Garmin - vívosmart 5

I recently got a Garmin Vivosmart 5 to replace my Fitbit Charge I had for many years. Can’t believe I just made the switch, personally, the Garmin blows the Fitbit out of the water!

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’ve been using a Vivosmart 5 on one arm, and a traditional watch on the other, as the most minimal Body Battery compatible wearable Garmin makes… but I, too, would like something even more minimal, similar in scope to a Whoop where it doesn’t even bother to display data, just record it, so I could get body battery and resting HR and training status data without the need to wear a Garmin watch full time. I’ve submitted a suggestion over the years but not sure what else to do.

It’s… sort of in a middle ground I don’t really love though. As a fitness watch it’s absolutely skeletal - minimal delay, no GPS tracking of its own instead relying on your phone, limited pairing options (can’t connect it to a power meter on my bike for one), limited activity types… and as a wearable. It’s a little, well, TOO - feature heavy; it has a screen, for one, making it too bulky to wear under a buttoned shirt cuff; its band isn’t breathable or that stretchy, etc. I’d rather it have fewer features, just measure HR and HRV and send it to Garmin connect with no other frills. Barring that, I’d rather it be a bit more of a full featured fitness watch. It’s just in this middle ground where it’s not quite either.

Yeah agreed. It’s still the best option I’ve found, but - as a guy who works in an office and occasionally has to suit up - I wish it was smaller.

I'm a subscriber to the endurance training platform intervals.icu. Every morning, I use a Shortcut to run a questionnaire in which I enter my Vitals heart rate and then a survey of subjective recovery metrics: sleep quality, mood, stress, soreness, motivation, injury, and notes. The only numerical value is my Vitals HR, which represents the early morning, just-before-waking heart rate. This is by far a better predictor of my training readiness and health than any numerical value spat out by any algorithm I've ever tried. It's a much better way to track my long-term health context. I still have a Garmin but I ignore everything except Body Battery, which I actually do think does a great job of capturing my sleep quality and training status. If you listen to top endurance coaches, they don't use any of the numerical, algorithmic values from any devices, other than maybe resting heart rate. What they use is conversations with athletes, questionnaires, and whether the athletes have been adhering to their training schedule.

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 have a Vivosmart 5 which has steps, but there's still the issue of having to tell it you are doing yoga to get HR alerts.

This is what I do. I have a Garmin Fenix as my sports watch and switch to the Vivosmart when I am wearing my Speedy.

I have the vivosmart, its sleep tracking is crap. Doesn't the Fenix do sleep tracking as well?

I use the garmin vivosmart to track my resting HR. I can't imagine paying a subscription for that data.

I used it for 9 months. Recently upgraded to a Venu 3s because I wanted more functionality for activities. The smart 5 was just what I needed: an activity and sleep tracker which I could wear with my watch. It was very good at detecting stress levels and does everything at a basic level. It has a plastic screen, so scratches are to be expected. Would recommend for entry level.