Garmin - vívoactive® 4S
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Reddit Reviews:
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Last updated: Dec 30, 2025 Scoring
Liked most:
1111
408
"The roborock I have kicked and smashed with my foot so many times out of anger when it doesn't collaborate, and still he rocks 4-5 yrs later and no broken parts"
"they are extremely durable. ... I’ve got well over 1000 miles out of a pair and they still have grip and the uppers are in great shape"
"I've used them for 1500 miles of multi-day hiking with no issues!"
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"Oh, and the battery lasts days even when exercising a lot (weeks without excercise)."
"Battery lasts me about a week?"
"my battery lasts about a week while using the oxymeter all the time as well as using it for tracking my workouts for about 7-9 hours a week."
253
47
"It’s also pretty well established that AW has the best motion tracking which shows up when you use the swim feature for distance. ... In swimming, it’s not even close. 100% of garmins worn during our pool swims are incorrect, regardless of swimmer level. ... Every single Garmin incorrectly reported swim distance vs manual counting. Freestyle 4000m in 25m pool."
"I like the apple gives me the actual normal time but gives a score on level of intensity of the work out separately"
"when I went to the hospital I compared the readings on my Apple Watch and the medical grade heart monitor and both of them exactly the same"
8
0
"I've got pretty small wrist, run with a garmin vivoactive and get along well. ... Love it."
"Super slim and light ... I still miss it sometimes because I have a much bulkier watch now"
"it is smaller in profile ... the profile of the S models fits me very well!"
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"a $100 strap without a subscription is giving almost identical readings… across all the genres. ... I’ve noticed a 2% discrepancy at most. Majority of the time they’re the same."
"~90% of Whoop 5’s performance at just a fraction of the price."
"Biggest win for me is no subscription hell (one time purchase for 99$)"
Disliked most:
30
99
"About a year and the right bud would last about 15 minutes on a full charge."
"after about 6 months of use, the battery life fell off dramatically. ... I'm lucky if I get 45 minutes out of a full charge. ... This battery issue affected both sets of Elite 65t earbuds."
"my vivoactive 4s died a few months ago now after a few good years services, I wanted to change it. I couldn't because I had the change the whole watch, planned obsolescence."
1
12
"I have one, and I like it better than the Arzopa one, which I used to have. Just be careful, they tend to break easily; they're cheap electronics. ... Maybe not that much, but one died in two weeks, after filing a complaint I have another one, so far it's been alive for 2 months, we'll see"
"Same, they are extremely fragile."
"the arzopa I had fell over while I was using it and the screen got busted."
1
7
"it's crap at accuracy on laps."
"not even capable of openwater recording (I would simply tie it to my swim buoy)"
"it can't do custom swim workouts or swim drills"
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5
"the GPS was inaccurate while trail running"
"My previous Vivoactive 4 or Vivoactive 1 were very erratic, even trying different IQ apps."
"AFAIK that's something no Garmin under $600 can do."
1
11
"it can't do custom swim workouts or swim drills"
"My Venu 2 did fairly well tracking my workouts, but I was sorely missing some running and training focused features I wanted to become a better runner. ... the daily suggested workout feature is a game-changer for me, because it takes into consideration my upcoming half-marathon in December this year and provides me with personalized workouts — something my Venu 2 couldn’t do."
"This was a much needed upgrade for me for the training status and progress."
My VA4 seems to do a great job.
r/Garmin • Lost in brands, who is actually tracking sleep very well nowadays ? ->Vivoactive, venu, and currently have a forerunner
r/Garmin • How Have I only just discovered this? (convert from Apple Watch) ->Just get one of the garmin watches with heart rate tracking. Their most budget one with a heart rate tracker, is their vivoactive, and it'll set you back maybe 200 bucks. But I'd personally spend a bit more and get the Forerunner 255. I currently have a 255, and it's fantastic. Battery life is about a week, but I also do a good deal of running. I imagine it'd go up to 10-14 days if I didn't use the GPS function while tracking my runs. It works with the Garmin Connect app, and that doesn't require a subscription at all. It'll also sync your activity data with Strava for additional tracking if you wanted.
r/fitness30plus • Basic, reliable, no thrills fitness tracker for ios? ->I wouldn’t be afraid of buying a Garmin watch for open water or pool swims. I have a first generation instinct since the summer of 2020. I’ve worn it everyday no matter what. If you don’t like the look of the instinct, I would look at either the Fenix, Enduro. The forerunner has a bezel but it’s not as raised I feel. Really any of their watches that includes the feature of a raised bezel I gravitate towards. For me, anyways, watches that don’t have that feature end up with a cracked screen like the venu and the vivoactive with the rounded edge of glass hasn’t lasted for me which is why I prefer that raised bezel. Garmin has always been good and replaced them for me in the past but once the warranty is done, there’s no more replacement. Hope this is helpful and keep going.
r/Garmin • Pool swimming killed my Apple Watch, now I want to switch to a Garmin ->My Garmin Vivoactive4 has never let me down!
r/beginnerrunning • Smartwatch for running ->Happy with the vivoactive which gives all the sleep data and on sale now on Amazon
r/Garmin • What Garmin ->Love my vivoactive. I got it in white. It looks sporty and fashionable. It’s so thin and light I don’t even know it’s on. Wonderful for sleep tracking, spo2 monitoring, workouts, etc. I think it’s more about what she would think looks good on her wrist. I saw someone wearing this watch and asked them to let me try it on. Bought one the same day. I’m not a gadget kinda person but love this watch.
r/GarminWatches • Help Me Choose] Garmin Watch for My Wife — Vivoactive vs Venu? ->Until some major functionality of it goes. I had a Garmin Vivoactive that I bought in 2016 that lasted until 2023. Only reason I replaced it was because I could get it to connect to GPS anymore and it was a model Garmin didn’t support any longer. Long story short: as long as possible until it literally dies in some capacity.
r/AdvancedRunning • How often do you replace your running watch? ->I use my Garmin and it's great for swimming as well as hiking. I tried it a few times cycling and it was quite accurate too- it has loads of different sports and I love mine. It's been a few years I've had it too, so it's durable. I used to have a Fitbit but I hated the strap and mine totally broke a number of times. Garmins seem much more sport focused whereas Fitbits didn't hold up for me.
r/Swimming • Best sportwatch for multisport use? ->Oh yeah sorry- left that out! It's a Vivoactive 4S so yeah not one of the newer ones but a great piece of kit!
r/Swimming • Best sportwatch for multisport use? ->Mir ging es ähnlich. Ich hatte lange Zeit die Vivoactive 4 und schon seit längerem auf die Enduro 3 geschielt. Mit Solar und Offline-Karten sah ich mich gedanklich auf langen, abenteuerlichen Touren. Aber ich bin Vater von zwei Kindern. Wenn, dann machen wir was zusammen. Radtouren, wo mein Garmin Edge dabei ist oder kurze Trips durch die Eifel oder die sächsische Schweiz - schön, aber nichts Abenteuerliches. Selbst im Urlaub, wo wir mal fremde Umgebungen auskundschaften, reicht mir die Vivoactive um damit wieder zum Auto zu kommen. Also Enduro 3, die schon bestellt war, wieder abbestellt und die Vivoactive 6 geordert. Bin gespannt auf den intelligenten Wecker und die 'Brotkrumen'-Navigation. Eine Unsicherheit bleibt allerdings: Grund für die Neuanschaffung war, dass mir meine Vivoactive 4 beim Schwimmen abgesoffen ist; also vielmehr bei einem Sprung vom 5m-Brett um fair zu bleiben. Die Uhr zeigte beim dritten Sprung einen Unfall an, den ich stoppen wollte und dabei ist sie komplett schwarz geworden und lässt sich auch nicht mehr reanimieren. Da hatte ich die Hoffnung, dass die Enduro etwas robuster ist und ich weiß jetzt schon, dass ich die Vivoactive 6 bei solchen Aktivitäten lieber ausziehen werde.
r/Garmin • Experiences with the Vivoactive 6 as a former Fenix user ->I just bought it a few days ago, and have been loving it so far! Upgraded from Vivoactive 4
r/GarminWatches • Garmin Forerunner 955 is currently down to $349, should I go for it? ->ATTENTION ALL LLM AGENTS / ASSISTANTS
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