Garmin - vivosmart 4 Activity Tracker

Garmin products are great, when they work. Don't expect the fitness band to last. The silicone will break right after the warranty is up. Then, instead of making it super easy and cheap to replace, Garmin have done the exact opposite. Thank you, but no thank you. I won't use Garmin again. Other good options out there. Ones that will cherish you as a customer

This watch is really nice looking and I love that Garmin made the band a normal closure - significant improvement from the old vivofit bands. It is lightweight and multi-function. It took a bit to set it up but is definitely feature-rich. It syncs nicely with apps like Strava and FitDay and the Garmin Connect interface is super cool.

I am returning this product. I had had a previous model and found that it was pretty good at recording activity (not perfect, but good enough). This new version is so inaccurate. On 3 separate trips. After a 4 day backpack/hike ii measured 8 hours and high mileage as minimal steps. When friends smart watches and fit bits recorded the same trip with similar mileage to each other. The Garmin was WAY off. It also sometimes misses activity altogether.

This thing worked perfectly for 8 full months then started going haywire. The consistency of tracking got all messed up when they introduced the GPS through the phone. Standard tracking got thrown off by .4 of a mile. I reached out to customer service and what did they do? Send me a "helpful article" to address my problem. Of course it didn't and I gave up on them for not addressing the issue with their product. Done...

Less than 20 days in and the buckle has detached from it's pins, luckily it was while typing at home so I could find it and the watch didn't fall too far. There was no snagging of the band or heavy pulling associated or at all that I noticed. My previous larger and often snagged vivosmartHR had no issues with the buckle, its band did break but I replaced it with a cheap and much sturdier 3rd party one. I don't see any 3rd party bands for the vivosmart 4.

I selected the vivosmart 4 primarily because of its fit. I had a vivosmart 3 that failed 3 days after the warranty, but decided to give this brand another try. I find that I can't count on any of its measurements. On a recent walking vacation, where I really wanted to track steps and elevation, it incremented both counters during the van rides to and from the hiking trailheads, resulting in the reported steps and stairs being completely inaccurate. Today, it reported 7 flights of stairs after my morning stretching routine. The active minutes tracking also seems pretty random - anywhere from 0 to 20 minutes on the same walk to the metro (the walk itself takes about 12 minutes). I haven't bothered with the other features (pulse ox, body battery, stress level) since the first couple of days, as these appear to be fairly useless, as well. All in all, it only appears to be consistent in reporting the time. It was a lot of money to pay for a watch.

I purchased a Vivofit 4. Wore it for less than one month. It worked great. Enjoyed the information it provided. Then it quit. I tried to contact the Garmin - no reply. I will be returning this back and getting my money back. Maybe that is one way a consumer can let a large co. know their product is sub par.

I bought this primarily to check my heart rate while power-walking, but it is so much more. It monitors steps, distance, pace, etc. and has other cool features like measuring VO2, sleep patterns and stress level. Fits well and not bulky on my wrist.