Garminvívosmart® 5, Fitness Tracker, Long-Lasting Battery, Simple Design, Black

TL;DR — This is a great basic fitness tracker which, with a little extra effort on your part, can be turned into a shockingly robust data collection device, comparable to much more powerful and expensive units. When combined with the Garmin Connect app, which IMO is the best fitness data collection app out there (and 100% free, no paywall), you’ve got a real powerhouse system.My review will cover some tips for how to get the most out of the device, as well as one annoying bug fix. I hope all of this is helpful to you!ABOUT ME AND MY PARAMETERS: I am a daily cyclist and I also do strength training 2-3 times a week. I do not want or need to use my full-function Garmin head unit on every ride, and I also wanted to track my weight workouts; but there are not many (affordable) products which can effectively track both things in the same place(s). I was not interested in the overkill of the ubiquitous fruit-logo company's watch, and I did not have the money for any of the larger Garmin watches. But researching the vivosmart5 gave me hope that I could manipulate its default functionalities into a tracker robust enough to compete with much, MUCH more expensive devices, and I have — so here are a bunch of use-case tips (and a few bug fixes) which I hope are helpful to you too.Out of the box, the vivosmart5 is a great little fitness tracker — unbelievably accurate HR readings, extremely detailed and effective sleep tracking, custom settings for motivation (can remind you to hydrate or to get up and move, etc), bare-bones fitness effort data collection, super fast charging and long battery life, water/sweat proof, and easy to clean.For default effort tracking, you can click through little preset activity recording functions and get rudimentary data such as “bike ride, X minutes, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” or “weight workout, X minutes, X reps, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” or just a simple “walk/run, X minutes, X steps.”And all of that is awesome, particularly because the app (which, again, is 100% FREE, no paywall) is one of the strongest fitness data collection apps out there. So even just these minor collections of data are compiled into an easy-to-read daily/weekly/monthly/yearly format showing areas in which you can improve, or just giving you the knowledge you need to evaluate your efforts for your intended results.Plus it can sync with other apps, such as Strava, Ride With GPS, or even the fruit company’s default Health and Fitness apps.BUT, here’s what it can really do. Let’s start with cycling (and probably running, too). The vivosmart5 does not have its own GPS, but you can pair it with the Garmin Connect app on your phone and it will use your phone's GPS. So now instead of just “bike ride, X minutes, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” you’ll get a breakdown in the app which is much more like a proper head unit’s data, including a map of your effort with multiple overlay choices, total distance, moving time versus total time, elevation — practically everything other than cadence and power-meter based stuff. That’s … HUGE for a sub-two-hundred-dollar fitness tracker.And for strength training? The vivosmart5 will automatically count your reps (not always super accurate, but you can adjust that right on the watch face itself during rest periods), and if you attend to your sets by starting/stopping them on the watch face, you’ll end up with a loose dataset at the end of your workout, which you can THEN go through item-by-item in the app and flesh out by choosing the exercise type and the weight/resistance. Now instead of “weight workout, X minutes, X reps, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” you’ll have a full breakdown of your effort, including a little illustrated human figure showing the muscle groups worked (primary and secondary).As you can see, and as I’ve said before in this review, you must do some of the work here. But to me, this little extra effort is worth the huge price difference between this and even the lowest-price-point Garmin GPS watch, especially because when you do these things, the Garmin Connect app will begin to give you comparative points, awards for accomplishments, and other things that it would normally only do when you’re using much more expensive Garmin devices.It is not without its faults, though, and in the interest of full disclosure, here you go.1 - An annoying bug fix! Because the vivosmart5 does not have a lot of RAM or a very powerful chip, you’re going to need to restart it every once in a while, especially if you’re really pushing its functionality, as I do. In fact, if you DON’T restart it every once in a while, it will do some weeeiiird buggy stuff when recording GPS-based efforts. Sometimes it will randomly record your speed at several THOUSAND miles an hour. Sometimes it will add your current distance to an old ride and record the whole thing as a new ride. It can get wonky, but I’ve solved this by simply turning the watch off and then on again before every ride (takes 30 seconds) — I have not had a single problem since I began doing that.2 - The band’s buckle and keeper loop are positioned to the outside of the wrist, meaning that when you write or type, you’re resting your wrist on this uncomfortable little knob. I almost returned it on day one because of this but then I realized that you can reverse the band — just pop the actual watch unit out, turn the band around the other way, and put the watch unit back in. Now the buckle and loop keeper are on the inside face of the wrist, and no more problem.3 - It has a proprietary charging cable. COME ON, MAN, REALLY?Even with a few little annoyances, I am a full-time proselytizer and apologist for this little device. It is unobtrusive and bare-bones, but contains so much potential and power that you’d never know it. I really hope this helps you because I’ve found a huge amount of value in this little device. Why spend almost five hundred bucks when you can … NOT?

For such a premium price, I was very disappointed in its performance. I could initially deal with the very tiny screen and overly complicated navigation....not very user friendly but I accepted that with what I was told was the top of the line in fitness trackers. Then, after only a couple of days, I started having problems. The tracker started having great difficulty connecting and staying connected to the app. Half the features suddenly were no longer working. Sleep tracking was off. Step tracking was wildly inaccurate. Battery would only stay charged for two days. The alarm would no longer work....and when it finally did the last morning I had it, I could not shut it off and it vibrated until the battery went dead. Never heard a word from customer service. Garmin seems to be overpriced with underperformance in the fitness tracking industry these days.

UPDATE: after about 18 months, I'm afraid it's again time for a new watch - the last one lasted about this long as well. It stopped syncing this week, and I spent about an hour troubleshooting (first using the Garmin website, then with live chat) and got it back, but lost sleep data - the ability to track sleep data. It's working again, mostly, but I had to re-register it, and re-set several things on it.FIRST REVIEW: This is my 4th version of this watch, and I'm pleased with each one and its enhancements over the previous one. Step gait is customizable, so it's accurate. While it reduces battery life, I like the feature that notifies me when I'm too far from my phone (I've tried to leave the house many times without my phone). The battery life sacrifice is worth it to me. The workout options work well, including weight training - although it doesn't always guess what I'm doing correctly, it can be edited and the app will highlight muscles worked. The 5 went back to a button for mode switches, which is easier than tapping on the 4. Respiration and detailed sleep scores are added to the 5, which are nice to have. The watch face on the 5 has more options, although I haven't found one that I like yet - would like to have the same as the 4, with time, battery life and steps progress. The only 2 things I don't like better are the inability to easily check battery life and size - each watch is just a bit bigger than the last. And the size catches on sleeves and tends to get scratched easier, as its more exposed. But overall a good Garmin product for the athlete who doesn't need ultra detail for workouts, but wants some good feedback.