Garmin vivoactive HR Review: All-Purpose Performer

Our Verdict

Packing GPS, a eye-charge per unit monitor, notifications and third-political party apps, the Garmin vivoactive HR is a jack-of-all-trades fettle tracker.

For

Tracks a wide range of activities
Good battery life
Screen is readable in daylight
Customizable interface
Tracks wide range of activities

Confronting

A little beefy
Inaccurate slumber tracking

Tom's Guide Verdict

Packing GPS, a heart-rate monitor, notifications and third-political party apps, the Garmin vivoactive Hr is a jack-of-all-trades fitness tracker.

Pros

+
Tracks a wide range of activities
+
Good bombardment life
+
Screen is readable in daylight
+
Customizable interface
+
Tracks wide range of activities

Cons

-
A petty beefy
-
Inaccurate sleep tracking

When the near pop fettle trackers sell for effectually $120, you have to make a pretty compelling device if you want to sell it for twice that. Fortunately, the Garmin vivoactive 60 minutes ($249) lives up to its price. This all-in-one gadget includes GPS, a heart-rate monitor and the ability to track a dozen or so activities. Plus, it can deliver notifications from your smartphone, and its brandish tin be customized with 3rd-party widgets and apps. If you're looking for a loftier-end, do-it-all fitness tracker, this is information technology.

Blueprint

Although it shares its name with the older vivoactive, the vivoactive HR has a completely different blueprint. Whereas the vivoactive has a flat, square face (like the i on the Sony SmartWatch), the vivoactive Hour is rectangular, similar a wide Fitbit. It's also rather thick (0.45 inches), pushing information technology into the realm of the Microsoft Band. People will definitely know you're wearing some kind of fitness gadget.

Credit: Jeremy Lips / Tom's Guide — (Epitome credit: Jeremy Lips / Tom's Guide)

Beneath the vivoactive HR'south impact screen are ii buttons that y'all tin can use to beginning and stop activities, and navigate through a couple of menus. These buttons are welcome additions, as I've oftentimes found that information technology'southward next to impossible to use a touch screen when my fingers are sweaty. I but wish I could use the buttons to admission every menu on the vivoactive Hr.

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Thankfully, the vivoactive HR has a traditional picket-style band and clasp. It'southward besides water-resistant to 165 anxiety, and so you can have it swimming.

More than: Best Fettle Trackers

Display

Ane of the best things Garmin did with the vivoactive HR is let you keep the screen on at all times. There's nothing that annoys me more than with smartwatches, or wearables of whatever kind, than when I take to flick my wrist or press a button just to run across what fourth dimension it is.

You can change the sentinel face, too, by either selecting ane of the five preloaded faces or downloading ane from the Connect IQ store in the Garmin Connect app.

At 1.thirteen inches long by 0.80 inches high, and with a resolution of 205 x 148 pixels, the vivoactive Hour's display is oriented then y'all don't take to twist your wrist just to read the fourth dimension, a la the Microsoft Band. You would think this is trivial, but information technology's not.

Interface

Swiping downwardly (or up) on the vivoactive Hour's brandish lets you cycle through the various screens (called widgets), which include Daily Steps, Intensity Minutes, the Weather, Notifications, and Centre Rate.

Quickly pressing the button on the right opens the activity menu, where you can select the type of do you'd like to do. This menu likewise includes whatsoever apps y'all may have installed. If yous press and concord this button, the vivoactive Hour's Settings menu appears, from which yous can change the sentry face, widgets and apps.

The left push is used primarily equally a Back button, just pressing and holding it brings upwards three options: Do Not Disturb, Lock, and Power Off.

Connect IQ

Recall of it as a mini app store, just for some Garmin devices. Although information technology falls far brusque of the Pebble's 3,000-plus offerings, the Connect IQ store has more than 100 apps, which include everything from watch faces to stargazing apps to the whimsical Beer Tracker Plus, which tells you how many beers you can beverage based on how much y'all've worked out.

The whimsical Beer Tracker Plus app tells you how many beers yous can drink based on how much you've worked out.

The vivoactive Hour is one of only 13 Garmin devices that can run Connect IQ apps. One app, called SkyWatch, was specially fun: It has a number of planets, constellations and stars; after you select one, the app tells y'all which way to turn to see it in the sky. It worked pretty well and was a corking way to know what was in the night heaven.

Functioning

The vivoactive HR tracks a wide range of activities. In add-on to the usual measures (steps, stairs and slumber), information technology tin be used for golfing (you can download course maps to the watch), biking, skiing, swimming and even paddleboarding.

Like other Garmin devices with heart-rate monitors, the vivoactive 60 minutes tracks so-called "intensity minutes," a measurement of when the lookout detects that you're moving and you lot have an elevated heart rate.

When I went for a run, the vivoactive HR'southward GPS picked up a signal in about twenty seconds, which was only a few seconds slower than the Garmin Forerunner 235 GPS running spotter I had strapped to my other wrist. I was so surprised at how quickly it acquired a signal — information technology was a rainy, overcast twenty-four hour period — that I didn't take a chance to get through all of my pre-run stretches.

The GPS and eye-rate monitor in the vivoactive HR proved as accurate as they were fast.

The GPS and heart-charge per unit monitor in the vivoactive HR proved equally accurate equally they were fast. Post-obit a 4-mile run, I compared the data from the vivoactive 60 minutes to the Forerunner 235, and found that the measurements (altitude, footstep, average heart rate and maximum heart rate) were nearly identical.

Equally a pedometer, the vivoactive HR proved merely equally accurate, counting 500 steps as 503.

More: How to Choose the Right Fitness Tracker for Your Needs

Whenever I received a call, text or tweet, the vivoactive HR would fizz slightly and display the message on-screen. You have the option to reply or refuse calls, but if the vivoactive Hour is connected to an iPhone, all you lot tin practise for text messages is read them. (If you lot have an Android device, you can download an app that volition let you answer to notifications with canned messages.)

Slumber Tracking

Slumber tracking could exist improved on this device. The get-go night I wore the vivoactive 60 minutes to bed, information technology overestimated the amount of time I slept, most likely because I was watching Tv set for nigh 45 minutes earlier I actually dozed off. The 2d night, I took the lookout man off earlier my morning shower, and as a event, it thought I slept a lot later than I actually did. The tertiary nighttime, the picket didn't call up I roughshod asleep until 2 a.g. when I had actually gone to bed about ii hours before. Fortunately, you tin edit the sleep time after.

Bombardment Life

Garmin says the vivoactive HR'southward battery volition terminal upward to viii days, or 13 hours when actively using GPS. You might even go more than than that; afterwards I charged the watch on a Tuesday afternoon, it notwithstanding had 57 percent juice remaining the post-obit Monday.

I of the best things near the vivoactive HR is that the screen is on at all times.

The vivosmart Hr uses a proprietary USB charging cable; I like that it'southward non bulky and snaps deeply to the lookout man.

Bottom Line

The $249 Garmin vivoactive HR is the all-time device for those who want a general-purpose fettle tracker that can non simply follow them through a variety of activities, just also provide some smartwatch-similar functions. I wish the blueprint were a little less clunky, but I suspect fitness-minded customers won't mind. If your principal use for information technology will be running, I recommend the Garmin Forerunner 230 ($249), which doesn't runway as many activities but has a larger screen and gives you more in-depth running stats. Simply if yous're looking for a device that tin can do a chip of everything, the vivoactive Hour is the one.

Michael A. Prospero is the deputy editor at Tom's Guide overseeing the habitation, smart home, drones, and fitness/wearables categories, too as all buying guides and other evergreen content. When he'southward not testing out the latest running watch, skiing or training for a marathon, he's probably using the latest sous vide motorcar or another cooking gadget.