The original Garmin Vivofit was the company’s first attempt at creating a fitness tracker, and although it wasn’t a bad device, it didn’t really stand out in any way. The Garmin Vivofit 2 was more of an update than a new product – a Vivofit 1.5 if you will – it addressed some of the core issues with the original device, while maintaining the same design.
The Vivofit 3, however, is a totally new device that looks completely different to its predecessors. But while Garmin has gone a long way to make the Vivofit 3 look different, under the skin it’s pretty much the same as the previous versions.
Okay, that’s not entirely fair – there are some functional additions to the Vivofit 3, but is there enough to elevate it above an ever more capable competition?
A new look
Whereas the display on the older Vivofits ran along the length of the device leaving you to hold your wrist at a jaunty angle to read it, the Vivofit 3 display can be read in a far more natural way – just like a normal watch in fact.
The downside of the change in display orientation is that the screen itself is much smaller. But despite its reduced size it’s very easy to read, essentially making the Vivofit 3 a viable everyday wristwatch as well as a fitness tracker.
There’s a large button below the screen that cycles through all the info on the device – you’ll find time of day, date, current step count, remaining steps to hit your daily goal, distance travelled, calories burned and active minutes.
Pressing and holding the button will activate the backlight. Keeping the button pressed will bring up the stopwatch function, while holding it even longer will force the device to sync with your phone. Annoyingly you need to manually sync the device every time – opening up the app doesn’t spark an auto sync, which is a little odd.
Garmin hasn’t changed the design of the Vivofit to improve function, though, it’s all about form. With other manufacturers bringing more stylish devices to the market, Garmin is aiming the Vivofit 3 at a similar fashion-conscious audience.
The problem is that the Vivofit 3 just doesn’t look particularly stylish, especially when compared to a device like the Fitbit Alta. The standard black rubber band looks utilitarian to say the least, but at least the locking clasp will keep it secure while you’re wearing it.
To enhance the Vivofit 3’s style credentials Garmin has produced a whole range of fashion bands for the device, with some of them created by Jonathan Adler – he’s a home décor designer in case you were wondering.
Unfortunately, none of the optional bands make the Vivofit look any more attractive, at least not to my eye. Whereas adding a leather strap to a Fitbit Alta makes an already good looking fitness tracker look even better, the optional bands for the Vivofit 3 look like something my ten-year-old daughter might wear.
Feature set
Like the previous Vivofit devices, the Vivofit 3 doesn’t have a rechargeable battery, instead it’s powered by a lithium cell that’s good for a year of usage before it’ll need changing. That means you’ll never have to remember to charge the device, and consequently you’ll never lose track of your activity because you forgot to charge it.
The year-long battery life also makes the Vivofit 3 a true 24/7 fitness tracker, since you’ll never really need to take it off – it’s waterproof too, so you don’t need to take it off in the shower, or even when you go for a swim.
The Vivofit 3 will log every step you take and estimate distance travelled and calories burned from that step data. Your step goal is dynamic, so it will change based on your activity. This is a feature that Garmin implemented with the original Vivofit and it’s one that other manufacturers should take note of.
The Vivofit 3 still uses Garmin’s activity bar to shame you into moving – the longer you’re inactive, the longer the red bar on the screen becomes until it spans the entire width of the screen, showing that you’ve been inactive for over an hour.
But while the activity bar is a nice touch, you have to be physically looking at the device to notice it, and while other trackers incorporate a vibrating alert to tell you when you’ve been idle too long, the Vivofit 3 has no such feature. The lack of vibration also makes the Vivofit 3’s alarm function completely useless – instead of vibrating to wake you up, the Vivofit 3 will beep, but the beep is so soft that it would struggle to wake you even you strapped the band to your ear!
Unlike previous Vivofits, the Vivofit 3 will log active minutes, essentially ascertaining when you’re putting a bit of effort in, whether that be a brisk walk or a jog around the park.
Adding to the active minutes feature is the auto activity detection feature, which doesn’t just log when you’re active, but also figures out what you’re actually doing. So, when you go for a run, you shouldn’t have to tell the Vivofit 3 that you’re running, it will automatically figure that out and add your run to your timeline for that day.
In principle the auto activity detection feature is a good one, and something that the competition is already doing well. Unfortunately, the Vivofit 3 isn’t particularly good at figuring out what activity you’re doing. While I was sitting in a meeting for an hour the Vivofit 3 decided that I was in fact swimming, and logged that swim for me on my timeline! In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking I was a fish if you looked at my daily timelines, so often does the Vivofit 3 think I’m swimming – for the record I haven’t been swimming at all with the device. Continues on Page 2
App and web portal
The Garmin Connect platform has improved a lot in the past year. Since Garmin’s expertise used to lie primarily in more hardcore sports tech like GPS running watches and cycle computers, Garmin Connect was geared towards those devices and related activities.
Now, Garmin has made a concerted effort to make Garmin Connect more approachable and usable for people who are just using a fitness tracker for logging daily step activity. And while it’s still not on a par with apps from Jawbone and Fitbit, it’s a far better experience for casual users.
Firing up the Garmin Connect app will display the snapshot screen for your day, with your step count and sleep data prominently displayed at the top. The bottom half of the screen will display additional info like calories burned, active minutes, flights of stairs climbed, etc. Unfortunately, since the Vivofit 3 doesn’t have an altimeter built into it, that stair count will just remain blank.
Swiping the screen right and left will display more detailed data on specific stats like steps over time, sleep for the past seven days, recent activities like running or swimming, etc. There’s useful data in there, but it seems a bit counter intuitive when most fitness tracker apps let you swipe back through previous days, and I have to say that I find myself trying to do that whenever I’m using a Garmin tracker.
Of course you can look back at previous days by simply clicking the calendar icon at the bottom of the screen, and my confusion is more a result of using an ever changing array of fitness trackers and apps – if you’re using a Garmin tracker every day, finding your previous data in the calendar tab will become natural very quickly.
You can log your food intake within Garmin Connect, but the smarter option is to link it with MyFitnessPal, thus pulling in your food diary data from there, and also sharing your activity stats the other way – the upshot being that you’ve got a dynamic calorie target to work with each day.
The Garmin Connect web portal gives you access to all your data, but it’s really designed for the heavy Garmin user. If you’re using a Forerunner running watch and an Edge cycle computer as well as a fitness tracker, each of them will live in their own dynamic tile within your browser.
You’ll also find tiles for your daily step counts, your recent bike rides, recent runs, segments cycled or run, etc. You can move the tiles around and arrange them to suit you, but unless you’re using other Garmin equipment it can look a little sparse compared to, say, Fitbit’s web portal.
Conclusion
The Garmin Vivofit 3 is a basic fitness tracker with style aspirations. Unfortunately it doesn’t really achieve those aspirations, and the £90 price puts it up against some stiff competition. While there are some new features, there’s not enough to justify an upgrade for existing Vivofit users, especially since the accuracy of the auto activity detection is questionable at best.
Ultimately the Vivofit continues to be something of a disappointment, which is odd considering that Garmin also makes the best fitness tracker available – the Vivosmart HR. Obviously the Vivosmart HR is more expensive (around £120 at present) and more complex but it's still a good buy for practically anyone.
But if you are a casual user looking for a basic fitness tracker that won’t break the bank, should you go for the Vivofit 3? Well, only if you hate having to charge your tracker every 4-5 days. If that describes you then the Vivofit's one-year battery life will be a godsend. For everyone else, you’d be better off grabbing a Fitbit Alta instead.
Pedometer: Yes, Heart-rate monitor: No, Display: Yes (LCD), Battery life: 12 months