Vivoactive 3

[Johnno260]

Has anyone here used one?

if so thoughts and opinions would be welcomed.

 

[Milkfloat]

I have the 4 and am more than happy. It does everything I need, although I don’t really use it for cycling.

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

I've used one. Did a ride with it. Uploaded to Strava, then Strava said I must have been in a car and deleted the ride. Help desk said they couldn't help as my phone wasn't an iPhone. Strava cannot sort problems relating to Android phones.

Confused? I was.

Sold it; at a profit🙄

 

[berlinonaut]

It is a typical Garmin product: It has a ton of features but no one is able to use them as it has (as every Garmin product I have ever used) a ux from hell. Has not changed over the last 20 years and many devices from them I've used, so it seems to be typical for them. The features generally work (if you manage to configure them which IS a challenge) as long as it happens inside the device itself but everything that has written "connection" on it is unstable - again a pattern I know too well from Garmin historically. In this case the connection to the iPhone is there and sometimes it is not. Not a huge problem as the data is in the watch and sooner or later the connection will magically work again. If I used it as a training device and was eager for my data directly after the training I would be very annoyed.
Garmin fit-account (free of cost) ist mandatory, even if you don't use it. Forget anything about additional apps on that watch.

On the positive side: Battery lasts very long for a smartwatch (days longer than an Apple watch) - again typical for Garmin. And it was cheap (~150€ when I bought it, way more than a year ago, it may be two years) - untypical for Garmin.

Would I buy it again: Probably not - I hate things that have a bad usability. I bought it as a cheap test if this category of device delivers any value to me (it does, not necessary but interesting things). Next time I would go for an Apple watch though it is massively more expensive if only the battery lasted longer.

 

[numbnuts]

I have one, it works for me

 

[livpoksoc]

I have the original and am quite happy with it, considered upgrading but stopped wearing it early in lockdown due the extra hand washing drying my skin out. I still use it on the bike/out for walks to track some basics.

It's ux for things like controlling music is a little fiddly, but works if you cba digging your phone out from your pocket.

 

[HLaB]

I have the Vioactive 3 but I don't use many of the features; my edge capture cycling (including more accurate hr and power) which is the main activity I only tend to use the watch to capture steps, as a count down timer, to monitor sleep and as a analogue (even though its digital) time device. Edit: I wasn't expecting more, the main reason I chose as oppose to other watches it looks better IMHO

 

[chr15b]

I have the Vivoactive 3 and use it for both Road and MTB activities in addition to wearing it 24/7 for steps and sleep. In my opinion it's a great watch for the money. Connection is flawless on my iPhone 11 Pro.

 

[berlinonaut]

I have the Vioactive 3 but I don't use many of the features

That's true for me, too, mainly because of the useless ux. And, as @Darius_Jedburgh says it is sometimes a bit unreliable in recognizing bike rides/distinguishing it from other activities. For things like steps, measuring stress, sleep and so on it is working fine (though sometimes a bit off) and the data is interesting, so I am generally not too disappointed.

One more thing worth mentioning: The power cord is USB on the power-plug end and proprietary on the other end (again typically Garmin), nothing any other device or cable would offer. Wireless charging is not possible. So sooner or later you'll run out of power $somewhere and not have the cable with you. Which leads to the need for buying one or better a bunch of additional cables as you probably need at least: One for at home, one for at work and one for traveling. Which also means you need to take the additional cable with you when traveling and better don't forget it. A bit annoying. At least there are 3rd party cables available that cost less of a fortune than the original ones.

 

[Johnno260]

thanks for the feedback all, I used a vivoactive HR before, but it had an unfortunate accident over the weekend.

I wonder if the people having issues are on droid? and the watch works better on IOS?

 

[Vertego]

I went from the Vivoactive HR to the Vivoactive 3 and I am generally happy with it. However, battery life is not too good - rarely get more than 2 days as opposed to 5+ days before a recent update. Not an isolated problem - check out the posts at forums.garmin.com.
No real issues with connectivity to my Android phone. Notifications on the Vivoactive 3 are good.