# Garmin Vivoactive 3 - does any here have one? WARNING, thread contains tech gore



## Andrew_Culture (2 Oct 2017)

Over the years I've had a Pebble and a Garmin Viviosmart, neither of which were totally amazing. For the last couple of years I've had an Apple Watch and I thought I had found the perfect fitness tracker / smart watch.

BUT the Apple Watch clearly isn't built for my, ahem, 'active' lifestyle. In addition to cycling and wobbly my chub around at the gym I also swim, skateboard and play badminton. Out of all these activities it would appear that Badminton has been the most damaging to my Apple watch. 

Right now the only thing keeping the screen roughly in one piece is a screen 'protector'. In fact the only thing stopping the screen from actually falling off is some sellotape (removed for the photo below). Apple may have been ambiguous about whether the watch was actually waterproof. My watch definitely is not.

When I think about what I actually want from a smart watch it's quite simple. I want accurate heartbeat and movement tracking and notifications. The rest of the functions are of little interest to me. So if I fail to repair my watch screen myself (the official repair is over £200) I'm considering moving away from Apple.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 has caught my eye. It looks more like a normal watch and costs less than the apple watch. Does anyone on here have a Garmin Vivoactive 3? If so do you rate it?


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## John the Monkey (2 Oct 2017)

I don't own one personally, but a pal of mine has an earlier model vivoactive and he loves it. Step counting is good, the HR seems to work too (it can, by all accounts, get a bit flakey if you do high intensity intervals, although that's not something my pal has found to be a problem). He uses it for running and cycling, as well as activity tracking, and prefers it to the Forerunner he was using.


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## Milkfloat (2 Oct 2017)

I had a Vivoactive 2 for a while (demo unit from work) and I have an Apple Watch. Both serve a purpose, but a different purpose. The Garmin is an excellent activity and sports tracker that is also a bit of a smart watch, whilst the apple as you probably know is an excellent smart watch that is a bit of an activity tracker. I am not sure the Garmin would survive whatever you did to the Apple Watch.

On a plus note, you managed to hit all your goals for the day.


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## Andrew_Culture (2 Oct 2017)

As an aside I bought a Jawbone UP2 for my wife for her birthday. I spent nearly two months trying to coax the thing to life before asking Amazon for a refund. They said I had left it too long, fair enough. So I asked Jawbone for help, they have told me that because I didn't buy direct from Amazon, but from an Amazon marketplace seller I'm not covered at all. So I might as well chuck the thing in the bin.


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## huwsparky (2 Oct 2017)

Check out DC Rainmaker for a review. He's usually spot on with reviews.


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## Andrew_Culture (2 Oct 2017)

huwsparky said:


> Check out DC Rainmaker for a review. He's usually spot on with reviews.



Good call! Here's the link in case anyone else wants it https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2017/08/garmin-vivoactive-3-everything-you-need-to-know.html


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## Tin Pot (2 Oct 2017)

Andrew_Culture said:


> Over the years I've had a Pebble and a Garmin Viviosmart, neither of which were totally amazing. For the last couple of years I've had an Apple Watch and I thought I had found the perfect fitness tracker / smart watch.
> 
> BUT the Apple Watch clearly isn't built for my, ahem, 'active' lifestyle. In addition to cycling and wobbly my chub around at the gym I also swim, skateboard and play badminton. Out of all these activities it would appear that Badminton has been the most damaging to my Apple watch.
> 
> ...



You should talk to Apple - I had a watch and phone replaced foc.


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## Andrew_Culture (2 Oct 2017)

Having read the DC Rainmaker review I think I'm sold on one of these rather than forking out for another Apple Watch. There's a lot about the whole ethos of Apple Watches that really bothers me. Not least of all the planned obsolescence.

I couldn't give a fig about most of the Apple Watch features but because the Garmin is so much more sport orientated I am very interested in some of the features like rep counting for weight training. I'm also planning on starting running so the in-built GPS is very appealing.


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## Andrew_Culture (2 Oct 2017)

Tin Pot said:


> You should talk to Apple - I had a watch and phone replaced foc.



Oh! How old was it? I got my watch when it was already out of warranty off some fella on ebay


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## Tin Pot (2 Oct 2017)

Andrew_Culture said:


> Oh! How old was it? I got my watch when it was already out of warranty off some fella on ebay



The Watch was over two years, to be honest I don't know why they replaced it free. I had to sign some forms, they said I might have to pay but in the end they replaced it free. <shrug>

I'm thinking the Watch shouldn't break from badminton, so maybe they'll do the same?


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## Andrew_Culture (3 Oct 2017)

Tin Pot said:


> The Watch was over two years, to be honest I don't know why they replaced it free. I had to sign some forms, they said I might have to pay but in the end they replaced it free. <shrug>
> 
> I'm thinking the Watch shouldn't break from badminton, so maybe they'll do the same?



The screen had been slowly cracking for a while. It was during a badminton match that I noticed it had totally smashed.


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## Drago (3 Oct 2017)

I have the Vivoactive 2 and love it. Tougher than my ex-Wifes Victoria sponge cake, a week or more of battery life even when regularly using the GPS. May well ask Mrs D for a 3 for Christmas.


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## PaulSB (3 Oct 2017)

I have a Vivoactive HR. To put my views in perspective I should say I’ve wanted something like this for 2-3 years but regarded them, for me, as a frivolous accessory. I was wrong.

When I retired I was given a watch (!) which I exchanged at John Lewis for my Vivoactive. I felt as it was a gift I could be frivolous.

I am delighted with it and thoroughly recommend it for my purposes. I use the daily monitoring features for steps, activity, HR etc. For exercise I use the cycling and walking apps which record very accurately my routes and data. On cycling the variation between my Garmin 810 and the Vivoactive is significant when comparing ascent. I haven’t got to the bottom of this yet. The Vivoactive seems far more accurate. While exercising, especially riding, plenty of information is available either through a continuous scroll or at a touch - distance, speed, average, HR, HR zone, lap time, etc. are the ones I use. Plenty of others to chose from. 

A key feature for me is battery life. I get approximately 8.5 Hours GPS recording time - beats the 810 by 3-4 Hours. This was really important to me. This also helps to extend the navigation time on the 810.

Set up is simple, comfortable to wear - even at night, and I’m happy with its’ appearance for day to day wear.

Connectivity to a smartphone is simple and reliable for uploading to Strava. Loads of alerts available via Bluetooth from your phone but this doesn’t interest me. I just take the phone out of my pocket. Heavy Bluetooth use hits battery life of both the Vivoactive and my iPhone so I always switch it off when I’m not uploading data.

Charging is remarkably fast.

My one disappointment is the watch is thicker than the illustrations indicate. I would love it to be 50% thinner.

No hesitation in recommending the Vivoactive HR to you and I don’t work for Garmin - honest!!!


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## Andrew_Culture (9 Oct 2017)

I tried to repair the Apple Watch screen myself. This was a mistake.


View: https://youtu.be/X_tLm6L1U8s


I only filmed it because I was testing how a new camera performed in low light.


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## Andrew_Culture (9 Oct 2017)

PaulSB said:


> I have a Vivoactive HR. To put my views in perspective I should say I’ve wanted something like this for 2-3 years but regarded them, for me, as a frivolous accessory. I was wrong.
> 
> When I retired I was given a watch (!) which I exchanged at John Lewis for my Vivoactive. I felt as it was a gift I could be frivolous.
> 
> ...



Thank you, this is incredibly useful. I had one of the first Vivo watches and didn't get on with it at all. 

For now I have an £8.99 Casio watch. I want to see if I really need a fitness tracker at all. So far I'm massively missing the data I can gather, but that's more to do with me being a stats geek rather than actually being crucial to my exercise routines.


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