My review of the Garmin vivoactive 3 isn’t going to be an in-depth runners review but more of my own account with the GPS watch.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 watch isn’t directed towards runners, it’s more about being a all rounder fitness device. But this thing is basically the Garmin Fenix 5’s little brother, it pretty much has all the sensors the Fenix 5 has including GPS and GLONAS so starting a run is pretty much achieved within 10 seconds(providing you’re outside).
It can also be paired with almost all ANT+ devices. The watch has tons of pre-installed workouts including the obvious Tread mill which is very accurate once you done one run set to treadmill. You can also add, remove and set favourite activities so they can be accessed by one button press.
The button on the side makes starting a workout/Run super easy. You literally push the button tap run and you can either wait for GPS or start right away with another tap of the button. The touch screen is great maybe not the best for a running watch but Garmin seem to have mastered the watch interface so you don’t need to worry about accidentally stopping or altering you run. The touch screen does take some getting used to but you’ll more than likely feel right at home if you’ve used any Garmin device before.
Everything you do through the watch is synced through the Garmin connect app which available on android and iOS. There are tons of apps, watch faces, widgets and data fields you can add onto the watch. My favorite data field for running by far is the single data field which can be downloaded from the Garmin Connect IQ store for free, it shows you pretty much all the data you need during a run so no need to flick or scroll through screens to see different data points. The app is also the number one go to when you are looking at you results post run as it tracks everything perfectly and it’s all available at no extra charge so no need for the Strava premium which is totally useless ! The watch even has a beacon feature so that friends and family can track you down in emergency’s or just follow you during events! once you have completed a workout it will save to the watch and then it will automatically upload to Garmin Connect when your mobile comes back in range of the bluetooth, your runs will also automatically sync with other running services like Nike Run Club and Strava.
The watch battery life is amazing too as advertised you can get about 7 days just using as a normal watch and about 13 hours when using GPS and when the watch battery does go low it’ll charge fully in about 20/30mins.
The watch uses a proprietary charging cable supplied with the watch so don’t lose it! Now as you might know before this I had the all singing all dancing Apple Watch Series 2 It was great but as much as Apple directed it toward being a fitness device, it’s simply terrible as a fitness device, yeah the heart rate monitor is pretty accurate. but when it came to tracking runs via GPS it simply couldn’t keep up on any level with my Garmin Vivoactive 3. I can still get notifications on my wrist from the phone but I have them turned off unless it’s a Phone call as it’s nice not being notified every damn hour and I don’t feel as tethered to my iPhone anymore.
so if you want a running watch that can do alot more than just tracking you activities and a watch that looks great what ever your doing the Garmin Vivoactive 3 is definity for you! and whats more its pretty affordable so you can get most of the features of the Fenix 5 series for a fraction of the price!
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