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Tuesday

Apr282015

Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch Preview

Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 11:28AM

I have been humming and hawing as to if I should get the new Apple Watch since it looks like it could be the best Smart Watch and Fitness Tracker on the market and I am sure in many ways it may in fact just be. That said I have come to the conclusion that the Apple Watch is just not right for me.

One of my main focuses for having a Fitness Tracker Smart Watch combination is to monitor my workouts as accurately as possible so I know to near precision how many calories I am burning and how much effort I am putting in. So this means I need to go with the most accurate heart rate monitoring available and that is still going to be a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor. Believe me I have tried many variations of wrist based Optical Sensor heart rate trackers and none of them cut it, including the new Fitbit Surge. I am still waiting to see how the Apple Watch stacks up in this department but I am not optimistic to say the least.

The other concern I have with the Apple Watch is... Well it's just too nice and too expensive to be worn on my wrist while I beat the living crap out of it during my weight training and other fitness activities.

So that brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive. How did I get to this point and why did I go with the Garmin VivoActive? I have used many Fitness Bands and Fitness Watches in the past including some from Fitbit, Polar, Jawbone, Mio and Basis. Many of these Fitness Trackers worked well for me but once I tried the Polar Loop with its super accurate chest strap based Heart Rate Monitoring, I decided that this combination was the way to go at least for me. That led to trying out the Garmin VivoFit with HRM , which led to the Garmin VivoSmart with HRM, that led to what I am using now which again brings us back to the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch bundled with a chest strap based Heart Rate Monitor.

Each new rendition of Garmin products has offered more built in technology and connectivity making each device more and more useful to me. At this point the Garmin VivoActive does what I need it to do, no more, no less and it does it really well.

Here is a breakdown of what I find most useful about the Garmin VivoActive Activity Tracker and Smart Watch:

It's a 24 hour Fitness tracker that tracks my basic movements and figures out my daily caloric output.
The VivoActive can be paired over Bluetooth with a Chest Strap Monitor to accurately read my Heart Rate during workouts.
The Garmin VivoActive has a built in GPS that tracks my outside walks, runs and bike rides along with elevation, pace, speed distance and more...
The Garmin VivoActive is water proof to 5 ATM (50 meters) so you can swim with it.
The VivoActive has a very readable "all the time on" color touch screen with backlight when required.
The Garmin VivoActive can gets up to 3 weeks of battery life. (Or a Solid week for someone like me using many of the power draining features.)
The VivoActive is very light weight and low profile.
The Garmin VivoActive is stylish and looks more like a watch than a fitness tracker.
The VivoActive is also a Smart Watch with vibrating Text, Email, Social Media, Calendar and incoming Phone Call notifications.
The Garmin VivoActive can also control your Phones music playback, show you the Weather conditions and of course keep you updated on your current daily activity output.
The Garmin VivoActive can take advantage of the Garmin Connect IQ Store where new Watch Faces, Apps and Widgets can be downloaded to the VivoActive for personal customization.
Good hardware is one thing, Garmin has also done a nice job with their software for both your Smart Phone and when using Garmin's Web Based Interface.