If you had it to do again would you still buy the Vivoactive 3?

Despite all the issues, most of which will hopefully be worked out by firmware updates, I am more than happy with the device, speaking as someone who came from a Fitbit Blaze. You have to ask yourself what kind of user you are. If you care about general activity/fitness tracking, most of the accuracy issues shouldn't matter. They certainly didn't matter that much to me when I was on the Fitbit. Like heart rate not being the most accurate during activities. For most casual users it is the directionality that counts so that you push yourself to do more than you did before. You have to ask yourself what the real actionable data is. If the heart rate were more accurate, would it make you do anything different? I'm not arguing it can be complete nonsense but in general you want most of your metrics to just be moving in the right direction.

I am kinda transitioning now to the other kind of user who does care more about accuracy, like targeting my workouts to specific heart rate zones and tracking my cadence and speed more accurately during biking and running. For those I got external sensors like footpod and chest heart rate strap and bike cadence/speed sensor. These were not even an option on the fitbit and still aren't on the new Fitbit Ionic from what I understand. So with the Garmin you have the option to supplement it with external sensors if you decide you care more about accuracy. Again all these only make sense if you're going to actually use the data to change something, like getting a better running/biking cadence or targeting specific heart rate zones in your workouts. One item missing here is no support for biking power meters. A lot of hardcore cyclists care about those but a) power meters are really expensive, more than this watch, b) it isn't clear to me that the power reading is actionable in the moment for an amateur, maybe for serious racers.

So in summary I'm sold on the watch so far, which is a good thing since I bought it just as it had come out and have been tracking all the issues people are having, some of which I've had too. After following various bits of advice from these forums, battery life is pretty good and the rest good enough.

I use it for running, sleep tracking, fitness tracker features. Plan to use it for biking in the warmer weather. Live track feature is a big plus for me.

I have ave seen a couple of bugs, but minor stuff only. Battery life has been great.

overall very happy with it

Well from my experience all of the Vivo-Devices I had had a few problems when they were new (Vivosmart HR, Vivoactive HR and now the Vivoactive 3, oh and an Index Smart Scale aswell), but in the end all of them got improved to a point where atleast I didn't have any problems with them. So Garmin really seems to be interested in making their devices work and not abandoning them in a half-baked state. Obviously they still want to make money so every year you got a new one and the old one doesn't receive the fancy features anymore, but I guess that this is quite normale for most products and not a problem if you are already satisfied with the current feature-set.

I just had to change my new Vivoactive 3 for a new one because the first one hat a bunch of deal-breaking problems but the new one seems to work quite fine now. The other thread full of complaints states most of the time that these problems went away after a change, so maybe there are just some specific problems that affect quality control but only smaller problems with the device or the software itself. And the software problems will get fixed over time.

So to answer your question: Yes i would buy it again, i was also considerung the fenix 5s but the hefty price tag repelled me for now, it's just too much for something were i might just use a fraction of the offered features. The only real reson why i'm still interested in the fenix is the design and the option of sapphire glass. (I own a Tissot watch with sapphire and have been smacking it against everything thats sharp and edgy througout the last years and there still is not a single scratch in the glass so technically im sold just by the material used.)

Best regards.

Edit: Regarding the above: Yes the modularity of the system is the reason why I went for Garmin in the first place, i do a lot of rowing an a Concept2 erg, there the wrist-based HR-Sensor is basically useless so i needed something that supported HR-Belts and so on. Combined with the more casual tracking of sleep and many other activities it is the perfect mix for me for now.

Coming from a Gear S2 Classic... yes, in a heartbeat (poor pun!). Very very impressed with my first Garmin!

Appreciate the responses. I would probably buy an ANT+ Chest strap for when I am pushing it. I have a clean bill of health, and for a 62 year old woman my RHR is not bad around 61** but I am working on weight loss and I am pushing it on hill climbing. I want something to set to alert me to slow down before I push too hard because I think I have sometimes been too long in the "peak" zone and did not realize it and usually my resting heart rate is a slightly elevated the next day when that happens. I would like to avoid that. ..... So a combination of wanting to make sure I am not walking in the too low non aerobic zones and not overdoing it for too long durations at a higher heart rate...............

I do like the sapphire glass but see that a number of screen protectors are already available for the Vivoactive 3. I am in the woods a lot (search and rescue team) and frequently do battle with briars etc. and would just as soon avoid tearing it up. Most days though I wear long sleeves in the woods and would have to pull the sleeve back to see the watch.

Would be using for fast walking, kayaking, and bike riding in the future but I doubt I would ever tap the Fenix feature set.

**Per Fitbit but it normally is in the low 60s in the day when I am working at my desk

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... i do a lot of rowing an a Concept2 erg, there the wrist-based HR-Sensor is basically useless so i needed something that supported HR-Belts and so on. Combined with the more casual tracking of sleep and many other activities it is the perfect mix for me for now.

Does the VA3 show the spm when rowing?
I also row on the C2 on regular basis.

Appreciate the responses. I would probably buy an ANT+ Chest strap for when I am pushing it. I have a clean bill of health, and for a 62 year old woman my RHR is not bad around 61** but I am working on weight loss and I am pushing it on hill climbing. I want something to set to alert me to slow down before I push too hard because I think I have sometimes been too long in the "peak" zone and did not realize it and usually my resting heart rate is a slightly elevated the next day when that happens. I would like to avoid that. ..... So a combination of wanting to make sure I am not walking in the too low non aerobic zones and not overdoing it for too long durations at a higher heart rate...............

I do like the sapphire glass but see that a number of screen protectors are already available for the Vivoactive 3. I am in the woods a lot (search and rescue team) and frequently do battle with briars etc. and would just as soon avoid tearing it up. Most days though I wear long sleeves in the woods and would have to pull the sleeve back to see the watch.

Would be using for fast walking, kayaking, and bike riding in the future but I doubt I would ever tap the Fenix feature set.

**Per Fitbit but it normally is in the low 60s in the day when I am working at my desk

FWIW my resting heart rate reported by Fitbit was 7-10 beats higher than what the Garmin reports since I switched. The Fitbit one seems to follow some unknown algorithm of their own. Again it is really directionality that matters, see discussion here : https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/02/understanding-continual-optical.html

Does the VA3 show the spm when rowing?
I also row on the C2 on regular basis.

Yes it does display the strokerate and also total strokes after you finished but no distance and no power-readings.

You would need the ErgIQ App from the ConnectIQ store for that. But I haven't tried that so far because as far as i know the app can't write to the regular Garmin Connect Fields but only to specific ConnectIQ fields which don't seem to count for your regular profile. But that seems to be a limitation of Garmin Connect in general and not of the app itself. The app itself should be able to connect to the PM5 Monitor of the C2 and record everything the PM5 provides via ANT. I just hope that Garmin adds this functionality one day because for the last year i have edited the workouts manually which is very time consuming and therefore at one point i just stopped to edit them now i have a bunch of workout which report a nearly acurate time, heartrates, strokerate but no distances and no power and the time is always around 3 seconds off (Because you need to manually start and stop and picking up the handle from the c2 and placing it again takes around 3 seconds.)

More Info can be found here: https://forums.garmin.com/forum/developers/connect-iq/connect-iq-showcase/147449-erg-iq?366510-Erg-IQ=

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Yes it does display the strokerate and also total strokes after you finished but no distance and no power-readings.

You would need the ErgIQ App from the ConnectIQ store for that...

Yes, I know about the ErgIQ App and the "specific ConnectIQ fields".
At the moment I'm using a V800 and a F3HR at the same time with a Wahoo Tickr.
Alway's using a HRM strap. ( OWHR is only good for RHR imo)
Even the scosche is not fast enough.


I trust the V800 for my recovery time in combination with F3HR for my RHR.
Just for a more precise RHR ( 24/7 HR), I may consider the VA3.

The effective Cal. burned from the V800 are very close compared to PM5.

It's a shame that Garmin is not using the ANT+ FE protocol anymore.
I have never seen so accurate DATA from a fitness device...In BTLE and ANT+

I'm use Ergdata IOS, because every (split) second counts for my ranking ;)

Coming from a VAHR... I would definitely buy VA3 again although I guess I would've waited just a little longer as the prices (referring to Amazon) are starting to come down sooner than expected (although I did get a good pre-order deal). Compared to VAHR... Better screen with more info, easier to tap the on-screen buttons, the watch being round and having stainless steel bezel means I can use it as a casual and even a dress watch, universal quick release bands (bigger and cheaper selection online). And these are just the first impressions. As for the bugs, I've hardly experienced any of them. The price could be lower but it's all relative: I'm happy to pay 200 dollars less for a less bulky Fenix 5 with pretty much all of the bells and whistles for a basic to semi-advanced user.

Some people are disappointed about the smart watch capabilities of this watch. This is a sports watch with the focus on sports. This is not a fitness smart watch (like Fitbit) or a smart watch with fitness capabilities (like Apple Watch 3). I bough VA3 for running, training and cycling and I don't see Fitbit and Apple offering the same sensors and sports capabilities. I actually don't even keep the watch connected to my smart phone as, apart from cycling, I don't keep my phone with me when doing sports.