Customer Ratings & Reviews

I own many Garmin products, all of which have performed well. This is the first Garmin product that has been a disappointment. I called Garmin support, they had me reset the device, which resulted in the inability to pair with my iPhone. Hopefully, Garmin will replace this device.

This replaced a Garmin Vivosmart HR+ a few weeks ago. I think it is a nice upgrade and have been extremely happy with it. (The Vivosmart functioned well for a year, but battery life declined toward the end). Why choose this one? Most importantly for me, it may be the lowest-profile, waterproof, stand-alone GPS devices available at this price level. I really like the fact that it got a little more slender, so it fits better under a dress shirt cuff; I wear this thing all day, every day unless it's charging. It has a better (color) screen than its predecessor, better battery life, a simple timer the Vivosmart lacked, and slightly better fitness tracking choices (it now tracks cycling; it still doesn't track swimming, curious for a waterproof fitness tracker). Mine is relatively new, so I cannot yet comment on durability, but my previous Garmin endured lots of time in the water and hundreds of miles of walking and hiking. Another significant change is a full-touch screen - no button. It doesn't take long to learn how to use it, but the functions all operate by swiping, tapping, double-tapping, or pressing down steadily. Having already used a Garmin device for a year, it took me less than a day to figure most of that out. The Garmin Connect app on your phone stores the data from the device; it presents a great deal of data. A few things to keep in mind about fitness trackers at this end of the spectrum. First, the heart rate monitor doesn't register scientifically accurate results all the time. No tracker does, but wrist trackers in general can be off at times. Garmin sells more high-tech (and larger and more expensive) devices that have better GPS capability. This does fine most of the time. Second, the full touch screen occasionally triggers from an unintentional swipe, shirt cuff, water in a shower; you can lock the screen and avoid that. Third, the sleep tracker tends to do better for conventional sleep patterns. I occasionally sleep in two 3-4 hour blocks with a significant break in between, and it doesn't always capture that. TWO big recommendations. First, figure out what functions you need and choose a device accordingly. Garmin makes a constellation of devices, many of which have more functionality and larger screens than this one. My sister loves her high-end Fenix 5, whereas I don't need that size or functionality; I have hard core runner friends who swear by Garmin's Forerunner series. Second, DC Rainmaker's outstanding online review of this device has tons of great information about functionality; I highly recommend it. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/09/garmin-vivosport-review.html

Didn’t measure my heart rate correctly. Too small for me

Going from a charge 2 to this for waterproof feature. I am not that impressed after 10 days of owning. Battery has been barely been 4 days and I have all features turned off outside of HR monitoring. No notifications, screen lock, etc. used the GPS features once for 10 minutes. Second has been hr meter. It is so inaccurate. I play full court basketball and in the time my HR hasn't been over 100 which seems highly unlikely. I have trained around 8 hours this week and have 12 total "intensity" minutes. This is very frustrating.I know I am working way harder than that. I compared weight training HR to a chest strap. Chest strap had me at 140 but vivosport was 98. I know chest is more accurate but this is so far away. Like the display and the waterproof feature. Outside of that, i would proceed with caution.

Garmin, in my opinion is the leader in fitness trackers, so you won’t be disappointed with this. My only gripe is that the bands cannot be replaced, so if they should break .... there goes your very expansive investment. Might return it for this reason.

Great device, but it's incompatible with iOS. This makes the app virtually unusable. It's been at least two weeks since release and no updates. Customer support doesn't have a resolution date. Garmin has informed me that the connectivity issue is not covered by the warranty either. If you use an iphone, be warned the device won't work with it. You can read about the issues on the garmin website: https://support.garmin.com/faqSearch/en-US/faq/content/O2rhfvdmhY6uQSUVU3Qvv8

I gave it a one star because key features that anyone would want do not work whether as intended or as marketed. Technically, I should return this product. I will admit that part of this is my fault as it was a quasi impulse buy, but read more to understand what I mean. Pros... 1. Price sorta.... The big deal was the marketed point was that it was really hard to find a wearable with GPS and a heart-rate monitor under $200 and that point is actually true. The heart-rate definitely works and borderline real-time, but the GPS does not work indoors. Yes, I might be a moron for saying that out loud! But stay with me and you will see why that statement is important. 2. The move bar!!!! If you decide to buy this product, then know that it is all about the gosh darn move bar!!!! Once it tells you to move, it really means that! lol...It takes alot of effort to clear it! Depending on which website you read, it can take anywhere from 100 - 250 feet of consistent movement in order to clear any part of it. No pauses! So if you are in a office building at work, it will be hard for you to clear it. 3. Sleep feature... This feature is actually very impressive! It actually analyses my sleep in order to give me an understanding of the quality of sleep. Meaning it records the light, deep, and even rem components of my sleep. Equally impressive is that it captures when the multiple times that I wake up during the night to go to the restroom. Garmin should market that feature more as that feature is that impressive! 4. Smartphone features... Don't buy this if you want to be able to respond to phone calls and text messages. I did not buy it for that reason, buuuuuut I was really impressed with that feature after the fact. I can even reject phone calls from my wearable which was an unexpected feature that I have come to enjoy. I wish it gave me a little bit more on the preview of the text messages and emails and maybe gave me the last 5 or 10, but for what it gives for me is more than adequate. I just wanted to know what was coming in so I can be sure to address any important items immediately. Actually, a wonderful feature and I enjoy not having to pull my phone off my hip holster to see what is coming in.... 5. The Garmin Connect app... Without doing a review of the app, I would say that the sleep feature details are wonderful and overall the app has wonderful details, buuuuuut there is certain key information not captured which is the reason for the one star. 6. Durability....Believe it or not, I will say pretty good. I actually shower with mine on and I have bumped my wrist a couple of times and it has not shattered, cracked, or even have any scratches on it. I also shower with it on so it has gotten wet and still so far so good. 7. Durability continued.... Note!!!! You should likely not do this, buuuuuuut I bought it for this purpose soooooo if this voids the warranty, I am actually okay with that and just will not buy another wearable. I bought this thing because I needed something that could go into the dry sauna at the gym. There are no wearables that specifically advertise that they are durable enough to go into the dry sauna. Everyone talks about the fine print, operating temperatures, and humidity. Buuuuuut what good is a wearable that can not go into the sauna!!!!! I only stay in 22 minutes or less and the thing is still working and functioning like new. I felt this was a very important point to mention for those researching wearables. I have not swam in the pool with it yet, buuuuuut when I do go swimming, I am going to see if this thing can handle it. If it can not, I will not care! lol... Yep, I am a rebel like that...lol... I can go on about the pros, but I think those are the biggies... So you may be saying to yourself.... Then how can a seemingly wonderful product get a one star..... Cons.... I will take the blame or at least my part of the blame for this one.... Maybe I just simply bought the wrong product, but even then for anyone that wants this product, key features do not work. 1. Goals!!!!!! Yep!!! It is all about setting goals!!!! Why else would a person want or feel that they needed a tracker if you can not set goals and monitor your goals?! That is the reason you bought the tracker, well at least for me... Soooooo Garmin lets you set goals in the desktop version of the app, buuuuuut guess what? Tracking your progress towards those goals do not sync to the cellphone app and nor can you see those items on your wearable. Soooooo... that's crazy! 2. Still all about goals... The display...It's nice that they do give you a few options for changing your display on the wearable, buuuuuut there is not a display that allows you to see the time and your steps. Or if not that, a display that allows for seeing my steps and battery life on the home screen. I am not even asking for a fully customizable display feature, I was just looking for one of the above. I need to be able to track my steps to stay on target with my goals and to also see battery life so the thing does not go out on me while I am in hot pursuit! lol... 3. Samsung Health App!!!! - Things I took for granted....I have my cellphone and was tired of being glued to my cellphone hence the reason for the purchase of a wearable. Not keeping my cellphone on me meant that I was missing steps. I was participating in the Samsung Global Challenge and of course my cellphone had the daily step goal challenge that I was participating in... Here's the thing... Samsung would synch with yo Mama if she was synchable!!!! lol... Sooooo it never occurred to me that Garmin products would not synch to Samsung health app. I mean I bought the wearable in order to be able to participate in the Samsung Global Challenge! Sooooo after learning that it would not synch and there were no workaraounds, I did consider just taking the product back and getting a Samsung product. But I wanted a wearable that was conservative and overall the Garmin product was a better product at that price point compared to anything that Samsung was offering. Soooo.... Garmin does not have a global challenge, but someone put together a yearly challenge that is already underway. I do participate in a weekly 40k step challenge with a handful of people and that has been pretty good. Hmmm...Maybe I can create my own monthly global challenge within the cellphone app and invite some folk? What a great idea? I did not want that job, but I guess it is technically a workaround. We'll see...lol.... 4. Speaking of goals and challenges....Alright... fine... The goals desktop does not synch to my cellphone. Here's the problem... The goals only record activities!!!! You may say... What does that mean? Easy... That means none of your steps count towards your monthly mileage goal! Although the app is set to record all activities, steps do not count as an activity. I see your logic... Then why not set a monthly step goal instead! You guessed it! The only option is to create a mileage goal in the desktop software!!!! 5. The stairs climbed feature... Great concept! Buuuuuut it does not work! Because it has a GPS, accelerometer, and all of these other physical tracking features, the stairs climbed feature can not tell the difference between an elevation or you actually climbing stairs whether in an office building or at your home, soooooo it takes the conservative approach and not record the stairs climbed. Sure it is better to conservatively report than to over report, buuuuut I would have rather that they just not included this feature until they figured out how to get it to work. For now, it really is false advertising on that item. 6. Treadmill....Well....I bought this thing for the treadmill... Turns out it does not work indoors and specifically on treadmills... I kinda knew that and this is the one that is my fault. I took a risk and it bit me in the butt... Buuuuut to be fair.... It teased me with accurately recording my first run on the treadmill. It was so accurate that I was like wow!!!! Then after that, it was a colossal fail! Sooooo do not buy this product if you are planning to record your treadmill activity. It will record the steps and I became happy with that and it will even record the running, but it will not be accurate. Hence... Low mileage recorded runs makes it impossible to accomplish your monthly goals in the goal feature that you can only see online.... 7. VO2 max....This was another interesting feature that I said...hey, it is worth the purchase for this particular feature...Well....It recorded once!!! To be fair to them... Maybe it only works when outside... I have been outside for some walks/jogs, but I will do more so this is good motivation for that activity. My thing is that.... if the feature only works outside, then share that important information with the consumer upfront. I am not rewriting this.... Buuuuut I did want to share that another important pro meaning feature that encouraged me to buy this product over the others was the stress feature! I wanted to monitor my stress levels and get an idea of when I am upset if I could get feedback then I could get better at controlling my stress levels... I will say a very surprisingly and interesting feature!!!! It even has a 2 minute breathing exercise on the wearable. Was not expecting that, but I love that feature!!!! Summary... 1. Even if you know what you are buying, still not buy this product because key features that likely enticed you to buy this product do not work. 2. It is actually a nice product if all you want to do is track your steps, buuuut you can buy a less expensive tracker for that purpose. 3. There are so many other things that I did not mention, but I believe that I covered the majors. I will end with.... Garmin does not synch with Nokia health mate app. Manually input your weight. Battery life is okay, but I charge often.

Comfortable to wear, but... I live in a house with stairs. I'm up and down them all the time. It doesn't count those trips very well. I also do crossfit but it doesn't seem to consider those workouts as vigorous activity. I'm not sure how much more vigorous I can get. I'm returning it to try a Fitbit Charge 2.

Out son bought this for himself based upon a customer service recommendations. We did not think it through but it does not have a replacement band; in other words, the band is integral to the unit. Our son's band broke after only 4 months in two different places so it is now useless. An expensive lesson for him. Otherwise, he had been happy with the vivosport.