About this item Keeps track of your energy levels, Pulse Ox (this is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition), respiration, menstrual cycle, stress, sleep, estimated heart, hydration and more Easily download songs to your watch, including playlists from Spotify, Amazon music or Deezer (may require a premium subscription With a third-party music provider), and connect with headphones (sold separately) for phone-free listening Record all the ways to move with more than 20 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps, including yoga, running, swimming and more Get easy-to-follow, animated workouts right on your watch screen, including strength, cardio, yoga and Pilates Battery life: up to 7 days in smartwatch mode; up to 5 hours in GPS and music mode Personalize your watch with thousands of free watch faces, apps and widgets from our Connect IQ store Garmin Pay contactless payment solution (not all countries and payment Networks are eligible) lets you pay for purchases with your watch
Safety and tracking Features include incident detection (during select activities) and assistance (when paired with a compatible device), which both send your real-time location to emergency contacts Stay connected with smart notifications (when paired with a compatible device), for incoming calls, text messages, calendar reminders and more; WATER RATING:5 ATM Garmin Coach provides free 5K, 10K and half-marathon training plans that guide you to reach your race goal and adjust based on your performance in the plan Show more
Garmin vivoactive 4S Smaller-Sized GPS Smartwatch
Product Dimensions 1.57 x 1.57 x 0.5 inches
Item Weight 1.28 ounces
Item model number 010-02172-01
Batteries 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
OS Proprietary OS
Wireless communication technologies Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
Connectivity technologies GPS
GPS True
Special features Bluetooth
Display resolution 218 x 218
Other display features Wireless
Human Interface Input Touchscreen
Color Silver w/ Gray Band
Whats in the box vivoactive 4s; Charging/data cable; Documentation
Standing screen display size 1.1 Inches
Memory Storage Capacity 8000 MB
Brand Garmin
Model Name vivoactive 4S, Powder Gray/Silver
Color Silver w/ Gray Band
Screen Size 1.1 Inches
Special Feature Bluetooth
Shape Round
Target Audience Unisex Adult
Age Range (Description) Adult
Compatible Devices Smartphone
About this item Keeps track of your energy levels, Pulse Ox (this is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition), respiration, menstrual cycle, stress, sleep, estimated heart, hydration and more Easily download songs to your watch, including playlists from Spotify, Amazon music or Deezer (may require a premium subscription With a third-party music provider), and connect with headphones (sold separately) for phone-free listening Record all the ways to move with more than 20 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps, including yoga, running, swimming and more Get easy-to-follow, animated workouts right on your watch screen, including strength, cardio, yoga and Pilates Battery life: up to 7 days in smartwatch mode; up to 5 hours in GPS and music mode .
Personalize your watch with thousands of free watch faces, apps and widgets from our Connect IQ store Garmin Pay contactless payment solution (not all countries and payment Networks are eligible) lets you pay for purchases with your watch Safety and tracking Features include incident detection (during select activities) and assistance (when paired with a compatible device), which both send your real-time location to emergency contacts Stay connected with smart notifications (when paired with a compatible device), for incoming calls, text messages, calendar reminders and more; WATER RATING:5 ATM Garmin Coach provides free 5K, 10K and half-marathon training plans that guide you to reach your race goal and adjust based on your performance in the plan Show more
Tune in to your body, and tone up with the 40 mm vívoactive® 4S GPS smartwatch. It has the broadest available range of all-day health monitoring features, music storage and on-screen, Animated workouts To help you reach your goals. Boost every activity by downloading your favorite Spotify® or Deezer (may require a premium subscription With a third-party music provider) playlists straight to your watch. The watch constantly samples your heart rate and will alert you if it stays too high or too low while you’re at rest. It also helps gauge how hard you work during activities — even underwater.
| Product Dimensions | 1.57 x 1.57 x 0.5 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 1.28 ounces |
| ASIN | B07W7W9DQQ |
| Item model number | 010-02172-01 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Customer Reviews | /* .cm-cr-review-stars-spacing-big { 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 16,922 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when('A', 'cf').execute(function(A) { 4.5 out of 5 stars |
| Best Sellers Rank | #3,777 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics) #130 in Smartwatches |
| OS | Proprietary OS |
| Wireless communication technologies | Bluetooth, Wi-Fi |
| Connectivity technologies | GPS |
| GPS | True |
| Special features | Bluetooth |
| Display resolution | 218 x 218 |
| Other display features | Wireless |
| Human Interface Input | Touchscreen |
| Color | Silver w/ Gray Band |
| Whats in the box | vivoactive 4s; Charging/data cable; Documentation |
| Department | mens |
| Manufacturer | Garmin |
| Date First Available | September 5, 2019 |
| Weight | 1.28 ounces |
| Standing screen display size | 1.1 Inches |
| Memory Storage Capacity | 8000 MB |
| Brand | Garmin |
| Model Name | vivoactive 4S, Powder Gray/Silver |
| Style | 4s |
| Screen Size | 1.1 Inches |
| Special Feature | Bluetooth |
| Shape | Round |
| Target Audience | Unisex Adult |
| Age Range (Description) | Adult |
| Compatible Devices | Smartphone |
![Apple Watch Series 9 [GPS 41mm] Smartwatch with Starlight Aluminum Case with Starlight Sport Band S/M. Fitness Tracker, ECG Apps, Always-On Retina Display, Water Resistant Electronics](https://bmielectronic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/61lhNV3vDjL._AC_SL1500_-400x400.jpg)
![Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) [GPS 40mm] Smartwatch with Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Band S/M. Fitness & Sleep Tracker, Crash Detection, Heart Rate Monitor Electronics](https://bmielectronic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/61ZL5tN-GL._AC_SL1500_-400x400.jpg)
![Apple Watch Series 9 [GPS 45mm] Smartwatch with Storm Blue Aluminum Case with Silver Sport Band M/L. Fitness Tracker, Blood Oxygen & ECG Apps, Always-On Retina Display Cell Phones & Accessories](https://bmielectronic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/71cANOnqpHL._AC_SL1500_-400x400.jpg)
Chris –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent fitness tracker, outperforms FitBit
I had a Fitbit Charge 5 that died within 8 months. Aside from the awful $9.99 a month subscription, it was also terribly inaccurate during exercises, which is kind of its main job. Thankfully, this fitness tracker by Garmin is 100x better and highly recommended.Right out of the box this watch is better. It looks nice, has a sturdy build quality, and the wristband fits even my small wrist. I had to buy a 3rd party wristband for my old Fitbit. There’s no monthly subscription to access any of the data for the app. The app is easy to use, runs in the background and updates on my phone with no issues. It was easy to set up when I first started using it.The exercise tracking is superb. My Fitbit would have extremely irregular heart tracking. I’d be in a full cardio workout and it would register my heart rate at 80bpm. This tracker has no issues – the heart rate tracker works well, doesn’t have wild drops, and steadily and accurately records my heart rate with no issues. I’ve used the walk activity tracker to track a 3 hour hike, and it recorded my route, heart rate, and calories burned.I’ve read other reviews mentioning that the battery life doesn’t live up to the specs, but I haven’t seen this as the case. On my 3 hour hike using GPS, my battery only drained 15%. If you make sure that your Pulse Ox meter is off, you should get several days worth of battery. It also charges quickly, so if you take it off and charge it when you shower, you should have no issues.Overall, I highly recommend this tracker. It’s very accurate, has a good battery life, lots of features, and it is visually appealing.
48 people found this helpful
Jordan –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fitness first – Smartwatch second
Those of you more interested in fitness first, smartwatch features second, will really enjoy this watch. My Vivoactive HR just died after having it for over 3 years, so I upgraded to the Vivoactive 4. This is a major upgrade in terms of looks and features. Here are all the things I love:1) Two buttons – I originally bought the Vivoactive 3 Music because it was on sale for $200, but I quickly realized that missing the second button was a major pain point for me. Having the two buttons is so much more convenient for overall navigation. Also when you’re in a workout, the second button can be used for setting a lap (instead of the vivoactive 3 where you have to double tap the screen). The second button alone was worth the extra spend. The vivo3 had a 20mm band, where the vivo4 is 22mm. The bigger band makes it look a lot better. The extra 0.1in screen space is well utilized also. It does make a difference.2) Touch screen – I also tested out the Fenix 5 Plus for a while; now that is a great watch. The only issue I had with the Fenix was that you had to navigate all with buttons. The buttons are great for fitness and water sports, but when you’re in the office, it’s a little awkward when you’re sitting in a meeting pressing buttons to navigate through texts or emails. Fenix was an amazing fitness watch, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t work for my professional life expectations. Because it felt weird to have to press 5 buttons on the Fenix at the office, I wanted to go back to the touchscreen. Touchscreen is so much quicker and easier than the buttoned Garmins. It also looks cooler, and makes it truly feel more like a smartwatch.3) Fitness features – If you’re never had a Garmin before, they are amazing tools to help your fitness. The data it collects is leaps and bounds better and more accurate than any other smart watch. This watch has way more than the average athlete would ever need as it pertains to fitness features. There are tons of apps available, and its so easy to navigate and customize to your need. I use it mainly for running, golf and open ocean canoe paddling, using the SUP app. Though it’s a touch screen, it still responds decently well when you’re using it on the water soaking wet. You just have to kinda dry it off before you try to navigate while on the water. But here’s the deal, if you’re truly serious about your training, you’re probably working too hard to even mess with your watch during the workout anyway, so focus on your training, not tapping away at your watch. I set it to buzz after every mile so I can see each mile pace. It works well for the 5-10+ mile sessions when I’m trying to beat my time. I listen to music when I’m out paddling, and it’s a really nice feature. Haven’t had any issues connecting to my waterproof earphones, even with all the movement during a workout. I use the Mpow Flame waterproof earphones. Golf app is awesome: front, middle and back of the green yardage.4) Battery life – this is the biggest reason for me to get a Garmin instead of an Apple, Fossil or Samsung. I didn’t want to be glued to my charger every night so instead I got this and get a full week’s worth of battery. The always-on display is bright enough to see in daylight and at nighttime, but technology is what helps it save energy instead of the higher end amoled screens. It charges really quickly too so if I forget to charge it, I can just juice it up really quickly. A 10 minute charge gets me about 30% of battery.5) Smart features – The fact that Garmin has begun to integrate smart features to their watches is amazing. Yes, you can’t do everything one would like to do on a watch like talk to siri, look at pictures, or make phone calls. But why are you looking on your watch for all that stuff anyway? Is it really necessary when our phones are so advanced now? I get all my selected phone notifications, I can read texts and preview emails, and that’s really all i need. Remember, fitness first, smartwatch second.All in all, this is an amazing fitness watch, and I’d definitely recommend if you’re in the market for a new watch. Totally worth the spend, and for my needs I’d say it is a major upgrade from the apple/samsungs.
143 people found this helpful
Brandon –
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is the best fitness/smartwatch (for me)
I’ve tried several smartwatches and finally found the one for me with the Vivoactive 4!I started with Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 – terribly short battery life and very slow charging. Tried Amazfit GTR 2 – nice but couldn’t get past being tethered to China, and poor app. Fossil Hybrid HR – beautiful to look at, buggy and inaccurate. With Garmin I tried the Venu 2: beautiful screen and great features, but annoyingly buggy, and with erratic battery life. Vivomove Style – worked fine but small and just not enough good features.This is the one. Sometimes I’ll compare/contrast Vivoactive 4 (VA4) with Venu 2 (V2).Pros:-Just about the right shape and size and weight for me. Looks nice; I originally wanted the black but the shadow gray/silver bezel was $50 cheaper. I like the silver bezel, looks classy, and I’m happy with it.-Interface smooth and easy to use. Different from the Android-like style of Samsung or Amazfit but easy enough in its own way. No lags. Decently customizable. Decent app selection in the store.-Touchscreen works really well; responsive when I actually want to use it, but rarely picks up accidental touches, or wiping it with my sleeve. (V2 was terrible for accidental touches and always activated when trying to wipe it off.)-Great fitness features for general casual fitness (probably not for pro athletes). Good GPS for hiking (under the Walking activity). Lots of good motivators to be active, and tons of metrics even just for normal daily use.-Excellent battery life, good for a week without GPS activities. GPS uses ~10% per hour, still good. Charges in a little over an hour. (V2 charged even more quickly, but battery life was erratic, and far shorter with always-on display.)-Good selection of watchfaces, stock and third-party.-Transreflective display – I wasn’t sure about this, but I’ve come to really like it! It’s certainly not as “pretty” as AMOLED like on a Samsung or the V2, but much more practical, and far better battery life. AOD 24/7 for a week straight, backlight only needed in the dark, very clear and easy to read in sunlight – a much better choice for a fitness-focused watch in my opinion. Very happy with it! (The AMOLED AOD on the V2 was my main problem with it, other than general bugginess. It sapped the battery like crazy. It also couldn’t be turned off quickly on the fly, like for a movie or a nap. Not a problem on the VA4!)-I like Garmin Connect. Pretty easy to use and lots of info.Cons:-Transreflective display – I like it, as noted above, but it takes some getting used to at first after AMOLED, and will never be as “pretty” except in bright sunlight which is where it really shines (literally).-Slightly thicker than I might prefer.-Plastic build, other than bezel. I don’t mind and it’s sturdy and light, but it doesn’t say “premium.”-Occasional problems getting a GPS lock after traveling to a new location. It helps to sync and then restart the watch.-Connect IQ, the app store, is poorly organized and has a lot of junk in with some gems. Looks like the Android Market 10 years ago.-Sleep tracking. For me this is the major con, especially compared to the V2. Accuracy is only okay, sleep and wake times decent, but sometimes missed when I’m in bed awake, or even got up to go to the bathroom. No sleep score and no insights, and can’t view sleep on the watch. Sleep tracking is where the V2 really excels by comparison – impressively accurate, and very helpful sleep score and insights, onboard calculation and widget… the V2 outstrips the VA4 by miles here. I really, really wish Garmin would bring the updated sleep tracking to the VA4 as a firmware update. Or a VA5. I’d buy it!Aside from the lackluster sleep tracking, I’m extremely happy with the Garmin Vivoactive 4. It’s (almost) everything I want from a fitness/smartwatch. If Garmin brought the better sleep tracking to it, I’d say 5 stars, solid. As it is, call it a strong 4.5, and the best available for my needs.
50 people found this helpful
Natalie –
4.0 out of 5 stars
My favorite watch ever
Update:I have now also tested this against the Fitbit Versa 4, and the Garmin wins by a landslide. While the Versa does have much better sleep tracking and I like that you can count distance instead of steps, the UI is terrible and the touch-screen isn’t very responsive. Also, only a very short list of iPhone apps integrate, so I couldn’t get WhatsApp and a few other frequently used apps’ notifications to the Versa. On top of all that, it was unnecessarily bulky.My main beef with Garmin remains the sleep tracking. I also wish you could track distance vs steps and that you could still see the time of day when you’re tracking a workout. I still absolutely love the UI surrounding the timers. I use them multipe times a day while cooking or doing chores, and it’s so simple to just swipe and type in a number. I also love how you can make the timer repeat so easily if you’re doing intervals (although I do wish you could set alternating intervals). It’s truly amazing how something so simple can affect your life. I don’t think I’ll ever switch to another watch.Original review:I’ve had four fitness trackers in my life: a Fitbit Flex 2, an Apple Watch, and a Fitbit Charge 4. My main needs are step counting, sleep tracking, timers, and phone alerts. Here is what I’ll say about the Vivoactive 4s.Step counting is pretty accurate, but I don’t know of any watches that do this poorly. I do wish that you could add steps manually. I have a treadmill desk, and the watch won’t count those steps or track the treadmill workout – I think the watch can’t register my motions because my wrists aren’t moving. Not a big deal because my treadmill counts steps, but I wish I could merge them with my Garmin data. That’s my only beef with the app interface and movement tracking.The GPS works great, and it’s fun to see your little map on the watch face itself. My husband also has a Garmin, but it doesn’t have that feature. One weird thing about the GPS is that there is a screen within the GPS interface that has a whole mess of little icons. I assume those are meant to be plotted on a map, but I can’t figure out how or where to do this. The manual doesn’t address it.I will say the sleep tracking leaves something to be desired, and the quality is poor enough to knock a full star off the overall rating. It’s a huge step down from Fitbit, which is by far the best at sleep tracking – it will even track naps. The Vivoactive’s tracking is wildly inaccurate. It rarely records my sleep times correctly and sometimes thinks I’m asleep when I’m just watching tv or reading at night. This is the only way in which the watch lets me down, and it is a significant disappointment. It’s not as bad as the Apple watch, though. At least you don’t have to remember to turn on a completely separate app when you go to sleep.The O2 sensor isn’t important to me, but it does drain your battery in a big way. I don’t think it’s very accurate, either, so I turned it off.I do like the interface. It’s way more customizable than the Fitbit and Apple watches, and you can rearrange your menus and also hide things you don’t care about. You can also turn off the light entirely. I have my right-swipe shortcut set to the facelight dimmer, so I turn it all the way down at bedtime. I really like the Find My Phone button, although if you press it accidentally while you’re holding your phone, you get a bit of a jolt!I think you can do voice calling with this watch, but I don’t have an Android. The call/text/other notifications work fine with my iPhone.One of my main beefs with the Charge 4 was that it vibrated. Like constantly vibrated anytime you scrolled through a menu or touched it at all, and you couldn’t turn it off entirely. The Vivoactive has customizable vibration intensity, and it only vibrates for notifications and confirmations.The timer on this watch is by far my favorite. I cook often, and having a timer on my wrist is super convenient. I love that you type in the time instead of scrolling. Such a simple feature, but it’s completely painless.All in all, I would 100% recommend this watch. If you don’t take into account sleep tracking, I give it five stars.
24 people found this helpful
Allen D. ReineckeAllen D. Reinecke –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Check your wrist size before buying
I bought a Vivoactive 4S as the Amazon price seemed good at $199.99. However, I did return it after buying a Vivoactive 4, for $10 less from a well-known competitor! The 4S strap was short for me..I have a 7.25-inch wrist and the 4S strap was right near the end of its adjustment. Looking online the watch is actually designed for a 6.8-inch wrist maximum, though it did fit me, but I needed my wife to help put it on!.The 40mm case diameter was well-proportioned on my arm and the display notifications were legible. The TFT screen is superb in bright light as the light is actually reflected off the colored pixels in the reflective display, unlike an AMOLED screen. The colors are not as bright and saturated as an AMOLED display but they are quite acceptable. In low light, the display looks a little dull and washed out, even with the screen illuminated. Still acceptable though and given the resulting excellent battery life. At 20% brightness, short duration illumination and low gesture sensitivity, with one GPS tracking event per day, I achieved 4.5 to 5 days of battery life. A couple hours to recharge..The Garmin Connect app is feature-packed and the reason why I went with Garmin. The watch performed perfectly during a 2.5-hour hike. The only problem I had was with the ‘Auto Pause’ function for the walk activity. It kept pausing intermittently, even though I was walking. I thought it was due to loss of the GPS signal while in dense woodland. However, after disabling the Auto Pause, the watch worked perfectly. It seems that if my arm was not swinging enough, the watch thought I’d stopped walking. Activity ‘Auto Start’ isn’t as reliable as I’d like either. I don’t use those functions anymore!.When the Vivoactive 4 deal came to my attention, I expected only the strap to really make a difference and that’s why I bought it. I can put it on all by myself! It is designed for an 8-inch wrist maximum (see photos for comparison). However, the extra 5mm of case diameter also makes a surprising difference. The screen is noticeably bigger on the arm and the display even more legible. So, if you are torn between a Vivoactive 4S and 4, consider the strap length and the fit on your arm, but know that the notifications are also easier to read on the 4. Otherwise, both are identical in function..I am very pleased with the Garmin Vivoactive. The watch, with its app, helps with keeping a tally of my activities, including sleep, and actually gets me more active. The notifications from my phone are complete and not just short subject headings. I wear the watch 24/7 and don’t take it off. It’s very comfortable and doesn’t look so much like a smartwatch. The always-on display is what I really like about the watch. It seems to be very durable under extreme activities too.
20 people found this helpful
ColeCole –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Semi-Smart Watch with Great Battery Life
I purchased the Garmin Vivoactive 4S about 3 months ago, and I’m really enjoying this watch.When I started working at my current employer 6 years ago, I found out they offered a health insurance discount if you earn “healthy life points”. In this case, I could enter fitness activity manually, or sync my health insurance program with cooperating providers (Garmin, fitbit, Google, etc.). Back then I started out with the Vivosport, which lasted a while until the rubber band broke. After the Vivosport, I purchased the Vivoactive 3+music.I kept the Vivoactive 3+music for a long time, but over time, the battery in that watch started to show its wear, requiring frequent charges, and I kept having to clean corrosion off the charging port. So I started looking for a upgrade.After a lot of research, considering many other watches (Fossil smartwatch, Pixel watch, Galaxy, Fitbit, etc), I ended up coming right back to Garmin for 1 main reason: battery life.After a few months of wear on the Vivoactive 4S, I can note a few things:- Battery life is still “best-in-class”. I usually can go a week on a charge. The trick to this is finding a watchface that is more dimly lit (the one pictured is what I have been using for a while now).- Heart Rate Sensor definitely appears to be more accurate than the Vivoactive 3+music. I have a diagnosed sinus arrhythmia (cardiologist says it’s normal for my age). At times, the Vivoactive 3+music would incorrectly count my heart rate. The Vivoactive 4S so far appears to track my heart rate more accurately.- The watch sits a little taller off the wrist than the Vivoactive 3+music, but it hasn’t bothered me at all.- The display does have a higher resolution than the Vivoactive 3+music, even though the 4S screen is smaller, I have no trouble clearly seeing the finer print things I have on my watch display.- The “Body Battery” feature was new to me, but I’m starting to like it as a sanity check as to how I’m feeling and the kind of rest I’m having. I recently came down with a stomach virus, and overnight my “Body Battery” indicator dropped from the 70s to the 10s (I had elevated HR and respiration rate through the night). So it feels like this feature can provide good insights.- The “stress” indicator also appears to be useful. A few times it has notified me that I need to take a break and relax, and a few breathing exercises have done the trick to calm me down.My one and only complaint about this watch is the charging port. On occasion I have trouble getting it to make good contact, and have to jiggle it or flip it around. Thankfully charging isn’t a daily requirement. I really hope Garmin includes wireless charging capability in the next generation of their smartwatches (thus eliminating my only complaint).So in summary, I still really like the Garmin family of watch products, and the Vivoactive 4S is no exception.
49 people found this helpful
E. N. Matthan –
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Fitbit to Garmin: Why the Garmin Vivoactive 4 outshines Fitbit
The Garmin vivoactive 4 is a remarkable fitness tracker that has impressed me as a former Fitbit user of over 10 years. Reluctant to switch brands initially, I found the Garmin to be a superior product, offering not only similar features but also a greater level of durability. This goes above and beyond as a fitness tracker, providing an extensive range of features that enhance both my workout routines and daily life. It boasts an accurate GPS tracking system, enabling me to monitor my outdoor activities with precision. Whether I’m running, cycling, or hiking, the vivoactive 4 consistently delivers reliable data regarding distance, pace, and elevation.Furthermore, this device seamlessly integrates with my smartphone, allowing me to receive notifications for calls, texts, and other important alerts. The ability to stay connected without the need to constantly check my phone has proven to be incredibly convenient, especially during workouts when I don’t want to be distracted.One aspect that truly sets this apart from other fitness trackers is its exceptional durability. Having used Fitbit devices in the past, I noticed a significant difference in the build quality of the Garmin. The vivoactive 4 is designed to withstand the rigors of an active lifestyle, making it an ideal companion for fitness enthusiasts and adventure seekers alike. Its robust construction ensures it can handle various environments, including harsh weather conditions and accidental bumps.It features a user-friendly interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate. The touchscreen display is responsive and provides clear visibility, even in bright sunlight. The menu layout is well-organized, allowing quick access to various features and settings. I appreciate the simplicity of adjusting settings, creating personalized workout profiles, and tracking my progress effortlessly.Another notable aspect I love is its impressive battery life. With regular usage, I found that the device can easily last up to 7 days on a single charge. This extended battery life ensures that I can rely on it for extended periods without worrying about constant recharging.While the Garmin vivoactive 4 excels in many aspects, one feature that is noticeably absent is the smart wake alarm. Fitbit devices offered this convenient feature that gradually wakes you up with gentle vibrations, when you are in light sleep. Although the Vivoactive 4 lacks this specific capability, its overall performance and durability more than compensate for this minor drawback.The Garmin Vivoactive 4 surpasses my expectations as a fitness tracker, proving to be a worthy replacement for my Fitbit Charge 5 device. With its extensive range of features, durable design, user-friendly interface, and impressive battery life, the Vivoactive 4 has undoubtedly elevated my fitness journey. While the absence of a smart wake alarm is a minor inconvenience, it does not diminish the overall excellence of this top-tier product. I highly recommend the Garmin Vivoactive 4 to anyone seeking a reliable and durable fitness tracker that goes the extra mile.
36 people found this helpful
VMM –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rock Solid and Attractive . . .
I’m a watch dinosaur – I like automatic movements and the occasional quartz watch. Have avoided the “Smart Watch” fad up til now. But I’ve been wearing a Garmin VivoSmart fitness band with a regular watch and was looking for something that could carry off both purposes at the same time . . . without looking like I’m wearing a smartphone on my wrist. I’m also an Android phone guy so . . . adios Apple watch. But that’s OK.Look, if you’re looking for a device like this you have a choice: you can buy a true “smartwatch” with a bright and shiny display, the ability to track your steps (Apple/Samsung), read your emails . . and a crummy battery life. Or you can buy a fitness devise with Smartwatch features . . . like a Garmin.I choose Garmin. I bought the 40mm size because it looks like a regular watch and doesn’t look goofy with dressier styles. No, it doesn’t have the bright AMOLED display like the Apples and Samsungs, but it does have the “always on” display which is easy to read in any light. In dark areas, you can program it to brighten with a wrist snap or a tap. Again, it’s like a regular watch in that way – which for me is a must. And yes, you can customize the face or download others with the Garmin IQ app. Works fine for me.It’s the fitness innards where Garmin really shines, and it tracks damn near every bodily function you have. Steps is just the beginning. Lots of pre-programmed workouts along with heart rate and Pulse Ox monitoring. Garmin just buries the competition in the fitness arena, if that’s important to you.Yes, you can read texts etc but . . . well, I have a phone for that. No, I don’t want to read emails on my watch. The Garmin VA2 looks and acts like a real watch. It’s just smarter and the fitness stuff cannot be beat. And the battery life buries the Apples and the Samsungs. I get 2-3 days with just the basics on.If you don’t care much about the fitness criteria and want a wrist display to parrot your phone . . . get thee to the Apple store. Just make sure you bring your charger everywhere. If you want a solid smart-ish watch that looks classy and is packed with health and fitness utilities . . . get the Garmin.No regrets here.
1,122 people found this helpful
DK yew –
3.0 out of 5 stars
nice watch, weak battery life, music sync didnt work, too complicated/clunky interface, 4s too small
I got this as an upgrade from my Fitbit Charge 3 which I liked just fine except for the screen which I had trouble reading in bright sunlight. I also really liked the idea of not bringing my phone with me on runs, and this Garmin Vivoactive 4s had all the features needed to let me do that – music, gps, and garmin pay. And some of my runner friends had Garmin watches and they looked much sportier than the Fitbit so there was that.This is a very nice looking watch with excellent build quality. I chose the 4s, which was a mistake for me- I didn’t want a huge watch and the size of the 4s watch itself was great, but the strap was just too small for my wrist- I was able to squeeze it on but with only two holes left and was tight- so pay attention to your wrist measurement and make sure you have some extra. But the strap material was comfortable and the watch itself felt strong and looked nice. The display was bright and easy to read, expecially in daylight but I had no problems in darkness either – it wasn’t too bright at night. All good things. The larger display on the 4 would have come in handy in a few obscure situations but rarely. The stats on display while running were especially clear and easy to read- and useful! This is obviously the Garmin vivoactive 4’s strength.The Live Tracking feature which needs you to have your phone with you woked very well. It let me share my location in real time with my wife while I was out jogging, and is what enables the emergency alert feature too. It worked very well and was cool- I’m shocked this isn’t a more common feature for these fitness watches.I was disappointed about the GPS lock time – it took a lot longer than the 10-20 seconds I had expected– seemed like almost a minute even after updating my location in the app. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to speed this up (wifi networks, etc.) But once it locked it was pretty accurate and I was OK with it. I did have one problem where, after an outdoor run I went indoors and climbed 10 stories of stairs – I think going inside somehow messed up the whole tracking of the activity which was surprising. Was expecting more robustness.Garmin Pay worked reasonably well – it was a little clunky to get set up, and typing in your password on the tiny screen is silly, but you can do that while waiting in line and it can stay active for the rest of the day I think as long as you keep the watch on your wrist. Would have been nice to be able to set a $5 or $10 limit before requiring the passcode.The on-device music sync was really unpleasant to set up and never worked right. I don’t understand why it can’t be all set up from the app on your phone and pushed to the watch automatically. Regardless, even once it was set up properly, it didn’t work very well. I have Amazon Music and I was able to synchronize one of my playlists during initial setup. But after that nothing else worked and the playlist I set up turned out to be not great so I was desperate to get it changed. I tried updating firmware, deleting things, etc. but nothing worked. There is a bug somewhere and I just didn’t have the patience to troubleshoot what should be a straightforward feature. I was able to connect my apple powerbeats pro headphones without too much trouble.I never really got used to the interface – it seemed inconsistent with what would happen when you swiped in different directions- and there were screens I wanted to get to I had trouble finding but others I didn’t want to see that were always there.The pulse-ox feature was neat but total battery killer.And at the end of the day the battery life was extremely disappointing. They advertise that the battery should last 7 days in smartwatch mode, or 5 hours in gps mode with music, or 15 hours in gps mode alone. I guess I just saw that 7 day number and figured with moderate use it would last about 7 days. It didn’t come close. I was charging this thing at least every two or three days. I didn’t realize that one hour of running with the GPS on and music on would kill two days of “smartwatch” mode, or that a few hours of use in gps tracking mode w/o music would do the same thing. So on average if you are using this the way it is intended you should really expect to have to charge it every 2-3 days minimum. If you’re doing longer gps exercises or listening to music then you’ll probably change every day. And charging isn’t quick, it does charge up to 80% fairly fast but the next 20% seems to take forever. (note that the 4 version has slightly longer battery life vs. the 4s)Sleep tracking (which you cannot do if you are charging your watch overnight) was not as good as the fitbit – it lacked the sleep stages and was just less interesting. But it was still OK.Even though I had gotten this on sale at a great price, I returned this watch and have no regrets. I found the music feature to be worthless, the battery life stunk even if I didn’t use the music, and while the pulse-ox feature is neat it kills the already weak battery even faster. My advice- pay up for someting much better, suck up the need to charge every day, or skip some of these poorly implemented features and get a cheaper watch that does fewer things but does them better. Look at the Garmin forerunner 45 (forty-five) if you want GPS in your watch, plenty of options including fitbit charge 3 if you are okay bringing your phone with you (can use the phone for gps and music – saving the watch battery), the expensive Apple Watch which you will have to charge every day anyway but otherwise is a great fitness watch in addition to being a great smartwatch for everything including music, gps, and apple-pay. On the other hand, if you don’t mind throwing this on the charger every day or two and use spotify or have the patience to troubleshoot the music feature, this is a decent mid-powered over-featured sport/activity watch. So overall three stars.
142 people found this helpful
megan –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most treasured smart watch I own
I bought this Garmin watch in May 2021. I have been quite rough with it as I wear it daily/nightly. I love how it’s always updating HR, calories, steps, activities etc. It keeps me accountable for staying active. My daily goal is 10k steps, and this watch has been the most accurate with capturing activities and steps. In addition, the streaks are very satisfying to continue. The app and watch are amazing with keeping records of all information. Garmin also has a great replacement program. I was having issues with it connecting/disconnecting so I contacted Garmin support and they sent me a pretty much brand new one after I sent them my old one without the band since it broke. I’m very impressed with this company and watch. I should also mention I’ve tried the Samsung and Amazon watches and both come up short. Garmin definitely won me over as a loyal customer.
artschuerg –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Value for $
touch screen great battery life ok better value for the $
Roger A –
4.0 out of 5 stars
GPS WORKS GREAT. SLEEP METRICS not good
Overall like this watch. Especially for walking/ running. GPS let’s you know exactly the distance of run / walk / bike. Continuous heart rate & metrics seem to work correctly. Now, for the downside: sleep metrics are terrible; especially sleep time. You can be watching TV in the evening and says you’re sleeping. Not good. **But if exercise is your main reason for buying; then it’s a great item. Really like GPS.
One person found this helpful
StephSteph –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Replaced my fitbit
I switched to Garmin from fitbit, I had numerous issues with fitbit. After researching Garmin I was SO happy to see the array of challenges, activities (even archery!) And apps. I went with this Vivoactive 4s, here are the pros and consPros: challenges, long battery compared to fitbit, health metrics and fitness for free (no subscription) and a host of other bonuses.Cons: MIP screen (i am still getting used to the change of screen, its not bad but also a bit odd at first) no detailed hydration app that sends reminders, but you can do this with a phone app.
One person found this helpful
Meho –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good watch
I got this watch for my wife, probably not as easy to maneuver in as my Garmin Fenix 6, but still a great watch.
LUCAS GODBURN –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty Good Value
It was a nice looking watch and gps for the price. The battery life could have been a little better but that’s probably why Garmin has a newer version and this was on sale.
Benito Huerta –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent product, performs as described.
I wish I could give it 4.5 stars instead of 4. I take 1/2 points off because some things are not very intuitive and take a bit longer to figure out. Namely music and a setting up a few sensors. Aside from that I’m very satisfied with my purchase. I wear my watch 24×7 for up to 4 days before charging. Its advertised as longer but i keep all my sensors on and collecting data which uses up battery life. My favorite feature is being able to hear music and tracking my location without my phone.Some things to keep in mind:1) After setting up the music app (Amazon in my case) you have to setup WIFI on the watch and it wont update your music/playlists until you start charging it. It may state that in the manual but I didn’t see it. I own MP3 music and opted to just download it to the watch itself.2) Some sensors, like the Oxygen Sensor have to be turned on from the Watch. I spent time looking for it in the mobile app but its not there. Once setup everything appears in the mobile.3) The Garmin website does a fantastic job of reporting your health statistics as does the mobile app.4) It can take up to 30 seconds to get GPS signal so add that in to your pre-workout steps5) They sych great with my Apple Ipods and I can control skipping to the next song by double tapping however sound can only be controlled from the watch.6) For much faster initial software updates I would recommend to install the Desktop app and update the watch from there.7) Its a bit cumbersome at first but learn the shortcuts, like holding down the A button for quick menuOverall I really like my watch and somehow has become an excellent motivator to help me improve on my health activities. I just like to see the progress on the graphs. 🙂
13 people found this helpful
Michele M. –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great functionality but wish the batter life was better
This watch replaced a Garmin Vioactive HR that had a great battery life – it lasted for weeks Even though this watch stated it was good for 6 days I was hoping for longer life because the HR went longer than it stated. I don’t feel I get 6 days out of the battery even without using the GPS function. I do like the updated features such as the on screen workouts. The physical features of the watch are very nice and great quality. In the Garmin Connect there is a new measurement: Body Battery. I thought I would like that feature but I don’t feel it is very accurate or syncs with how I feel. The sleep measurements is very different than the measurements of the HR. I felt the HR measurements were more active. This watch shows that I don’t get much deep sleep and I don’t feel that is true. Overall the watch is just OK, wish I would have went with a watch with a longer battery life.
One person found this helpful
mayamaya –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Impressed
I have had this Garmin for about a week now. It reminds me of an Android in the aspect that there are so many ways to customize it. You can change the “face”, but within the mobile app, you can customize the face even more. What you’re using it for will of course determine the battery life. I turned off gesture (turning backlight on when you flip your wrist to view your screen) as I can honestly see it fine in the house. And if it’s dark, you can tap the screen and the backlight will turn on. If you plan to GPS for long periods of time or multiple times in the day, you will be charging it a lot. There is a feature where after 5 – 10 minutes of walking (depending on what you set as your walk time as), it will start tracking you after that threshold. It will start you at that time. I haven’t found that to be 100% perfect, where I have walked for 15 minutes at a pace and it didn’t catch me the whole time. I would say the best way is to just turn on GPS at the beginning of your exercise. Compared to a fitbit (I came from Inspire HR), a fitbit will say you were active for however long even if it doesn’t track your distance. I haven’t found this to be the case on the Garmin. You will have steps, but no activity. When doing an activity, there isn’t a pause button, so you will have the end the tracking if you want to do that. There is an auto-pause feature available, but don’t use it. You’re better off just letting it run to get a more accurate picture. The Garmin doesn’t track naps so if you were counting on that to be apart of your sleep, it won’t. There is a loophole around that though. Even though it won’t add to your sleep, it will add to tour body battery. I do wish there was an option to turn off the screen to not waste battery when I’m not looking at it and/or to not have the screen move if you’re doing something. There is a lock screen feature, but then you have to hold buttons to unlock and such everytime you want to get into the watch. I do also wish you can see some of the specs from the watch i.e. the walk or workout you just did. You can view briefly after the workout, but then it will go away. It will show simple specs, so you will have to go to the app to see more detail. Other than that, I’ve been having a blast with this watch. I am unfortunately having an issue with the wristband, but silicone allergy isn’t uncommon.
4 people found this helpful
MightyMikeMightyMike –
3.0 out of 5 stars
not accurate
Upon first receiving the Garmin watch I really liked the overall look. It felt very similar to my Samsung Gear 3. I had to replace my samsung because the program I am on is not compatible, but it is compatible with fitbit and Garmin. Garmin seemed the next best choice. But I have come to the conclusion that it is lacking.I am finding the Garmin to be very innacurate! I am attaching pictures to show evidence of that. I have been mowing my lawn the last couple mornings. I felt the step count was very low, so I kept my phone in my pocket to compare the steps between my samsung health app, and the garmin watch. The results after I finished are nothing less than irritating. over 3K with my samsung health app, and just barely over 1K while wearing the watch. I want my steps to be counted – that’s the entire point of wearing one of these watches!I have not tested the other features in the same manner, but I would expect similar results as the step counting. I would expect more from such an expensive watch.You can change the band, but most “off shelf” replacement bands wont work because the pins wont stay in. I verified that the bands have the correct size pins according to the Garmin specifications, but they still don’t work. I do not like the silicone bands that come with these watches. they trap moisture and rub on my skin, making them very uncomfortable.You can’t dismiss alarms on the Garmin like you can the Samsung Gearfit. this is quite irritating, as I don’t always have my phone right in my pocket. if my hands are full taking care of my grandbaby or dogs, It’s much more convenient to be able to dismiss a timer on my watch.
Brian Green –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Watch, Love Always On!
One of the main reasons I chose this watch was the always on display with the great battery life. It does not dissapoint. I used a fitbit for a week to see if I wanted a fitness watch and I hated that I had to either press a button or flick my wrist a million times to see the time. This watch is great in that (except dark places) I don’t need to do anything special to see the time.I was concerned over the screen quality from some reviews but honestly those people are insanely posh and picky. This screen is more than fine for a watch. It’s not a phone I’m scrolling pictures and videos on. The screen is nice and I’ll gladly take this always on display with 4 day real world battery over a watch that turns the screen off and doesn’t have any extra battery life.The battery legit lasts me 4 days of normal use which allows me to forget to put it on the charger from time to time without penalty. I have been very pleased with this watch and hope Garmin changes their minds and keeps going with the vivoactive line instead of OLED screens for the lower end devices. Will probably upgrade to Fenix in a couple years, very happy with Garmin over the Fitbit my wife has.
7 people found this helpful
Lotus2YouLotus2You –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vivoactive 4 fits perfectly on my 5.75 inch (14.5 cm) wrist.
I was a Fitbit inspire 2 & inspire 3 user for several years, but I wanted a fitness tracker with a larger face (my eyesight is bad) and its own built-in GPS. I also wanted to load my own mp3 music files, so I don’t have to carry my phone when jogging. I was ready to buy a higher-end model of Fitbit, but I learned that they used to allow you to load your own music files, but that’s no longer the case. Well then, bye-bye Fitbit.I looked around and found that Garmin’s Vivoactive was perfect for me price wise and it seemed to do everything I wanted my fitness tracker to do, so went ahead and bought it.For the size though, I felt like Vivoactive 4 (45mm) was a better option for me compared to 4S (40mm), but I was a bit worried that it might be way too big on my 5.75 inch wrist. I went ahead and purchased the bigger one anyway, and I am glad that I did. Although it is definitely much bigger than a typical women’s watch, it looks nice and is exactly the size I wanted. I will include a picture so you can see how it looks on my wrist.The display is not as crisp as Fitbit inspire 2 & 3, but I wanted 1.) a decent battery life and 2.) a easy to read display in outdoor settings and vivoactive has both. A better display type would’ve negatively affected those areas, so I am fine with what I got. The two Fitbits I have use PMOLED (inspire 2) and AMOLED (inspire 3) and I had to create a shade with my hand to read them outside. The Vivoactive 4 manual says it uses “sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)”, I don’t know what it means from a technical standpoint, but the display is definitely easy to read in outdoor settings, even under a direct sunlight. As for the battery life, it drains quite a bit when using GPS and music together during a run, but that is to be expected. On my non-running day though, the battery life is good (I’d say about 15% or so per day). I use a watch face with a battery saver feature, so that probably helps.The Garmin Connect app is great with many features. I prefer it over the fitbit’s app. Unlike the fitbit’s app, all the features in the Garmin Connect app are included for free. It even includes the Garmin coach (5k, 10k and half marathon). You choose your coach and training schedule, and the watch/tracker will train you to run. I mentioned earlier that it lets you load your own music files. Well, it also let you load podcasts as well (I downloaded a widget for that). There are many apps and widgets you can download both free and paid from Garmin Connect IQ app.Overall, Vivoactive 4 has exceeded my expectations. I am very happy with my purchase.
50 people found this helpful
Sheena Rippentrop –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good watch, long battery life, lightweight
Wanted a new smartwatch with better battery life and found one. Battery lasts 4-5 days between charges and when charging does so fast (20-30 min). Less of a smartwatch than my prior in that it doesn’t show picture from texts and hard to respond via text from watch but I can download music and it has pretty good GPS tracking. Watch is also lightweight. Does not communicate with my Google fit tracking, has its own app.
EJ Honda –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Battery life or GPS? You can only pick one…
**1 month update**This is my first smart watch, and while I was hoping to be blown away by all the health data I’d have at my finger tip, it’s been disappointing in some regards.First, the pros:Sleep tracking – seems to be very accurate. The Body Battery measurement seems to pull good info from this, too. If I wake up and don’t feel rested, the watch knows this and reflects this in its measurements. When I feel well rested, it shows that.Hearth rate & SpO2 also seems to be very accurate.Fit and comfort on my small wrist seems to be very good. Band fits me great, to the point I’m starting to think my wrist isn’t as small as I thought it was.Explicit Exercise tracking – when you set it to track an activity – mostly walking for me – it works great. The app draws a very precise map of my route and indicates the distance to a high level of accuracy.Smartphone notices mirrored on you watch – it can be really handy to be able to just glance at your watch to see if it’s something that deserves reading it fully on your phone. It’s a time saver, but it’s also a phone battery saver.Extended smartphone battery life – with not having to look at your phone screen as much, the watch showing you alerts keeps you from burning phone battery by activating its screen. I went from my phone being at 30% or even needing a charge during the day, to having no less than 50-70% of battery left by bedtime. That’s a huge benefit.Cons:Passive exercise tracking – either my Samsung GS21 phone wildly overestimated my daily steps in the Samsung Health app, or this watch is underestimating my steps daily. I suspect the latter as I used to rack up about 6000 steps by mowing my lawn for 1.5hrs. The watch only registered 1600 steps for my 1.5 hrs behind the push mower. Looks like you really need to enable that GPS for any type of motion to be recorded accurately.Battery Life – the only way this watch is giving you 8 days of batter life is if you disable every feature on it. For me, it’s averaging about 3-4 days when I don’t use any GPS function, half that when using the GPS for an hour or more.GPS impact on battery life -the documentation warns you that GPS use will greatly impact battery life, and they aren’t exaggerating. Taking a 1.5 hr walk will consume about 20-25% of the battery life. Where the battery can last you 5-8 days w/o some functions enabled, but putting the GPS on will suck down battery pretty quick.Garmin Connect App – this app is not intuitive at all. Some of the UI makes sense, but there are portions of it that are baffling and take me minutes of searching to find. Supposedly this watch can store music but I can’t figure out for the life of me how to load it on the watch.The watch UI – the non-intuitiveness bleeds over to the watch and its display of info. Some of it is easy to understand, but there is some, like the Health Stats, that is too confusing to absorb in the 3 seconds the display shows it for. The audio controls will appear for unknown reasons. The audio controls seem to control music that’s playing on your phone, which is cool, but it also gives the impression it will control music stored on the watch, but sadly that just reminds you you can’t figure out how to load music onto the watch.Cost of Garmin accessories – I’d love to have a 2nd charge cable for this but they want $60 for one on the Garmin website. Knock off cables are available here on Amazon for a third of that price, but feedback on longevity isn’t encouraging.Overall, I’m reasonably happy with the watch purchase and am settling in to using it, but I’d wish it would be a lot easier to learn all the functions of the watch.
4 people found this helpful
kp –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Basically what I was looking for
I decided I should be more proactive with my health and did a bunch of research and decided on this fitness watch.The watch face is a tad large for my wrist (45mm)so if I were to purchase one again I’d maybe go with the 40mm if available.I don’t think the sleep tracker is accurate.I don’t like that the display is always on and I can’t turn it off (if there’s a way I haven’t figured it out). I prefer my watch face to be off unless I choose to turn it on. I think the always on display wastes too much battery in my opinion.Sometimes at night I see the sensor lights (under the watch) and it bothers me but it’s not really a big deal just something to note.The battery life is not 8 days as other people have mentioned. I charged it to 100% Sunday at 10am and today is Thursday and I woke up like 345am and it was under 20%. So I charged it while I was in the shower and getting ready for work. It went up to 57% in about 40 minutes.The charger is a very short cord but way better than my last fitness watch which was a magnetic charger and it made me enraged as it kept disconnecting. This one actually plugs into your watche so I love it.I love all the functions of the watch: counts steps, monitors stress, sleeping, heart rate, pulsox, body battery, physical activity, weather. I wish it did body temperature as well but not a huge deal.Also there’s a menstrual tracker for us ladies.You can listen to music on it but I haven’t connected it with my phone as that’s not really my purpose and I don’t want to use it to talk on the phone or anything. I just want to use it for fitness and health tracking.I love that it can track my indoor rowing and if I go walking for an extended period of time. But it can also track whatever exercise you choose to do.It’s a bit expensive but I think it’s worth it..I’m glad I went with this brand.Also you can change the watch faces I downloaded one that has a lot info so I see everything at a glance. If I just scroll up I can then see other information that it tracks. You have to download an app or two to go with this watch. I like the app. It’s summarizes your day or week probably more but I have only had the phone for 1.5 weeks.Tl;dr: I recommend this watch and I’d get this watch in the future if something happens to it(unless it breaks in a month then I’ll update my review and not recommend it 😂)Edit: it’s now October and it’s still working great. I’ve definitely toned up
25 people found this helpful
Daniel –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great performance on training and battery life
I still have my doubts with the sleep tracking and gym activities but overall it is a very good watch and I recommend it.
Gordy –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Nice
I love this watch and the Garmin app. It was easy to intstall and the app is user friendly
Ola A. –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to set up
Easy-to-use interface.
Jennifer W –
5.0 out of 5 stars
My only regret is hesitating in my purchase….
I had this in my cart for over a month before I finally purchased it. I went back and forth between the Vivoactive 3 and the 4 and ultimately my main reason for going with the 4s is the size difference. It is something small that makes a big difference for me. This is my first Garmin fitness device and the main reason I switched is the incident detection/tracking. Having that one extra thing for safety is huge. I run trails, hike and have had people follow me when running in town. While this is not my only means to protect myself, I like knowing it is there.The battery life on this watch is great. I am coming from one that needed charged every day so being able to go up to three days depending on my usage is really nice. My workouts usually consist of at least 30 minutes up to 1 hour for cardio and then 30 – 45 minutes of strength while listening to music. I only get to run outdoors 1 day a week so my batter life will change once the snow melts off and GPS is used more frequently. I wear my watch 24/7. This is the first watch that I loaded music on because the battery can handle it. My last watch I could have music on it but the battery couldn’t handle it. I am impressed because this watch also has built in GPS which my last watch did not.I was spoiled with my notifications on my last watch. This one has not let me down. While I can’t answer calls, being able to have responses to text messages was something I was used to and did not want to lose. I recently switched to a different phone that allowed me to use this feature on the watch. It also has the Find My Phone feature. I think that was the most used feature on my last watch!The workouts they have already made are great and make it really easy. While I hope they come out with more (I am not creative in this area!), they have enough to keep me motivated. Being able to plan my schedule out and have workouts ready to go has become my favorite feature of this watch. I have always dreaded strength training but know I need it because I am a cardio junkie. It has been nice to workout without having to find a video with a person that is yelling at you – that is not motivating to me at all. Seeing the workout and knowing what I am going to be doing exactly has me doing them more regularly. I found in the beginning that it did not count reps for some moves accurately. As I continue daily workouts it seems to be improving. It is really easy to edit things if it misses something as well.I am also using the hydration tracker which I use like food tracking. I do it as a spot checking system doing it a few times a week. It is nice to be able to quickly log things without my phone.I haven’t really used the rest of the features yet. I am branching out slowly as there are a lot of features to give you a more complete look at things. The Garmin software was easy to use immediately but a bit over whelming in the beginning. I have worn fitness watches, many different brands, for years and have never had all this information at my fingertips.Overall I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.
6 people found this helpful
The One –
4.0 out of 5 stars
No color screen
Bought it for the girlfriend, we were expecting a colored screen but it’s not.Otherwise it works very well
Rae Ann Dollish –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love this device
It’s a great smartwatch/fitness tracker for those of us who are serious about exercise but not too serious. Give me every statistic I could possibly need. I checked it’s heart rate count against my doctor’s office and it was pretty close. The GPS is good for tracking your walks (not runs, I said not too serious LOL). Screen is clear and very visible in sunlight.
JenHen22 –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Love the style of the watch
I ended up returning it because it just wasn’t what I wanted. I really like the look and wish I could have kept it.
Paisy Mene –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice looking, but….
I really like the look of this watch. So far the band hasn’t given me a rash, unlike other smart watch bands. I bought this because of the battery life. Unfortunately, I’m charging it every 2 to 3 days. I have deleted some features thinking the features were draining the battery, but thats not the case. I’m still getting used to it. Along with the battery life, I don’t like how I can’t turn off the light feature. When I turn over in bed, the light comes on. I can’t stand it.
One person found this helpful
A&L_B –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great watch. Always on feature.
Has an always on feature that can’t be disabled. Otherwise I really like it.
Biomom –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love this watch!
I’m still getting familiar with my new Vivoactive 4s but so far I’m loving it. It’s big enough to see but not nearly as clunky as other Garmins. I also love that I can view my HR, steps, battery status and date all from the watch face. I love the classy analog watch face and that the second hand is always there. As a veterinarian, that’s really helpful. And it’s been great for tracking runs and pool swims. I haven’t tried it yet in open water or on the bike. The health features are useful. Overall, a great watch. I see no need to buy the 5 (which doesn’t come in a 40mm s size) when the 4s has everything I want!
Vanessa mora –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Súper util
Ya lo Utilicé súper practico
Kindle Customer –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love the Garmin smart watches
I had a Garmin smart watch for a few years and was very happy with it. So much so I ordered another one because my Garmin 4 died. I ordered the Garminactive 4 which is what I thought I had but it was the wrong one. I had to return it because I have very small wrists and the band on the watch kept moving and rubbed sores on my wrist.I ordered the Garminactive 4s. What is the difference between the two:–The Garminactive 4 battery is supposed to last 8 days; the 4s lasts 7 days in Smartwatch mode–The Garminactive 4 in GPS has 18 hours and in GPS music has 6 hours but the 4s has 15 hours and with GPS with music 5 hours.–Both have sensors that monitor Heart rate, accelerometer altimeter, compass, gyroscope, Pulse Ox, thermometerOf course there are a few more differences but are basically the same. If you are active and require the GPS with the monitoring, your battery life isn’t going to be that great. You will be charging the watch more often.. The charging time is reasonable. I charged my watch every day or every other day when I was watching television and it worked out for me. My experience has been — Turn off the GPS and don’t play music and your battery life will be greatly improved.
4 people found this helpful
OlympicOlympic –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good battery life. Needs larger font for data
Battery life is extended by shuting off trackers. With only heart rate and sleep tracking, 5 days between charging is reasonable. “Broadcasting” heart rate to a cycling computer 2 to 4 hours a day doesn’t have a noticable impact on battery life. Using GPS is reported to drain the battery in 12 hours. I haven’t tested this feature for that long to comment.I use this watch primarily to send heart rate to a cycling computer and as a time piece. After comparing it to a chest strap, I found the watch must be very snug on the wrist to detect heart rate above 120 to 130. When snug, the watch is comparable to a chest strap monitor. The cycling computer converts heart rate to zones which I use for monitoring workouts and race phases.As with most “smart” devices, the font is too small for data readouts on the watch face. These devices must be developed and tested by people too young for reading glasses (presbiopia). Options for LARGER fonts would improve this device.Data is sent to the Garmin moble app. Documentation is slim and takes some experimenting to find and understand the collected data. I had to ask the chat bot how to send heart rate data to the cycling computer. Something this basic should be in the documentation.
11 people found this helpful
Cody Spangler –
3.0 out of 5 stars
We’ll get there, maybe…
Second Garmin watch. First was a Fenix 3, and man do I feel dumb for paying as much as I did when this new watch does almost exactly the same things for way less money. I had hoped that the app ecosystem would evolve a little more in the intervening time… You still have to like tinkering and digging through settings to get the most out of it, whereas Pixel and Apple watches are intuitive out of the box. My two biggest problems are sleep and swimming. My bad for not doing my research into the sleep thing, apparently Garmin brings up the rear on this front compared to its competitors. I will say that this is the first watch in which I’ve ever been able to comfortably sleep most nights. The swimming goes back into the need to dig through widgets and datafields from usually unknown developers in order to get the functionality you’re looking for. I bought this watch to help me jump start a new gym routine, and although I’ve made a lot of progress towards my personal goals, none of that has anything to do with the investment I made in this bit of tech. It has yet to track a swim workout accurately or help me track my heart rate during a workout. After paying this much, I’m very disappointed to be manually calculating my heart rate with a finger to my neck while squinting at the pool clock through my goggles. I’m holding out hope that if I invest yet more time into finding the right datafields or widgets that I’ll be able to glance at my wrist to check my heart rate zone or see how many laps I’ve done. Until then, I think three stars is frankly pretty generous 🫤
One person found this helpful
KNGKNG –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Second vivoactive I’ve owned
I have been using my new vivoactive 4s for about 2 weeks. The white one in the pics is my new watch and the black one is the vivoactive 3. I feel like the 4s is a bit smaller than the 3 and I like that feature. The 4s might be a little thicker.It has taken a bit of getting used to the slight differences in how the 4s functions. The 3 has 1 side button but the 4s has 2. The way you get to your alarm settings is different. The outer casing is not touch sensitive in the 4s like in the 3( which I never really used that feature in the 3 anyway). The 4s gives more info for text and email notifications on the screen and I like that. I have downloaded music onto the watch but haven’t used it just yet. I usually have my phone on me so it’s not difficult to hook up to the phone since I use my headphones all day at work anyway.I took a long time trying to figure out which kind of Garmin to get this time around. I was always very happy with the vivoactive 3. I really didn’t absolutely need to get a new one. The gps was working great. It stayed connected to my phone and all of the data it kept track of seemed accurate. I was getting tired of the black and wanted something lighter and the battery life had been lasting less and less.I am happy with this purchase.
34 people found this helpful
Excelente –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mejor de lo esperado
Excelente producto y funcionamiento
Margaret Alexy –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good fitness tracker at a reasonable price
I bought the Garmin Vivoactive 4S to replace my Fitbit Luxe, which was having severe battery issues after only 1-1/2 years. I loved my Luxe because it had a really bright, colorful display and was smaller and more jewelry-like. I need something small as I have a very thin wrist. I’m not a sports extremist and I only need something to track steps, heartrate, treadmill workouts, bike rides, and hikes.The Vivoactive 4S is bigger than my Luxe but size-wise is not overbearing. I ordered the light gold with light pink band because it was a Prime Day special with a really good price. I was worried about ordering pink because it looked really PINK in the photos. When I received it, it looks more like a blush pink, which I can live with. I figure I can change bands that match the pink body of the watch. The colors on the screen are not as vivid as displayed in the photos on Amazon, which is why I took off 1 star on the review. My Luxe had brighter colors.This is a really feature-laden smartwatch, more than I’m used to. I’m still trying to learn about everything this watch has to offer. The app is not as intuitive as I’d like but as I get used to it, I’m finding it has a lot of useful information. I don’t think it has auto-detect for activities. I had to ask my daughter (who also has a Vivoactive 4S) how to start tracking exercise. I did a 25 mile bike ride yesterday and the app shows the route I took on a Google map. It also included the outside temperature, the sections where I moved faster or slower, what time I was at each point on the map and my heartrate at the different points. I got a high heartrate warning on the smartwatch itself one particularly steep hill, which startled me. I tracked the ride in two separate sections because I stopped at the halfway point to use the restroom. When I started riding again, I must have accidentally selected treadmill or walk instead of bike, and it split the second half of my ride into laps which was very distracting.Overall, I like this watch and hope that it lasts me a long time.
3 people found this helpful
Ashley S. BluthAshley S. Bluth –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Going from Fitbit to Garmin (or Polar?)
I have been a Fitbit user for a few years and it just suddenly died on me so I was in the market for a new fitness watch. I like to take gym fitness classes, I teach yoga, and also do martial arts. After looking at 7 different watches I narrowed it down to the Polar Ignite and the Garmin Vivoactive 4s. I bought both and this is my own review.Polar has a $190 price tag, 4-5 day battery life, GPS, VERY accurate heart rate monitoring (that’s what they are known for), in my experience the sleep monitoring was more accurate than the Garmin, but not as user friendly as the Fitbit. The polar has a very bright and clear screen, but like the Fitbit you have to flip the wrist to see it light up. In contrast, the screen is actually harder to see than the Garmin when out in the sun, (say on a run). Polar will give you suggestions for recovery that go with what you did to workout and I thought that was neat. It also has a nightly recharge score (like Garmin’s “body battery”). Cons: it is slow to wake, like the Fitbit. It would occasionally disconnect from my phone, it does not have music downloadable to the watch so you have to have your phone nearby, and the texts that come through are too big so you only see a portion of it. It also does not have menstrual tracking which I found handy on the Fitbit.I ended up returning the Polar and keeping the Garmin vivoactive 4s and here’s why. Garmin may have a higher price tag ($230), and a duller screen. See picture. But many good qualities that after a few weeks of trial made me choose it. It says the battery life is 7 days, but I got 4-5 days. Has GPS (on par with Polar). Has music you can download to the watch so you don’t have to take your phone with you! I did not have any music when using the Fitbit so I didn’t know this was something I would like so much, but it’s awesome. The watch face is 40mm as compared to the Polar’s 43mm. I like a smaller watch. The heart rate was pretty much the same as polar, or within 5bpm. If you look at the picture I have of a run I did you can see how Fitbit did NOT accurately detect when I went from walking to running and the other 2 watches did. Another plus is that the screen is always on. Also not something I had with Fitbit so I didn’t know what I was missing. When doing an activity and you want to quickly know what your heart rate is, Garmin is hands down the best option. The screen will light up more if you touch it, but you can always see the time and anything else you want on your display (I have time, heart rate, date, weather, messages, battery, and steps all on my watch face). Garmin will track your sleep, but it isn’t as detailed or accurate as the Fitbit or polar, but it does have something cool called Pulse Ox that measures your blood oxygen levels (like those clips with a red light they put on your finger at the doctor’s office). This is good to detect any problems you may have while sleeping or even during the day. Garmin does have menstrual tracking and also Garmin Pay. A con would be that Garmin does not add naps into your sleep for the day. It will only track one sleep for the day, not multiple. The display is by far the best over the 3 watches when outside. It’s almost like a kindle screen when you are in the sun. You can change settings so when you are in a workout you won’t get any messages or notifications so they won’t interrupt you (I am someone that will immediately look at my watch when it buzzes so I turned those off when in the middle of a workout).Now if you have been a Fitbit user like I had and switched to one of these watches, the apps are very confusing. Fitbit has by far the most user friendly app. But with a little time, either app will become familiar to you as well.I am not a runner, never have been, but I have turned into a runner because of the Garmin watch. It has a coach setting where you can plug in a goal and it will coach you to get to that goal. I am very competitive so I make sure I am going to get to that goal (a 5k run). It is very satisfying to see your runs displayed on the app and to rate them on how you felt that day.In conclusion, depending on what you are looking for you might choose a different watch than me, but I love my Garmin Vivoactive 4s now.
260 people found this helpful
JillJill –
4.0 out of 5 stars
I have a problem with it irritating me off and on
Love the watch but off and on this happens. It hurts. I switch back and forth. I called the company when I first got the watch. They said they would send a different band but did not. It was hard to find replacement bands that fit on Amazon and I had to return. They are really helpful with tech questions at Garmin. Also when I fall alseep at night I fall alseep with 1 minute always. That’s just how I’ve always been. This watch does not pick up that I have fallen asleep for about 20 minutes after I know I have fallen alseep. I also would like it to include naps to my sleep count about but it does not.
Mrs. W –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Durable
I like that you can add different faces and each one has different features you can play with. I don’t like sometimes I cannot delete my text messages.
Penny Deon Amy –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to use and set up!
I had to update my garmin vivo3 because after 5 years it gave out. I originally ordered a forerunner 245 and sent it back. I got this one. I realized I didn’t want to live without touchscreen. It works great to track my runs!
One person found this helpful
Cejay –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Functionality
I use the watch mostly for golfing gps, and sometimes it fails to launch at certain golf courses. I usually verify the course was downloaded on my app, then restart the watch, somewhat annoying.
Jessica & Jeremy Owens –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Garmin makes the best Smart Watches in my opinion
I got this, Garman Vo active at a great price. I would’ve never gotten it anywhere else cheaper. I am a big Garmim fan.! I definitely got my moneys worth and it works perfectly. So glad I bought it from Amazon.
Michelle Pilon –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Keeps track of everything!
This watch is amazing. Keeps track of my heart rate and let’s me know if it’s too high. Also it’s nice to know how much restless or restful sleep I’ve been getting. I would love to give this watch a 5 out of 5 but I can’t because the original bad thay comes with it irritates my skin. Otherwise it’s an amazing purchase.
Juan Robles –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Muy buen accesorio para actividades deportivas
El reloj lo uso todos los dìas, ya sea como para ver la hora o tambièn para cronometrar diferentes actividades deportivas.La calidad de los materiales es muy buena, la malla de silicona es muy còmoda.La duraciòn de la baterìa es buena tambièn, dependiendo el uso que uno le de.El GPS no es tan preciso, pero por el valor del reloj, entenderìa que no està tan mal.
Danilo A –
5.0 out of 5 stars
excelente inversion
El reloj es super util, comodo, la aplicación del bluetooth es excelente, me encanta cuando salgo a correr escuchando música sin usar el celular, es excelente. Lo único malo es la vida de la bateria, para mi modo de ver se termina super rapido, esto es maximo unos 3 dias….
Jay Walthall –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good watch
Good watch but returned it to stay in the Apple ecosystem.
LPS –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I like it
Switched from fitbit to Garmin and have been happy with it. Has all the information without having to pay a monthly fee. Accurate with steps and sleep. Love being able to log my water. It took a few days to get used to a bigger face from my Luxe but like it.
Lily Joha –
3.0 out of 5 stars
bought this watch for exercise
first the battery doesn’t last more than a day with regular use, let alone if used at all – I’m annoyed that as a runner that Garmin feels the need to push golf down my throat – in the beginning it kept asking me to track my menstrual cycle as well, I could get that fixed, but I haven’t been able to get the gold crap off the watch, pulse ox and heart rate aren’t accurate, but I bought it for the GPS which seems to be very good, WISH THE WATCH WAS MORE USER FRIENDLY – I have called and spoken with support multiple times to figure out how to use this watch
Amazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice size watch and health monitor.
I like the size and ease of use of watch. I especially like healt feature of heart rate, moving notifications and GPS fall detection. Very important feature.
Aaron Riley –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Middle of Road Smartwatch
I bought the VivoActive 4 to replace my old Garmin Forerunner 235. My old Garmin was kind of bulky and didn’t have many features I would like. I love the VivoActive 4 for all the features and the more appealing style. My biggest complaint is the battery in VivoActive 4. I could wear the Garmin forerunner for a month or long before having to charge it. The VivoActive 4 needs to be charged weekly and if I use it to track my workout then every couple of days. I now just mainly use it as part of my wardrobe and my old forerunner to track my workouts.
One person found this helpful
L. Holman –
4.0 out of 5 stars
I only use these for music
This is pretty good for my use. I have several quartz and digital wristwatches; I only wear this smartwatch at work to listen to downloaded (not streamed) music. The fitness tracking and mobile app features are of no importance to me so I have given them 5 stars.As a timekeeping watch, it is pretty good. The faces are no great shakes; I downloaded one face that allows me to make it look like one of my favorite analog tritium field watches. It does not have amazing, 3D looking watch faces like the Samsung watches…it looks like a plain LCD (and a rather antiquated one), but no big deal to me.I got this watch solely to store and listen to my own music, and for that purpose, it is adequate. The storage capacity is minimal (4 GB) but enough to store several CDs worth of music to listen to. You will most likely not be able to store your entire iTunes library on this watch unless you have a very small collection. My iTunes library is north of 350 GB and climbing, so my music must be rotated on a daily basis to stave off boredom and insanity.Sound quality: eh…it’s pretty good…I guess? Better than expected…maybe? It transmits using bluetooth, which as inherently inferior, but that’s what we can get for wireless transmission outside of high bandwith WI-FI networks, so it is what it is. One problem, that may be a dealbreaker for classical or jazz lovers with unreasonably high audio standards, given the limitations of the medium: in music with quiet passages, the watch makes audible static-electricity sounding distortions during dynamic peaks. The distortions don’t really obscure the music, more like a soft audio halo around the loud, peaky parts. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but this is a watch playing through wireless earbuds and sound quality is not going to be on par with a Marantz or Yamaha amplifier playing through Sennheiser HD 600s. Just so you know on the front end. It is perfectly acceptable for use during work (that’s my usage) or for working out, riding a bike, walking the dog, gardening, fencing, etc. For reference, I am using Samsung wireless earbuds (not noise-cancelling) and I have not had this static sound on those earbuds through my iPhone or my digital Sony Walkman. It is the watch.If I had one serious gripe with this watch, it is that the battery life while listening to music is very, very poor. It can barely get through an 8-hour day, and this is with volume moderate and backlighting turned off. On days when I have had to work overtime, the watch is on its last legs by quitting time. I understand that the battery life is much longer if you are not using the music function, active GPS, or Pulse OX.Bottom line: if you have to have a watch for music, this is acceptable, given the very limited array of choices out there. I just wish it had better battery life and more storage capacity. I have micro SD cards with 256 GB capacity; and micro SD cards which carry in excess of 1 TB exist. There is no reason that a smartwatch cannot have these same specifications, except that the manufacturers simply do not want to make them.
6 people found this helpful
Will D. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I’m a Fan
I’ve bought this watch twice I liked it so much. It has all the features I need and is easy to use. The ability to store music on it directly and all the metrics are great. The O2 sensor does drain the battery quickly so I’d only use when needed and not all the time, otherwise the battery life is long. With regular use it lasts three to four days for me on a single charge
Martina Diaz Aguilar –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excelente reloj inteligente
Perfecto para deportistas de todo nivel, más funciones de las que irás a utilizar. Conveniente espacio para almacenar música y hacer ejercicio sin teléfono. Mucho más de lo que utilizarás seguramente. La app para móvil podría ser un poco más intuitiva, a veces no se entiende mucho cómo usarla
Cy3456 –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall I’m very happy even though I have several complaints
I’m happy with my purchase but that wont stop me from listing all the negatives. It’s my second smartwatch/fitness watch and it has brought a lot of insight to my fitness, health and sleep patterns. I realize this watch is not perfect for everyone’s needs but for what I paid the value is suitable. It is more of a fitness watch and less of a smart watch in my opinion. It works great tracking the workouts I do such as hiking, swimming and strength training. The Garmin Connect app provides a lot of relevant information in a easy to view summary.The battery life is pretty decent compared to other smart watches in the same price range. It doesn’t have the fancy AMOLED display which I assume is what gives it better battery life. The display works well, easy to see and touch sensitivity is just fine. Rapid chargers don’t seem to speed up the charging but that’s no problem as it still charges relatively quickly. I think it can fully charge in about 2 hours. I usually go 3-5 days between charges.If you have data roaming turned off on your smartphone and you go outside your carrier’s coverage area this watch will notify you every 10 minutes with a vibrate and a message telling you to turn on data roaming. It happens when driving and it’s so unnecessary. There is no way to turn this off. Fortunately my cell carrier doesn’t support data roaming so I turned data roaming on, I don’t get charged any fees and now the watch notifications have stopped. Very annoying Garmin, please fix.The watch faces provided are lacking. Fortunately the Garmin Connect IQ app has several free options other people have created. I found one that works for me.Garmin Pay does not support my credit card bank. So if you want to use the wireless pay feature this watch has first verify on Garmin’s web site if your bank is supported.The original silicone watch band works alright however it does not allow water between the skin and band to dry. I found my skin would often get irritated after being wet for too long. Had to buy a different band to fix the problem.I disabled all notifications except for the Connect app. For me personally I would rather use my smartphone for all notifications since it’s much easier to read and respond to. The watch is just there to log fitness data, tell time/date and heart rate.If I paid Garmin’s full retail price I would have been disappointed however this watch has been selling for much less in the past few months and what I payed does match the value I’m getting. Overall I’m satisfied with my purchase.
One person found this helpful
Joseph –
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Smartwatch—But Beware of Updates and Garmin “Customer Service”.
Ever since I first purchased this watch, I was hooked. I use this Garmin for bike rides, walking, and as a general timekeeping device (yes, it can do that, too!). I love the hardware, the smart features, the companion app—pretty much everything about it. Until recently, I loved it so much that I became a sort of Garmin evangelist, convincing my girlfriend, my parents, and friends to get Garmin watches of their own. (Amazon was also the right place to buy this—no qualms there.)Now, I don’t need to go through all the features of this device. If you want a good-looking, accurate, and reliable smartwatch for daily use and physical fitness, then this is likely the best for the price.Did I say reliable? Well… maybe not exactly.From the first quarter of 2021 through most of July, my device performed admirably. Sure, sometimes the GPS can take a while to connect, but overall, the watch did everything it was supposed to. It consistently did a good job.Then, I joined a little cycling event called the Mount Evans Hill Climb, which took place July 24, 2021. About 28 miles of high-elevation riding, one-way. More importantly, this was my first cycling event ever. Of course, I had my trusty vivoactive 4, ready to rock ‘n roll.Soon, we were at the starting line. Hundreds of riders eager to ascend. The starter stood by with the clock.”And… GO!”We started riding. Cyclists all over the road, spandex as far as the eye can see. On the move, I started the “Bike” activity on my watch.A few miles of high-altitude went by and I checked my Garmin. Something was wrong—the screen FROZE.WHAT?! In over half a year of regularly using this device, this never happened!I fumbled with the watch, trying to turn it off, restart, anything—while riding up a mountain. But the watch just would not respond.I had to focus on the ride, so I stopped trying to make it work. A few miles later, I looked down and the screen was off. It wouldn’t turn back on, even though its battery was over 50%.So, I had to ride over 50 miles with a dead watch on my wrist.But, as emphasized before, this malfunction was a first. The cause? Perhaps an update Garmin sent to the watch in the days before the bike race.I contacted Garmin customer service and told them what happened. No offer of support. One customer service agent found me annoying. After all, why would I care that the GPS watch I use daily failed during a cycling event? I must have some audacity to be upset about this.I did, however, get a dismissive, “Sorry this happened on your bike ride.”Again… WHAT?! A “bike ride”? You’ve got to be effing kidding me, right? This is a world-renowned cycling event—and the first one I did, no less.To this day, I only received trite apologies and empty, sometimes passive-aggressive communications from Garmin. This, after all the praise I gave them, after all the business I gave them!Downright disappointing.On a brighter note, the watch has performed like usual since this crash. That said, I’m less optimistic—and more jaded. My vivoactive failed on race day, and the “customer service” I received might as well have come from disinterested, teenage McDonald’s employees. Perhaps I was foolish for putting such high hope in a piece of tech.Alas, if you’re considering the vivoactive 4—or any other Garmin watch, for that matter—be cautious with updates. A software update, despite its promises, might make your device crash when you rely on it most.But hey, if a malfunction happens, at least Garmin Customer Service will be there for you.
One person found this helpful