Garmin Vivoactive HR Review

Ok so I’ve had the Garmin vivoactive HR (vHR) for over 2 weeks now.  I’ve worn it consistently for most of that time and I’m ready to share my brief thoughts.

Daily Use:

Wearing the device on a day-to-day basis was very easy.  The device is light weight and not cumbersome at all.  The basic activity tracking aspects of the device work very well.  Steps (distance & floors) and sleep are tracked as you’d expect.  But I’d imagine you wouldn’t buy this device for the activity tracking portions so I won’t spend much time on that.  The 24/7 heart rate tracking is a nice addition to the activity tracking.  But what do you do with that information?  Not much I suppose.  The majority of the time, if your heart rate is elevated, you probably already know it.  Where the heart rate does provide some valuable information is while you’re sleeping.  The resting heart rate can help to determine things like if you’ve recovered properly, and the vHR does that nicely.  It’s much easier to see this information on the device than the Garmin connect app.  The device can receive notifications from your phone but with limited interaction.  For example, you can see a text messaged received but you can’t respond to it.  You can however, answer the phone from your watch.  Cool thing to be able to do, but you can’t talk through your watch so you still have to pick up the phone.

The display screen can be very tricky.  I found at times when I tried to go to a different screen, the device wouldn’t recognize my finger swipe.  And if my hands were wet or sweaty it made the situation worse.  And in the sunlight, the screen can wash out.  But it’s a color touchscreen display.

One thing I don’t like so much about the vHR is the design.  It’s not the most attractive watch to wear daily.  And it’s shaped like a rectangle.  And you can’t change the band on the watch.  This all seems strange to me as there has been a big push for customizing your fitness watch with different bands ie apple watch and fitbit blaze.

Something that sets this device apart from many others in this category is the ConnectIQ app store.  The app store has a good amount of widgets, watch faces and data fields that can be downloaded to the device for use.  Widgets range from weather apps to phases of the moon. The sky is the limit here really.  Great idea by Garmin.

The Garmin Connect app is pretty horrible.  The setup of the app is confusing and can be difficult to find and understand the information within it.  The connect website is much easier to use and understand, but can be overwhelming with all the tiles of information available.

Fitness Use:

Garmin is well-known for it’s gps capabilities.  The vHR performs as you’d expect it would for any Garmin running watch.  I won’t go into details about this since that is virtually what the company is known for.

The device comes pre-installed with several “apps” which represent fitness activities.  So for example running, cycling, swimming, etc are all “apps”.  Within these apps, you can do a great deal of customizing the screen views and data displayed while training.  You can also create your own apps for activities that you want to track but aren’t pre-installed on the device.  Another great idea by Garmin.

I do a good amount of weight training, 3-5 times a week.  Along with that, I do some interval and endurance training (stationary bike, sprints, rowing) as well as more functional training (battle ropes, kettle bell swings, etc).  In my use of the vHR, I noticed a few things.  First, the heart rate data seemed to be off.  To check this, I wore the vHR and my Polar M400 with the chest strap.  Sure enough, the vHR heart rate readings were off, sometimes by as much as 20 bpm.  To make matters worse, the calories burned were off, sometimes by 100 calories or more.  To me, this is a huge problem.  The device’s purpose is to track my selected activity and let me know how I’m performing so I can make real-time adjustments.  I’ve noticed this problem with almost all of the Garmin devices I’ve owned (vivosmart HR, Fenix 3, Fenix 3 HR).  If you check out Garmin forums and customer reviews on Amazon and Best Buy, you’ll discover that many people have this problem.  But it will vary based on how you use the Garmin devices.

Conclusion:

So there you have it.  Just a few of my thoughts about the vHR.  I think this device is great for someone who is into many aspects of fitness.  Running, cycling, weight training, crossfit, swimming.  This device will allow you to do all of those things and then some.  The catch?  The information provided by the device isn’t as accurate as you’d like.  I don’t doubt that Garmin will provide updates to fix these concerns, but at $250, you kinda want a device to work as intended right out of the box.  Garmin is becoming a wearable powerhouse with their extensive line of devices.  Polar and other brands better get with the program or get left behind.

Pros:

• Good battery life
• Multifunctional fitness watch with activity tracking
• ConnectIQ app store
• MoveIQ (automatic exercise activity recognition)
• Optical 24/7 HR monitoring on wrist
• Very customizable (watch faces, “apps”, widgets)

Cons:

• The Garmin Connect app is confusing
• Heart rate tracking during exercise seems inaccurate
• The shape of the watch
• Watch bands not interchangeable
• The screen can be dim, wash out in light and unresponsive to touch

Should you buy it?  It’s a mixed bag.  If you’re a multi-fitness enthusiast, probably so.  There aren’t many devices like this that allow you to track your overall fitness activities with this level of customization like the vivoactive HR.  Most of the devices that I can think of that offer this are made by Garmin and they’re tailored towards runners. If you’d like to read a more in-depth review with more of a triathletes perspective, check out DC Rainmaker’s review here.

Thanks for reading! #Garmin #vivoactiveHR #fitnesstechgeek #polar #fitness #fitnesstech