Fitness tracker.

I have wanted an activity tracker for a while, I have had 2 Garmin Forerunners purely for running over the years, and liked how they performed & the Garmin Connect interface, so I decided on the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ GPS. I bought on Amazon for about €160, a lot cheaper than Harvey Norman etc. Just watch that it is the GPS version you are looking at, as there is Vivosmart HR and HR+GPS.

My main motivation was for the HR feature on the wrist rather than a chest strap, the constant tracking with active minutes identified, and the ability to track activities in the gym as well as running. I like that it collects stats all the time, and over time as fitness increases you can see the improvements in your HR zones etc. I mainly will be using it for going to the gym 4 or 5 times a week. I used to do a decent amount of running and am aiming to get back into it, hence I went for the GPS version.

IMO the main pros are:

-Step Counter, initiative to your level of usage, and increases/decreases accordingly. Also hourly silent vibration alerts to keep active, you need to walk for a couple of minutes to clear it so it makes me get up from my desk which is always a good thing. Also records stairs / levels changes.

-HR Monitor at wrist, which so far I have found to be accurate and very similar to the Forerunner data (with chest strap). Also shows a 4 hour snapshot on the watch, with full details viewable on the app/online Garmin Connect.

-GPS for outdoor running

- 5 day battery life, 8 hours with GPS – This is pretty decent, and the watch does alert you when the battery is 24 hours to go

- Sleep Monitoring – Shows times of deep and light sleep, and movement etc. I personally don’t fully understand the benefit of this as yet as I sleep like a log anyhow, but might be handy to others!

- Records Active Minutes – i.e. exercise minutes, and sets goals and changes them accordingly to your level of activities.

- Bluetooth updates to phone, also allows music volume control and text/email etc. notifications on the watch while in use and connected

- Garmin Connect App – This is really good, shows all your stats in an easy to read way, its very interact and I find very easy to use.

Cons

-The main con IMO is that it only allows you to record Walking, Running or Other, so gym work (apart from cardio) is recorded as other, but I do wonder how accurate it is as its not activity specific. I would have liked to see Strength Training, HIIT etc to choose from. But in fairness its not a big deal, and for all of the list above its not a big deal

-It is a bit chunky on my wrist, some of the other products seem to be a bit tidier, but again only a minor thing.

I have been wearing it for a week now and so far am really happy with it, has exceeded my expectations and as a person who loves stats its super!