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Vibration Intensity

I picked up a Vivoactive 3 today, upgrading from the Vivoactive HR and wow, you guys are not wrong, The Vibration intensity is basically useless on this watch. Cannot tell the difference between Low, Med or High. Wish I had of read this forum before buying. Its almost a deal breaker and am thinking of returning it.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    Even with Firmware 2.50 vibration is very weak on my V3. I set the vibration to "high", but the alarm doesn't wake me up in the morning (which was never an issue on the VAHR) and alarms during activities are so short and weak I sometimes miss the, them. I noticed the device IS capable of a stronger vibration (e.g. in some CIQ apps or when starting the device), which is why I'm not sure wether I got a broken unit or it is just a software problem. I'd like to be sure before I send my V3 back, so I'm curious:. Can anybody here confirm the problem? Are your watches capable of waking you up and how is the in-app vibration?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    I have never had an issue with the vibration at all. Mine even on lower settings was always enogh to wake me.
  • So if you really feel stronger vibrations during start up and with some apps... makes it sound like a FW issue and not a hardware... Can anyone else confirm?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    So I swapped out my VA3 earlier and the new one is just as weak as far as the vibrations go. I saw in another thread someone exchanged their watch and the new one was better but it wasn't the case for me.

    I hope they can fix it cause like you said there are certain things that set off much stronger vibrations. I just got the update for the new watch and the updating alert vibration was much stronger then any of the notification vibrations.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    My vibration is super low too even on high. What they need to do is make the high vibration as strong as the rest vibration when creating workouts, and then go weaker from there.
  • Picked up a Vivoactive 3 last night from Argos, coming from a Vivoactive HR I was expecting a reduction in the strength of vibration after reading this forum. I'd agree it's not quite as strong but I don't think it's that bad...
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    well, to be fair they increased the length of the vibrations for alarms with firmware v2.50.

    that said, the intensity could likely still be increased further...
  • I have noticed the vibration intensity is a lot stronger on the front of the watch. If I swap between low, med and high vibration in the settings and touch the bezel of the watch with a finger, the vibration is strong. It is only weak underneath the watch. It's almost as if the vibration motor is upside down or something.

    Think i will return mine tomorrow and swap for a new one. If the problem exists on that, I might consider swapping it to a Fenix 5 as that will indicate a hardware issue that software can't fix.

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  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    I'm not so sure that there's anything to fix. There may be some defective devices out there, but I wonder if people are just use to the vibration level of their old device? My wife and I both have VA3's. My vibration levels work fine. My wife would swear on our children's lives that there is no change in levels on her watch and it never wakes her up. I tried her watch and she's definitely crazy. LOL. I can tell the difference in levels. We swapped watches one night. Hers woke me up and she slept through the alarm on mine. Maybe Garmin can increase the level and that would be great, but I don't believe there's a wide spread bug that needs to be repaired. Maybe I'm wrong. Just my two cents worth.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 7 years ago
    My vibration is super low too even on high. What they need to do is make the high vibration as strong as the rest vibration when creating workouts, and then go weaker from there.


    On my device the vibration during workouts is just as weak as wakeup alarms.