I’ve had the Garmin Vivoactive for almost four months now, I posted on Instagram about it 15 weeks ago. Many people have asked about this watch since then so I thought it was time for a review.

I love this watch! It has so many features. It does everything I used the Garmin Forerunner 220 for which was my previous watch and more. I wear this watch all the time. Besides it being my running GPS watch, it gives me iphone notifications, it’s an activity tracker that counts steps, tracks my sleep, and is my alarm clock that vibrates to wake me up. Also, when there’s a phone call you can reject the call, which is one of the new updates. It’s nice that they keep adding software updates. There is so much to this watch. I think it’s the best all around watch for the price and features.

The GPS is pretty accurate because it relatively gives me the same mile points from the Garmin 220. It matches Strava well too.

I love how the watch is very customizable from the watch face, to the data fields and widgets. Once you download the Garmin Connect App on your phone you can connect to the Connect IQ Store where you download/sync the new apps. I started with this watch face called BigTime which is pictured below.

I keep changing my watch face now since there are so many new ones and more keep showing up in the Connect IQ Store. Here are some more watch faces that I’ve recently used:

There’s an indoor run mode and with the built in accelerometer, the Vivoactive tracks distance and pace when running on the treadmill. I’m not sure how accurate it is but I’m good with it. Below is a pic from a treadmill run.
There’s many data fields that you can add. I like the Smart Predictor which predicts your finish times for 5k, 10k, half marathon and full marathon times as you run. I used it while pacing a half marathon and it worked well. I also really like the 367 RunFields data field. It’s really nice to see more data all at once while running instead of having to scroll up or down to the next page. Below is a pic of 367 RunFields.
This watch also has live tracking just like my old Garmin Forerunner 220. It’s great that my husband can follow me while he’s at home as well as see my pace and distance.

I think the battery life is pretty good. It really depends on usage. Things like phone notifications varies as well as using the GPS. I did a test that started last Thursday, July 9th, with my watch being 100% battery life at 9:04 pm. Today, Wednesday, July 15th, it was at 6% battery life left at 6:51 am after my 7 mile run. I think that’s pretty good considering I ran a 4 miler, 9 miler, and today’s 7 miler in that span of time.

Below is a video showing the different screens there are on my watch, from notifications, calendar, controlling your music on your phone, weather, steps/distance, and Note2Watch app. The Note2Watch app is a new one that makes it easy to sync notes to your watch. It’s pretty cool and easy access for a To Do list.

The next video shows you where I put the activities like running, walking, biking, and swimming as well as what’s in the settings part. It’s very customizable because there was a golf icon which I took off since I don’t golf. I added the stopwatch app. In the video I also click on the Find My phone icon which helps you locate your phone by making your phone beep if you misplace it. It’s a nice feature.

I think the Garmin Vivoactive is an awesome watch. It has so many features for the value. It syncs the GPS data wirelessly but the only con I see is that the sync fails occasionally and just takes a while to see the data on my phone. That is something that happened on my Garmin 220 too. But I highly recommend this watch, especially if you’re looking for a GPS watch with lots of features.

What do you think? Are you in the market for a new watch?