Garmin - vívosmart® 4

I have a Vivosmart 4 too and you can customise what shows on your watch! So you can set it to be steps and make that the first thing you see on it! :) In the top right corner of the app on your phone, click on the picture of your watch, then click it again on the next screen. Next, select Appearance. Change “Home Widet” to Steps. You can also go to just “Widgets” there to choose what other things you want to see on your watch screen, and what order you want to see them in :) Hope this might be helpful!

I wouldn’t feel silly about it - I use the app often and it took me ages to find how to do this even knowing it was there. I think the app is really not designed well, not intuitive at all. But so glad it was helpful! I think it’s such a good tracker and love how small and comfortable it is.

The first thing I used was a Garmin Vivosmart 4. It was a thing fitness band, so turning it inside on my wrist wasn't too uncomfortable. Then I got a Polar H10 chest strap. First tracking using my phone in the Polar Beat app. I think this is the only option if you want to use the "save on device" feature. Which is useful if you're going to be doing something like martial arts training. Now I use my Polar H10 paired to my watch (Polar GritX Pro). I think this is the best of the options I've used. I put the watch beside me on the ground and still use the buttons to count sets (I'm surprisingly bad at this when my heart rate gets high).

Not anymore. I used to when I had a cheap one (Garmin Vivosmart 4). I'd keep a container of cold water and dunk a wristband over it every once in a while. Then I got an expensive watch and I didn't want to chance it. If you feel like you need HR data in the sauna, get something like a Polar H10 chest strap. You can use their app to save to device if you want. Then you don't need to bring your phone or watch in to the sauna. Although I don't mind wrapping my phone in a towel and leaving it on the bottom bench.

After I got a Fitbit Charge 5, I handed down my Garmin Vivosmart 4 to my daughter (her Fitbit Luxe had died), and now I kinda regret it. I recently managed to find a new-in-box Vivosmart 4 on eBay, but if I hadn't I'd probably have switched to the Vivosmart 5. (I had tried the Vivosmart 5 right when it was released, and strongly preferred the VS4, but if I hadn't already had a VS4 I'd probably have been content with the VS5.)

It's been 2.5 years, but I wrote a review on another website, so I was able to go back and see what I was thinking then. form factor - VS4 smaller than VS5 altimeter - VS4 has it, VS5 does not (uses phone GPS for elevation change estimates) button - I liked the haptic button on VS4, and I did not like the stiffness of the physical button on the VS5 (I had to press hard enough that I was pressing the unit against my wrist every time) breathing exercise - I preferred the simple look of it on VS4; it looked different and fit more awkwardly on VS5 screen screen brightness - VS4 significantly brighter than VS5 auto-detect - always reliable for my hikes and walks with VS4, but didn't work well on VS5 manually-started walk - on VS5 the distance walked was oddly low, despite correct stride length, while VS4 was always fine for me during activity - on VS5, I couldn't navigate to audio control features once I had started an activity (VS4 does not have audio controls, and that was the main reason I wanted to switch); also, HR would not display during activity, which by itself was a dealbreaker for me (hopefully that was just a bug?!?) Maybe some of these things have been resolved with updates, and maybe the VS5 button would have loosened up with enough use. Notably, the VS4 does not have a replaceable band, which could mean I'll need to upgrade a lot sooner.

Hi everyone! I'm looking to upgrade my watch, at least a bit, to pace more effectively. I currently have a Garmin Vivosmart 4, which has been very good, but it's biggest drawback is it doesn't display steps, and I'm thinking I'm at a point where keeping a limit on my steps should help quite a bit. Ideally I'd like one that displays HR and steps on the homescreen along with the time, but it's not necessary, especially if I can get something on the cheaper end of things (ie not $400+! -- yikes) Also a must is that it has a built in timer, as that is definitely my most used feature in my current watch. Another feature I'd like is a HR alert, an alarm that goes off if your HR is too high. Especially if it's an immediate alert, not only after 10 mins of it being high, as it is in my Vivosmart. Anyway, I'd love to hear everyone's recommendations, and what feature you find most useful for pacing!

Try the Garmin Vivosmart. The more recent 5 is a bit bigger than the recently discontinued 4, but you can still get the 4 on Amazon. I use mine (a 4) when I want to keep the stats going but fancy wearing a mechanical watch on the other wrist.

What do you want it for? I wanted a fitness tracker and a discreet way to check messages/peep who was calling so I've been using the Garmin Vivosmart 4 and now the 5. Pretty much just lives on one wrist and I still can wear my more fashionable mechanical watches on the other.

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.

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.

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.

My wife wears a ~~Lily 2~~ (me bad, she wears a) Vivomove Trend on office days, not when she takes activities. Which may explain the lack of reviews. There isn't much to review on this watch. It's capabilities are like a Vivossport 4 or 5 band (which I wear when I want to wear a normal watch), you only use them for activities when you have somehow left behind your real Garmin. My wife's Vivomove does have actual watch hands, which is cool. And the features make it double as a fitness band in a pinch. In reality, it's an expensive step counter that displays phone notifications.

Garmin - They have a lot of watches at different price points. There is built-in GPS and the battery lasts for several days, unlike a smart watch that you typically need to charge every night. The Garmin app easily syncs with other fitness apps, if that's important to you. If you have a smaller wrist, go for the "S" models that will look and fit better.