Vivoactive3. What a piece of junk

I cannot say the VA3 is without problems, but I also cannot say it's a piece of junk.
Granted I'm not a hardcore when it comes to fitness and my VA3 is used mainly to track daily activities (steps, stairs, etc.), time on the treadmill and time on the kayak.
I could see where it would fall short for those wanting to use it for marathon running or lengthy visits to the gym, but is that the targeted market?

I do hope Garmin addresses the VA3 issues, but knowing their track record they will focus on new products instead of fixing what's already on the market.
I tell ya' if I did not have 3 years worth of data invested in Garmin, I would give Fitbit a try.

I tell ya' if I did not have 3 years worth of data invested in Garmin, I would give Fitbit a try.

I had 3 years worth of data on fitbit, and gave it up in 2014 for a garmin, and I don't regret it a bit. (things like steps seems to be over generous with me on a fitbit :) )

..but is that the targeted market?

I think there's something to this, as some folks might expect it to just be a cheaper Forerunner or Fenix, but it's really not.

I've heard the va3 referred to as a "lifestyle" device (general purpose), while Forerunners are runner focused, and Fenix is that and more (more outdoor activities). When the first vivoactive came out, I recall DCR saying something like "a jack of all trades, but a master of none".

It's not until the fr735 do you get into multi-sport/tri devices, and with the fr645, you get things like running dynamics

I’ve had my VA3 since Nov and was working fine until a few months ago, was having issues with incorrect distance recorded even though I had gps on! Did a restore to factory settings and had to delete the app, since that gps is fine but no longer get smart notifications, steps keep resetting back to zero and activities stop during the activity! I’m now back to using strava for activities which means I need to have phone with me which was the who,e point me getting the VA3 as previously had Fitbit blaze , have logged with support but no response yet (2 days ago)

Garmin should just have this value named "Pressure" and not "Elevation" then. It is as simple as that. Then the argument that it works as designed would be correct and they would have less dissatisfied users. From the moment they use the pressure value to calculate the elevation, they need to have an algorithm that does this correctly but they don't have it yet.

VA3 is not bad, it just has many bugs. It is on Garmin to make it a good product as one for what it has been advertised, by correcting them. If they don't, they will have out in the market a poor product.

I only wish I had the option to rollback to 2.90. I would be much more happy with it.

I really like my VA3 but the lack of a fix to the sensor hub and golf app are really getting my goat.

Garmin should just have this value named "Pressure" and not "Elevation" then. It is as simple as that.

It is as simple as that amorait. A barometer measures pressure and nothing else. What people don't understand is how a barometer works and how it affects the altimeter. The barometer in Garmin watches is to show elevation gained or lost, not to give you exact elevation readings. It does this quite well. If you want to know the true elevation with the altimeter, you have to calibrate often to a known elevation and compensate for pressure changes. It's a mathematical formula, but .05 inHg increase in pressure is roughly a decrease in 50' altitude and vice versa. Let's say you calibrate to a known elevation of 200' and the barometer is at 29.75 inHg and you go nowhere. An hour and a half later the barometer drops to 29.70. Your VA3 doesn't know for sure if the pressure change was due to weather or an actual increase in elevation. It "guesses" and tends to think elevation increased and now the altimeter reads 250'. This is normal. The problem is the pressure always changes due to weather, temperature, wind gust, pressurized buildings, air conditioning, etc. Add the fact that you are also moving to different elevations. Auto calibration "tries" to compensate for this, but again the changes are "guesses" by the watch. Now you return to the original calibrated location 24 hrs later after you have moved to several different locations and the altimeter now reads 378'. Wait, that's not correct! You try a GPS fix (the GPS has an acceptable error margin of + or - 400') and it shows 163'. How is this possible because I know I'm at 200'? The watch must be defective. Nope. It's working properly. Don't take GPS readings to heart because of known GPS inaccuracies, calibrate to known locations often and watch your pressure changes.

@ Coppertop. Whatever you do don't go to Fitbit. Pure trash. Read their forums if you want a good laugh. Garmin may have a few problems but not like that

Asides from having tons of data collected on the Garmin ecosystem, another key feature of Garmin keeps me from making the move to Fitbit.

Garmin allows you to sync two devices to Garmin Connect. I can wear the VA3 during the day, while on the treadmill or out kayaking. When I do yard work I can shift to the Vivosmart HR (that's already scratched up) to avoid roughing up the VA3. The two can then be synced and I don't lose a step.

Fitbit is rumored to be testing multiple device synchronization but it has yet to surface. Even if it does, to move to Fitbit would require buying two devices and I always forget I have the Garmin scale, which means another purchase if I move to Fitbit.

I'm well rooted with Garmin, I just wish they would do a better job of developing devices once they hit the market.

I'm on my 3rd VA3. The first had poor battery life. The 2nd had Garmin Pay not working. The 3rd seems OK. It still has issues. I use it for bike riding and rides are filled with ANT dropouts and the HR is virtually useless, but I only use it for commuting and have an Edge 520 I use for proper rides that is faultless with chest strap HR and ANT dropouts. I have to admit that I expected better out of the ANT and HR, and I would like them to improve it, but at least I am happy with the data from my 520.

In terms of BT and general use, I am happy with it. I get almost a week out of a battery with some activities recorded. I get all my notifications. I find the floors climbed to be quite accurate. I work in a building and the floors matches what I count that I climb. I would change a few things about it. I continually change settings in my watch due to wearing it in the shower. I want to use it for swimming at some point, but reviews do not look good. But overall I am happy with it.

I'm a longtime Garmin fanboy but I have to say I wouldn't buy another. I've already posted my initial problems here, but I can't even count the times I've tried to get pay working somewhere. I bought it for the possibility of accurately measurine jump height while kitesurfing, but I gained nearly 140' SUPping on a flat lagoon the other day. Comparing battery life with all sensors and notifications off, my old refurbished Vivoactive beats it hands down.

I think there's something to this, as some folks might expect it to just be a cheaper Forerunner or Fenix, but it's really not.

Some folks might expect that it has at least most of advertised functions working. Maybe at least some simple ones like having your heart rate recorded during runs, having it record golf games or having it work with additional ANT+ sensors if you advertise all those things as device's selling points?

I guess if there is such a target market as people that need device just to look and count steps without any further activity support, than it would be true. Is it crazy to ask that it can function as sports activities tracking device? Am I not a "target market" if I want the device to function as advertised?

As it stands now this device is practically useless as a sports device. I like the watch, it looks nice, it feels nice, it's not heavy, it tracks steps and sleep, it shows widgets and messages but as a sports tracking device it is completely useless. Data it produces is total garbage and you can not use it to compare one run to another, one ride to another, there are HR drops, there are GPS spikes and etc. all those things makes it useless for comparing runs.

I hope Garmin fixes most of those thing with new firmwares.