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Garmin Vivoactive 3

Irishder

Garmin Vivoactive 3 delivered for 167.80. Never used E-Global before but placed an order.

https://www.eglobalcentral.eu/garmin-vivoactive-3-gps-smartwatch-with-contactless-payments-and-wrist-based-heart-rate-black-with-silver-hardware-010-01769-a0-english-only.html

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Raoul

Does the vivoactive 3 music?

Seve OB

Few questions if any of you owners can help please as I'm considering getting one, if I can pick it up at the right price.

I do already have Garmin Forerunner 410, Approach G6 and an Edge 500. I will certainly keep using the Edge for cycling. As I have a laser for golf, I don't really use the Approach much anymore, although sometimes it does come in handy for blind shots. Problem is I always forget to have it charged. If I had this watch on my wrist at least it would be charged. I like the idea of tracking all my activities, the G6 does Track the golf, but as I say, I don't really use it much anymore.

Am I correct in saying that the Vivoactive series seems to be a step down from the Forerunner? I do realise that my Forerunner is a few years old now, so that step down might not really be a step down the way technology moves. But I would like to know how is compares.

So I do a bit of running and when I'm running I like to be able to see my pace, I have laps set up at 1km so it helps me pace my run. I also like the feature to set targets so I know if I am ahead or behind. Can the VivoActive 3 do this?

Re swimming, I go a couple of times a month, indoor pool, 25 meters long. How does it track indoor swimming?

I think this watch seems to be a complete tracking device and one to wear all the time. Couldn't do that with the Forerunner 410, it's huge. So what kind of size is this and how does it sit on the wrist? Would love to know how big it is compared to my citizen watch which I do wear pretty much all the time. Can anyone stick a pic up of it against a regular watch or better still beside a Forerunner 410

Music. How does that work? Download music to the watch and listen via Bluetooth headphones I take it? I'm unsure why people are asking about Spotify? How would that work, surely then it would link to your phone to get internet access and in that case you would surely just sync your earphones to your phone?

Syncing activities. How does that work? Bluetooth to your phone and Garmin connect App? Will it sync through a PC with Garmin Express, either cable or Bluetooth?

I'm sure I've more questions, but that's enough for now I'm sure

garion

Seve OB wrote: »

Am I correct in saying that the Vivoactive series seems to be a step down from the Forerunner? I do realise that my Forerunner is a few years old now, so that step down might not really be a step down the way technology moves. But I would like to know how is compares.

Not sure about a step down, I had a 5 year old Forerunner 610 and I find it a big improvement on that. Much nicer to navigate between screens, much better touchscreen, built in wrist HRM, MUCH quicker to pick up satellite (15-30 seconds max). My forerunner was pretty old so I'm sure the more recent ones have better features but for me the Vivoactive is a big step up.

Seve OB wrote: »

So I do a bit of running and when I'm running I like to be able to see my pace, I have laps set up at 1km so it helps me pace my run. I also like the feature to set targets so I know if I am ahead or behind. Can the VivoActive 3 do this?

It doesn't have the Virtual Partner so that's one difference alright. It does track pace, customizable laps (default 1km/mile). The data screens are fully customizable depending on the sport with up to 4 sections. For me for running I have HRM, current pace, average pace and distance. When I'm playing football I have distance, time, pace & steps. All configurable from the watch itself.

Seve OB wrote: »

Re swimming, I go a couple of times a month, indoor pool, 25 meters long. How does it track indoor swimming?

Sorry, haven't taken mine swimming yet.

Seve OB wrote: »

I think this watch seems to be a complete tracking device and one to wear all the time. Couldn't do that with the Forerunner 410, it's huge. So what kind of size is this and how does it sit on the wrist? Would love to know how big it is compared to my citizen watch which I do wear pretty much all the time. Can anyone stick a pic up of it against a regular watch or better still beside a Forerunner 410

I reason I got this over a forerunner or anything else is because I want a single smart watch to track everything from steps to activities to sleep. This does it perfectly for me and it looks great to wear too. It's definitely smaller than the standard forerunner watches. To me it's no bigger than one of the Samsung gear smart watches and I'd suggest a good bit thinner. It definitely doesn't look out of place in the workplace. Also, you easily get customizable straps that just clip in & out so you can dress it up for a suit if you want.

Seve OB wrote: »

Music. How does that work? Download music to the watch and listen via Bluetooth headphones I take it? I'm unsure why people are asking about Spotify? How would that work, surely then it would link to your phone to get internet access and in that case you would surely just sync your earphones to your phone?

You can download offline music from Deezer directly to the watch I believe. I use it for audiobooks so I just connect the watch to my laptop & drag-and-drop the mp3 files onto the storage area. I listen via Bluetooth running headphones that pair instantly. This is really important for me as I love to listen to something when running to distract me from the pain! Having it built into the watch makes it really easy to go out consistently.

Seve OB wrote: »

Syncing activities. How does that work? Bluetooth to your phone and Garmin connect App? Will it sync through a PC with Garmin Express, either cable or Bluetooth?

The watch has wifi & Bluetooth so as soon as you come back within the wifi network (or your phone) it'll push the recent activity to Garmin. All done automatically within seconds. No need for the ANT USB thingy that my old forerunner had.

Finally, I charge mine very 4ish days on average. I picked up a spare couple of charging cables on amazon so I'm never stuck. When it goes to about 15-25% I charge it overnight.

Hope that helps. Overall it's a great buy and has certainly contributed to me being more active recently.

Seve OB

WOW, great reply garion, may thanks, loads of great info in there

garion wrote: »

Not sure about a step down, I had a 5 year old Forerunner 610 and I find it a big improvement on that. Much nicer to navigate between screens, much better touchscreen, built in wrist HRM, MUCH quicker to pick up satellite (15-30 seconds max). My forerunner was pretty old so I'm sure the more recent ones have better features but for me the Vivoactive is a big step up.

Well I guess the 410 is probably of a similar era to the 610 and the 610 was a better spec than a 410... so if you felt the VivoActive was an improvement on the 610, that is great feedback and just what I wanted to hear. I hate the stupid bezel on the 410, it is grand for tapping but for scrolling it is pretty awful. So good to hear the screen is good to navigate.

I think the Forerunner series does seem to be a level above the VivoActive from what I'm reading. It's hard doing a comparison on the Garmin site because
this seems to do everything that the Forerunners do. Can anyone tell me why would anyone buy a forerunner over this?

garion wrote: »

It doesn't have the Virtual Partner so that's one difference alright. It does track pace, customizable laps (default 1km/mile). The data screens are fully customizable depending on the sport with up to 4 sections. For me for running I have HRM, current pace, average pace and distance. When I'm playing football I have distance, time, pace & steps. All configurable from the watch itself.

Customisable screen sounds good, my Edge definitely has that, and I'm pretty sure my 410 does. I have it a few years now so can't remember, I would have just set it up the way I liked and left it at that.

So while you mention HRM. I do have a premium HR chest band. Does this watch pick that up? Is it any better to use that than the built in wrist based HR. I would imagine the chest band is better?

Ah virtual partner, that was the terminology which escaped me. Yes a very handy feature, but I guess if I have a screen with lap time and overall time I can live with that. Obviously won't be as good as the virtual partner, but I'm not a series runner. But then again, I am always striving to better my times and just by looking at times, you won't know if your overall run is ahead or behind. OK so that's one point for the Forerunner I guess.

garion wrote: »

I reason I got this over a forerunner or anything else is because I want a single smart watch to track everything from steps to activities to sleep. This does it perfectly for me and it looks great to wear too. It's definitely smaller than the standard forerunner watches. To me it's no bigger than one of the Samsung gear smart watches and I'd suggest a good bit thinner. It definitely doesn't look out of place in the workplace. Also, you easily get customizable straps that just clip in & out so you can dress it up for a suit if you want.

I've never looked at any smart watches before, so doesn't help me with size. But it does sound appealing from your description. I don't really have any interest in smart watches to be honest. In fact, I'm loosing interest in my smart phone. They are great, but they are also a menace to society

Is this a smart watch? Or is it a fitness/sports watch? I'm thinking they are 2 different things? Customisable straps is just a fad I can do without. I think I got 3 with my Forerunner and they have never been swapped around.

The only jewellery I have ever worn is a watch and I've 4 good ones, which I rotate but mostly wear my citizen chrono. 20 year old now. Actually 2 of the other 3 are even a little older, got them all when I worked in a jewellers. The other is pretty new a Breitling, well at least that's what is says on the face beside the missing seconds hand

A few years ago I got a cheap step tracker, miband or something like that. It lasted a few months. Hence why I'm not sure how much I will end up using this, especially as I do like my real watches.

So from what you say, maybe the Forerunners don't do the whole tracking steps/sleep thing then?

garion wrote: »

You can download offline music from Deezer directly to the watch I believe. I use it for audiobooks so I just connect the watch to my laptop & drag-and-drop the mp3 files onto the storage area. I listen via Bluetooth running headphones that pair instantly. This is really important for me as I love to listen to something when running to distract me from the pain! Having it built into the watch makes it really easy to go out consistently.

Would find it odd to be listening to audiobooks when out running/working out myself, but I do like the tunes. I'm old fashioned though. I bought all the music I own, mad looking things, CD's they are called. Little shiny Frisbies. They actually used to have shops which only sold these things believe it or not. Then one day I got this thing called an iPod and I was able to put all of my 4 or 5 hundred CD's on it. Then last year I got myself a mad set of headphones (Bose Soundsport) which don't even need to plug in to the iPod.

Ah in fairness I've had a few trial runs on spotfy but always just listen to the stuff I already own, so I just don't bother. Every now and again I'll pick up a few CD's on the cheap, much better value than 10 bucks a month to spotfy etc. I don't even use my phone to load tracks onto. Just use the iPod, prefer it as it is much better. So I really don't think I would have any need for the music version of the watch.

But I'm a bit curious as to why the music version would be much different. I read somewhere the watch can only track 7 activities. Is that right? I guess that's no big deal, I rarely review past activities on the Forerunner, mostly just look at them on Connect, and as you mention below it syncs all the time, so no real need for more space I guess. But I would have thought it all has to do with the memory on the device. So if you tracked longer activities such as a long bike ride, games of golf etc, does that limit the number of activities your watch can handle?

So is the music version then not really just the same watch with a larger memory capacity?

Can you put any tunes at all on the standard version or is it a different firmware? Guess I'll just throw that in there as a question for anyone who might be interested or indeed if I did change my mind or forget my iPod.

garion wrote: »

The watch has wifi & Bluetooth so as soon as you come back within the wifi network (or your phone) it'll push the recent activity to Garmin. All done automatically within seconds. No need for the ANT USB thingy that my old forerunner had.

That sounds very handy, especially if indeed there is limited storage on the watch. Does it automatically delete the activities once they are uploaded to Connect? So you don't even need Garmin Express or your computer on. I guess you just pair your watch to your Garmin Connect account or something. The Ant stick does tend to disappear in my house from time to time

garion wrote: »

Finally, I charge mine very 4ish days on average. I picked up a spare couple of charging cables on amazon so I'm never stuck. When it goes to about 15-25% I charge it overnight.

One for the bedside locker so, one for the car and one for the office desk

garion wrote: »

Hope that helps. Overall it's a great buy and has certainly contributed to me being more active recently.

Yes indeed, really great feedback there garion. It's amazing how difficult it is to find out how the simple things actually work with all the different reviews out there. They all seem to just give feebcack on what the watch does and reports back to the user as opposed to just showing you how to operate it!

Final question for now, I read something about some kind of autotracking feature on it. Move IQ. Am I right in saying it automatically knows if you have gone running, cycling, swimming etc and tracks that activity in case you forget to yourself? How the hell does it know what you are doing, sounds pretty amazing. But again, not sure what I'm reading does it save as activities to go into your activity feed on connect? I don't think it does, so whats the point in the Move IQ then, or can you go in an manually pick out the activity somehow?

Whats True Up?

Raoul

Is there a thread for this watch? I bought one. Happy so far. Just not sure what to do with my gym sessions as I use the strong android app.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

In terms of gym sessions I presume this just picks up your activity automatically and tracks it?

dr.kenneth noisewater

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

In terms of gym sessions I presume this just picks up your activity automatically and tracks it?

Nope, you need to select the workout first

Raoul

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Nope, you need to select the workout first

I can't see myself not using the phone for my workouts and the app isn't linked to anything on Garmin. Is there any way around this or what is the best thing to do?

Seve OB

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Nope, you need to select the workout first

What's the move IQ then for? I thought that was to automatically pick up the activities

Seve OB

Raoul wrote: »

I can't see myself not using the phone for my workouts and the app isn't linked to anything on Garmin. Is there any way around this or what is the best thing to do?

Phone? This is about the watch. Don't get your point.

Raoul

Seve OB wrote: »

Phone? This is about the watch. Don't get your point.

As in, I think it is difficult to record a weights workout on the watch or any watch. Automatically picking up reps and sets is tough and then if you have to edit it on the watch, it would be a bit annoying. So I think what most people end up doing is the workout on the phone on garmin connect and then using the watch in tandem but it still isn't great due to the needing to edit it as the rep count will be off and you will need to add weights.

I have been using the strong app (which I mentioned in my previous comment that was being replied to) for over a year, so it would be nice if i could keep using it and then sync the workout to Garmin connect but this isn't possible. But just due to the ease of the strong app. I will prob keep using it.

The watch is great but really you need your phone for it to work properly. Hence me mentioning the phone.

Seve OB

Raoul wrote: »

The watch is great but really you need your phone for it to work properly. Hence me mentioning the phone.

I get the rest of you post but I do think this is an unfair comment. Others know best as I don't have the watch yet but to say that a watch needs a phone for it to work properly just makes no sense.

Surely what you mean is the watch does not record reps correctly and you need to edit the activity on Garmin connect after?

Or maybe I'm picking you up wrong

TitianGerm

The Vivoactive 3 Music is down to €279 in Argos.

http://www.checkargos.com/product/8679110

jay0109

garion wrote: »

It doesn't have the Virtual Partner so that's one difference alright. It does track pace, customizable laps (default 1km/mile). The data screens are fully customizable depending on the sport with up to 4 sections. For me for running I have HRM, current pace, average pace and distance. When I'm playing football I have distance, time, pace & steps. All configurable from the watch itself.

Can I ask which activity you use for recording football as there isn't one specifically that I can see?

I find the instruction guide online for the watch to be very poor.
Of the 3 trackers on the face of my watch, only steps and stairs show activity during the day.
The 3rd one, which is weekly activities - I've not managed to figure that one out yet or how to get it moving! Any pointers you can give me?

Mantis Toboggan

jay0109 wrote: »

Can I ask which activity you use for recording football as there isn't one specifically that I can see?

I find the instruction guide online for the watch to be very poor.
Of the 3 trackers on the face of my watch, only steps and stairs show activity during the day.
The 3rd one, which is weekly activities - I've not managed to figure that one out yet or how to get it moving! Any pointers you can give me?

Which watch face do you use?

New better ones are available to download, my recommendation would be data lover or Nofrills.

Probably using the running activity as that would track alot of data. New activities can be created if they're not listed.

jay0109

I use the basic watch face you see on the ads, with the 3 rings!
Only got it at xmas so early days

garion

jay0109 wrote: »

Can I ask which activity you use for recording football as there isn't one specifically that I can see?

I find the instruction guide online for the watch to be very poor.
Of the 3 trackers on the face of my watch, only steps and stairs show activity during the day.
The 3rd one, which is weekly activities - I've not managed to figure that one out yet or how to get it moving! Any pointers you can give me?

Yep, no football activity so I just use the "train" activity for it so that it's customizable for display screens and also settings. I customized it a little, like setting Auto Pause to Off so that it doesn't pause the activity when I'm scratching in goals!

Not sure I get you on the trackers bit. I use the Data Lover watch face and I've removed the stairs info as I've no interest in it. The steps, HRM, intensity minutes, stress, calories and sleep are all passively tracked outside of kicking off an actual activity.

The Garmin Connect app is a great way to view all the data both in real time and also looking back over the day, week, month, year etc.

Seve OB

anyone know how much these are going for in the airport, or indeed if they are available there?

rushfan

I bought mine there before Xmas for e199.

Seve OB

rushfan wrote: »

I bought mine there before Xmas for e199.

Thanks, will take a look there si

Donie75

I got a Garmin Vivosport (the one with built in GPS) for €120 in Ganlys in Athlone today. It is a slightly older model but seems to be very well specced. Ganly's are an Expert Electrical store so they might have deals nationwide but it's not on their website.

Seve OB

Donie75 wrote: »

I got a Garmin Vivosport (the one with built in GPS) for €120 in Ganlys in Athlone today. It is a slightly older model but seems to be very well specced. Ganly's are an Expert Electrical store so they might have deals nationwide but it's not on their website.

in fairness they are totally different products

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

So I bit the bullet and purchased one of these. Is it 100% waterproof? as in I will only ever be getting water on it in the shower I would imagine, but its ok to leave on for that? And the odd swim?

Seve OB

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

So I bit the bullet and purchased one of these. Is it 100% waterproof? as in I will only ever be getting water on it in the shower I would imagine, but its ok to leave on for that? And the odd swim?

where and which one did you buy?
how much?

from what I read, they are totally waterproof s they are intended for swimming

rushfan

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote:

So I bit the bullet and purchased one of these. Is it 100% waterproof? as in I will only ever be getting water on it in the shower I would imagine, but its ok to leave on for that? And the odd swim?

I'm told it's 100% waterproof but I usually just stick it on charge when I'm in the shower.

Mantis Toboggan

It has a swimming mode so yeah it's waterproof in the pool, not so much in the sea though.

Seve OB

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

It has a swimming mode so yeah it's waterproof in the pool, not so much in the sea though.

What's the difference? The salt water?
If I manage to pick one up in the next few days at the right price I would have been straight into the sea in the holliers with it so glad to see your post

Mantis Toboggan

Seve OB wrote: »

What's the difference? The salt water?
If I manage to pick one up in the next few days at the right price I would have been straight into the sea in the holliers with it so glad to see your post

That's it yeah I'm fairly sure they don't recommend them for sea water because of the salt. They have another version which is designed for open water swimming.

budhabob

I bought this early January as I wanted to get back swimming and track my progress. Its a lovely piece of kit, and amazing value at €200.

Re waterproofing, I use in the pool several times a week, but have read plenty of threads talking about sea swimming with no issues - subject to a rinse off afterwards.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Seve OB wrote: »

where and which one did you buy?
how much?

from what I read, they are totally waterproof s they are intended for swimming

Bought on Amazon, came to approx 211 euro.