Gadgetory

hey everyone Jimmy with Jim's review room I reviewed the vivoactive last year and the physical side of things it did look great it was super thin and GPS was a huge plus however from my testing though the screen was hard to see the display was choppy and for the same price you can get the Fitbit surge which included a risk-based HR monitor well this year Garmin makes it returned with the vivoactive HR and this for sure looks promising over its predecessor I personally paid for this $250 retail as of this video but I'll place several links in the video description below that way you can check for the most updated prices so without further ado my channels here to help you make a purchase decision welcome everyone to jim's review ber going over the physical features Garmin went with now a thicker and bigger build when you do put this against one of the biggest competitors against the Fitbit surge the band on the Fitbit does feel smoother but while wearing the garment actually feels more comfortable out of the two and the reason being the stiffness on the surge extends much further than the V will active while the Garmin uses hinges to offer flexibility during wrist movements and one of the biggest changes on the new watch the physical band now stretches perfect for those who do CrossFit lift weights or any kind of push-pull movements where your wrist or forearm flexes now regarding looks of course this is subjective Garmin sadly left that square SmartWatch design back but what you get is a bigger screen easier to read numbers and a more narrow profile when compared to the competition now testing this in direct sunlight in very bright situations the screen is much more readable over last years and the touch sensitivity feels improved as well the screen is very much responsive now I do admit though in low-light situations it's readable but it's still dim now one way to alleviate this is by tapping on the front left physical button and the display lights up the button on the right here brings up your activities that you can record offering running cycling swimming and yes you can swim the span on here golfing walking rowing and the list goes on with all the activities from the stock settings on the right side of your screen currently pause if you need to that rotating to the back it's pretty straightforward with an optical heart rate sensor which I'll discuss shortly but as you notice Garmin is using its own proprietary charging cable and this thing stays on ridiculously secure here now garments climbing up to eight days of use with the heartrate tracker on 24/7 and no use of the GPS with my use in running a total of four times here each a mile long to give you a gauge of how much this watch might last you and of course GPS on my vivoactive HR died in five days 14 hours and roughly thirty minutes so if you're running much further or more frequent than I am you might push the upper for day or lower five day range of use now compared to other activity trackers here on the market it's about average with most general bands lasting around five to six days but keep in mind the vivoactive HR does offer that much more features now on the main page on the left hand side you have your move bar in red when you're not up and moving for an hour the watchable vibrates and the biggest bar will show for every additional 15 minutes that you are not active another smaller bar will be revealed all the way up to the top and you have two hours worth of indications now it's a beneficial feature even when you don't heed the advice right at that very moment but you do subconsciously throughout the day feel like someone is pushing you to be more active now on the right are your basic battery level indicators time and date on the bottom here and if you don't like the look Garmin from the factory does provide five different watch faces easily accessible through the watch now the resolution and some though isn't the most smoothest as you do see some jagged lines nonetheless they do serve their purpose now back on the original screen if you swipe up you have your days info with steps flights of stairs climbed and calories burned swiping up one more time offers your steps distance and floors walked again but just in a more visual way on the next screen intensity minutes for that week to show you're more intense moments here like running or working out and not just walking in general movement and moving up one more time is the last sport or recorded activity that you've done with your most used basic info here tapping on the screen does offer a very detailed breakdown of your workout nearly eliminating the need to pull out your phone if you need info right away now I'm backing out here Garmin does offer a weather widget with the highs and lows and a percentage for precipitation tapping on this offers the next four hours of weather predictions and swiping up offers the next four days it's very convenient not only for runners and bikers but if you work a lot outdoors this comes in very handy the second to last screen are notifications and the vivoactive HR does display your incoming phone calls missed phone calls text messages in detail that is not just a summary as some other bands on the market and doesn't show everything an email also appears here along with your most social media apps like Facebook Twitter Instagram even whatsapp is on here now moving on to the next and final screen here is your heart rate now I've contacted Garmin support and everything that is close to me is what about disclosed to you now when you're on the screen the top left will show what your heart rate is at that very moment now when you're on say the main page when your clock is displayed the baseline heart measurement is sampled once every 10 minutes the rep also stated to watch senses that you're walking or moving around rather than sitting stationary the vivoactive HR will sample your heart rate more often not at ten minutes and on the watch itself you can see your lowest heart rates and the highest during the last four hours and in the top right is your resting heart rate now regarding a heart rate accuracy the chart are on your screens here and from my assessment that's pretty accurate for a risk based heart rate tracker now using my tried-and-true polar h7 chest strap and compared to the vivoactive HR it performs as well as most other activity bands with slight deviations here and there now with a consistent running pace the deviation is about three heart beats at times again for a risk based heart rate tracker that isn't too bad however now during an interval run that we do see bigger deviations or lagging performance when the heart rate climbs or descends fast I'm going to put up a third chart here and another interval run as proof this had the most deviation up to ten heart beats per minute off from the chest strap itself now however on the positive side of things if you're okay with wearing a chart chest straps and a NT plus model or an Plus model will pair with the vivoactive HR if you want more accurate readings and one last thing although you can wear this to swim as it's rated at five atm the HR sensor does turn off while swimming so that's really everything on the physical side we're going to take a look at the app here and this is highly beneficial for you guys to watch as I'm going go into detail about sleep performance and how all this data is collected and presented to you here's the Garmin Connect app available for Windows Phones Android and iOS going over the main home page you have steps with an auto goal that adjusts every day based on your previous day's performance a great feature that helps keep your striving for more tapping on the icon offers your days performance with distance floors climbed calories burn and oddly floors descending at times not equal to the floors climbed especially when I work from home here and I don't even have any uneven elevation changes but going back to sleep tapping on this review is a good bit of info with your daily night's goals with the total time slept light sleep versus deep sleep and moments time away I do admit though oddly it's not accurate now I'm receiving these weird deviations and numbers excessive amounts of sleep being recorded and as proof I've been wearing my underarm herb and on my other arm here for the past two months and you can see consistently I'm usually getting about seven hours of sleep but nowhere close to eight or more and of course I do mentally and physically take notice of what times I wake up now the garment on the other hand registered me as sleeping right before bed when I'm actually sitting up reading checking email watching Netflix etc and if I decide to lounge in bed in the morning it surprisingly thinks I'm still sleeping at times now if you do plan on buying this keep an eye on your sleep count to ensure it's working on your end my previous reviews and the government vivosmart HR didn't have this kind of issue but backing out here the main page is really self-explanatory with active calories burned calories remaining to be consumed and this works if you do sync your Garmin Connect app with the food logger My Fitness Pal now moving down intensity minutes are offered how many activities you've done for that day calories consumed and floors climb now overall the app experience is still in my top three but the job on an fitbit apps still Trump's Garmin from my experience for their ease of use the flow of their app in general and what information is displayed and one big example here and this pertains specifically with Fitbit and Garmin the app doesn't reveal too much in regards to everyday heart health and although the band does a great job displaying resting heart rate and heart rate throughout the day it doesn't show much on the app you can click on timeline but it would have been nice to have some heartrate numbers indicated with some horizontal lines going across or an average heart rate for the day even just something other than these vertical lines going up and down not running data on the other hand does a great job with almost everything that you need as a runner keep in mind the V will activate does include gps and glonass on the watch here which has been highly accurate during runs the information provided is very robust and the charts on the last page here does provide some insight into your performance so overall like my other videos here I really try to show proof for you guys on what does work great and phenomenal and what doesn't work for me and show you things that I encountered to help you decide if this band is worth it to you in the end I think it's still worth a consideration and an alternative over city polar m400 the Fitbit surge and the Fitbit blaze is it the best not necessarily but what features it does offer that works though the physical feel the number size is basically the font sizes on the screen the HR tracking all day a continuous screen that's on 24/7 the analytical running data not to mention you can submerge this underwater you can hook this up with other Garmin accessories those unique features all that I just listed right there do make this band stand out any better option but that's only if you're going to use them so that's it for this review be sure to LIKE and subscribe be sure to follow me on Facebook Twitter and or Instagram my name is Jimmy with jims review room you guys take care and I'll see you in the next one