Garmin - vívoactive® 4S

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.

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!

What kind of workouts do you do. I have a garnin vivoactive 4 for basic step counts, sleep tracking, and biking. Works well enough. The garmin connect app is very cool and has tons of data. Granted I probably only use a fraction of the watches capabilities. If you go garmin buy a couple extra charging cables off amazon.

The vivoactive 4 and 6 do do the animation, but aren't as good of running watches as the 165. And don't do any bike things either.

If you want to track distance in open water, your choices are pretty limited. GPS doesn't work underwater so the watches that can manage that are pretty specialized. Here are your options: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/08/massive-openwater-accuracy.html For general use including pool swim tracking, I use a Garmin Vivoactive 4. I like that it works well in direct sunlight and otherwise looks like a normal watch.

I've used Garmin Vivoactive 4(s?) many times in sauna. No problems, except when it's completely wet it doesn't react to any touch. And afterwards it smells like a wet dog because of the wristband. It's funny how the watch thinks I've been having intensive exercise when I do sauna and dips into frozen lake for an hour because my heart rate goes up because of it.

I like Garmin Vivoactive 4s. I have small wrists and it fits me nicely. You can also style it with different screen protectors/cover and straps. It tracked swimming well.

Garmin Descent Mk2S. This is my second Garmin, my first one was Garmin Vivoactive 4S. Love both, i only need to charge it once a week.

The Garmin vivo active 4 works and is much cheaper than the Fenix. You can also look if the vivo active 6 has an altimeter my 5 doesn't but the 4 does. Garmin over Samsung or Apple just because battery life is incredible

I have an Epix Pro, aka the AMOLED version of the Fenix 7 Pro. It is not a perfect watch, but it is good. However, there are some long lasting bugs in the firmware and the last major version has been release by Garmin despite multiple beta testers reporting bugs. That is something that kills the experience. I had a Fenix 6S Pro and a Vivoactive 4 before. Both good watches with their strengths and flaws, but never that buggy. So, unless you want diving, I wouldn't go with the Fenix 8. Get a used/refurbished Fenix 7 Pro or an Epix Pro and have almost the same watch and features for a lot less money.

I got a Edge Explore 2 and Vivoactive 4 myself (also a Tacx). I would not recommend a vivoactive for eighter running or cycling.

One other caveat, not all Garmin watches do Bluetooth HR broadcast, some only do Ant+ (Vivoactive 4 as an example). You need Bluetooth Broadcast if you are using your watch to track HR on Peloton unless you have one of the very few phones with Ant+ (do they even make these anymore?)

I wear my Garmin Frnix 7 for bouldering and climbing (I had a Vivoactive 4 before) and so far I haven't damaged any watches. If you want to buy a smart watch, look into it very carefully or test it before buying, my previous watch had no functionality for tracking climbing activities and the community made features were severely lacking. My new Fenix 7 is really good at tracking climbing activities but it's anything but intuitive. Chalk, sweat and water don't bother my watch the least bit, I just have to handwash my watchband once a week as I use a velcro textile band. I have a couple of friends that have or had Fitbit devices and they seem to be a bit disappointing and Fitbit is now owned by Google (do with that information what you want).

My Garmin vivoactive 4s has been bulletproof. It has a lot less features and is smaller than a lot of their others but it has been through several years of training, every swim bike and run I’ve done.

+1 for garmin. Just got the vivoactive 4 on sale for half price ($300 AUD) - its great. Great for data, constant HRV/heart rate/step/stair tracking, excellent for running and tracking fatigue. Pretty average sleep tracking and useless in the gym, usually just take it off because it gets in the way of my straps. With a bit more budget would have gone with forerunner 265.

I have a vivoactive and can see data older than a year on the website. But you can also download data to a spreadsheet, and I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my swimming since before I had my Garmin.

There’s a decent downloadable app that handles open water pretty well. I think the vivoactive 5 has open water built in. (I have the 4, but used the app on my old Vivoactive HR.)

Just want to say, I know how you feel about the Vivoactive 4. I also want to upgrade mine because battery life is getting a bit low, but I don't love the look of any of the Garmin watches out there as much as I love the look of the Vivoactive 4. Bummed that when I upgrade, I don't get a better or equally nice looking watch!

I have been happy with my Vivoactive (4) that I’ve had for 3.5 years now. Replaced the band twice but that’s it. HR, body battery seem pretty accurate (you can tell when I’m away on boys weekends or skiing at elevation, for example). GPS is spot on. Would recommend.

I have a Vivoactive 4S and I’m pretty sure it does all that.

The Vivoactive 4s or the forerunner are my favorite intro garmins. That being said, the Venu 3 is probably the best intro at the moment since it has more accurate sensors (I just prefer the transflective displays as opposed to the amoled displays) The main reason I got a Garmin was due to the metrics at the start of covid. That being said, now I often use it to track metrics when walking the dogs, or as a way to see the watch readings if I’m feeling off. As an example, when I got covid I was able to use the readings to check my recovery metrics, which was nice.

It should be fine. It will track heart rate, steps, stairs climbed, and sleep, just like a fitbit, along with several other health stats. I do several different exercises (albeit poorly), including running, cycling and swimming and weightlifting. I charge it on Sundays and it lasts all week. Fully charged says it has 19 days, but by the end of the week it will say 5-6 days left. It depends on how much I use the GPS. I also go camping & hiking several times a year, plus I'm pretty clumsy, so ruggedness was a big seller for me. I don't have any scratches on the watch face or serious scuffs on the bezel, so it seems to hold up. Before switching to Garmin, I used fitbits. I had a vivoactive 4 for about 6 months, then upgraded to an Instinct 2 after I got more serious about working out.

I said this on another post, I like the vivoactive 4s from garmin. They have a few different styles, some of which are very sleek.

I think that we can't really believe anything on internet anymore. When i wanted to get my first Garmin(after being unsatisfied with my Fitbit Versa) i was a bit worried regarding the sleep tracking as many reviews were talking bad about Garmin. Decided to go with a VA4 and never had any big issue with it but didn't like the MIP display(was my first MIP watch). Decided to switch to Venu, Venu 2 and, now, Epix 2. GPS with Venu was not that good but Venu 2 was a lot better and Epix 2 is on another level. No issues with sleep tracking at all...some small weird stuff from time to time but nothing different from Fitbit or from Oura for example. I'm aware that some people have more problems than me but that's why you should try personally and then decide. Quantified scientist looks a lot apple pro and while it can be accurate i don't believe it's perfect. A friend of mine has an apple watch and we did some runs together and the HR data was not that good with some weird stuff here and there. Not saying apple is bad but you still need to wear it correctly and it still can give you some bad data because that's how optical sensor works...there's no way that apple can catch everything perfectly when the optical sensor itself can't be perfect. I'm not following him anymore but i remember that. at a certain point, he started to do double reviews of the same watch(one of himself and another one with another person) and the data from the other person were much more different than with him meaning that it's not only about the tech but also about the person. You can't know if Garmin's algorithm work well, with you, without trying.

Endorsing the garmin like others but I’m a med student so I went cheaper with the vivoactive 4s, I’ve loved it

I have a refurbished Garmin Vivoactive 4 I got for cheap, and I turned all notifications and other smartphone features off. So, probably something like that.

I have bought a Garmin vivoactive 4 unfortunately it didn't work for more than 15 months.

I moved from a Fitbit Versa 2 to a Vivoactive 4. You mentioned the 4s but the only difference between that and the 4 is the size. The 4 is 45mm and the 4s is 40mm. I really like the vivoactive and am happy but here's my take: TL;DR - I like the look and feel of the Garmin better than the Fitbit. The variety of apps fits my needs and the function of the watch is smooth and intuitive. It is a different ecosystem that takes getting used to and the Fitbit does do a few things differently if not better. On the balance I'm glad I went with the Garmin even though I got an older model. 1. You don't get HRV tracking like the fitbit. I did really like the ability to check HRV each morning on the fitbit but there's no such thing on the Garmin. They have this thing called body battery which is a bit of a black box but it seems to have just ok accuracy. Generally it's a good indicator for how much reserve I have in a day but sometimes it really overestimates how much a busy day at work can wear me out. For example: the other day it said I was nearly depleted after work. I went ahead and worked out that evening and felt amazing afterwards, not at all like I had overdone it for the day. The next day my body battery was really high. Basically, the advice the app gave me was to rest but that's not what I needed. I'd say it's probably 70% or so accurate. Over all, it can indicate how recovered I am but it's not without flaws. 2. You can get apps to measure HRV. I have been playing with one called simpleHRV. I paid $1.50 for the full version to get a graph of the past few days. It's not as convenient as the fitbit that just tracked HRV overnight but it's interesting to see the trends. 3. Sleep tracking is, at best, as good as Fitbit. At worst it's inaccurate. I will warn that if you look at the sleep data right when you wake up it's not the final answer. You can see an initial breakdown of your sleep in the app but once it uploads to the cloud the data is processed a bit more and you'll see Garmin's final answer later. If you want BETTER sleep tracking than Fitbit, Garmin isn't it. I'd say Garmin is good enough but mainly I want to track sleep time. 4. GPS - Running and walking and biking. This is where the Garmin is really nice. It finds location quickly, seems to track accurately. No complaints there. For me, coming from a versa 2, this is a big deal because that watch relied on the phone for GPS. 5. Workouts - I've just started (within the past couple of weeks) wearing it during workouts. It's actually pretty decent at counting reps and seems to generally do a good job of guessing what exercises I'm doing. It's really good at picking up push ups and dead lifts but sometimes gets a little wonky on stuff like ring rows. The app will show a breakdown of muscles used after the workout is complete provided the exercises are right. You can go in and edit them too after the fact too. Over all it's kinda fun to look at but i don't know that it's informing my training other than helping me to track time under load. 6. Steps - If you track this you'll find the Garmin will count fewer steps than the Fitbit. This really boils down to the Garmin being less easy to fake out. You can shake your arm and get the Fitbit to count those but if you hit 10K on the Garmin you've done AT LEAST that many real steps. 7. Smartwatch stuff - No mic so you can't reply to a text with voice to text BUT you can store way more predefined answers than the Fitbit. So I'm happy with that because if I reply from my watch to a text it's just going to be a quick "yes", "no", "ok" kind of thing anyway. You can, of course, limit which apps notify the watch which is important for me because I like to limit notifications to only important things anyway. 8. Face - Keep in mind that some faces are AMOLED and some are MIP. The vivoactive 4 is a MIP screen and it took some getting used to but I like it better than the AMOLED. The screen reflects light REALLY well but can look a little washed out compared to an AMOLED in terms of colors. Bottom line here is that the MIP looks excellent under bright light and out in the sun. It's less of a screen and more of a watch face to my eyes. That works for me because I like simple and clean looks but if you want a fancy face or something with a picture or gradient then make sure to pick a model with AMOLED.

VA5 is actually a Venu3 Lite. Vivoactive line ended with the VA4. The original Venu was the OLED variant of the VA4. They had nearly identical GUI and the same functions. Had a VA4 for years and gave it to my son. Wife still has a VA4s. I recently switched to a FR265. I should have stayed on a MIP display watch. But I chose the FR265 over the 255 because of touch screen. Which I use less than before because most things are easy to use on the 5-button watches without it.

YT Music support is newish. You can download the app on many watches that support Music. IIRC, the YT app was even available for my old Vivoactive 4.

I have a Garmin Venu 3 and it's great. Battery lasts for 10+ days and plenty of watch faces available to make it look how you want it. Replaced a Vívoactive 4, which itself was a replacement for a Microsoft Band. I have an Omega Speedmaster that I now never use, as I just couldn't go back to not being able to see notifications on the go (e.g. seeing work emails come in while I'm in meetings). Things like walking, running, cycling and skiing are all great to track. If it isn't on Strava, did it even happen...?!

I used to have a Vivoactive 4s and liked it too. The only reason I got rid of it was I smashed it on the corner of the pool wall at full pelt swimming backstroke and completely smashed up the glass. Despite that terrible abuse, it managed to carry on working for further 2 weeks (I kept swimming with it as I had no time to get a replacement). It kindly recorded my 6-hour charity swim successfully, data transferred to my phone, and then it passed away peacefully that night. Some of the smaller, square Garmin also look more feminine too.

As an user of Apple Watch Ultra AND Garmin (VA4 followed by Swim 2 and now Epix 2), and previously even Samsung Watch Pro, I agree with all of this. I still use my AWU for swim timing because it is more accurate than Epix 2 but AWU had a lot of displays missing even if the data is there (like swim rest timer). Even Samsung Watch Pro has auto pause for walking. Sleep tracking: I think AWU is more accurate personally, but also has its flaws.

I went from FitBit to VivoActive music (3 and 4, I believe), and now have a 165. I prefer the 165. It seems more runner-friendly, but still easily tracks other activities.

I actually prefer my old Vivoactive to the Forerunner. I'm a slow jogger, and this Forerunner is demotivating because it tells me how much I suck.

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.

I think you are in a hard spot here! When someone is serious about something, it is difficult to gift them something about that something. In the same way that you cannot gift a mouse to a software engineer unless it's the Logitech Mx 3 or superior, you cannot gift apparel to a serious runner unless it's something really good. My point is, if you want to gift him a watch, it is difficult to recommend you something that is below $300 or $400. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of watches out there that cost less and may work. For example, you can buy the Garmin Vivoactive or Instinct for around $200, or the Amazfit T-Rex Pro for $150 (this is a really good watch for the price). However, if he is really serious about trail running, you may have to consider a Garmin Fenix 6 (between $350 and $400 on Amazon) or a Garmin Forerunner 945 (I just saw it at $319 on Amazon). If he is into both road and trail running, the Forerunner may be a good choice, but if he is getting more and more into trail running, the fenix is the best option. Note: You won't get navigation in budget-friendly watches, but I haven't meet a racer that needed it. Generally, the course is marked and people carry their phones (I have offline maps just in case). Note 2: You can save a lot by purchasing the previous-generation model (that's why I recommended fenix 6 and forerunner 945).

I had a Vivoactive for years that died and I switch to a forerunner a few weeks ago. I am super happy, much better battery, I love the training analysis features it pushes me to work on my cardio as I am more into strength.

Is you're interested in the Garmin metrics and think you'll be getting into running more, Garmin is a great choice, I'd check out the Forerunner line, or maybe VivoActive. My wife and I have been using Garmin for about 12 years so I'm used to and enjoy the ecosystem. It's nice to compare and view our activities in the same app and we have a scale that auto syncs our weight. I'm also on an Android phone. When I wanted an upgrade another Garmin just made sense for me. As others have mentioned, it's more of a fitness watch with some smart features, vs. a full blown smart watch, so if you want full smart watch functionality you may like other options better.

Vivoactive was fine for me for about 6 months, then recently upgraded to a forerunner 265, I don’t think I could go back, way nicer, better in every way, and loving the extra data points.

Garmin all the way if you are using android The tracking is really quite good and the features arent exactly advanced for a beginner, it walks you through basically everything Ive seen a few forerunners or vivoactive go on sale for slightly over 200. Abit higher than your budget but imo worth it, it will last you even when you are no longer a beginner

I love my garmin vivoactive. Uploads to Strava, less expensive than other garmin watches, and has been going strong for 4 years now. I came from a Fitbit and the only thing it doesn’t do quite as well seems to be sleep tracking.

I first had a garmin vivoactive and currently am using a garmin instinct Idk which one I'll get next, but garmin is my preference (they didn't break except for the replacable rubber band, but I look for different devices)

I've been using Garmin Forerunners for like fifteen years now. When I use it on my bike, I use the handlebars adapter rather than wearing it. I had the Vivoactive for a while and it sucked. This was several years ago, maybe they're better? Meanwhile, Forerunners have been getting better too and also smaller. I have the 165 now. But turn your ask around, because you can satisfy not having a smart watch or a screen by not having anything. What do you want this thing to do?

Pretty much all Garmins do. Vivoactive or Venu is a good place to start.

I've loved Garmin since I got my first Vivoactive years and years ago. They felt like they produced quality products, designed to last, sold perhaps at a premium, but without any expectation of continuing fees (unless it was reasonable, like the inreach subscription or a cellular plan). Obviously, recent changes make me question these apparent commitments. I've experimented with other watches in the past (Polar and Apple Watch primarily, but also Coros and Suunto). Generally, I've been disappointed in their equivalent of Garmin's daily suggested workout. DSW has completely changed my life and my running. I will begrudgingly stick around if nobody else can deliver a program that gives me workouts that don't push me to injury. I was a beta-tester for a similar app on Apple Watch and I always felt on the very of injury. I mentioned this to the developers and they basically told me the app wasn't for me. I've heard Polar's version dumps absurdly long runs on you. And I don't know much about Coros or Suunto's offering, if any. Samsung has a watch too, but I'm not optimistic it will have offerings any better than Apple's iOS. And the only other watch I'm aware of besides the big android makers (Google, etc.) is the UNA watch which claims to be user-repairable. I am similarly not optimistic that will have any DSW competitor - but maybe in the future? EDIT: I searched for questions about DSW alternatives before posting - from what I can tell nobody has addressed this question for at least the last 3 months (the search results wouldn't go further than that for me when I sorted by "new").

Apple Watch will do fine for a long time - only got a Garmin last year. However once you go to only having to charge your watch once every two weeks you just can’t go back to Apple. I have a Garmin Fenix (on the $$$ side) but I wear it every day as my normal watch too and have had zero issues making the switch. However there’s heaps in the range, I love accuracy, maps, long battery and lots and lots of data so I can overthink every run - so Fenix it is! The forerunners are great and the vivoactives are a good mid range model. There’s other brands like Suunto, Polar etc. For true accuracy on any wrist watch you may need a chest monitor. But if you really like your Apple Watch I found it pretty good unless you’re somewhere with not much reception

A forerunner 165 or 265 might be good. Or a Vivoactive if you want a sleeker look. I run and do weights as well and find the 165 is sufficient! It can only do so much with weights (guessing the actual exercise you're doing, rep counting, etc). I usually go back into my saved workout afterward and edit any info that was wrong.can only ask so much from a watch but it's nice to have the rest timer and general log of the workout.

How do you access your data older than 1 year? I've had my Garmin Vivoactive for 1.5y and I cannot see back more than a year on their app or website. It's infuriating.

Most people coming from apple go vivo active or venue. Venue being closest to a smart watch. Personally, I'm a instinct guy. Although I'm wearing a Fenix today since I didn't charge my Instinct for 2 weeks and it died before bed. I've swam tens of thousands of meters (more like hundreds but..) in pool, open and salt water with my Garmins. Done free diving (only to about 40ft, I'm not very good) and press the buttons regularly sub surface. I've also done cliff jumping with every watch, and haven't lost a garmin to water intrusion. I would definitely select a 100m rated model for water sports. Any watch can fail but I've had 6 garmins and none have. I also had a bunch of Casio and Timex over the years and not one failure.

Yeah op could get a cheaper watch like the vivoactive and the strap that goes with it and it would still cost less than a forerunner.

Garmin. I've had a vivoactive for 3/4 years and it does more than enough to support my training. When the vivoactive dies I'll upgrade to a more sports focussed one but its more than enough as is.

People have to stop comparing these. These are for two different people. I would never wear an Apple Watch based on battery life alone. I specifically got the Garmin for a wrist based gps and mapping tool to track and orient myself. You buy an Apple Watch to use smart features and be connected to your phone. Garmin has never been in that market. It’s a whole company based on gps systems for outdoor activities . You buy an Apple Watch to have Apple ecosystem. you can’t use half the feature of the fenix on an iPhone bc they only want you to use their watch… Garmin are all specifically made for their audience even down the the model . Apple watches are just to keep you plugged into your phone and have no bearing on actual outdoor activities despite calling it ultra. The Millitary has been orienteering with Garmin wrist based gps systems forever. You’d never catch an Apple Watch on patrol in Afghanistan. 😂