Garmin Vívoactive 4, GPS Smartwatch, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Black/Slate

Firstly I am not a member of any review programme and purchased this with my own cash.I moved from Fitbit to Garmin after a number of years of frustrating Fitbit ownership. Their software and hardware is so buggy. I had the app on both Android and iOS and it was awful. Not to mention devices that wouldn’t connect, GPS totally inaccurate, and numerous product replacements due to them dying and strap failures. In contrast my Garmin software has been completely stable and the device is tough.I use my Garmin watch mainly for running and as a heart rate device while cycling. I say as a heart rate device because I put it into heart rate broadcast mode while cycling and it pairs with my Garmin Edge 830 bike GPS device (the Edge does the tracking/activity recording). The pairing works without fault every time and the battery lasts well too. I believe it is ANT+ in this mode so may well connect with other devices as a HR receiver.Modes include: Run, walk, trail run, bike, breath work, pool swim, cardio, bike indoor, walk indoor, treadmill, row indoor, other, virtual run, track run, indoor track, strength, yoga, pilates, elliptical & stair stepper. You can also make your own activity if it is not one listed by default.The watch does have Garmin pay but it is useless in the UK (just like Fitbit pay) with only Santander supporting it. If you really must pay by watch then Apple and Android watches are better for payments.iPhone notifications work brilliantly albeit with iPhone you can’t reply to messages. This is Apples restriction and not Garmin. You can however answer and end calls from the watch. I believe if paired to Android then you get pre defined text responses too. You can see all of a text message on the watch as well as clear the notification from your phone. My diary also syncs nicely to my watch with calendar and system notifications working just as well as texts, and stuff from all other phone apps. You can configure what notifications you receive and also put the watch into ‘do not disturb’ mode.As for health tracking it does loads of stuff: pulse oxygen, heart rate, stress, respiration, body battery, active minutes, sleep and more. They all seem to be pretty accurate with loads of metrics to play around with on the Connect phone app.The battery comfortably lasts a week and that is with usually 2 x 5K runs, 1 x 10K run and a four hour bike ride in HR broadcast mode. Compare that to the Apple Watch that barely lasts a day! I never suffer battery anxiety and can easily go away for a few days minus the charging lead.GPS is fantastic and really accurate considering this is a watch. It sadly does not support the Komoot app though, however you can save a location and navigate using an on screen arrow (i.e. car parking location etc). On the subject of finding things if you lose your phone you can make it play a sound at full volume. If your phone is on silent the watch will show Bluetooth signal strength to guide you to where your phone is hiding. You can also do it in reverse from your phone if you have lost your watch.It has music storage plus apps such as Spotify and Amazon Music. You will need to be a subscriber of said services for downloading stuff for offline use. The watch will also control playback from your phone. It works very well with the following features: play/pause, skip forward/back, volume up/down, track title.Other features are available in the Garmin Connect App Store such as Starbucks card, watch faces, compass, data fields etc. There are loads of extra apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields.If you need a Garmin with on screen maps then you will need a Fenix device. If your primary focus is golf you need a Approach device. If you are a swimmer a Swim or Descent model. If you are a cyclist and runner then the Forerunner and Vevoactive/Venu ranges are excellent.The touch screen is great and can be locked to prevent accidental touches too. The screen is backlit (configurable to work when raised, during darkness etc.) and the screen is very clear in full sun. It might not be as pixel perfect as an AMOLED screen but it is very clear, very battery friendly and always on.I could go on about the many features of this watch. I suppose it is important to add that the straps are watch industry standard so any of the correct width will fit (not stuck with Garmin only), it is waterproof to 5ATM, charges with a short proprietary to USB-A cable, and the Garmin standard UK warranty is 2 years from date of purchase.In summary I highly recommend Garmin products. All the Garmin stuff I have works a treat, is way more stable/accurate than Fitbit, and the battery life blows Apple Watch out of the water.

A great watch. Fitness tracker is good and functionality spot on. I looked into a lot of options before buying the Vivoactive 4 and I’m delighted to have opted for the Garmin.Customisable watch face, fitness programmes and virtual PT is a nice feature. Battery is good, 7-10 days dependent on GPS usage. GPS function and tracking options are excellent, accurate and easy to use. I haven’t used the O2 saturation feature yet but if it’s as slick as the rest of the V4’s options, it is guaranteed to be a cracker.Golfers will love the golf course download options with a bespoke golf app to support this function. Love it.Thoroughly recommend this watch over the more expensive Apple and Fitbit options

The only problem with this watch is the set up. The instructions leave big gaps and it’s necessary to ask questions on line to fully understand it. But once it is set up it is superb. Looks great, works very well, and although the battery does drain if you use the features regularly, it charges so quickly that a quick burst over breakfast three times a week keeps me well charged. Superb app on the phone, and I’ve found the data over sleep, running, paces etc to be very accurate. So worth 5 stars as I think it’s very good for the money. But I wish they’d sort out their instructions.

I bought this after returning the Samsung Galaxy Active 2 for being an amazing smart watch and terrible activity tracker.The first thing that hits you once your get it and turn it on is how basic the screen is compared to the beautiful screen on the Samsung, it's like looking at a 30 year old Casio.There are some smart features, you can receive and answer calls on it (but not talk directly to it) and you get texts, WhatsApp and alerts from other apps like Twitter. You can set timers and there are a few watch faces to choose from but they all look very basic.The activity tracking is very good, takes forever to acquire GPS but the calories and distances look right, there's a lot of information to see while you're excising and you can set alerts to keep you in a certain heart rate zone etc where the watch vibrates if you're too low or too high.The battery life is better than any smart watch or activity tracker I've used. I get 5 days no problem and I'm using GPS most days for my walks and rides.I've found it accurate for swimming but haven't used it for running or putting music onto.At the time of writing this review I had my first fail on the watch where the touchscreen became unresponsive, turning it on and off fixed this but not good for a watch that is 3 weeks old.EDIT: I've reluctantly sent it back. After the screen freeze problem the heart rate became random, I did a walk where I was walking as hard as I could up a hill for a mile and a half and it was reading 104-109, my heart rate was constantly over 150, my breathing was ragged all the way.On bike rides it would buzz to say my heart rate was too low but I knew it wasn't from my breathing. I thought about getting another one when I returned it but for this to fail after 3 weeks is not good enough for the price.