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What's best for swimming? Vivoactive 3 music or 735xt?

3440420
over 5 years ago

Hi,

I'm looking for a sport watch for swimming and I've been down to either VA3M or 735xt (due to price range). On one hand 735 seems more robust, but VA3M is newer. I Irain four days a week for about one hour each day (+/- 3km per training). And besides daily stats, I'd like to use the watch to track my laps during a set and the interval time.

I'd like to hear some opinions!

Thanks!

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    VA3(M) doesn't support the swim-hrm or swim-tri do if you want to track your heart rate go with the 735

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    The VA3M crashes if you swim more than about 1600m without pausing and dividing it into intervals. This started happening with the 3.70 software update in February and the last 3 updates haven't resolved this (I tried again with version 4.0 on Sunday). Garmin are aware of the problem but are unable to give a timeframe for fixing it. I'm thinking of getting a refund and then either geting a Forerunner 245 or one of the Samsung Galaxy watches.

    Update: Software version 4.3 no longer crashes when swimming up to 3000m.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Richard

    does FR245 support swimming? 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    If you plan to do outdoor swims or triathlons, then go with 735.

    If just pool swims, then VA3M.

    I haven't run into the recent problems that others are experiencing with pool swims, so cannot comment on that. But my experience with VA3M and pool swims has been excellent. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to godolphins

    Pool swimming, but not OWS, and it doesn't support the HRM-Swim or HRM-Tri for swimming.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to godolphins

    Out of interest, what software version are you using? Have you tried swimming 2km without pausing?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Richard

    I'm on latest SW - 4.0, but I not sure if I've done a pool swim in a while. I will very soon and can look for this issue - I usually do take 30s pauses every 500m though.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to godolphins

    That's the workaround I'm using for now, pausing after every 60 lengths and immediately resuming. I keep trying a long swim when the new update comes out and v4.0 crashes on 70 laps. Garmin support are aware of the problem and have requested zipped Garmin folders to be sent but there is still no word on when they might solve the issue.