Back in April I reviewed the Garmin VivoActive GPS Smartwatch, listing five reasons I loved it and three concerns. After a couple of months I started drafting a follow-up about how I STILL loved the VivoActive – but stopped when an update caused issues. The next update resolved the issues, but by early July I was done. Why? Read on!
Before I get to why I no longer have the VivoActive, let me go back to the reasons I still love it and recommend it for people to check out:
Five Things I STILL Love:
1. True GPS Watch That Disappears on Your Wrist – thin, light and good looking. I really came to appreciate the VivoActive as a pure daily-use watch with added capabilities. And the GPS is stronger than the FR-15 I was using before so it locked quickly to allow me to jump right into my run!
2. Automatic Sleep Tracking – Garmin introduced this in March, and has continued making it better and better ever since. The current software is better at detecting motion, and the app display of ‘deep’ and ‘light’ sleep seems to correlate well with my actual sleep patterns.
3. Gorgeous Screen – Not only is it bright and clear and easily readable, but after a few months of sweaty runs it was still gorgeous and easy to clean.
4. Waterproof – I love the ability to just wear the VivoActive into the shower to remove the sweat and grime from my run and not worry about it at all.
5. At-a-Glance SmartWatch Capabilities – getting text and email and app notifications is very cool, and getting a few lines of text to make decisions from is even better. The ability to interact with notifications from the watch in a recent update added more functionality. The VivoActive isn’t an Apple Watch (or a Pebble or Android Watch for that matter), but it is a solid device in that regard.
I thought at first the group text issue was not that bad, but as I continue to wear this watch more and more, it has become enough to give up. I tried to contact the forums and contact them directly but the only response I have so far is that it is an apple iOS issue.