Customer Ratings & Reviews

It was a Christmas gift for my grandson and he loves it.

I have had them all; Polar Loop, Fitbit Flex, Garmin Vivofit, Samsung Gear Fit, and of course this one, the Vivosmart. When it comes to activity and fitness there is a few things I look for: accuracy, comfort, ease of use, and durability. The Vivosmart has encompassed all of these things for me, and better than the other bands I've owned. Plus, the fact that it gives notifications from your smart phone is a HUGE plus. Accurate pedometer? Check. Water resistant? Check. Comfortable and lightweight? Very much so! Easy to use? Well, the band itself is very easy to use, but the software is a different story. I agree with those on here that day the software is lacking and confusing. But, you have to keep in mind that software is ever-evolving and improving, and being that the Vivosmart is still fresh, the developers most likely have brainstormed ideas to make it better. I can't knock a multi-function product too hard for lacking in one specific area that's not even attached to the device I paid for. I like that Garmin has added an improved OLED display with no buttons. That's the thing about the Vivofit that got on my nerves, as it felt like it was something from 2004 and was ugly. The screen on this is nice though, and swiping through the different functions couldn't be easier. I like that the music controls work with all my music apps like Spotify and Pandora, and the watch remembers where you left off so getting back to said music controls only takes a couple taps. The "smartwatch" aspect of the band is pretty solid. Notifications from selected apps appear as you would imagine. I sent myself a dummy text and email and they both popped up without a hitch, allowing me to read through them by tapping an arrow to scroll down. I even got notifications from games, like when my village was raided in Clash of Clans. That being said, I'm not really sure if that categorizes the band as a smartwatch or simply just a notifier with music controls. The heartrate monitor that came packaged with the band was a little finicky at first but I finally managed to get it working. I did a few sets of jumping jacks and the HRM stayed snug and gave me an accurate reading. I've seen the Garmin forums where other users were having issues, but so far I have been reluctant. All in all I'm very happy with the product so far. I'd recommend this to anybody that needs a good, accurate activity tracker that also hates pulling their phone out of their pocket to check notifications (school, meetings, dates, etc). The band is very small and lightweight and can resist water really well (forgot the actual atmospheres, but I know it's safe to swim and shower in). I'm really looking forward to see what Garmin has planned next!

Tracker is great but the Heart Rate Belt is not good if you have a big torso and does not feel comfortable. I returned it and just used the tracker and saved money.

The screen became somewhat unreadable after 4 months. It is like the display shifted in the band and you cannot see the whole screen anymore.

Not satisfied,instrument broke after short time . I wore garmin while Crossfit training and was not satisfied with product

Don't recommend buying this d/t display fading. Exchanged and immediately had the same problem.

Display started streaking within a few months then became illegible.

So many great features for activity, heart monitoring and resting! Nice fit with latch to help prevent dropping if the strap comes loose. Notification feature (phone messages, texts, etc.) is the differentiating factor. Unfortunately, it wasn't compatible with my device. It will work with your computer if you download the app. However, for the price, I want to take advantage of the phone notification feature. Would recommend if you have a compatible device.

The screen is a bit tough to read in any kind of sunlight. I've gone through three of these, due to different issues that require me to return to bestbuy under my extended warranty. Screen blacks out/or goes scrambled. Won't charge, or fails to connect to phone. Look into a different device.

Let me start off by saying that the 1 star reviewer clearly had some kind of defective unit, or did not follow the instructions. I have the Large Vivosmart in Black, and it came bundled with an HR Monitor. The Vivosmart and HR Monitor come in a small box with "frustration free" packaging, and a small plastic loop for the vivosmart band much like a leather watch would. There appears to be plenty of adjustability on the large model, even for medium or extra large wrists. My wrist is about 7 3/4" and i have it latched about 50% of max. The Vivosmart is very comfortable to wear, and has the same general form factor as a "Cause Bracelet". (IE Livestrong etc.) The Vivosmart is very attractive, and it's most attractive feature is how well it emulates a typical rubber "cause bracelet". Unless really looking, it's easily mistaken for a bracelet with the watch face turned off, and it is one of the main reasons i love it. Who says fitness trackers have to look like one? While there is a noticeable hump, it's not ugly or terribly even evident unless viewed from the side (ie as if looking down your arm). The GARMIN logo is embossed in an aluminum looking logo on the end of one of the straps. This logo does end up facing down, and i find myself resting my wrist on it while typing, so it may scratch over time. This could also be what the loop i mentioned earlier is for. The display is bright and easy to read. It is highly responsive and I've encountered no lag, or delay. Simply double tapping on the screen wakes it up and the main screen displays time, day and date. This screen, as well as all the others that the watch displays are changeable via the Garmin app or website. Following the simple instructions i had no problem pairing the device to my Note 3, My Windows 7 PC, or to the HR Monitor. My Vivosmart when connected to my Samsung Note 3 can receive notifications and messages from 3 floors away inside my house. The other Bluetooth functions such as controlling music and volume work perfectly with Pandora. On my Note 3, the Pause, Skip Forward, and Skip Backward controls don't work with the normal music player. This is definitely a phone specific issue and in no way a fault of the Vivosmart though. This fitness tracker has many more features and functions that i have not covered, but they all operate flawlessly. The only functions i have not used are the ones relating to the bike sensors and action camera, and that is because i do not own those sensors/cameras. Overall this is an extremely good buy, and would recommend it to everyone. My wife will be getting one as soon as the purple color becomes available. Seriously, you won't regret buying this device. Disregard that very poor review.

I've tryed over 7 of the top selling activity trackers available, and this one is by far the best. Vivosmart tracks more then just steps, but heart rate, weight training, yoga, kickboxing ect. Also alerts you to mobile phone activity, calories burned, daily goals. Download app to chart your activity, weight loss goals, sleep patterns and more. Very comfortable to wear and sleek enough to wear with business attire. The only con I have is you cannot read screen in sun light, but 99% of my workouts are at the gym so it's not a deal breaker for me.

I purchased the Garmin because it was waterproof and because it fit my wrist better than the FitBit. I love the ability to read text messages and it easily holds a charge for 7 days. Works good with its app and MyFitnessPal if you track your calorie intake. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because some of the display pixels have already gone out. I am going to have to contact Garmin about fixing it-which I shouldnt have to do since its only about 3 months old.

When I first opened the tracker, the activity tracker screen in the corner was not visible and throughout the week, I saw more corners of the screen being not visible. The heart rate worked great and was accurate.

Comfortable, good looking, love the integration with my Samsung galaxy

I love the way this watch functions. The alerts and step counting work well, and it looked great on my tiny wrist. But within a month the screen started to lose pixels. Soon entire lines were out. So I exchanged it in store since it was still under warranty. This time it only took a week for two whole lines to go out. So I called Garmin and they offered to replace it with the Vivosmart HR. Since the screen on the HR is different, I thought this was a great solution. The screen on the HR seems like it will last longer, but I can't wear it because it looks ridiculous on my small wrist. It looks like a house arrest bracelet. And the HR monitor (which I didn't even care about) digs into my wrist when I have the band on tight enough to not turn. Love everything about this watch except the fact that you can't read it!

I used the fitbit one and Withings Pulse o2 before. Having the ability to keep it all the time with me is very nice. It works almost flawlessly (contrary to other reviews here) and the touch control works perfectly even when wet. The only drawback is the sleep analysis feature which is poor on the Garmin Connect app not on par at all with the Withing and Fitbit ones.

Fresh out of the box, the heart rate monitor won't sync with the vivosmart--it's supposedly pre-paired with it, but it won't pick up your heart rate. Tried re-pairing them, per Garmin instructions, but it didn't work. It makes me wonder if Garmin bothered to do any pre-launch testing at all. Go to forums.garmin.com and look up vivosmart and you'll see many others have the same issue. So there goes half the functions that I bought the vivosmart for. The notifications are ok--but since I have to carry my phone around with me to hook up with Bluetooth for the notifications anyhow, what's the point? I can hear my phone or set it on vibrate and get notifications without paying $200 for a toy that doesn't work for its main purpose of tracking workouts and without running down my phone battery on Bluetooth. Also find that having to raise my arm (pretty high and/or wave it around) to 'automatically' turn the screen on is annoying. I want to be able to glance down and see steps walked or the time of day. Going to save my money and either go back to the vivofit--because the heart rate monitor worked fine on that--or wait for the Apple Watch or a decent Android watch if I really want fancy.

I just bought this on a Sunday afternoon. The vivosmart will not pair to my iPhone. There is no customer service available on weekends. I emailed and got a "robo"-reply that I will be contacted in 3 days. VERY disappointed in the product and service.

I purchased my first vivosmart only for 6 months later it wouldn't even track my workouts and the right half of my screen wouldn't show. I traded it through warranty on month 8 it took 3 weeks for me to get my next one back only for it to break on month 4. Which now places me out of warranty. When this watch works its amazing it does everything i need it to do.

Very disappointing, it appears that this should be a good product, but there appears to be quality control issues as the vibrate does not work, and the last icon to the right of the screen is not able to be selected. You can only sync with one device such as iPhone but not the iPad also. Only allows one alarm at a time to be set. I hate to do a comparison of products, but the fitbit ease of use is far superior, not to mention the apparent quality control issue of the Garmin. I had great hopes for the Vivosmart as it appears to have most of the same functionality as my fitbit Force but also had the HR monitor. Hopefully they will straighten out their quality control issues and improve the software in the future. I will be sticking with my fitbit.