Garmin - vívofit® jr. 3

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.

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.

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 started wearing my Garmin Vivofit in May 2015 & I still am. The screen no longer works like it should but it still does everything else & I can check stats on my phone. My mom's is just as old & her screen still works fine. She's just not as hard on things. The batteries seem to have gotten a lot more expensive though. But my boyfriend bought me a Charge 6 & after reading some of these comments, I'm a lot less excited about it if it's not going to last near as long :(

Just switched from an AWU to a Garmin instinct 3 and have no regrets so far, having owned a series 3 and 6 prior to the ultra there really isn’t anything I miss. Went with the Amoled version after a very brief stint with a Coros nomad as I didn’t feel the MIP display was right for me, still checks all the boxes and the significant upgrade to battery is a big bonus

The MIP display watches have the best battery life.

I have an epic pro but definitely would have got the gen 3 for everyday at work if they put the new sensor in it. Crazy to me they didn’t.