), Screen 6: (Distance Walked through the day), Screen 7: Music Controls, Screen 8: (Weather – includes Temp, High/Low, Chance of Rain…Can also swipe to the side and see a 4 day forecast), Screen 9: (Phone Notifications), Screen 10: (Heart Rate)

The watch will automatically detect movement. If consistent for 10 minutes or more with an elevated heart rate, the watch recognizes it as exercise. After reading the manual (which is online only as with most Garmin products now), the watch recognizes moderate and intense minutes of exercise. The default is 150 minutes a week; however, you can go in and change it.

If you want to specifically start your own workout without relying on the watch to recognize the change, just hit the button. You will be able to choose between ‘Run,’ ‘Cardio,’ and ‘Other.’ I chose the ‘other’ option for my bootcamp classes. I get three screens (HR, Time, Calories). Only one field/screen is displayed at a time, but it’s no big deal. I was somewhat (a lot) apprehensive about the heart rate being taken through the wrist vs the heart strap; therefore, for the first week, I wore both watches to compare. I must say, I was pretty freakin impressed. The vivosmart was dead on (see photos). There were times when I would look down and the heart rate on the vivosmart was drastically different than the FR70; however, it was very quick to level out. And at the end of the workout when I compared the two on Garmin Connect, my Max HR & Average HR were off by about 2 beats per minute between the two watches. At the end of the day, two beats makes no difference to me at all. There’s no way of knowing that the new vivosmart isn’t the more accurate and my FR70 has been off all these years. It’s two beats. Who cares? That’s essentially dead on accurate in my book. The most it was ever off on calorie count between the two watches was 20 calories for an hour workout.

Having said that, it was HORRIBLE on runs. I wore it and my 620 during a 5k race to compare. When we hit the one mile marker, my 620 showed me running a distance of .99 miles. The vivosmart HR showed me running 1.3 miles! (It should be noted that I have the vivosmart HR, not the HR+ which includes the GPS). At the end of the 3.1 miles, my vivosmart showed me having run 3.9 miles. Because the distance was so far off, so was everything else. It showed me burning 590 calories (not even close) and running at a 9:00 min/mi pace (unfortunately this is not even close either, but I’m getting back to it!). So if you are considering using this for running, I would have to highly recommend something that has a GPS and/or that can be paired with a foot pod.

There are some things I am still trying to figure out. I tested the step count on a few occasions and it was again within a step or two, BUT when I wake up in the mornings, it shows me walking in my sleep. This morning, I already had 100 steps. Not sure what is causing that. If you go into ‘settings’ on your computer you can actually input your stride length which would improve accuracy. The second thing is the sleep function. If you go into the app, you can put what time you go to bed and wake up, causing the watch to automatically go into ‘sleep’ mode each night; however, unless you have a very structured schedule, that does not really work. To put it into sleep mode at night, you just hit 2 buttons. Having said that, when you put it into sleep mode at night, it tracks your sleep (deep sleep, light sleep, awake) pretty well, but when you have put it into ‘do not disturb’ mode to take a nap, it will not show up at as sleep.

Phone notifications — I’m kinda confused about this. The first day that I had the watch, the text notifications would show up, but I did not feel the watch vibrate at all. I thought maybe because the phone itself was on vibrate. Not sure what changed, but I’ve been getting all my notifications for the last few days – and it doesn’t matter if the phone is on vibrate or not. I’m thinking maybe the band was just a little loose on my arm so I wasn’t feeling the vibrate alert?? Not sure….

I received the watch in the mail mid-day on Wednesday and it had enough of a charge to get me through about mid-day Thursday. That charge lasted until about 9pm on Wednesday (6 days) before the battery indicator came on. I ended up charging it around 2am on Thursday morning, so it gave at least 5 hours of notice. It took exactly one hour (to the minute) to fully charge.

There is an activity bar that appears after one hour of no movement. Another section of the bar appears every 15 minutes thereafter until there is movement. The manual only says that the line will disappear after walking a “short distance”. I would walk in around the living room for what I considered “short distances” and the line didn’t move. Figured out it’s about 100 steps for the initial line to disappear and 25 steps for each additional section of the line. So if you’re at the full two hours of no movement, roughly 200 steps will clear the line. BUT, and this is an important but, sometimes you just have to learn to ignore the activity. Your steps have to be 100% non-stop. Example: If you’re getting ready in the morning, even though you are up and moving around, it is not considered movement because your standing there blow drying your hair and then walking to the closet, ect. I had a full activity bar (showing that I had not moved for the last two hours) when I walked into Target. I spent a solid hour walking around the store, but my activity bar did not clear because I was stopping to look at items. The steps HAVE to be consecutive without stopping.

Overall, I’m super excited about this watch. I’m confident that it is accurate enough for me after comparing it with my old watch (when used for bootcamp, definitely not running!) and I love that I can see my stats throughout the day. I would definitely recommend this watch to anyone looking for a fitness tracker.

The only thing that I can think of that I really dislike is the alarm & that’s because the alarm options suck! You can set an alarm through the app on your phone; however, you can only set one time and it only gives you the option for ‘everyday’ or ‘weekdays’. When the alarm does go off, it’s still pretty powerful (my boyfriend woke up because the vibrating was so loud). The alarm does have a snooze option in 10 minute increments. BUT (again, this is an important but if you don’t want to be late for work) if you set your alarm to go off during your normal sleep times, it will not because it’s in a ‘do not disturb’ mode. I work 5 days and then have 4 days off. My schedule is very different during my working and non-working days. During my working days, I set my normal sleep hours from 0330-1030. When I set an alarm for 0900 without changing my normal sleep hours, it did not go off (for 3 days, luckily I had a backup set on my phone). I changed my normal wake up time and kept the alarm the same and it started going off again.

One feature that has the potential to come in handy – If you lose your phone that the watch is paired with, you can use the watch to set off an alarm (a very loud, obnoxious alarm) on your phone so that you can find it.

Overall, I love the tracker and am super glad that I bought it.

This is not as big on the wrist as you would think it is. From other pictures that looked like it might be huge. It’s not. The screen is very easily to read and the app works really well. I’m not a runner. Even though I’m a fitness person (pro dancer/performing arts) I didn’t purchase this for that reason. I purchased it for the heart rate tracking. I purchased it for general idea to see what my heart is doing while at rest and sleeping. Just to get a general idea not to be 100% accurate. I do understand the importance of having accuracy while doing activities. Also I understand the accuracy in the pedometer part. But one thing I also know is that any kind of motion may be registered with burning calories and such. So sometimes I think that people forget that part of fitness in their reviews.

In the app there’s not a section for dance or Performing Arts. I’m not quite sure what would be the equivalent in the preset activities. Maybe outside of cardio not quite sure I haven’t played around with the app that long. I’ve only used it for 2 days.

It was fairly easy to set up as long as you follow the sequence. If you have patience it will work out for you. So no it’s not going to sync up with in 45 seconds or less. Straight out the box it’s going to come with a dead battery. It’s going to take about three to five minutes for the actually charge and the screen come on consistently. It takes about an hour and a half worth of charge to full power. During this time you can download the app from the App Store, and pair your device accordingly. The process takes about 10 to 15 minutes. The reason for that is it’s going to make you set up an account and it asked you some decent questions. I’m not quite sure what the desktop setup would be like but according to setting up via phone or mobile device it’s going to take you about 10 to 15 minutes.

Also depending on your connectivity if you lose Bluetooth signal, do you may add an extra one two three minutes on to this time. So don’t be frustrated getting it out the box. This is a Garmin device. In all of my years of experience, Garmin does take a little longer to set up but it’s well worth it.

My band was regular fit, I don’t have a lot of extra length hanging around once I fastened it. It’s not super tight and it hasn’t left a mark on my skin. It’s actually really comfortable. I’m not quite sure what the other reviews were saying how it is uncomfortable are leaving marks. But for me it’s actually pretty fine. It’s no different than wearing a regular watch. There’s no extra pressure. I have other bracelets on around it and it doesn’t rub. I even had a long sleeve tight shirt on yesterday and there was no additional pressure.

I did buy a protective screen for it but I have not put it on yet I wanted to see how the device held up over 48 hours. That’s far as it’s held up very well. With the placement on my dominant hand it’s not cumbersome.

Even want the vibration notification to move or when you get a message it’s not overpowering or disturbing. It’s no different than if you had your phone in your pocket on vibrate.

For Sleep purposes you do have to go in and program the hours and what you think you’re going to sleep so it can monitor your sleep activity. However if you do sleep longer than that it will just calculate whatever it is into a resting position. So it doesn’t automatically know if you’re asleep or if you’re just sitting down.

I will monitor my use with the watch. I will update this accordingly if things change. But I do highly recommend this for people who want to have a general idea of what their Fitness is. It actually makes me feel a lot better about myself when I am at rest/ non overall physical activity, which helps de-stress my mindset. It did pick up by steps accurately when I was walking around from place to place. Buy it doesn’t count when i go up ans down stairs as it should. I live upstairs so i go up and down stairs often.

When I do a strenuous activity I will check the monitoring then to see how accurate it is but if you’re looking to just get an overall perspective, don’t want something that’s super Gotti or noticeable on your wrist, an easy-to-follow information I would suggest this watch.

From time to time you can always hit the sync button if you haven’t open the app for a while. But it does auto sync on its own every so often.

I have showered and washed my hands fequently since the purchase it is waterproof. In the shower i noticed The running water caused if to cycle through The fitness options, but it was no biggie. The display isn’t always on all the time but whenever there’s a change of life or I tap it it comes on. Which is good for battery for Life preservation.

If you are able to I would probably get an additional band. As the regular size is for small-to-medium wrist. I have a fairly medium size wrist. I can see myself getting a larger band in the future if it poses a problem but it’s okay.