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- Review count1
- Helpfulness votes24
- First reviewMay 16, 2016
- Last reviewMay 16, 2016
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating4
- Review comment count2
- Helpfulness votes0
- First review commentMay 3, 2016
- Last review commentMay 17, 2016
- Featured review comments0
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Valistar's Reviews
Run, bike, swim, golf, ski and more with vivoactive HR, the GPS smartwatch with wrist-based heart rate3. Outside of your more active moments, its built-in activity tracker3 counts steps, floors climbed and intensity minutes and measures calories burned throughout the day. The always-on, touchscreen, sunlight-readable Garmin Chroma Display shows your activity details as well as smart notifications such as call, text, email, social media alerts and more. Customize your watch with more than 1,300 apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields from our Connect IQ store. Battery charge2 lasts through all your activities with up to 8 days in watch/activity tracking mode (no GPS) or up to 13 hours using GPS.
Customer Rating
4
Waterproof, Waterproof, Waterproof!!!!
on May 16, 2016
Posted by: Valistar
from Va Beach
In general, I pleased with my purchase of the Vivoactive HR. I’m able to track my swimming and biking, which is the main reason I chose the Garmin brand vice some of the other brands that are available in the market place. Here are some of my observations by feature so far, I’ve been using the watch for a little over a week now:
Appearance - Overall satisfied. I barely notice I’m wearing the watch now. Very lite and comfortable. In some instances I have experienced similar issues as other people have mentioned concerning my dress shirts. Some of the sleeves on my dress shirts are narrower than others, which causes the sleeve to bunch up.
Size – Initially I was going to go with the Extra Large version however; I got tired of waiting on the backorder from Amazon. I tried on the Regular size version and it fits fine on my wrist with 7-9 notches left in the wrist band to spare. I’m 6’1” and weigh in at 230, I’m not a huge guy and I am by no means a small guy either!
Watch face: It would be nice to have a better selection of watch faces to choose from, especially ones that don’t burn up the battery. The more information you put on your watch face the faster your battery is used up. I’d love to have a Mickey Mouse watch face…that would go over big in the corporate world I operate in!!!
Biking – works like a champ and the data gathered is comparable to other apps that I’ve been using that are available on the market.
Biking – works like a champ and the data gathered is comparable to other apps that I’ve been using that are available on the market.
Swimming – WATERPROOF!! Single most important feature for me since I swim quite a bit. Only issue I’ve had is I lost my second swim session due to a combination of operator error and sensitivity issues after my swim with the touchscreen after I added the protective cover. I experienced the sensitivity issue on my third swim as well, but was a bit more patient and finally got the session to save. There’s definitely a sensitivity delay with the touch screen after adding the protective cover, much more noticeable right after a swim.
And just for clarification with regard to not being able to monitor your heartrate while swimming, while that’s true, you’re not losing that data. While you’re swimming the watch is still collecting HR data and you can either review it on the watch or open up the Connect app after you’ve completed your swim and get a really detailed view of your heartrate during the swim activity.
Recommendation to Garmin: Anytime a user goes to save an activity and hits the wrong button, by default you should get the same confirmation screen that you get when you do want to discard the data. A yes/no option, by selecting yes your activity data is discarded. When you select No, that should automatically save the session.
Heartrate Monitor – Works great and the readings are spot on to just about every BP or EKG I’ve ever had done. My resting HR is around 50-55 and when I sleep it can drop to around 40. I’ve got one EKG in my medical record at 37. And no I’m not a marathon runner or Tri-Athlete! I smoked for 35 years, drank like a fish, and PT’d twice a year because the military told me I had to. Doctors and nurses just laugh and shake their head!
Sleep – It works, although I did have one nite where I must have inadvertently rolled over and hit the on/off button because when I woke up the watch had shut off, therefore I didn’t have any sleep data for that nite. Through the Connect app (very good by the way) you can see how long you’ve slept and it’s divided up into Avg Deep Sleep, Avg Lite Sleep, and Avg Awake. I’m just about evenly split between Lite and Deep sleep patterns. On the few occasions I wake up for one reason or another I expected to see those instances as lite sleep, but it’s showing multiple long periods of time where I’m in lite sleep mode. The data is there but I don’t understand how the algorithm makes the determination between the sleep modes. I expected to see longer periods of deep sleep, because I sleep well, or at least I thought I did!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Valistar's Review Comments
Run, bike, swim, golf, ski and more with vivoactive HR, the GPS smartwatch with wrist-based heart rate3. Outside of your more active moments, its built-in activity tracker3 counts steps, floors climbed and intensity minutes and measures calories burned throughout the day. The always-on, touchscreen, sunlight-readable Garmin Chroma Display shows your activity details as well as smart notifications such as call, text, email, social media alerts and more. Customize your watch with more than 1,300 apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields from our Connect IQ store. Battery charge2 lasts through all your activities with up to 8 days in watch/activity tracking mode (no GPS) or up to 13 hours using GPS.
Overall
5 out of 5
5 out of 5The Vivoactive HR is a beast!
By Nate
Since Garmin revealed the Vivoactive HR a few months back I was sold as I wanted a good fitness and activity tracker that could keep up with my busy lifestyle. Fitbit was not going to cut it, I wanted something that had GPS, Heart rate monitering, smart watch features, and could go with me along for a swim and this device so far has really impressed me.
After a 5k run, 10 mile bike ride and walking all day it tracked everything without breaking a sweat even though I was! Having both a touch screen and buttons together make easy navigation. Everything is intuitive, very little instructions needed.
Garmin has really stepped up their game with their Garmin connect app and Connect IQ, a must in order to make a fitness/activity/smart watch really benefit it's owner. You get nice graphs, progress, and tons of data, I mean tons. If you are a data and analysis Geek you will be happy.
-Display is super sharp, sunlight readable, and a very good back light. Also very responsive to touch and swipes.
-Band is very comfy, using a soft and flexible material, I think it is silicone.
-Can track your sleep and is a comfortable watch to wear 24/7
-Good battery life. Based on my usage I would rate it about 5 days. Using GPS takes the most juice.
-Lots of watch faces, apps, widgets, etc from the Garmin store for free. Their software is open source so many people have developed their own cool apps.
-Wrist based heart rate sensor is very responsive, with the option to include ANT+ HRM and sensors like the Virb camera, bike sensors.
So what do I not like? It is basically a block on your wrist. It lacks any style, with the exception of a few color bands, however it looks like a activity tracker, not a watch like the Fenix 3 or Fitbit Blaze. What makes it look nice however is the watch faces you can customize with color, data screens. Also I am a bit concerned about the screen and bezel getting marked up and scratched. I would recommend a screen protector
Overall for the price this device is packed full of features, and Garmin has really impressed me.
Valistar
Va Beach
Glass Screen
May 3, 2016
How well do you feel the glass watch face is going to hold up? I've seen other write ups that give me concern for durability of the watch face.
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0of 0voted this comment as helpful.
Run, bike, swim, golf, ski and more with vivoactive HR, the GPS smartwatch with wrist-based heart rate3. Outside of your more active moments, its built-in activity tracker3 counts steps, floors climbed and intensity minutes and measures calories burned throughout the day. The always-on, touchscreen, sunlight-readable Garmin Chroma Display shows your activity details as well as smart notifications such as call, text, email, social media alerts and more. Customize your watch with more than 1,300 apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields from our Connect IQ store. Battery charge2 lasts through all your activities with up to 8 days in watch/activity tracking mode (no GPS) or up to 13 hours using GPS.
Overall4 out of 5
4 out of 5Waterproof, Waterproof, Waterproof!!!!
By Valistar
from Va Beach
In general, I pleased with my purchase of the Vivoactive HR. I’m able to track my swimming and biking, which is the main reason I chose the Garmin brand vice some of the other brands that are available in the market place. Here are some of my observations by feature so far, I’ve been using the watch for a little over a week now:
Appearance - Overall satisfied. I barely notice I’m wearing the watch now. Very lite and comfortable. In some instances I have experienced similar issues as other people have mentioned concerning my dress shirts. Some of the sleeves on my dress shirts are narrower than others, which causes the sleeve to bunch up.
Size – Initially I was going to go with the Extra Large version however; I got tired of waiting on the backorder from Amazon. I tried on the Regular size version and it fits fine on my wrist with 7-9 notches left in the wrist band to spare. I’m 6’1” and weigh in at 230, I’m not a huge guy and I am by no means a small guy either!
Watch face: It would be nice to have a better selection of watch faces to choose from, especially ones that don’t burn up the battery. The more information you put on your watch face the faster your battery is used up. I’d love to have a Mickey Mouse watch face…that would go over big in the corporate world I operate in!!!
Biking – works like a champ and the data gathered is comparable to other apps that I’ve been using that are available on the market.
Biking – works like a champ and the data gathered is comparable to other apps that I’ve been using that are available on the market.
Swimming – WATERPROOF!! Single most important feature for me since I swim quite a bit. Only issue I’ve had is I lost my second swim session due to a combination of operator error and sensitivity issues after my swim with the touchscreen after I added the protective cover. I experienced the sensitivity issue on my third swim as well, but was a bit more patient and finally got the session to save. There’s definitely a sensitivity delay with the touch screen after adding the protective cover, much more noticeable right after a swim.
And just for clarification with regard to not being able to monitor your heartrate while swimming, while that’s true, you’re not losing that data. While you’re swimming the watch is still collecting HR data and you can either review it on the watch or open up the Connect app after you’ve completed your swim and get a really detailed view of your heartrate during the swim activity.
Recommendation to Garmin: Anytime a user goes to save an activity and hits the wrong button, by default you should get the same confirmation screen that you get when you do want to discard the data. A yes/no option, by selecting yes your activity data is discarded. When you select No, that should automatically save the session.
Heartrate Monitor – Works great and the readings are spot on to just about every BP or EKG I’ve ever had done. My resting HR is around 50-55 and when I sleep it can drop to around 40. I’ve got one EKG in my medical record at 37. And no I’m not a marathon runner or Tri-Athlete! I smoked for 35 years, drank like a fish, and PT’d twice a year because the military told me I had to. Doctors and nurses just laugh and shake their head!
Sleep – It works, although I did have one nite where I must have inadvertently rolled over and hit the on/off button because when I woke up the watch had shut off, therefore I didn’t have any sleep data for that nite. Through the Connect app (very good by the way) you can see how long you’ve slept and it’s divided up into Avg Deep Sleep, Avg Lite Sleep, and Avg Awake. I’m just about evenly split between Lite and Deep sleep patterns. On the few occasions I wake up for one reason or another I expected to see those instances as lite sleep, but it’s showing multiple long periods of time where I’m in lite sleep mode. The data is there but I don’t understand how the algorithm makes the determination between the sleep modes. I expected to see longer periods of deep sleep, because I sleep well, or at least I thought I did!
Valistar
Va Beach
I would Like to Add to the previous post
May 17, 2016
Calories - Garmin needs to take a hard look at the data the watch and app are providing for calories burned....comes in much lower than just about every online calorie calculator and data I've collected using various smartphone apps I've used to collect data on my bike rides. I went on a 2 hour 25 mile bike ride yesterday and the Connect App/Watch showed I burned 660 calories for that ride. That's very low considering I had 10-15 mph headwind on the way back. I don't expect the watch to account for headwinds but I do expect the calories to be more accurate. Garmin needs to fix this ASAP!
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