Customer Ratings & Reviews

I lost my original Vivofit due to the insecure band so replaced it with the VivoSmart HR which I loved for under 2 weeks. The glass screen shattered due to no ill treatment. I wore the device all the time, even to the pool in hot Arizona temps, but never in the water. Luckily Best Buy gave me a refund because of the time line. I don't know if I should buy another as I loved this model, but am concerned about the screen breaking again. The information advises against leaving the device in a hot car, but it should not break in 80° outdoor temps.

Loving my Vivosmart HR. My primary workout is cycling and now I don't have to wear my polar chest strap. I just paired this up to my Garmin Edge 520 to collect all of my HR info during my rides using the broadcast mode. I did a few rides with both my Vivosmart HR and my Polar H7 and they were 0 - 2 beats delta between the them. A lot of the time they were right on, especially in long constant tempo sections. No need to strap up for me now :) My only knocks on the device(reason I didn't give it a 5) is the backlight could be brighter. Also it will miss some of my steps especially if I am walking while keeping my arm steady(ex. pushing a shopping cart).

I was looking for a fitness tracker that was (a) water resistant, (b) had active heart-rate tracking, and (c) wrote data to HealthKit. The obvious competitor here is Fitbit except their software does not natively write data to HealthKit so they were out. Withings at the time did not have any products that fit all three criteria. Today they do have the Withings Steel HR. Pebble also had announced an option in the Pebble Time 2 but with the sale of the company those are not going to ever ship. The Vivosmart HR achieves its intended functions well enough. I can't speak as to how accurate the heart-rate monitoring is but it isn't out of line with other similarly-priced products. Comfort is very good - the band is smooth and non-irritating with plenty of adjustability. It's a bit tall on the wrist (~15 mm) but not outrageously so. The Garmin Connect software for iOS does work but can be a bit temperamental. It would for example sync heart rate data to HealthKit throughout the day but not steps - I always had to wait until the next morning for that to set up. Better for long term trends rather than instantaneous data.

Seeing the features on the Garmin made me return the MS Band 2 i had been using unconviceingly for 2 1/2 weeks... I felt that the device had everything that i wanted in an activity tracker (minus a colored screen) After using the band for a few days i returned as i felt that a few things needed improvement and i didnt want to feel like a beta tester below are some of the things that need improvement in my opinion (i will just focus on these) 1)Sleep Tracking - would be a bonus to also have a manual sleep mode option (which i believe would be more accurate) and also provide the user with a time to fall asleep information (microsoft has it on the band and its relatively accurate) Also would be great to add sleep quality / restoration % - as for numbers i believe that they were slightly off and either over estimating or missing active movement (i woke up for 1 hour and went back to bed and it didnt seem like it was recorded) 2)Move reminder - i was getting reminded when i was actually walking and being quite active - so need to improve accuracy big time on this. The same can be said on the bar 4)HR - the numbers were all over the place every time i looked at the HR screen on the watch - it feels like it is not running in the background or running quite inaccurately (and yes i wore the watch properly) / resting HR was too low for me and average had a massive variation from one moment to the other. I really hope they can fix this through a software. 3)battery - there is no way to estimate battery levels on the watch or in the app (i used it for 3 days and never found out where to check for levels) assuming you only get an alert when battery is low. I would prefer to know in advance my battery life 4)ability to sync through bluetooth with the computers (versus usb) 5)design is a bit dated and uninspiring / screen should be on the entire "black" curve - it is kind of ugly being partially on the bezel - don't get me wrong the watch is comfortable and light 6)water resistance - the band's touch screen is too sensitive to water when in the shower and the band was going crazy... 7)backlight is very weak and only comes in when the screen is taped - would be nice to have more customization on backlight strength (i am assuming this wont be possible) and possibly turning on when looking at the watch 8)App needs to be simplified a little bit and can look nicer - it looks too "scientific" and not fun compared to Fitbit. It is not very intuitive either. My review may seem very critical but the above issues if fixed would make this device a great purchase at 150$. Accuracy can and should be improved. I am still looking for the perfect device and will be waiting for Fitbit/Basis to offer an upgraded lineup before making a final decision.

Purchased November 1 last year at Best Buy, the first day they were available. Since the purchase I have found that the hr monitor is very inaccurate when you get your heart rate over 110bpm. I do cardio workout every day and checking my heart rate at my carotid artery my max bpm will be 170 to 190. The Vivosmart HR will record a max bpm of 90 to 130. For resting heart rate and normal daily activities it seems accurate but when the heart rate is elevated it is very inaccurate. The people at Garmin have made a great effort to resolve the issue and even replaced my original Vivosmart HR but this appears to be a problem they can't solve. The stairs climbed is a gimmick as well and not accurate. However, everything else about the Vivosmart HR is awesome. Comfortable to wear, easy to read display in all lighting conditions, steps and distance tracker is very accurate, notification features, trouble free syncing and bluetooth to my Galaxy Note 4. Would recommend because of all the things it does really well. But the heart rate monitor definitely needs improved.

I was a little skeptical after reading the reviews, but I'm glad I got it! I havent had any problems. It does seem to take a minute or two to calculate all of your steps, but that's fine with me. It seems to take even longer to calculate stairs, but again that doesn't bother me. It seems to be very accurate on all of the readings. I've only had it for a week and I'm sure I'll learn how to work even more things on it, but I'm loving everything about it so far! Its has a lot of cool features for the cost!

I purchased my tracker in February 2017 and the band came completely off on one side about two months ago. I was able to find a glue for the type material band is made of. Fixed...for now. Then the other side broke loose. Fixed that too...nope didn't last...fixed again...nope I am done. I chose this tracker for waterproof qualities due to my job. Although I purchased it for that reason in the months owning this tracker it had only been exposed to water a couple of times. For the price which was more than current sale price the tracker should not be rendered useless in 8 months. Ten months after purchase having repaired it the last two months. Overall it was easy to set up and use. I also might add when I purchased this tracker the first one I got was returned due to the software freezing up rendering it useless right out of the box. Will not be purchasing another one.

Here's the threaded discussion between me and Garmin Support which should tell the whole story. --------------------------------------------- Me to Garmin: I just bought this but I am questioning it's accuracy. It's giving me an average resting heart rate of 42. I've been wearing 2 days. I dont think so, Furthermore, when I swipe from clock to HR reading, the indicator shows me that the senor is looking for a reading and displays a very low (like 50 or 48) HR reading; then the indicator stops flashing and my HR displays at 62. It's like the HR sensor goes to sleep. I'm certain that I'm getting artificially low averages and readings. It will be interesting to get this thing out for my first bike ride to compare the HR reading from the VivoSmart with Previous averages recorded by my MIO Link. The MIO is very accurate and unfortunately I have a feeling this VivoSmart is going to be returned. I'll give it a week. Any Comments? ------------------------ Garmin to Me: Thank you for contacting Garmin International, I'll be happy to help. I'm sorry to hear that you are having issues with the vivosmart HR's heart rate data. I do have a few questions. What is the software version on the device? How much lower is the heart rate data than your average? Please advise, we look forward to hearing from you. ---------------------- Me to Garmin: My Software has been updated to 2.50 I’m not sure what my resting heart rate would be but it must be above 40 at least in the mid 50s. I’m 50 years old and not super fit. I would say I am of average fitness. Let me tell you what happened today. I went to the gym and did a 45 minute high intensity spin class. I was about 10 minutes into the work out and the heart rate read out was 66 – there’s no way, I know my body and was at minimum 110 t 120 bpm. When I was 20 minutes into the work out I checked again, swiped to the HR screen and the first thing I saw was a flashing HR icon. It took a few seconds then the flashing stopped and the readout came to the screen and showed me 70, then is started going down 68, 67, 66 …. At that point my actual HR must have been somewhere around 140. The screen went to sleep, I swiped back and then it showed me 168. Then back to 70 about a minute later. There’s no way this is accurate. I finished my spin class then hit the weight room, did a bunch of sit ups, squats and did some reps with weights. When it was all done I had been I the gym for 90+ minutes and as of right now as I write this the VivoSmart HR shows me 0 of 150 intensity minutes. I don’t trust this device at all. Is it this particular device which is flawed or is it a problem for the product in general? -------------------- Garmin to Me: Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to help. The optical heart rate sensor on your vivosmart HR uses light to penetrate your skin and estimate your heart rate. This allows you to get heart rate information without the need for an external sensor. To ensure best possible accuracy, follow the below guidelines. For best heart rate accuracy: • Ensure wrist is clean and dry • Ensure snug fit on wrist • Wear watch on outside of wrist, away from wrist bone • Avoid wearing it over dark tattoos • Ensure green lights are functioning Please let us know if you need further assistance. ------------------------ Me To Garmin: Thank you for your considered email but you didn’t really tell me anything. • My wrist is clean and dry • The Device is snugly fit on my wrist • I am wearing watch snugly above the wrist bone • I don’t have any tattoos • Green lights are functioning I don’t mean to be offensive but I’m not an idiot. You simply cut and pasted the info from your FAQ page. I also have a Mio Link which is an optical wrist worn HRM and is perfectly accurate and my Garmin Edge 510 cycle computer picks up . I bought the Vivo smart because the Mio unit doesn’t have a display; it is only a transmitting device which is fine but the Mio product is has short battery life, and with no display, I never know how much battery is left before it drains. I was hoping this VivoSmart HR would address that. So I have come to the conclusion as one of two possibilities: 1. I either have a faulty unit or 2. This product wasn’t ready for release (similar to the way Microsoft releases operating systems) I have written in to support because I’m looking for support. Do you stand behind this product? I have written a detailed account of the behavior of my device and I want to know if it is normal and I’m going to return it, or if I can get a replacement. I want to love this thing, that's why I bought it. I just can’t trust it because it hasn’t given me any accurate readings and after several works outs now, tells me I have had no intensity minutes. I’ll appreciate your response. Perhaps you’d like to escalate this. ------------------------ I just sent this comment to Garmin Support: I just made a discovery that seems to fix my problem. Using connect, I changed the settings for default screen from “Clock” to “Heartrate” and now the device is sending consistent HR data and seems to be correct. Like I said before. It’s like when the device is in the clock screen or any screen other than HR, the HR sensors go to sleep – therefore the inaccurate readings. I haven't heard any further but will monitor what happens next time I go for a ride or go to the gym. I will post the results of my new test with HR set as the default screen.

I bought this for my wife for Christmas in 2015. She is not an "athlete." She wanted something dependable and accurate to track her activity. She got all of that and more. She likes the fact that it tracks flights of stairs and heart rate and steps (and lets you know when you aren't moving enough or when you have met your goals). She really likes the ability to change the alignment on the screen so it is easier for her to read. The only thing we don't like is the battery life. if it were 7 days she could simply put it on the charger at the same time every week. Because it only lasts 5.5 days she sometimes forgets...

Being an owner of Forerunner 310XT, which I cannot wear daily for obvious reasons, this one will definitely replace my other activity tracker. Having a wrist-based HR monitor is the way to go for me. The updated Garmin Connect android app is also a good upgrade from the previous one. "My Day" screen shows me summary of all info that I need in a quick glance. Keep it up, Garmin!

I'm honestly a little disappointed in Garmin Vivosmart HR. It does have good tracking abilities. Not sure the heart rate is all that accurate but it has other good features. The ability to track steps and stairs is nice. And being able to get notifications is a plus but with one drawback. The Vivosmart HR is not constantly syncing to your phone like the Fitbit's do and there's no button in the app to force a sync. Maybe it's just be mine but it takes forever for mine to connect to my phone via bluetooth. Twice I've had to remove it and start fresh. I never had this problem with any Fitbit. Sometimes it takes close to 5 minutes for my Garmin to connect to my phone and they are right next to each other. This is a big flaw for me. If you are not sure you want to spend the money on this fitness tracker don't. If you do you will be disappointed.

I owned the vivofit (1) for over a year, and was very pleased. So when the vivosmart HR was announced I was excited. I purchased it about a month ago, and all seemed to be well at first. However, there was soon a software update to 2.5, and I had troubles getting the band to take the update. Once I finally updated I noticed that it would revert back to 2.4 occasionally and prompt me to update to 2.5 again. I did this at least 6 times. I also noticed that some of my "workouts" wouldn't log correctly, either the HR data was extremely off, or it would only save part of the workout. Then the other day it completely went sideways when I ran a half marathon. At the end of the run it seemed to reset itself completely. There was no data, the time was hours off, and the orientation I had setup was back to default. I got it home and tried syncing with my computer. Looked good for a few minutes, then it reset again. I exchanged it at Best Buy for another, and immediately I can see a difference. Version 2.5 must have never been installed on the first correctly because the new one seems to have new features, and the screens are a little different. Maybe the first one was bad out of the box, and it just took a while for it to go completely useless. I like the features of the vivosmart HR, but I'm a little concerned about the quality, and maybe it's because Garmin rushed this to consumers before working out the worst of the bugs. I am hopeful that my replacement will last me over a year just as my vivofit did. At this point I would not recommend to a friend, but that may change in the next couple months of using and evaluating.

I have had the vivosmart hr for 4 months now and am very impressed with it. I am very active and like to monitor my days but was very Leary on using a tracker, as I'm a mechanic and anything on my fingers or wrists normally don't last long. I choose the vivosmart because its semi water proof. I have gotten it soaked in water, oil, boiling coolant and a host of other fluids at my job, and it has never once failed on me. It does have a few scratches on its face but nothing bad. If you are hard on electronics or in a industry like mine then I would definitely recommend this brand.

Needed a waterproof fitness tracker. The battery life is several days versus others. I had the infamous skin reactions to Fitbit wrist bands so their products were a no-go. This is much cheaper than an Apple watch without the frequent charging hassle. The Garmin can be worn swimming and in the shower.

The first one would cut on and off by itself, so I traded it in for another one trying to give it a chance. With this one, the alarm goes off at 12:30 a.m. and not 5:20 a.m. like I have it programed to. The HR seems pretty reasonable compared to the monitors we use at our hospital, the watch is only off by a 10 beats the most beats. I have also bought screen protectors that have fallen off within a few weeks even being "life-proof". That being said, it is slightly bulky and I am not sure what the screen is made out of...but I am super careful...when it gets scratched (which is easily) it is appalling! The color matches the LED background so it is so noticeable. I lost my receipt or I would exchange this one too. Maybe the third time is the charm? Definitely won't be rebuying, as much as I like it otherwise.

Overall I am very pleased with the product. Set up and initial sync was a little tricky. It syncs great with MFP. The only issue I've had is that when I receive an email on my android device it sends the notification to my band three times. I've checked in the settings to see if I could correct the problem but to no avail. I don't know if this is an app issue?

Wasn't sure it would be as accurate or as wonderful as Fitbit, but it exceeded my expectations. Fitbit has built in HRM as does this, Garmin also has more tech features. Truly an all in one. Was interested in vivosmart, but did not have attached HRM, this next gen does and I'm grateful!

I loved my Garmin...it was a gift last Christmas from my brother. I wore it religiously. I only took it off to charge it. It kept my heart rate in check, which reminded me to breathe and calm down. Tracking sleep is a huge plus and who knew someone walks on average 20,000 steps at Disney in one day. I should have brought it in after 6months when the strap holder broke, but I improvised. Now last night in the middle of the night, the whole strap broke free of the main frame. Only superglue can fix it now and it is on the charging side. I don't feel I should have to spend $150 to replace it just because it is a month outside of one year. I take care of all of my electronics, heck my phone is 2years old and it doesn't have a case or a screen protector.

love the vivosmart hr but the usb charger i received is defective it will not fit into any usb port on any device. Basically i cant charge the device. As far as the device goes seems to be really accurate and i rate it better than my fitbit hr because i can get it wet!!

So far good tracker. After owning two Jawbone products Jawbone UP2 and UP3 I gave up on Jawbone and switched to Garmin. I originally purchased an UP2 with a 2 yr Product Protection Plan; when the UP2 failed within one week I retuned it to BB and upgraded to the UP3. Within a few weeks that UP3 would not recharge the battery. Jawbone support informed me that the tracker was defective and offered to exchange it . I was ready to give up on ALL trackers when I returned the UP3 to BB. However, when I went back to BestBuy the sales Assoc. recommended the Garmin Vivosmart HR and I thus exchanged it for the one I am currently wearing. So far, it seems to be working well and it has been providing me all the information that I need. PRO'S: comfortable to wear; provides all the information I need; Information visible on tracker's screen without having to look at phone. CON'S: Lack of instruction manual (although UP3 did not have one either); I like the look/feel of the UP3's iPhone app better. Wish it would have multiple alarms like the UP3 had. Garmin, please add multiple alarms!