Garmin - vívofit 4

I'm in the same boat as you. I wish Garmin had a ring or band or something like that. Vivosmart or vivofit are as close as it gets. I actually just ordered a vivosmart yesterday that I'm going to change the band on to something that won't grab the cuff of my dress shirts like silicone. I'm tired of my Fenix ruining the cuffs of my dress shirts and also having a nice watch sitting at home unworn.

I migrated from FitBit Versa several years back when I got the BSOD a couple months after the warranty expired. It was a well-reported issue on their forum, but the best FitBit could do is offer 25% off from their website. Switched to Garmin and my Vivo4 lasted 2 years past warranty and I only upgraded to Venu3 because the battery charges were not lasting as long.

Those are wildly different watches, price points and use cases. If this is what you are comparing I would personally go for the best watch I could afford. If the Fenix 8 is in your options go with that. Rather than buy something that will be obsolete soon, or fits your needs today go with the option you can grow into and will last you a while. I have personally gone the other way and every 2 years I have upgraded to a new watch that fits my needs. That is until this year when I bought a 970. Previously I have owned the vivofit, vivoactive, and Venu 2 Plus. What meets my needs today is the 570, what I will grow into is the 970. So if you can afford the Fenix 8 do that.

So whilst I do think the exercise cals are wonky, I think on my garmin vivofit the slight under reporting of cals burned lifting is balanced out in the over reporting of cals in any cardio I do. And overall, my garmin thinks I burnt average of 2103 cals daily in the past 6 months. Back in summer when I was a bit heavier than I am now, but not by much I tracked my maintenence calories for 4 weeks and got something like 2200. So it's not bad overall. I also like to look at my activity cals over time. For example I know I burn less working from home, when I stay at my mum's, when I having a lazy week, but I didnt know how different it is. Is given me a bit of perspective on the weeks where my routine is off.

i bought a vivo 4 on ebay for less than 100. do you run or cycle?

Currently at the rare formal occasion where I dont want to wear a forerunner, I keep the module from a vivofit in my pocket to track steps and wear a mech watch. I had considered a ring (even if garmin isn't going that route) but think it would be too obvious and in the way for day to day. An ankle wrap would be great, like OPs band just not worn on the arm.

I have the garmin vivo 4 and it has been an awesome watch. Only need to charge it about once a week. Garmin however has implemented connect+ which is a paid subscription to access some additional features in the app, which were previously free. It has pissed off the garmin community as some of their watches are 1K+. I’ll take a look at the newest fenix series when this one eventually dies.

Apple watch is the best smartwatch, Garmin is the best sportwatch. If your runs are under xhours, than go for the AW; if you are going to train seriously, Garmin all the way

I have used AW, Garmin, Polar and Suunto and AW is by far the worst sportwatch. After switching back to Polar after AW the quality of life improved immediately by not having to charge the thing more than once a week.

Garmin is a sportwatch with some smart features. Apple Watch is the opposite. The battery of Apple Watch is a nightmare, I always forget to charge Apple Watch, i think a Watch should be a help no another task.