Garmin Vivoactive 3 Review

Consistent With Garmin’s sports activities tech legacy, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 has a heart price sensor, GPS monitoring and a number of built-in apps dedicated to maintaining tabs on a spread of sports activities Actions, from running and indoor biking to snowboarding and snowboarding.
Although the Vivoactive 3’s focus could also be on Fitness, this versatile wearable additionally has plenty of other features to shout about, including good notifications, an on-board payment machine referred to as Garmin Pay (which is but to arrive within the UK), As Well As both sleep and actual-time stress monitoring.
And its design reflects its sporty yet good credentials, as it appears More like a watch than a bulky Fitness tracker.
It Can Be no shock that the Vivoactive Three does Fitness well. Finally, the Garmin model is as synonymous with high-End sports activities Units as it’s with GPS techniques at the present time. Speak to any runner or triathlete and they’re going to probably cite one in every of Garmin’s Forerunner, or even Fenix, bands as their favourite device.
But that hasn’t stopped Garmin from venturing into a More client-centered area both. Devices within the Vivofit, Vivomove and Vivosmart ranges may still be aimed toward people who like working out, But will be described Extra as lifestyle wearables given they care as so much about step counts, sleep and stress as non-public bests and optimizing performance.

The Garmin Vivoactive Three is packed stuffed with options.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 doesn’t Fit neatly into either class. At round 1/2 the associated fee of the emblem’s excessive-Finish Health Devices, Just Like The Fenix 5X, the Garmin Vivoactive Three is a Extra inexpensive possibility and yet nonetheless packs a punch In Terms Of sports monitoring.
It has on-board standard of living features, like sleep and stress tracking, However is also geared up to compete with identical multi-goal smartwatches with its notifications and cost device.
As you would predict, the Garmin Vivoactive Three is not occupying this appealing area all by itself. Retailing at £279.Ninety Nine ($249.99, AU$449) It’s coming into at a an identical price level to new Gadgets from Some Of The greatest names in wearable tech.
Most significantly There’s the Apple Watch 3, In Addition To the Fitbit Ionic. They May Be on no account an identical, But all three are pushed by using Fitness, appear good, are designed to be worn 24/7 and are sensible.
Garmin may be a firm favorite among these fascinated by Fitness, but the query now’s whether a multi-goal smartwatch Just Like The Vivoactive Three has the on-board specs, model and mainstream visibility to compete with the likes of Apple and Fitbit.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 value and availability

• Launched November 2017
• Begins at £279.Ninety Nine/$249.99/AU$449

There are three different colors of the Garmin Vivoactive Three to make a choice from. There’s black silicone and slate, which is a premium-taking a look darkish gray and costs £299.99/$329.99/AU$499.
It additionally comes in black silicone and stainless-steel, which is silver, In Addition To white silicone and stainless steel, which each price rather much less at £279.Ninety Nine/$249.Ninety Nine/AU$449.
That makes the Garmin Vivoactive 3 rather less than equivalent Units that also straddle the line between Fitness tracker and smartwatch, Like The Fitbit Ionic, LG Watch Recreation and the Apple Watch 3 (with just GPS and Not cellular capabilities).
Additionally It Is considerably not up to among the brand’s More specialised multi-sports stages.
For Example, If You’re on the lookout for a wearable to see you thru an enormous range of Activities with tremendous correct monitoring, the Fenix 5X might be your absolute best wager at $699.Ninety Nine/£629.99/AU$949.
On The Other Hand, When You Are solely in search of a device for working and nothing else, it is advisable go for the Forerunner 30 at £129.99 (around $A Hundred Seventy Five/AU$225). But most runners would wish to go for one thing Just Like The Forerunner 235, which still undercuts the Vivoactive Three.
In Short, if you need a Garmin Fitness Device there are indisputably more cost effective options. But you would need to ensure that Health is your only focus, in any other case it would make experience to believe the Vivoactive Three as an alternative.

That You May in an instant see how you might be performing during the day with this watch face.

Design

• Circular design
• Comfy strap
• Monitor counteracts glare

At 43g, and made with a stainless steel casing, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 feels weighty enough to be top rate, But like an ordinary watch Once It Can Be strapped on. It’s an international faraway from Garmin’s previous Vivoactive HR Device, which in some ways felt and seemed More like a cheap, blocky sports activities watch than a high quality wearable.
That’s The working theme In The Case Of the design of the Vivoactive 3, Even Though filled with smart features and a bevy of sensors, it seems to be and looks like a ‘customary’ watch.
This Is Particularly the case in comparison to wearables constructed completely for monitoring, like Garmin’s latest Vivosport or Vivosmart Gadgets. It even seems Extra watch-like than its closest opponents, which is more likely to be as a result of both the Fitbit Ionic and Apple Watch 3 have square (or square-er) faces.
With a depth of 11.7mm the Garmin Vivoactive 3 sits flush against our palms. This blended with an ideal flexible silicone strap makes for an extraordinarily at ease put on. That was the case all over our whole review period, even at night and At The gymnasium.

The Garmin Vivoactive Three has a depth of Eleven.7mm.

The silicone strap is flexible and really Straightforward to get on and off. But As Soon As It Can Be on it feels stable, even after a run, swim and a HIIT category. However In The Event You don’t Like The strap, It Can Be conceivable to exchange it with some other 20mm fast liberate band.
The Garmin Vivoactive Three’s Monitor measures 1.2 inches and has a 240 x 240 pixel display, which is a size that fits a spread of wrists both large and small, and but nonetheless serves up data with out you having to squint to see the stats.
Like many other Garmin watches, the Vivoactive 3 has a coloration transflective Screen. In The Beginning this seems to be a bit dark, Particularly in comparison with the Fitbit Ionic’s OLED show, but it surely’s been created that means so as to assist you to Read, even in direct daylight, and to make an important saving on battery existence too.
The show is All The Time-on, But dimmed. The backlight comes on While You flip your wrist up. This Is handy for fast checking the time, However we found conserving that Setting on meant it got here on loads all through the night. On The Other Hand, You Could customise whether it comes on or No Longer, In Addition To how long for.
There May Be a small bezel round the threshold of the Reveal with strains on it to show the place the hours are. And Unlike various identical Units, There May Be just the one button on the Side of the Monitor. The Great Thing About This Is you get to decide right through setup whether or not you want it dealing with toward your physique, or going through toward your wrist and hand.

That You Would Be Able To trade the settings so That You Could make a selection which Aspect the button sits on.

We wore the Vivoactive 3 on our left wrist, so chose the button to be closest to our hand to show you how to push with our proper. This button is pretty necessary as a result of, among other issues, it lets you get admission to the sports activities menu and in addition works as a again button.
Some persons are certain to love the minimal impact this offers, others who’re used to multi-functional sports watches with A Variety Of buttons and dials could find it lacking.
On the underside of the Vivoactive 3 There May Be a four pin charging port, which is small and can’t be felt to your pores and skin, As Well As the Instrument’s optical heart charge sensor, which again, sits flush towards your wrist.

Here you will find the charging port and optical coronary heart charge sensor.

We reviewed the Vivoactive Three in black silicone and slate, which is a premium-having a look darkish gray that costs slightly more than black silicone and stainless-steel or white silicone and chrome steel.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 is water-proof up to 50 meters, which is good If You Are a swimmer and makes it easier to bathe and wash-up without caring about taking it on and off at all times.
Add to that the fact the Reveal is Corning Gorilla Glass Three and the case is comprised of a bolstered polymer and you have one durable Software to your wrist that’ll withstand essentially the most grueling of exercise classes.
In Relation To design, the Garmin Vivoactive Three undoubtedly ticks all the right packing containers and justifies the price level, offering a watch that looks top rate, However most importantly for a 24/7 wearable, feels comfortable.

Health

• Big range of exercises tracked
• At All Times-on heart charge monitoring
• Nice GPS monitoring

Even If the Garmin Vivoactive Three is packing a bunch of latest sensible options, It Is still for sure a watch built with Fitness fanatics in thoughts.
It comes with an entire host of exercises, that are known as ‘apps’, you could choose from. Whilst You first hit the button on the Facet of the Device you are prompted to set your favorites, so They Are easily obtainable in future.
We picked indoor cycling, running and swimming to start with, However There May Be a huge choice Here, from golf to snowboarding to weights.
If via some extremely bad luck your favourite process isn’t amongst these the Garmin Vivoactive Three already gives, There May Be a ‘create’ option to tweak the Device’s settings and create your personal, which supplies you the technique to decide which monitors and signals you need activated as you determine.
Beginning an job is achingly simple, after getting your favorites outlined you simply want to press the button on the Side, tap on one, look forward to GPS to kick in (except you’re doing an job indoors) after which press the button again to get started.

That You Would Be Able To view your closing Game simply from inside the principle menu.

That You May come to a decision ahead of you Start what you need the watch to show as you determine by means of hitting Settings after which picking from totally different data displays, choose which alerts you need, and even change the colours of the text and graphs.
So For Instance, That You Would Be Able To make a selection an alert for when your heart fee hits a certain level (Great for coaching in heart rate zones) and runners may also be alerted of their lap times. Ending a workout is solely as Easy, push the button on the Facet and hit the large red stop sign to confirm.
The time it took for the GPS lock different somewhat relying on where we began our run, from a handy guide a rough 30 seconds via to a excellent short time. This Is the case with most GPS-enabled Units, But is Always a little bit irritating Whilst You just want to get going.
We went for a run with the Garmin Vivoactive 3 and the whole path was mapped out effectively within the app after syncing, which was Nice to peer as a result of we ended up altering our route On The remaining minute a fair few times.
The Quantity of information gathered is dependent upon which Activities you make a choice, For Instance, for one thing like indoor cycling you’ll discover normal knowledge within the app, like time spent, energy burned and coronary heart rate information. But for working and other GPS-enabled Actions, the info accumulated is extensive.
From a GPS map of your route through to cadence, p.c. and heart price fluctuations, It’s an actual satisfaction for a runner who desires to drill down into efficiency.

The Garmin app collects the running data and gifts your route over a map.

In Terms Of monitoring, the Vivoactive Three is a big improve on the Vivoactive HR and one purpose is that it might reveal VO2 max. This Is A size of the maximum quantity of oxygen you can use and is continuously used as an indicator of total Fitness.
Relating To heart charge, the tracking on the Vivoactive 3 is as just right as you’d are expecting from a Garmin Software. We compared it with the Fitbit Ionic whereas resting and thru a sequence of Actions and they remained consistently inside 2 bpm of each other.

The Heart charge sensor works throughout the day, gauging your stress levels.

Since The heart fee tracking is continuous, That You Could test in to see what your coronary heart price is like at any level throughout the day.
A Pleasant addition is having the ability to see coronary heart rate, As Well As a heart charge graph, on the Tool’s display moderately than desiring to dig in the course of the app to seek out it.

Which You Could view your coronary heart fee information in real-time on the Garmin Vivoactive 3.

Some Other vital improve from the Vivoactive HR is stress monitoring, which the Vivoactive Three gauges the use of heart price variability (HRV) readings all the way through the day. This Is without a doubt Another pull to get people to put on the Vivoactive 3 all day – Now Not just for workouts.
Garmin’s heart price smarts additionally manner sleep monitoring is More correct as a result of sleep levels don’t seem to be just determined by means of motion, However heart charge too. We found the sleep monitoring information throughout the app to be targeted, But we found it from time to time started out monitoring sleep somewhat earlier than bedtime.
This will be down to private activities, But in that admire it wasn’t as accurate as the Fitbit Ionic. Due To The Fact its sleep degrees upgrade that’s possibly one of the best out there for tracking your relaxation.

You Could view your totally different sleep tiers throughout the Garmin app.

Unlike each the Apple Watch Three and Fitbit Ionic you is not going to in finding storage for track on the Vivoactive Three, Even Supposing it may be used to regulate tune out of your Phone.
When You Are intrigued by using the theory of leaving your Cellphone at dwelling More as you run or figure out, you’ll be able to find the Vivoactive 3 to be missing.

Battery lifestyles

• Almost seven days of battery existence
• Straightforward to cost

Possibly one of the most major reasons Garmin selected a transflective reminiscence-in-pixel show was to save lots of on battery life, so you would predict it to be Great to make up for the shortage of an attractive Display – and it really is.
Despite The Fact That it might not be as impressive as One Of The brand’s older fashions, Garmin claims the Vivoactive 3’s battery will last seven days of regular use and 13 hours straight When You’ve Got GPS on the whole time.
In our testing, it lasted just over six days with a exercise each other day, including two GPS-enabled runs, some notifications and Plenty Of strolling.
That Implies except you plan on using the GPS on a regular basis That You Could make a dependancy of charging the Vivoactive 3 up around As Soon As per week, which is an actual draw for any individual who takes a wearable off to charge it then simply forgets to place it again on.
In The Case Of charging, you simply plug the small cable that came with the Vivoactive 3 into the 4 pin charging port on the back of the watch after which plug that into a USB port.

Notifications

• All notifications dropped at the Display
• iPhone users can not reply to messages
• Notifications are all or nothing

Any kind of notification can also be set to come back thru out of your Telephone to your Vivoactive 3, we bought the whole thing from text messages to fertility tracker updates you could then Read in full on the Display and clear As Soon As you have Read them.
If In Case You Have an Android Tool you are ready to ship canned responses, like “GOOD ENOUGH”, However iPhone customers aren’t as lucky.
Not Like the Apple Watch 3, Which You Could’t Speak to your watch or receive calls, But That You Would Be Able To accept and decline them If You’re Now Not able to pick up your Cellphone.
Annoyingly, right now That You May most effective make a choice whether you need each notification and make contact with to return thru to the Vivoactive Three, just calls or nothing in any respect. There Isn’t Any method to say yes to potentially necessary WhatsApp messages and no thanks to fertility alerts on your wrist.

That You Would Be Able To change between a depressing Display, like this one, or a lighter one with a white background.

Interface

• Simple-to-Read interface
• Customizable face and widgets

The Vivoactive 3’s interface can at times feel ever-so-moderately laggy. But otherwise the expertise is usually seamless.
As Well As the button on the Aspect and the option to make use of the touchscreen, the Vivoactive 3 additionally has what the logo refers to as a ‘Side Swipe’ interface. What this implies is You Can run your fingertip down the Aspect of the button and you can swipe during the Software’s menu without interacting with the Screen itself.
In The Beginning we discovered this atypical – and a bit pointless – However after some time it become Extra natural, Particularly as a result of there are small grooves On The Side and the watch vibrates as you move through each menu merchandise, so it felt like getting delicate touch remarks as you use the interface.
Which You Could customize how the interface seems thru a retailer called Connect IQ. You Could seek advice from the store from inside the Garmin app and choose from apps, including these about Health or weather, In Addition To a variety of different watch faces and widgets.

You Can view a summary of how your day is going from throughout the Tool’s main u.

The Way you browse the shop feels a little clumsy, It Can Be No Longer as intuitive as the Garmin app itself, which we’ll get to Beneath, nevertheless it’s Straightforward enough to select one thing to download.
As Soon As you could have downloaded a brand new app or watch face, you can need to return into the Garmin app and add it into Actions & Apps, the place it is going to pop up alongside your favorite workout Activities. It’s Kind Of Traumatic that There May Be Not Any Other favorites menu in different places for brand spanking new apps.
The elephant in the room – at the least in the UK – is Garmin Pay, a mobile payment provider that Garmin introduced proper after Fitbit lifted the lid on Fitbit Pay, But is but to materialize outside of the us and Australia.
At one level it was once meant to be arriving On The End of October, However we’re into December now and There’s still no sign of it. Fingers crossed it can be in more countries soon, and we’ll replace this assessment As Soon As now we have tested it out.

App

• Newly designed app
• A Variety Of information but it’s Easy to digest

Garmin has not too long ago launched a more moderen, beta model of its app, which improves the design and performance.
While You first open the app you might be greeted with ‘My Day’, which is a breakdown of everything that you’ve got executed nowadays on a collection of cards.
On The top are your workout playing cards, which include important points of any exercise you did nowadays. Beneath that are playing cards which contain information about your steps, stress levels, sleep, calories burned, coronary heart rate, floors climbed and depth minutes.

The app allows you to glance at crucial cards of the day, or tap them to find out More.

Under that there is a abstract card to indicate what you accomplished the day past, and under that a summary of the prior 7 days.
Even Though they display an even quantity of knowledge, The Way these playing cards appear and behave feels really pure and informative, with out being overwhelming. It Is seemingly as a result of on different days you care about completely different stats, so your eyes can just look over the ones you are No Longer as enthusiastic about and to find what you’re after sooner than other, Extra involved dashboards.
If You Wish To in finding out More about any of those stats, you just tap on the cardboard and you’re introduced with More information within the type of graphs and an in depth breakdown of how your day (or task or stress) appeared.
Some Of These pages appear just like how the older version of the app looked, with dials On The prime that serve up details about whichever section you’re in.
The app also has a bit known as ‘Challenges’, which is where That You Could Challenge your mates or join a weekly steps Challenge. Then There May Be ‘Calendar’, which is A Pleasant, visual summary of how you’ve been doing during the last month, with colour-coded sections to denote certain achievements. As An Instance, somewhat inexperienced bar for indoor cycling.

Delving into the Extra tab and the Garmin app’s settings.

There’s additionally a ‘Extra’ page, which is where the whole lot else is saved and might seem a bit overwhelming At First. This Is the place you’ll be able to to find the whole thing from defining your favorite Actions, via to getting access to your individual settings and defining notifications and electronic mail preferences.
This turns into like 2d nature after a few days and we imagine It Can Be Nice for individuals who figure out lots and like delving into knowledge and customizing their wearable experience, However might not be so ideal for any person who hasn’t used an app or Device for Fitness prior to.

Verdict

With the Garmin Vivoactive Three, Garmin has created a smartwatch designed with mainstream audiences in thoughts, combining Fitness monitoring with well being and way of life options, As Well As sensible notifications. This makes it probably the most versatile wearables, which is certain to suit a variety of individuals.
In Fact It Can Be a major shame we did not get a chance to check out out Garmin Pay yet, But If You Happen To live in the usa or Australia that’s without a doubt Another pull and will supply the Vivoactive 3 a preventing likelihood of combating the Apple Watch Three and Fitbit Ionic.
As you’ll predict from a model with a variety of legacy, the Garmin Vivoactive 3’s train and coronary heart rate monitoring are correct and tremendous certain, which makes them fascinating for those with an passion in their own biometric knowledge.
Having mentioned that, It Is information like this that’s sure to really feel overwhelming for those who just need activity monitoring, the peculiar run and little else. Which proves that Although there are plenty of lifestyle features and smart additions to this fashionable-having a look wearable, It Is still a Garmin product and is at the start fascinated with Fitness. So if Fitness is not your factor, appear in other places.

It makes use of your coronary heart fee information to gauge your stress ranges all through the day.

Who’s this for?

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 has GPS capabilities, more suitable battery life and It’s water resistant, this means that it”s in point of fact for Health fanatics.
Particularly those who wish to often observe their Health and would be serious about heart fee stats, performance graphs and different varieties of information quite than just targets or badges.
It Is Also just right for many who like a spread of sports fairly than something particular. As An Instance, If You’re a die-exhausting runner, one of Garmin’s Units constructed solely for working, Just Like The Forerunner 235, is likely to suit you higher.
Having stated that, you do not wish to be into extreme workout regimes or coaching for one thing to revel in the advantages of the Vivoactive 3.
Its Health monitoring is accurate and precise, However No Longer overwhelmingly so, and its focal point on stress and heart charge could be top for someone who desires to holistically strengthen their health and Fitness too.

Must you buy it?

The Garmin Vivoactive Three’s design is more likely to divide opinion. Its Reveal is Circular and its display appears to be like totally different in comparison to the OLED displays from Fitbit and Apple.
When You’ve had your coronary heart set on an Apple Watch But you might be bearing in mind changing your mind, it might be worth having a play with the Vivoactive Three in actual lifestyles first to verify it still ticks your smartwatch containers.
If You Are looking for a device geared as much as well being and Fitness which is just about as all-singing and all-dancing as smartwatches can get, It’s definitely price taking into consideration this alongside More well-recognized names.
It Can Be one in every of our favorites due to its totally different design, Great-to-use app and sensible Health monitoring, and all those professionals combined make it a flexible possibility that really may supply each Fitbit and Apple stiff competition.

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