Garmin - vívosmart® 3

Only got the 4xl recently. Bought used, display wasn't ok. Garmin sent me a refurb - so my battery is new. I had a Vivosmart 3 before that lasted about 4 years before the display became veeery dim. Probably related to battery swelling? I do not wear them often, as I wear my Forerunner 265 usually. (Vivoactive 4 before)

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.

I got the Garmin Vivo 3 to replace a FitBit before I started back into trail running. It does great, but it is a smart watch first, and a sports watch second. It also doesn’t have a dedicated trail run activity, but I just modified and copied the run feature and downloaded a trail run app for the info I wanted. I’m looking to upgrade whenever I can convince my wife it’s necessary lol

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.

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.

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

Outside the floors counting, my Vivosmart does it all. It has a screen but you can turn it off unless you press the button, so it stays off

What about the vivosmart? Basic tracking, notifications, she won't even remember she has it on, has a good charge too I think cuz it's more basic? Two different sizes as well if she's smaller, and a couple colours I believe. Anything more fancy than that will just be a waste it sounds like.

If you only need HR and you prioretize size get the vivosmart If you also want SmartWatch features get the venu sq

I have a non-fancy Garmin vivosmart, it was like $100. I got it to track steps and be able to look at the time instead of pulling out my phone. I have a toddler and walk a lot, just wanted to know how much fatigue was coming from that vs. working out. The one unexpected benefit is that it tracks my strength workouts far better than my Wahoo Rival, actually counts reps really well. It tracks sleep, but not well. I don't think Whoop or any of the fancier ones are worth it. It just seems like a lot of data for data's sake.

The Whoop would be a good solution, if it weren’t a subscription based product. So, my approach is to wear a Garmin Vivosmart on my other wrist. It’s small and fairly unobtrusive, and can be configured so that the screen never turns on except when the button is pressed. Plus, Garmin’s SW is really pretty good for basic tracking, and the use of it in a local to your phone mode is free. So, this gives a good, basic set of fitness tracking capabilities in a minimally intrusive way.

Garmin used Vivosmart. Garmin all day every day as far as smart/fitness watches go.

Anyone have the small Garmin? Vivosmart. I don’t love the look of a big watch & only need it to track heart rate, calories burned if that’s a thing & step count. Currently using Apple health for steps but that’s highly inaccurate

Before anything else: All of them still allow you to hit run and simply go. Forerunner (200/500 and 900 series) - they are still what you expect. Midrange watches with up to 99.999999% of the features available compared to the premium watches, have everything you will actually use for running already in the 200/500 series. For models ending with 55 and older, you can choose to have music in the watch or not (e.g. 255 music, but since the 265 they all have it). Consider 900 series for triathlons for the extra battery. Fenix, Enduro, Marq.. - These are premium watches which will add almost nothing to running itself, but have some other niceties like Diving mode, golf feature, solar panels for even longer battery life, etc. Construction and materials are the real difference here. Venu, Lily - Garmin's shot at the smartwatch market. Lily is women-specific. Vivosmart - we're getting at the lower end of the spectrum for runners, since this starts to get in the fitness tracker realm. They are the top of that category for Garmin and enough for the most casual runners that only need to track their runs and little else. They are enough if you're not training for anything specific.

What do they want to measure? I'd start there and then work out what fits that. My dad just wanted steps, sleep, and heart rate so the vivosmart is more than enough.

The Garmin vivo line is really nice and light. After wearing an AW all the time for 10+ years, I’m really liking just having a watch that tracks my fitness when I want it to but it still just looks like a watch. Mine is more for cardio workouts and distance trail walks so don’t know how it compares for timed runs, laps, etc.