Garmin vívoactive HR GPS Smart Watch – Review

With an increasing awareness about health, fitness and trending popularity of smart watch industry, creating a smart-watch packed with all the qualities of a fitness watch seems like a genius idea for a sell out product.



Garmin vívoactive HR is the company’s second attempt to take over the world with its all rounder watch. It is any fitness freak’s dream come true. The watch manages to keep a track of your fitness by counting your burnt calories and heart beats. Its made to bring out and ignite the adventure lover in you, through its built in GPS enabled app facility, you can pretty much do anything, go skiing or a trekking trip or replace your motor ride for a biking session. You will want to explore more out door activities after wearing it. The watch gives you smart notifications, with dedicated coaching using Garmin Connect by connecting with your daily life through your phone.

Price

Garmin vívoactive HR is current priced at $247.46, which promises to deliver you everything from fitness accountability to all the latest smart watch features. The smart watch pretty much offers you all the features of a fitness and Android watch, but are all these really worth the price tag it comes with? Yes it is. The watch comes with a ‘find my phone’ feature as well, which can help you track your phone, the next time you lose it between your blankets, or somewhere where it is actually difficult to locate.



Design

The device looks big and bulky in its outlook, which is a good and bad thing for the company, as it will end up looking too big on an average size wrist but might suit you if you have big hands. Its size is also a major problem considering it is a fitness watch which should be manufactured with the idea of comfort, should be wearable at all times. The device being big in size, also exhibits a bigger screen of 1.38 inch, with multi color touch display. The water resistance of 5 ATM rating is a huge selling point for the watch, which is earning its good review by the customers. You can give a personal touch to the device by using its data field, custom watch faces, apps and widgets, from brand’s Connect IQ store.




Key Features

The watch features built in apps in its sport system that offers biking, swimming and GPS enabled running without any requirement of phone connection. It helps you in tracking your standard step count, calorie count, sleep tracking and distance walked. The working of the watch might seem a little complex in the starting, swiping through the menus, you will eventually get used to its UI.
You will get a constant heart rate check, which helps the device to figure out how much calories you are burning regularly. It comes with a GPS enabled sport app that helps you in tracking your sports activities like running, biking, golfing and ski etc. It has a auto pause option that automatically freezes the timer when you stop, hence giving you the accurate speed time of that activity. Some of its other sensors include GLONASS, barometric altimeter, compass and accelerometer.

Performance
It comes with rechargeable battery which can last upto 8 days with activity tracking, which however will last only for 13 hours if GPS is being used. The device works with a Garmin Connect, which is a free app that helps you in setting goals for the next day, by delivering the insights of the current day. It reminds you if you are running behind time, and also gives shoutouts on meeting the goals. You can use it as your virtual coach. The app works by getting to know you, as you maintain a calender, run your daily errands and browse through news and internet. However Garmin, is a bit complex app to use. It is clustered, slow and not so intuitive with its navigation. It contributes to an auto memory saver that memorizes the location of the places one visits, which enable it to keep a track of laps during rides.



It works on an optical heart rate monitor which counts your heart beats through your wrist.
The watch is compatible with Android, iOS and Windows 10, and you can pretty much use any app on it. Some of its other feature include auto lap, auto scroll, time and distance alert, customizable data pages and shock resistance.

Connectivity

It is compatible to be used with your phone. The watch lets you stay connected with you phone, by delivering you all the latest notifications on your phone, be it a message or a call or an alert on social media. It also enables you to control the music of your phone, its GPS also works as a tracker device o you, which can help your family keep eye on you through ‘Live Track’.

It also supports wireless connectivity through bluetooth and ANT+ which help Garmin to monitor your daily routine data.

You can give the watch a touch of your personality by downloading ‘Garmin Face It’ app, which allows you to customize the watch by replacing any photo from your smartphone to the device.

Recommendation

If you are planning to invest in a water resistant fitness watch with GPS and a big screen; and won’t be bothered by the big size or the big amount of money that will be deducted from your account than this can be the best choice for you. There are no better option thea this time changer in the market. One cannot really debate about the features that come with this watch. As mentioned already, it is a fitness and sports centric watch, currently the only one, which provides features for sports like golf and skiing. The company has ensured to develop the watch in a way that it can handle maximum damage. It is a shock and water resistant watch which is a must buy for the sports enthusiasts in the world.