Garmin 010-02174-01 vivoactive 4, GPS Smartwatch, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Silver with Gray Band

I have been a Fitbit user for a few years and it just suddenly died on me so I was in the market for a new fitness watch. I like to take gym fitness classes, I teach yoga, and also do martial arts. After looking at 7 different watches I narrowed it down to the Polar Ignite and the Garmin Vivoactive 4s. I bought both and this is my own review.Polar has a $190 price tag, 4-5 day battery life, GPS, VERY accurate heart rate monitoring (that’s what they are known for), in my experience the sleep monitoring was more accurate than the Garmin, but not as user friendly as the Fitbit. The polar has a very bright and clear screen, but like the Fitbit you have to flip the wrist to see it light up. In contrast, the screen is actually harder to see than the Garmin when out in the sun, (say on a run). Polar will give you suggestions for recovery that go with what you did to workout and I thought that was neat. It also has a nightly recharge score (like Garmin’s “body battery”). Cons: it is slow to wake, like the Fitbit. It would occasionally disconnect from my phone, it does not have music downloadable to the watch so you have to have your phone nearby, and the texts that come through are too big so you only see a portion of it. It also does not have menstrual tracking which I found handy on the Fitbit.I ended up returning the Polar and keeping the Garmin vivoactive 4s and here’s why. Garmin may have a higher price tag ($230), and a duller screen. See picture. But many good qualities that after a few weeks of trial made me choose it. It says the battery life is 7 days, but I got 4-5 days. Has GPS (on par with Polar). Has music you can download to the watch so you don’t have to take your phone with you! I did not have any music when using the Fitbit so I didn’t know this was something I would like so much, but it’s awesome. The watch face is 40mm as compared to the Polar’s 43mm. I like a smaller watch. The heart rate was pretty much the same as polar, or within 5bpm. If you look at the picture I have of a run I did you can see how Fitbit did NOT accurately detect when I went from walking to running and the other 2 watches did. Another plus is that the screen is always on. Also not something I had with Fitbit so I didn’t know what I was missing. When doing an activity and you want to quickly know what your heart rate is, Garmin is hands down the best option. The screen will light up more if you touch it, but you can always see the time and anything else you want on your display (I have time, heart rate, date, weather, messages, battery, and steps all on my watch face). Garmin will track your sleep, but it isn’t as detailed or accurate as the Fitbit or polar, but it does have something cool called Pulse Ox that measures your blood oxygen levels (like those clips with a red light they put on your finger at the doctor’s office). This is good to detect any problems you may have while sleeping or even during the day. Garmin does have menstrual tracking and also Garmin Pay. A con would be that Garmin does not add naps into your sleep for the day. It will only track one sleep for the day, not multiple. The display is by far the best over the 3 watches when outside. It’s almost like a kindle screen when you are in the sun. You can change settings so when you are in a workout you won’t get any messages or notifications so they won’t interrupt you (I am someone that will immediately look at my watch when it buzzes so I turned those off when in the middle of a workout).Now if you have been a Fitbit user like I had and switched to one of these watches, the apps are very confusing. Fitbit has by far the most user friendly app. But with a little time, either app will become familiar to you as well.I am not a runner, never have been, but I have turned into a runner because of the Garmin watch. It has a coach setting where you can plug in a goal and it will coach you to get to that goal. I am very competitive so I make sure I am going to get to that goal (a 5k run). It is very satisfying to see your runs displayed on the app and to rate them on how you felt that day.In conclusion, depending on what you are looking for you might choose a different watch than me, but I love my Garmin Vivoactive 4s now.

I've tried several smartwatches and finally found the one for me with the Vivoactive 4!I started with Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 - terribly short battery life and very slow charging. Tried Amazfit GTR 2 - nice but couldn't get past being tethered to China, and poor app. Fossil Hybrid HR - beautiful to look at, buggy and inaccurate. With Garmin I tried the Venu 2: beautiful screen and great features, but annoyingly buggy, and with erratic battery life. Vivomove Style - worked fine but small and just not enough good features.This is the one. Sometimes I'll compare/contrast Vivoactive 4 (VA4) with Venu 2 (V2).Pros:-Just about the right shape and size and weight for me. Looks nice; I originally wanted the black but the shadow gray/silver bezel was $50 cheaper. I like the silver bezel, looks classy, and I'm happy with it.-Interface smooth and easy to use. Different from the Android-like style of Samsung or Amazfit but easy enough in its own way. No lags. Decently customizable. Decent app selection in the store.-Touchscreen works really well; responsive when I actually want to use it, but rarely picks up accidental touches, or wiping it with my sleeve. (V2 was terrible for accidental touches and always activated when trying to wipe it off.)-Great fitness features for general casual fitness (probably not for pro athletes). Good GPS for hiking (under the Walking activity). Lots of good motivators to be active, and tons of metrics even just for normal daily use.-Excellent battery life, good for a week without GPS activities. GPS uses ~10% per hour, still good. Charges in a little over an hour. (V2 charged even more quickly, but battery life was erratic, and far shorter with always-on display.)-Good selection of watchfaces, stock and third-party.-Transreflective display - I wasn't sure about this, but I've come to really like it! It's certainly not as "pretty" as AMOLED like on a Samsung or the V2, but much more practical, and far better battery life. AOD 24/7 for a week straight, backlight only needed in the dark, very clear and easy to read in sunlight - a much better choice for a fitness-focused watch in my opinion. Very happy with it! (The AMOLED AOD on the V2 was my main problem with it, other than general bugginess. It sapped the battery like crazy. It also couldn't be turned off quickly on the fly, like for a movie or a nap. Not a problem on the VA4!)-I like Garmin Connect. Pretty easy to use and lots of info.Cons:-Transreflective display - I like it, as noted above, but it takes some getting used to at first after AMOLED, and will never be as "pretty" except in bright sunlight which is where it really shines (literally).-Slightly thicker than I might prefer.-Plastic build, other than bezel. I don't mind and it's sturdy and light, but it doesn't say "premium."-Occasional problems getting a GPS lock after traveling to a new location. It helps to sync and then restart the watch.-Connect IQ, the app store, is poorly organized and has a lot of junk in with some gems. Looks like the Android Market 10 years ago.-Sleep tracking. For me this is the major con, especially compared to the V2. Accuracy is only okay, sleep and wake times decent, but sometimes missed when I'm in bed awake, or even got up to go to the bathroom. No sleep score and no insights, and can't view sleep on the watch. Sleep tracking is where the V2 really excels by comparison - impressively accurate, and very helpful sleep score and insights, onboard calculation and widget... the V2 outstrips the VA4 by miles here. I really, really wish Garmin would bring the updated sleep tracking to the VA4 as a firmware update. Or a VA5. I'd buy it!Aside from the lackluster sleep tracking, I'm extremely happy with the Garmin Vivoactive 4. It's (almost) everything I want from a fitness/smartwatch. If Garmin brought the better sleep tracking to it, I'd say 5 stars, solid. As it is, call it a strong 4.5, and the best available for my needs.