Amazing Active Smartwatch

I have been using this for about two weeks and have been blown away by its overall quality and ease of use. I have yet to look through any online help or documents in setting up any of the features so it has been an easy experience to get started with almost all of the major features. The GPS and Glonass (Glonass is Russia's satellite system equivalent to GPS) enabled watch is able to pick up my location usually in about one second in downtown Chicago which is a big improvement over my last Garmin Forerunner 410's approximate 30-second connection time. Turning on the GPS feature was as easy as selecting my sport activity (like Run or Bike) and just hitting the green Go button. And the G & G automatically deactivates after the training event is done. The wrist-based heart rate monitor activated the moment I put it on. No chest strap has been needed. The Vivoactive HR easily synchs via Bluetooth to a smartphone after you have installed the Garmin Connect app, which displays metrics of your activities and heart rate. This watch has stayed connected to my phone since setup and I have not had any issues with battery drain because of this connection. Once connected I have evn been receiving phone call notifications on my watch faster than the phone's ringtone and where I used to miss a call because I was in a noisy area, the watch's vibration and notification makes it almost impossible to miss that same call. Garmin's free Connect App will constantly try to synch with the watch and automatically captures the watch's data and displays your sleep behavior by the minute so you know exactly when you fall asleep and wake up, and even if you wake up in the middle of the night. It even attempts to record your sleep quality in three categories of light, deep, and awake. Comparisons with the Apple Watch are favorable as an activity monitor but the Vivoactive HR does not have the same music tools out of the box, though I haven't explored Garmin's App store yet. Nor can I talk on my watch as you can with the Apple Watch but I prefer speaking on my phone anyways. The battery life on the first charge lasted over 10 days with two 30-minute training runs. The second charge is holding well thus far and seems to be on pace to last about as long. I have been raving about this new smartwatch for the past week to my friends and colleagues. It does seem a little blocky and may not appeal to the fashionistas-- but you can categorize its look as modern and definitely metro. This watch seems to be on back order at many online stores because it was just released this month (May, 2016) so good luck finding one to up your training. Its starting MSRP of $250 is a bargain with many of the same features compared to watches at more than twice this price.Read full review

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