Vivosmart 4 Opinions

Not recommended!

If you can get Vivosmart 3, it will be better choice.

My issues with Vivosmart 4:

- Im not able to just step length (strike)

- Laps a counted in miles not in km

- GPS pulling algorithm is useless. Usually when I stop, it is jumping few handed meters.to the site ... its look like my step went from 70 cm to 700 m. In Galaxy S9, ( where GPS data is pulled from) the same walk is showing correctly

Also, look into other posts in this forum. There is lot of problem with this unit mostly related to FW. 

It look like they don't care because after 1 year these are still not fixed.

Thank's Yurek. The GPS pulling would have been one of the important things for me. I carry an iPhone so I was hoping that would reliably supply the GPS to the Vivosmart.

Although as you say there seems to be a lot of negative posts, I was hoping that it was the typical situation where people are more vocal complaining though tend to keep quiet when everything is running fine. I will have to look at an alternative whilst still keeping in the Garmin eco system as I like the data they store and how it's presented. 

I can't recognize Yurek's problems. I haven't logged that many gps routes, since it came after I switches focus from running to gym-classes. But the few times I logged cycling and walking, it has worked as intended. I have an iPhone, so it might be an Android problem. I do see, that on my walk today, the laps are 1.61km as Yurek say even though I configured for km. I am not sure what he mean with "Im not able to just step length (strike)", but you can adjust stride length for walking and running. I know it worked before gps was an options (haven't tested since), since I improved treadmill precision. Also connected gps is a brand feature and there has been 2 firmware updates within last month, so I wouldn't say they don't care, though I don't expect Apple kind updates. I do think Yurek's should error report to garmin (possible on support page->[product]->get help), to get it fixed.

I am running mine in tandem with an Apple Watch. In general I am happy. I got it cheap. It is very discrite and easy to forget. Having something on both arms actually cancels out and I find my Apple watch less annoying to wear now (I used to take it off or switch wrist). The steps are in the same range as my Apple Watch. Some times more, some times less. Due to my health condition, I where looking forward to body battery and many people are happy with it. However it doesn't that well for me, but I am not surprised, because of my health condition.

I don't think this is related to Android. These issues present itself to web site also. I have also Vivosmart 3 which I don't have  these problems. Step length in Vivosmart 4 is FIXED, and  it is not taking my seting (69 cm) into account, so in '4' my walked distance is 23~25% longer than in '3'

All my problems were reported to support, but since then only one issue was resolved ( autostart activity fixed on 10 min).All these simple bugs should be catch by QA before releasing product. And they are still present after 1 year. Not this kind of quality I expected from Garmin.

It's the gps problems you describe, I wonder if is related to Android. Vivosmart 3 doesn't do connect gps AFAIK. In my case the gps tracking is just as good as when doing a tracking with Apple Watch and bringing my. And that is no wonder, since Apple Watch will use the phone gps, if connected by bluetooth, så it is the same gps. I haven't tested stride length after version 4, but know it worked before. Not sure it is used with gps, then I expect it to use gps for distance. Its a shame, I am not doing running at the moment, then I could retest your claims.

My minor annoyance, is that you cannot pause an activities without it starts to count down and finish within 30seconds. My friend bought it to track swimming and is very disappointed, that it only gives you totals. Both are by design and not errors.

But in generel I haven't really had major issues. But Apple Watch is my main activity tracker. The vivosmart is to fill the gaps (body battery and pulse ox) and compete in connect with friends on steps.

PallMe said:

but you can adjust stride length for walking and running

stride length For walking and running can be adjusted indeed. But it seems garmin does not take your adjustments into account while calculating distance. Because, whatever the value i enter, i get the same distance for walk. I will test again tomorrow and inform you about it. 

Other than that, heart rate, step count, phone notifications work good. Sleep tracking is ok. Steps is just utterly useless. 

I am an ex vs3 user. Its silicone band was broken twice and garmin changed it with vs4. 3 was bettwr looking too, but I don’t advice because band breaks inevitably within a few months.  

Edit: STAIRS is utterly useless, not the STEPS. steps are just fine. 

Well I decided to get one. It's a lot smaller than I expected, which is not a bad thing. I had a bit of trouble getting bluetooth to work reliably at first but a firmware update seems to have cured that.

My intention is to wear it when I am not wearing the Fenix probably an Apple watch or dress watch so that I get a continuous set of data in Garmin Connect. At the moment I have the Fenix 6X set as the preferred device but as I might use the VS4 for sleep tracking I am not sure if I should set the VS4 as preferred and does it matter. I presume the non preferred device will always take over recording to connect if the other device is not being worn.

Ive tested distance calc. Yurek is right. It calculates step length almist random. It doesn’t care the value you enter. I enter 0,96 m. But it has calculated it as 0,56 for a walk and 0,62 for another. 

Must be regression. I did a long run on threadmill. Entered distance reported on threadmill and number of steps. The following runs on threadmill gave a distance very close to what the threadmills where reporting. But as stated previous this was on firmware 3.2 and I haven't been running on 4.0+. (Haven't even used my new Stryde Next Gen more than once. could be a good reference, as it should be more precise than gps).