Garmin - vívoactive 3 Music Smartwatch 43mm Polymer - Black Silicone

I felt my Vivoactive HR didn't do enough and was growing tired of it. I found this Vivoactive 3 Music had just came out. Looking at the specs, It has everything the HR had plus a lot more. I got the HR because my favorite tracker, the Basis Peak had been recalled, and there was no watch on par or better. The 3M was looking like something that would match up to that favorite watch. The Heart Rate tracking is more accurate and more continous than the HR. The same goes for the sleep tracking, especially now that the 3M tracks REM sleep. I also really love that I can download the workouts to watch. The major downside to the 3M is all the bugs that have come on release. Notifications have issues opening with my Android phone, Battery isn't up to the claims and doesn't come near to the HR with th same activity usage, and rep counting needs much improvement (It completely misses all Leg workout reps, and only counted the first 10 reps of my bench, arm, and back workouts). But with Garmin's record, the regularly release updates that fix issues related to the software, and I'm waiting for the next few updates to make the watch work nicely.

The vivoactive 3 music is comfortable and definitely more stylish than the chunky vivoactive hr. Pros: plenty of apps, excellent gps activity tracking, gorilla glass crystal, easy to add additional apps at the garmin store, easy to pair Bluetooth headphones and yes it does play your music Cons: heart rate isn't consistently accurate, activity fields are limited

I bought this watch like everyone else not knowing if it’s a good product. This watch has gone above and beyond my expectations. I love the touchscreen and battery life.

Not last long. I charged it yesterday and it never woke up. The small ring on the bad was broken within a year.

I wanted a watch that I could keep track of my health, but I really wasn't a fan of the square face of the apple watch. I didn't need all of the 'fancy' features that most smartwatches seem to be pushing. I was looking for something to keep track of my sleeping habits, heart rate, and overall fitness health. The Vivoactive 3, through my research, seemed like the perfect watch for what I was looking for. After using it for nearly a year, I can say, that it has been amazing. Allowing me to view a history of my stress and overall health has been a great way for me to start managing my fitness. I can see in real-time what makes me more stressed and what I need to avoid. Overall, my health has taken an upturn after being cognizant of my well-being. While I don't have the ability to respond to text messages, notifications on iOS, do appear on the watch. This has allowed me to not have to continuously check my phone. You don't realize how often you check your phone until you stop. Honestly, being aware of things that affect you is amazing. It allows you to focus on yourself and make sure that you are being as healthy as you can. I use this to hold myself accountable and it has definitely been working.

I am surprised how much I love the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music. It exceeds my expectations in terms of being nice looking and an activity tracker. However, there are 2 issues I have with the watch. First, the battery only lasts me a couple of days. I was hoping for around a week, based on the advertised specs. I do use the GPS for running and activities quite a bit though. So, I guess it's fairly reasonable for the amount of use it gets as a running watch. Having said that, it charges FAST!! I typically put mine on charge when it gets down to about 15% charge remaining and it charges fully in about an hour. So, it's not too bad. The other thing is more concerning. I bought bluetooth headphones for running to use with the watch. I believe the antenna is on the right of the headphones and I wear my watch on the left wrist. It cuts out constantly. It's unusable. I could probably get different headphones or switch my watch to the right wrist. But, I prefer to wear it on the left. To determine whether or not the issue was the headphones or watch, I paired the headphones with my phone and it worked flawlessly while holding it in my left hand. If you want to get better battery life, I believe you'd have to jump to the best Garmin option is the Forerunner 935. However, it's made for triathlons and costs significantly more (almost 2x as much). Plus, Best Buy doesn't stock it. So, I might end up living with the shorter battery life and swap this for the non-Music version to save $30 for a feature that doesn't work. Also, worth mentioning, the iPhone application and web application are very comprehensive. I really like this watch and am now a fan of Garmin.

I wanted a watch to use to track my runs and listen to music without carrying with my smartphone. After comparing this with Samsung and Fossil watches, I decided this fitted my needs. I've had this watch for about 8 months, using it mainly to track my runs while listening to music and monitor my sleep and heart rate during the day. Daily use Garmin advertises up to a week of battery life in this watch. This is true if you turn off most of the features. In reality, you'll get around 3 days if you workout every other day. GPS Accuracy is perfect. It usually takes less than 20 seconds to connect to GPS, though there's been a couple of times that it fails to do so even after some reboots. However, even if you run without the GPS locked, it still records distances accurately (though the mapped run is usually messed up). Music I first started uploading music directly to the watch since Spotify was not available. It was the worst. You cannot upload (as to my understanding) music from your smartphone, only through a PC. Also, albums sometimes did not group correctly or the songs were not in the correct order. With Spotify, it is simpler. You create a playlist in your phone app and then you upload it to the watch. However, be noticed that this process is slow and for some reason it drains the battery. As with the GPS, headphones usually connect fast (I'm currently using Jabra Elite 65t) but it can sometimes fail to do so even after a lot of tries. Also, you will need to use the watch in your right hand as the sound cuts a lot if you use it in your left hand. I read on the Internet that this is because the transmitter in the earphones are placed in the right earbud, so your body is interfering between the earbud and the watch. Battery life I've been training for a marathon for the last couple of months, and it has survived all my runs using GPS and music on (the longest being 3 hours). However, I don't think it can go further than 4 hours. You should take that into consideration and adjust the settings to maximize battery life accordingly (for example, in long runs I turn off the backlight and for the marathon I'll also uninstall all the watchfaces (as some user-made faces are said to drain battery life faster) and turn off any other useless features. Smartphone integration This is not a smartwatch. If you're looking for a watch where you'll be able to answer to notifications and calls and use Android or iOS apps as if you were using your smartphone, look elsewhere. Notifications show up when connected to my smartphone via Bluetooth, and that's pretty much it. Summary If you're looking for an entry-level watch to exercise without carrying your cellphone, this is the watch for you. I do think that the watch is way overpriced for the features. However, I chose this watch because it covers what I was looking for and most importantly I don't have to charge it every single day as I would need to do with an Apple Watch or a smartwatch with WearOS or similar.

I have been using for about 2 weeks. Lucky the price dropped during 15 day trial and got it for less than $200. I'm not a big runner/walker, so I have not used the GPS. Using strictly for boot camp type exercises and health monitoring. I have linked Spotify and used in my truck; nice to have. Things I like: Via Garmin Connect IQ you can change watch faces. You can set goals and it will remind you to "move". For me, battery life without GPS & logging 4 training activities per week & full sync twice a day is comfortably 4+ days. Consistently am at 25% after 4 days; then I charge. I have not consistently used Spotify, but think it would decrease battery life. What I don't like, but will live with: Interface is not super intuitive and GARMIN help is so-so. The "activities" they provide are ok, but if you try to create your own, you can't name it what you want. If you copy an activity, say "Cardio", it will name it "Cardio(2)" and you cannot rename (GARMIN, fix that!). Also, I appreciate the VO2max, but it's not intuitive how it works after a workout. Other things: Stair counts are pretty accurate. Steps seem accurate. I've taken a shower and no problems, but at the beach I wasn't going to risk the salt water. Overall, I'm happy and if nothing else, it's gotten me out of my chair on more than one occasion to "MOVE". GARMIN needs to update some things but I'd still recommend, especially at sub $200 level.