Share TheMase's profile
TheMase
TheMase's stats
- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes59
- First reviewSeptember 22, 2017
- Last reviewSeptember 22, 2017
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4
- Review comment count1
- Helpfulness votes5
- First review commentSeptember 22, 2017
- Last review commentSeptember 22, 2017
- Featured review comments0
Questions
- Question count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
- Answer count6
- Helpfulness votes14
- First answerSeptember 22, 2017
- Last answerSeptember 22, 2017
- Featured answers0
- Best answers1
TheMase's Reviews
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Customer Rating
4
Good but needs a few updates
on September 22, 2017
Posted by: TheMase
from Naperville, IL
I preordered this watch the day it was available. I have owned every fitness device from every manufacturer over the last few years and I have always found myself coming back to Garmin devices. My most recent watch was the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier and it was a good smart watch but the GPS side of it was horrific. I ditched that and have been using the original Vivoactive until this watch was released.
I have had this watch for 1 week now and here is what I think so far:
Pros:
Beautiful watch that looks like a regular watch on my wrist. Not too thick like the S3 was and very lightweight, the stock band is super soft and comfortable.
GPS is excellent, just like Garmin devices always are.
Battery life is good, not as good as the original Vivoactive but still really good considering the size and what it does. After 24 hours off the charger and going on 1 four mile run, the battery is at 67%. I imagine I will get just under a week between charges at this pace.
Display is good and the backlight is plenty bright. I have it 40% brightness and it's fine there.
Data fields are good, very similar to original Vivoactive.
Beautiful watch that looks like a regular watch on my wrist. Not too thick like the S3 was and very lightweight, the stock band is super soft and comfortable.
GPS is excellent, just like Garmin devices always are.
Battery life is good, not as good as the original Vivoactive but still really good considering the size and what it does. After 24 hours off the charger and going on 1 four mile run, the battery is at 67%. I imagine I will get just under a week between charges at this pace.
Display is good and the backlight is plenty bright. I have it 40% brightness and it's fine there.
Data fields are good, very similar to original Vivoactive.
Cons:
My biggest complaint is that for $300, I was hoping the smart watch features would be better. You can reply to a text message with preset replies, it would be nice to be able to use more than the preset replies though. Also, I have found no way to delete an email on the phone from the watch. This was a great feature on the S3, to be able to delete email on my phone without having to pull it out.
Some of the apps in the Garmin store do not work right with this watch yet, even though the app says it's compatible . Example is the stopwatch app, there is no way to reset the time or add laps. I'm guessing this will get sorted out as apps are updated and more come out.
- Some of the apps from the Garmin IQ store will kill the battery in a matter of hours. I really don't think they are 100% compatible yet. The stopwatch app would bring the battery from 100% to 0 withing a day, even though it wasn't running. Once I did a factory reset and didn't install the additional apps, the battery was back to normal.
My biggest complaint is that for $300, I was hoping the smart watch features would be better. You can reply to a text message with preset replies, it would be nice to be able to use more than the preset replies though. Also, I have found no way to delete an email on the phone from the watch. This was a great feature on the S3, to be able to delete email on my phone without having to pull it out.
Some of the apps in the Garmin store do not work right with this watch yet, even though the app says it's compatible . Example is the stopwatch app, there is no way to reset the time or add laps. I'm guessing this will get sorted out as apps are updated and more come out.
- Some of the apps from the Garmin IQ store will kill the battery in a matter of hours. I really don't think they are 100% compatible yet. The stopwatch app would bring the battery from 100% to 0 withing a day, even though it wasn't running. Once I did a factory reset and didn't install the additional apps, the battery was back to normal.
In summary, so far I like the watch. The looks and weight of this watch are really top notch! I'm hoping some of the smart watch functions improve via firmware updates. The app problem needs to be fixed as well, I have done 3 factory resets so far to fix the app battery issue.
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+50points
59of 68voted this as helpful.
TheMase's Review Comments
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Overall
2 out of 5
2 out of 5Make sure you see it in person before buying!
By Meghann
from Davenport, FL
It is nothing like the sleek, beautiful photos. The watch band is extremely flimsy and cheap feeling. The screen is incredibly dull and grey - not the dark black with popping color as in the pictures. It actually looks like some of the first cell phones with screens that were way too bright and washed out.
It was such a disappointment in looks when I took it out of the box that I put it right back in and am returning it without even trying the functionality. For $300 and basically the same functionality of trackers that are 1/2 the price it should be as stylish looking as it is in the pictures. I paid extra so I wouldn't be wearing something that was obviously just a tracker and looked more like a nice watch. This is actually worse than a plain FitBit or other tracker because it looks like an extremely cheap watch.
I've included a pic taken in a dark room so you can see how it glows a dull light grey. In light, it is almost unreadable. Very disappointed.
TheMase
Naperville, IL
September 22, 2017
You can't have it both ways. If you want good battery life you can't also have a super bright screen. I'll take the battery life over the vibrant screen any day. With the backlight, this screen is plenty bright and readable.
+5points
5of 5voted this comment as helpful.
TheMase's Questions
TheMase has not submitted any questions.
TheMase's Answers
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Does the watch have verbal audio announcements?
No, just on screen notifications that will vibrate when they come up.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
What size is the watch band? Is it interchangeable?
The bands are interchangeable, they use 20mm bands.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Does the screen stay on all of the time, similar to that of the Vivosmart HR devices?
Yes, screen is always on and you can set the backlight to come on with wrist gestures or just tapping the screen.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
can you answer phone calls and text messages on this smartwatch. How close does your phone have to be to the watch.
You can decline calls from the watch but, you can't actually answer like you can with the Samsung gear watches. As for text messages, you can respond to them with preset replies that you can setup. No onscreen keyboard or voices replies are available.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Is it possible to start an activity that requires GPS without GPS LOCK (e.g. inside) or do I have to wait for GPS (standing outside and waiting)?
No, just use one of the inside activities if you don't need GPS. This will help the battery life as well.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase
Do more than tell time with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch. This high-tech timepiece has more than 15 built-in sports apps and provides fitness monitoring, stress tracking, GPS and mobile payment capabilities in a sporty design. Download unique watch faces and widgets to personalize this Garmin Vivoactive 3 smart watch to suit your style.
Is anyone able to receive text notifications from Samsung phones? For some reason I am only receiving texts on my watch that are being sent from iPhones.
Yes, I have a Samsung Note 8 and I get text messages. Just make sure you have it enabled in the Connect app on your phone.
6 years, 7 months ago
by
TheMase