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Feedback on my first Fitness Tracker - Garmin VivoActive 3 - Overall: I LOVE IT!

I thought it would be a good idea to post my feedback (mostly very positive) on my first Fitness Tracker - the Garmin VivoActive 3 as the overwhelming majority of posts on forums in general are people asking questions about why something doesn't work or how something sucks in general. Human nature as expected. When something works we tend not to talk about it, but naturally make more noise if something isn't working. :)

Not sure why I waited so long to get a fitness tracker - I consider myself a Tech nerd, change my Android Phone (currently have a Google Pixel 2 XL) every year, have been actively fit for over 20 years, but waited quite a bit to get a Fitness Tracker/Smart Watch. Mostly because I wasn't too impressed with what was available (I got a first gen Motorola 360 smart watch a couple of years ago and found it very underwhelming and stayed away from wearables since then). I finally made the plunge and got a VA 3 and I absolutely love it.

For my purposes, its perfect as a Smart watch/Fitness tracker combo for the following reasons (I considered the Fitbit Ioniq as an alternate, but got turned off with the numerous issues reported about its unstable smartphone notifications function):

For Fitness tracking - I only use it to track my daily steps and Sleep pattern - it does these two functions perfectly adequately.
For Smart Watch functions - Getting notifications such as calls or texts meets my needs perfectly and the VA 3 does these two very well. This is especially useful when driving as it causes less of a distraction than seeing an SMS message on my phone.

Other reasons why I think its perfect for my requirements:

Its very reliable with the BT connection to my phone. I've had the phone for about 4 days and it never loses connection to my phone
The display is bright and very visible in direct sunlight
I sometimes forget that I have it on - its so comfortable to wear.
The reminder to "MOVE!" is great as my job requires me to sit for too long hours every day. Of course I don't need technology to remind me to move, but it certainly helps.

Nice to have (nit picking):
A very well designed watch face by Garmin or anyone else that has a white face and is not too busy just like all the other Garmin watch faces in the Connect IQ store. So far, the ones I've seen have very poor graphics, are too minimalist (they only display the time as an example) or too complicated (extremely busy with too much information). All I want is to be able to see the date, step count, Battery life, Stairs climbed and the time in analog form. I can't find one. I hope its just me not finding one and there is something out there like this. Perhaps if you've seen one, please tell me about it.

Apparently Google may be planning to release a smartwatch later this year - that would be very interesting - https://www.xda-developers.com/pixel-smartwatch-pixel-3-rumor/

In summary - your mileage may vary, but for me, I'm glad I got this tracker.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Thanks for writing this. Product forums can be a desolate place of negativity and desperation.

Now to reply:

I don't know about love it! I do know I bought my VA3 after two years of bashing my head against the Fitbit stone with absolutely the plan to return it if it was junk....

Six months later it's still on my arm, it still works daily, I really forget about it and neither consider it awesome or terrible. This is a very very good sign for a fitness watch.

When I run or walk it works.
When I take the MTB out and just want to log a pootle around on the bike it works.
When I sleep it mostly works
When I want to get an idea on my HR it mostly works.

There is (for me) nothing about this watch that makes me want to smash it with a hammer (unlike other(s) brands).

It's not become a settled part of my life, gps is what it is for a wrist worn watch (sometimes great, sometimes not so much heeh).

So I'm a bit 'meh' about it and frankly that is a really good thing for me :)

(aside I literally did the entire product line of fitbit after having a Fenix 3 which drove me bonkers with how unreliable it was, mainly the old elevate sensor were junk for me)

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

"Its now become a settled part of my life" is what i meant. Typical the garmin forums wont save an edit haah

0 Garmin-Blake over 7 years ago

Hameed We are glad to hear that you are enjoying your vivoactive 3 and would like to assist with your watch face request. Please view this link for information on how to create a custom watch face. I attempted to recreate what you described and have attached a photo of this. I hope this proves useful.

0 Hameed over 7 years ago

Thanks for writing this. Product forums can be a desolate place of negativity and desperation.

Now to reply:

I don't know about love it! I do know I bought my VA3 after two years of bashing my head against the Fitbit stone with absolutely the plan to return it if it was junk....

Six months later it's still on my arm, it still works daily, I really forget about it and neither consider it awesome or terrible. This is a very very good sign for a fitness watch.

When I run or walk it works.
When I take the MTB out and just want to log a pootle around on the bike it works.
When I sleep it mostly works
When I want to get an idea on my HR it mostly works.

There is (for me) nothing about this watch that makes me want to smash it with a hammer (unlike other(s) brands).

It's not become a settled part of my life, gps is what it is for a wrist worn watch (sometimes great, sometimes not so much heeh).

So I'm a bit 'meh' about it and frankly that is a really good thing for me :)

(aside I literally did the entire product line of fitbit after having a Fenix 3 which drove me bonkers with how unreliable it was, mainly the old elevate sensor were junk for me)

Great to hear your feedback too!

0 Hameed over 7 years ago

Hameed We are glad to hear that you are enjoying your vivoactive 3 and would like to assist with your watch face request. Please view this link for information on how to create a custom watch face. I attempted to recreate what you described and have attached a photo of this. I hope this proves useful.

Thanks Blake. I tried that but it looks so minimalist and plain now. :) I think its the background itself that is very very plain. I'll keep trying

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

for an analog face that shows what u need...i used to use this - GMT 4 Master.
https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/e7cbd1f8-6300-4ffc-bce4-6464f983fbe1

but after awhile, a proper digital face worked better for me for displaying the info necessary...and the only analog face i have just simply shows the date only.