Today I took my new Vivoactive out for a spin. First, let me say that this product was a gift from my husband, and I wasn’t paid by Garmin to write this (but it wouldn’t hurt, Garmin!). The Vivoactive active is my third running watch, and the other two have only lasted me a year each. They were the Nike+ GPS SportWatch and the TomTom Runner. The Vivoactive is more than a GPS running watch – it is a multi-sport and activity tracker that connects to Garmin Connect, Garmin’s answer to MapMyRun and Nike+.

I immediately noticed how thin and light the Vivoactive was when I unboxed it and that’s not all I noticed. The band feels like it’s a combination of silicon and rubber, and almost sticks to itself when you fasten the watch. Impressive. The casing feels like a hard thin plastic and I’m hoping it lasts. 

Now let’s get down to using the Vivoactive. The touchscreen took a little time getting used to. It’s not as sensitive as my iPhone, so I had to find the right touch for swiping and tapping. The watch comes with widgets for running, biking, walking, swimming, and golf (yup, golf!).

  
The Vivoactive is also a “smart watch.” It displays ALL notifications that my iPhone gets. I can find my iPhone with my Vivoactive if I ever lose it. It notifies me when someone calls. 

  
I can change watch faces (notice my Star Trek face in the first image) and it seems that more are being added each day to the Connect IQ store. You can also find other apps and widgets for the Vivoactive active, like stocks and a star gazer. I really hope that Garmin expands this service. This watch is so much more than a fitness watch!

Finding a GPS signal this morning was the quickest I’ve ever experienced. The Vivoactive was ready for my run before I was. The display of stats is easy to read. I have a black text on a white background, but I can always change it anytime. The backlight is good but I need to get used to accessing it by pressing a button and not tapping the screen. 

One comment I do have is I would like my pace in middle because that’s the stat that I pay attention to. I’m sure that there will be an app for it!  Oh yes, the FREE apps!

I ran both my Vivoactive and my Nike running app on my iPhone to compare the GPS accuracy. The Nike running app credited me with .02 more miles than the Vivoactive. The discrepancy was so slight that I didn’t mind. 

So far, I really like my new present, the Garmin Vivoactive. I’ll be posting a follow up review later on so stay tuned! If you’d like to learn more about the Vivoactive, check out http://www.Garmin.com. 

Thanks for reading my blog and happy running!