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VA3 Hardware Variation

Hi All,

I swapped my VA3 for a new replacement due to battery usage, so I am now on my second and there are a number of differences so thought I would post them. There seems to be a fair bit of variation in the hardware which may explain why some are happier than others with the VA3. I should also note that I had the old VA3 on 2.9 and the new one I put straight onto 2.9 firmware.

So here are the differences I have noted:

* I have the slate version. The first one, the slate ring was quite black. The new one is more of a metallic grey.

* Battery life is much better in the new one. I was getting about 25-30% per day battery usage on the first one (with garmin Sport watch face and no GPS activities) and I get about 10-15% on the new one. Admittedly I have not added any ConnectIQ items to the new watch.

* The ANT+ is weaker on the new one. I never had any speed/cadence dropouts on the first one, but I typically get at least one per ride with the new one. This could become a showstopper for me.

* The vibration alert on the new watch is much stronger. It is much more noticeable, but it may have an issue as I can actually here something buzzing internally when it vibrates which was not present on the first watch (which may be because it had weak vibration).

* The touch screen on the old watch seemed more sensitive. I struggle to flip some of the switches to enable/disable features. It seems to take more force at the edge of the screen where the switches are typically located. For normal operation for swiping and selecting items they seem similar.

Obviously I would prefer to mix the good things from both watches and I would be happy. I realise Garmin claim to be fixing things with firmware updates, but I am sceptical as it seems apparent to me that there are variations in function on the same firmware indicating that many issues are due to hardware variation. My take at the moment is to hold on to the one I have and give it a few months of firmware updates and see what happens. I am most concerned with the ANT performance. I do a lot of riding, and I use autopause. With the speed sensor disconnecting, the speed goes to zero and causes issues for my data recording and stats.

Cheers,

Adrian

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

hmm, i've had my VA3 since late october...and the ring is a dark gunmetal like grey...its an asian version btw.
thats probably also why i have never really had any kind of complaints since release.

what this could be are diff factories, and now garmin has decided to get rid of whoever was making the version with the blacker ring?

0 dhj49er over 7 years ago

What hardware revision is your new watch?
it can be found on the bottom of the box.
I'm on my 3rd VA3 and my latest is a rev C
Battery life is better and Bluetooth connections to my phone works. The others went back mainly because of Bluetooth connection issues or VA3 wouldn't reliably reconnect, needing a hard reset of VA3 and clearing data & cache of the Connect app on the phone. My latest VA3 has none of those issues.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

im not sure if the rev actually means anything, but mine is rev B... serial 5ec060xxx.

0 Superkg over 7 years ago

Hi All,

I swapped my VA3 for a new replacement due to battery usage, so I am now on my second and there are a number of differences so thought I would post them. There seems to be a fair bit of variation in the hardware which may explain why some are happier than others with the VA3. I should also note that I had the old VA3 on 2.9 and the new one I put straight onto 2.9 firmware.

So here are the differences I have noted:

* I have the slate version. The first one, the slate ring was quite black. The new one is more of a metallic grey.

* Battery life is much better in the new one. I was getting about 25-30% per day battery usage on the first one (with garmin Sport watch face and no GPS activities) and I get about 10-15% on the new one. Admittedly I have not added any ConnectIQ items to the new watch.

* The ANT+ is weaker on the new one. I never had any speed/cadence dropouts on the first one, but I typically get at least one per ride with the new one. This could become a showstopper for me.

* The vibration alert on the new watch is much stronger. It is much more noticeable, but it may have an issue as I can actually here something buzzing internally when it vibrates which was not present on the first watch (which may be because it had weak vibration).

* The touch screen on the old watch seemed more sensitive. I struggle to flip some of the switches to enable/disable features. It seems to take more force at the edge of the screen where the switches are typically located. For normal operation for swiping and selecting items they seem similar.

Obviously I would prefer to mix the good things from both watches and I would be happy. I realise Garmin claim to be fixing things with firmware updates, but I am sceptical as it seems apparent to me that there are variations in function on the same firmware indicating that many issues are due to hardware variation. My take at the moment is to hold on to the one I have and give it a few months of firmware updates and see what happens. I am most concerned with the ANT performance. I do a lot of riding, and I use autopause. With the speed sensor disconnecting, the speed goes to zero and causes issues for my data recording and stats.

Cheers,

Adrian

The speed sensor dropout is a bug in the software I confirmed with Garmin and they are working on a fix. For me it was fixed in 2.7 and broken again in either 2.8 or 2.9. You can actually see sensorhub errors in one of the logs on the watch. I'm hoping they keep with their 1-2 week release cycle with a few fixes, rather then the massive patches that they normally do everyone 1-2 months.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

The next week my brother receives his new VA3 in theory...in this case he choice in gun metal case... I will tell something then...

0 vosadrian over 7 years ago

I'll check the hardware revision on the box when I get home.

With the ANT dropouts, I had the same 2.9 firmware on both. I never got dropouts with the old one. I get about one per ride with the new. I only swapped the old to new last weekend. I only had the old for about 3 weeks before that and swapped it at the same shop. I am not sure if there were different hardware revisions.

I am happy with the battery life on the new. I am over 3 days now and still 61% battery left.