Garmin vivoactive 4S GPS Smart Watch

2020-11-19T19:00:00

Just got the watch and I love it. The GPS is much faster than my previous much older version and the music addition is amazing! It took a bit to get everything set up but once you figure it out it is great!

runnergal27

Originally posted at

2020-11-17T19:00:00

I bought this to replace my FitBit Versa. It has everything you possibly need to track workouts as well as health for a good price. I'm only giving it 4 stars due to the screen. Coming from FitBit I wasn't aware of Garmin's screen, trans reflective. I wish it was more accurately portrayed in the online and ads. It was disappointing to open the pa page and not awesome the clear and crisp screen like was portrayed online, and what I was used to with other smart watches. No biggie, I returned it and upgraded to the Venu to get the screen resolution I wanted.

Jones1980

Originally posted at

2020-11-16T19:00:00

I'm enjoying my new vivoactive.. I love the watch and the look.. I have the pinkish one.. I'm a running as well..

Angie22

Originally posted at

2020-11-14T19:00:00

This watch replaced my fitbit and it is miles better!!

Shircas

Originally posted at

2020-11-14T19:00:00

Really love this watch! I love the look of it and the features are wonderful. My only complaint is my calories for indoor activities do not seem correct.

Emily88

Originally posted at

2020-11-11T19:00:00

This surpassed my expectations. I gave a 4 out 5 starts because the instructions that came with it weren't extremely helpful when it came to linking music to it. However, I figured it out eventually. I absolutely love that I don't have to carry my phone around on a run or while lifting weights. I also love that I can sync a running coach to help me with my running goal.

Hannao

Originally posted at

2020-11-09T19:00:00

Looks good, amazing location tracking, breathing exercises, body status tracking, comfortable and long lasting battery. My only negative would be that I don't use it for a lot, I bet there's 20 other things I could be using it for.

KellyW

Originally posted at

2020-11-07T19:00:00

I’ve had a Fitbit for almost 6 years. I upgraded to charge 4. Sent it back because I was unable to adjust fonts on the notifications.after much research I decided to trade in the Fitbit for the vivoactive S4. I had issues pairing and getting started. Husband helped me. Once I got going I am pleased with the functions of this watch. I haven’t downloaded any music. That’s an extra feature for me.eventually I will load music. I like the feature of Garmin pay but have not tried it yet. The text for the notifications are more legible then the Fitbit. This watch is a keeper.

EMArmas

Originally posted at

2020-11-03T19:00:00

Coming from a Fitbit versa this thing is amazing!! Never going back to fitbit, same features just way better and the battery life is amazing, 10/10

Jackie01

Originally posted at

2020-11-02T19:00:00

I really like the smaller size of the watch face it feels more feminine. I do not like how awful the screen resolution is. In all of the pictures of the screen (clock faces) online it appears to be a much brighter much clearer image. I also am having a hard time getting the watch to read my heart rate consistently. I have tattoos on my wrist so I wonder if that would be causing an issue?! I feel like the price is steep for what this watch offers.

britb

Originally posted at

2020-11-01T19:00:00

My son gave me the watch, and I love it. I have no complaint

Runner1

Originally posted at

2020-11-01T19:00:00

I just got the watch yesterday, and so far so good. Went for a 2.5 hour bike ride with gps, and it used about 10-15% of battery life which seems reasonable. GPS connected quickly. Haven't tried music or earbuds yet, although downloading Amazon music seemed simple enough.

Tina22

Originally posted at

2020-10-30T20:00:00

I'm a few days in, and this watch has exceeded all expectations. My only complaint is it takes a pretty long time (1-2 hrs) to do the initial software update after unboxing and I'm impatient. But now it syncs and updates rapidly from the phone and I love being able to see way more stats and data without pulling out my phone than, say, my wife's top of the line fitbit. Helps keep me motivated to stay active all day with just a flick of the wrist.

MarbleSolstice

Originally posted at

2020-10-29T20:00:00

I'm not sure what it is but not that easy. Battery runs down too fast and I'm not getting any messages!

Patricia

Originally posted at

2020-10-27T20:00:00

It is the perfect mix of function and style. My only complaint is how incredibly long it takes to connect to GPS

Runjenrun

Originally posted at

2020-10-24T20:00:00

LOVE this watch. Give it a try! I've used this for 2 days and absolutely love it so far. I use it mostly for running outdoors in a particular heart rate zone (Maffetone / Maximum aerobic function method), and this is a major upgrade from my old wrist based HR monitor from Garmin's other major competitor that starts with F. PROS – Accuracy: Seems much more accurate than my old tracker in terms of steps, heart rate, and most other data except sleep tracking. For actual data on HR accuracy, check out DC Rainmaker's in-depth review, but from my experience this seemed pretty accurate. Also VO2 Max estimation for this watch is more accurate than my previous tracker. My benchmark is a friend who runs easy at >65 mi/wk at 7:30 pace with a Series 5 - and my old tracker said I had the same VO2 max as he did, even though my easy run is 8 mi/wk at 14 min pace. I'm nowhere near as fit as he is so no way I'd have the same VO2 max. – Data focused: Was pleasantly surprised by how much data it collects and how well it actually displays that data in the app, on the website, and even on the watch. – Garmin Insights: This highlights how you've improved over time and compares you to other people like you. I like that they guide you with all the data it's collecting, instead of just shoving data in your face and hoping you know what to do with it. – Display: Honestly not as bad as some reviews led me to think. It's always on and doesn't require a backlight, which means much better battery life - imo a good tradeoff. Inside, it's a bit dim but I can still read it, and you can tap to turn on the backlight (also adjustable) if you can't really see it. Go with the Venu if you can tolerate shorter battery life and a larger 43mm watchface. – Integrations: I use Strava and so far it has uploaded flawlessly. Wow. They have some other third party integrations too so definitely check those out if you need them. – Onboarding: I found the onboarding emails and "getting started" options in the app very helpful. This is my first smartwatch and after a few hours of messing around with the watch and the app with the proper customizations I wanted, I was able to figure everything out. (Settings is a mess though - see cons.) Also know that r/Garmin is a great place to get answers, but definitely check the watch manual first. – GPS: GPS seems pretty decent and is more accurate than running with my Pixel 3 + Strava app. Takes maybe 5-15 seconds or so to find GPS before you start a run. Probably faster if you make sure you're not standing under trees or a building or anything that could interfere. I ran on a cloudy day and there were a bunch of trees along my route and the GPS struggled a little, but would always recover once I hit clear sky. The Auto-lap feature seemed pretty accurate. Overall it's a huge upgrade from having to run with my phone! – Battery life: I can't say how reliable this is over time yet, but battery seems okay. It's been about 42 hours and I'm still at 50%, so probably around 4 days or so. Much less than the advertised 7 days, but it can do a lot more than my old tracker (6-7 day battery). Backlight set to 20%, I've done one 4mi GPS run, Bluetooth is connected with calls & notifications for a few messaging apps, I have an awesome watch face ("Crystal") with a ton of data showing including HR, did sleep tracking for 1.5 nights. I did have VO2 completely off though to save battery. So 4 days? Could be worse. – Looks nice: I got the rose gold and white band version and I think it looks good enough as a general lifestyle watch. I got this for over the forerunner because I can still dress this up. – 40mm fits small wrists: Still looks okay on my 4.5cm wrist. Wouldn't recommend this if your wrists are even smaller! – Syncing with phone: Seems pretty reliable, and my calls & notifications come in immediately, unlike my old tracker. CONS – Sleep tracking: As everyone has been saying, sleep tracking is nowhere near as accurate as its primary competitor - but this is a nice-to-have feature for me, not a must have. I don't really need a watch to tell me if I slept well or not. Another con is it seems that wearing this during sleep somehow drains my battery the most, even though the battery-draining VO2 measurements are off. Overnight in just 7 hours, the watch battery seems to go have gone down about 8%. – Settings are incredibly confusing: There are way too many settings pages - Device settings, Account settings (with User settings nested under that), Profile & Privacy settings, and Garmin Connect app settings are the ones I've found so far. Features inside each settings page sometimes overlap too, so that makes it even more confusing. But, I was able to figure stuff out by doing searching in the manual or Google or Reddit. This is more of a con when trying to explore and customize things. – Potentially unreliable servers: Syncing between my Pixel 3 phone hasn't had any issues so far, but I will note that on day 1 there was a 1.5 hr Garmin outage. So syncing is better than [Garmin's main competitor] but the servers seem less stable, considering all the recent outages I've seen on the internet. Hopefully it doesn't happen too much more… – Silicone watch band: While the provided silicone watch band seems durable, I find it a bit suffocating and gets sweaty really quick, even at night when I sleep. I'm really not a sweaty person but this can get uncomfortable sometimes, so I have to take it off for a few minutes sometimes or shift it around. – Charging mechanism: charger requires you to plug in a cord, and this means there's an indent on the watch for the charging port where sweat can get in there and it's hard to clean. It'd be nice if the charger was magnetic so it's easier to charge and then there'd also be no indent in the watch. ~ Display: Not a fancy AMOLED display like the Venu or "real" high end smartwatch. This wasn't really a con for me but could be a dealbreaker for some. My suggestion is to try it and see if the display is ok for you; if not, then just return it. ~ Misleading battery life claims: this most definitely wouldn't last the advertised 7 days in smartwatch mode with smartwatch features enabled like bluetooth phone connection & notifications. No idea where they tested that but it's a little disappointing, so just be prepared for this.

AustinRunner

Originally posted at

2020-10-23T20:00:00

I love most everything about this watch. Especially the extended battery life. One thing I wish it had the option for was changing everything besides just the band. And more options for it also. The parts around the actual watch face you cannot change.

HannMoff

Originally posted at

2020-10-21T20:00:00

I have only had the Vivoactive 4S since the 14th of October and it has taken some getting used to. I have used the Fitbit Charge and Versa as well as the Samsung Gear and Samsung Galaxy watch. I was unhappy with the Samsung products because they don't accurately track workouts and did not have internal GPS. The Fitbit products are so much better in their tracking accuracy but I had always wanted something with GPS and music built in so I wouldn't have to take my phone on a walk or bike ride. I spent several days looking at the Garmin products and decided on vívoactive 4S. The first day, I wanted to return it. It was more complicated than I thought it would be. The way the watch is set up and trying to figure out to access everything on the watch itself and also inside the app. It took me several tries to find things, even things I had found earlier, and wanted to look at again. It's not as straight forward as the Fitbit or even Samsung is. I guess the best way to describe it, it's more technical while the others are more user friendly. The menu system makes more sense. Saying that... I love the Garmin so far. Part of me is very torn on whether I should return it for something that is more similiar to the Fitbit but can't afford the price of the more expensive versions. I only got this one as it was part of the Amazon Prime days and even then that was a big stretch but worth it for all that it offeres. I still haven't figure out the watch itself. I haven't went on walk or ride with it but have listened to music on the watch doing house and yard work and love that so much. I do worry about the battery life. It is supposed to get 7 days without listening to music and such and so far I have gotten only 3. It's again not being able to find how to turn off different things that could be running the battery down quicker. I now really like how the app is set up to look at your statistics and such and am sure I willl love it more once I get the watch all figured out.

LindseyR

Originally posted at

2020-10-20T20:00:00

My previous fitness watch was by a different company and the Vivoactive 4s is a major upgrade! Looking forward to learning all the features.

Hilary327

Originally posted at

2020-10-20T20:00:00

Purchased watch 2 weeks ago and love all of features. Especially the activities options.

Mig’s

Originally posted at

2020-10-19T20:00:00

My daughter got me the watch last sat. I am planning to switching from galaxy 4 watch. I want to see if the battery lasts me at a min 4 to 5 day. Overall I like it

Hatim

Originally posted at

2020-10-19T20:00:00

I got this watch through a Prime Day deal and I'm very happy! The metrics this can track is leaps and bounds above what your phone tracks by itself. Being able to see notifications and email summaries is a great benefit. I've even begun using this to track my sleeping so we will see how that goes.

starwarsfan007

Originally posted at

2020-10-19T20:00:00

i got it for my birthday gift from my daughter turned out to be great gift

sury

Originally posted at

2020-10-19T20:00:00

I got the 4s a week ago and I am just learning its capabilities. I previously had a Samsung Gear Fit 2 that I liked for its size. The Garmin 4s is small enough for my liking and has GPS tracking. We will see how it does with swimming.

LTSCOTT

Originally posted at

2020-10-19T20:00:00

I really like this watch but the sleep is inaccurate. I am an insomniac and it reads as if I’m “light sleeping”. If my sleep was accurate I would rate 5 stars.

Runningyogi408

Originally posted at

2020-10-18T20:00:00

More complex than I expected. I have used a different tracker previously and was unhappy with battery life so I got a Garmin. I wish there was an activity for water aerobics or water walking. I don't swim laps so that is useless to me. Also the band is too small-lets face it, the last 3-4 holes on the band can't be used without risk of losing the whole watch. Still coming to terms with how to use and wishing it was simpler.

margieb

Originally posted at

2020-10-18T20:00:00

I have had this watch for less than a week and have had to charge it twice. I would also have preferred to choose outdoor activities rather than have them pre-listed on the menu. If the watch was only used for these activities and a second version limited to walking/running with the rest of the apps, I would be far more satisfied.

sine

Originally posted at

2020-10-18T20:00:00

I received this as a gift! I’ve never really been a watch wearer but this Vivoactive 4s is so light and comfortable, and I love all of the incredible features it comes with. I use it primarily for running, and it’s been great.

elirey100

Originally posted at

2020-10-17T20:00:00

I have not had it for 2 weeks yet. But I’m loving the reminders to get up and move and stretch.

Autch

Originally posted at

2020-10-17T20:00:00

Its an ok watch. I wish I didn't have to use a separate app for logging my calories. Thats the one goos thing I likes about fitbit. I dont like having to use multiple apps to keep track of my food intake.

GILLIGAN

Originally posted at