Background
Like the readers of my previous posts probably know, I’m a big fan of electronics, gadgets and wearable technologies. I often try to find an excuse to buy a device, even though it weren’t a mandatory buy (an old device broken down etc.). This time I lost my temper due to an issue with my TomTom Spark sports watch that caused a loss of workouts entirely. As a result I rushed to the store and bought myself a new Garmin Vívoactive HR fitness watch. Obviously it does not include all the nice stuff like TomTom does, e.g. the built-in music capabilities are missing, but on the other hand there is a bunch of other features that don’t exist on TomTom.
In this post I try to provide an overview of my first impressions with the watch. If possible I want to aid fellow runners to take a decision whether this is a right watch for oneself or not. I consider myself mostly as an fairly experienced runner, but occasionally I do other kind of sports too. I mostly ride bike to the work and back home and sometimes also otherwise, but for that to be actual sports I would need a better tool than my current three-gear basic city bike. In addition to running and cycling data it is nice to get statistics of the daily steps and sleep quality. These are things I’ve gotten accustomed to during the past year with my TomTom.
I’m aware that my watch review won’t probably be as complete as the one made by DC Rainmaker, but I intend to concentrate mainly on features relevant for a runner or the every day use.
Unboxing
The unboxing of the watch was a pretty straightforward experience – just the needed parts and nothing extra: the watch itself, a USB cable for recharging and synchronizing the device and a couple of leaflets to get started with the device. The package reminds me of the packages of Apple devices which anyways seems to be quite common nowadays…
The first impressions
When I switched the device on for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised that the device was detected automatically by my iPhone and the bluetooth connection was established without any hassle. Obviously the menu structure and the use in general requires some training. That’s why I wanted to get the watch early enough in order to feel confident when using it for the first time during the marathon.
The user interface of the watch fairly simplified, only two buttons at the lower end of the display and a touch screen. The left button normally acts as back button or if pressed for a longer time (a swipe on the touch screen to the right does the same thing), the menu with power off, do not disturb and lock mode is opened. The respective functionalities can be selected by tapping the screen. The user can switch between the different configurable screen by swiping up and down on the screen.
The actual sports mode is selected by using the right menu button and then browsing with the finger to the desired item and tapping it. Depending on the mode the device may wait for the GPS and/or heart rate signal plus if further devices have been connected with the watch.
The watch contained a fairly new software version, but nevertheless I figured it would be best to use as fresh software as possible. As I’m travelling at the moment, I didn’t have access to my desktop computer and could only use an oldish Macbook with a version of OS X that does not support Garmin Connect any longer. That’s why I had to resort to a beta version of the watch firmware that can be simply installed by dragging and dropping the software file to the watch main folder. I know it may be a risky operation, but I took a chance nevertheless. The update itself succeeded without any problems.
My smartphone started to play with the watch immediately and I got notifications coming to the watch which felt really nice, because TomTom has not been able to deliver the feature yet.
The first workout
I am still doing the final preparations for the marathon next week, so it was a perfect opportunity to get to know the watch and learn to use it properly before the event. I went for my normal 8 km run without doing any changes to the default watch settings to see what has to be changed etc.
I selected running as the desired sports and waited for the GPS and heart rate signals before hitting the road. This all required maybe a minute, which in my opinion is quite OK compared to my previous watches. I pressed start and off I went. My objective was to run at a moderate pace, because the training week has been a hard one and now I want to take it easier during the final few days before the race.
The default screens visible during the run contain the basic information, such as the run distance, the overall time, the current pace, the same statistics for the current lap and the heart rate data. It is possible to configure the device to alternate between the screens with a specified time intervals or to select manually the data set to be shown.
The first thing I noticed that the heart rate shown seemed pretty stable from the beginning. With TomTom Spark I often had the problem that presented heart rate appeared to be higher than expected during the first 10 – 15 minutes of the workout. In other words: nothing to complain here.
At the 1k mark I wondered why the autolap function didn’t give a signal, but the reason became evident at 1 mile. The default setting seems to have been set there – I don’t know if it had to do with the language settings, the firmware image or what, but this is not a big issue, as it can be changed in the watch preferences.
During the run I didn’t encounter anything special difficulties with the watch. Only when I wanted to pause the workout I wasn’t entirely certain there would be a functionality for that or whether my workout would be stopped completely.
Other forms of workout
Until now I haven’t tried out any other forms of workout. There is a rich variety of sports to choose from: bicycling, swimming, golf, walking, rowing, SUP, skiing, treadmill, etc., so I’m confident that it will be absolutely adequate for my needs. Further types of sports are supported by third-party apps available at Garmin App store for free.
GPS Accuracy
My experience of the GPS accuracy is naturally extremely limited at the moment (after two training runs), but the first workouts were absolutely OK. The GPS track plotted during the first run is without problems. On the other hand there were no bigger obstacles or hardly trees on the route. The real challenges are to be seen in the urban environment. I’ll update this, when I return back home.
Optical Heart Rate Measurement
After having used TomTom Spark Cardio & Music for the past 8 months it was an absolute must to get a watch with integrated heart rate measurement capabilities. I don’t want to live with the heart rate strap any more. Naturally I’m aware of the limitations of the technology, but for my needs it is adequate.
The first experiences are absolutely positive. The measurement appeared to be realistic during an easy run and the numbers I’ve gained otherwise during the rest and sleep have been OK as well. I’ll keep my eye on this one and will update the post, if required.
Sleep analysis
Garmin Vívoactive HR is able to detect automatically, when you’re falling into sleep. The user can set the normal time, when he/she usually goes to bed, and when he/she wakes up. The sleep mode can, however, be activated and deactivated also at other times. I have learnt this yesterday, when I removed the watch during my visit to the Finnish sauna. Afterwards I noticed that the watch had initialized the sleep mode at that point, and I had to correct the time on the app afterwards. Not a big deal, but it is worthwhile checking the sleep statistics every now and then and modify, if required.
Step measurement
During the past few years I’ve been first a user of Fitbit activity tracker, and then TomTom Spark. This has led to that I’ve learnt to study the number of taken steps on a daily basis. For that reason I find it important that I can keep up with that. Vívoactive provides the basic data of the steps taken, and more: one can see the distribution of the steps divided to the whole day.
The watch also attempts to make the user more active by notifying the user that he/she should move a bit, if not enough steps are taken every hour.
Apps, watch faces etc.
The Connect IQ platform by Garmin is still pretty fresh, but more and more devices support the apps available there so its importance is probably going to rise in the near future. Already at its current state it offers some mighty apps making the watch a lot better experience.
Until this I’ve installed a couple of watch faces, and compared to TomTom Spark it feels refreshing to be able to customize the watch like this. Garmin released newly an app called FACE-IT with which the user is able to basically any photo on an Android or an iPhone, tweak it and set as watch face.
The watch mechanics and technology
The watch body itself is probably a mixture of some plastic types and its about the same size as my previous TomTom Spark. The weight of the watch is that light that I can well imagine wearing it 24/7. The buttons below the screen are sturdy and hopefully also keep that way.
The wrist band feels a lot better than any wrist band I’ve seen on a sports watch, without any plastic feeling. It is soft, still firm, and sits naturally on one’s wrist. I really like this, and hope it will last long.
The manufacturer claims the battery duration should be over a week, if the watch is used without the GPS, which in turn provides about 12 hours of battery life. Until now this seems plausible – I’ve had two workout sessions and the battery level is now at about 70 %. I’ll have to keep eye on the battery consumption and update the post, if needed.
The display of the watch is not as bright as I expected, and it is probably due to this that the watch is able to operate so long with a single recharge. The brightness can, though, be adjusted and it is well readable in the daylight anyway. The touch screen is not that sensitive than e.g. on my iPhone, but on a sports watch it’s actually a better feature helping to avoid accidental touching etc. Moreover, the user is able to lock the screen which I find very important.
Final opinion
As a summary, after having used this watch for a couple of days, I have a very good feeling about the watch. It has most of the functionalities I desire. The main complaint is that there are no special configurable workout modes for different types of running training, e.g. interval training, tempo run etc., but it is understandable that Garmin wants to keep those in the more expensive models. There seems to be some apps available that could partly help, but on the other hand after having been doing running training for several years, I can pretty well train also without the watch guiding me on every occasion. 🙂
Drawbacks
- Missing interval, tempo run etc. configurable training types for running.
- No integrated music player (relevant for an old user of TomTom Spark Cardio and Music).
Benefits
- Great deal of apps, widgets and watch faces available already now -> large possibilities for customization.
- Battery life seems decent.
- The watch feels good and natural on the wrist.