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.

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.

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

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 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.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music is the best Smartwatch on the market. I have been a member of the Garmin Smartwatch family for over five years and this is my third Garmin Smartwatch device and they really hit the mark with with this Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Smartwatch. The setup was a little more challenging than previous models but the payoff and many features available is amazing. I have been using it for over a month and on a typical run with 50% charge I was able to run a 5K with music, battery and GPS using up only 20% of charge in an hour worth of activity. The Garmin Smartwatch charges in less than an hour for use in 4 to 5 days at a time. I downloaded my Spotify playlist and iTunes music library on Garmin Express App and synced to Smartwatch. The sound of music has great clarity and bass listening pleasure. I even find myself playing music from Garmin Smartwatch long after I am finished with my run while doing errands. I have used three different wireless, true wireless headphones with my Garmin Smartwatch with music such as JBL, JLabs and all connect and sync to Garmin Smartwatch so effortless. The key is to make sure your phone is at least 33 feet away or just turn it off like I prefer and leave in car when on a run so Garmin Smartwatch can easily connect with Bluetooth headphones. Switching back and forth from run data and music is really a breeze without interruption. The Smartwatch breaks down every detail from last to current run with perfect GPS timing. The Garmin Smartwatch pauses run if you need to change music. If I could give the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Smartwatch a 10, I would have. It is just that smart.

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.

Though the colors are drab and there isn't as much customizability as Android Wear watches, I gave up those because I'd need to charge every day or two. This lasts 7 days if I don't use GPS. Other than battery life, the display is always readable even without backlight in bright situations... Way more readable than any of the top Apple/Samsung watches in Bright sunlight and with none of the battery drain of AMOLED trying to outshine the sun. I really like the sleep tracking as it gives me a lot of useful insights and helps me understand scientifically what changing patterns before bed do to my sleep much better than my gut feeling of how tired I am the next morning/day... Again something you need more than 2 days battery life to really dig into consistently. I did find the music function a bit too primitive and awkward to use (have Sony wireless headphones with their own music storage easier to use), and found the non music version of this watch for $120 so ended up returning this great watch for an equivalent at a lot less money. There interface on this phone is pretty simple and usable though I find it a bit slow to get to an individual item like steps that are in the middle of the list of features. Would be nice to have hot spots on the watch face to directly get to at least the pedometer, steps, and exercise activities, but being able to go through the list backwards or forwards at least gives me quick access to checking my pulse history. Only problem so far is the step counter stopped working a couple of weeks in, but turning it off and back on resolved that issue. The Android app is much easier to navigate data with and offers really impressive displays and trends. For perspective, I've owned 2 Android Wear watches but no fitness watches in the past.