Can Garmin just make a band with no display? It'll look like a bracelet, maybe a button to set up Bluetooth, Garmin pay, and all the HR sensors. Maybe use the app to start and stop a workout if you are using it for that, but likely not. Honestly, make it an Oura ring competitor with Garmin pay and call it a day.
Or just make a Garmin ring with those things so we don't have to wear two watches and get asked about it all the time. And call it a day but make sure that is the end of the day and don't add a subscription and they will fly out the door.
So much this! I just want to track my HR, oxygen saturation and steps throughout my day, when I'm not wearing my Instinct, in a discreet manner! Something that doesn't look horrible with a shirt and a dress watch on the other wrist.
Want this. That's why I bought the vivosmart 4, because it is smaller. This one is to big. Have a watch for sports. But want to track the whole day. Oura ring is terrible. Also want everything in the garmin app
At first glance it might seem like the Garmin is overpriced compared to the Fitbit, however: 1) Garmin will likely drop in price soon 2) You get all the data without a 10€/Month Subscription that Fitbit asks 3) Garmin offers you superior heart rate and step counting accuracy and long-term Firmware Update Support.
Garmin still costs around same price as Fitbit charge 6 (as of today - sept 2024), it's less accurate than the Fitbit Charge 6 cross HRM, SPO2, Step counting, sleep tracking (see The Quantified Scientist). Less premium look and feel. The Paywall for Fitbit is arguably a problem, but you do get a lot of information without having to pay, just more detailed breakdown of sleep is missing and some other more detailed data. Garmin needs to refresh and lift their game.
It might seem like bad value upfront, but with that higher price, you get comprehensive stats for free with no subscription fee like Fitbit has, long-term firmware updates, and much higher quality hardware that will likely last you years longer than Fitbits do (My Alta HR's screen just inexplicably stopped working after 3 years and they refused to honor it, that's why I'm never going back to using Fitbit bands). I've been using a Vivosmart 4 for a long time and love it for the most part, but this new model addresses nearly all my qualms with the VS4, so I'm strongly considering upgrading to it.
Damn, I loved Vivosmart 4 mainly due to it's small size since I use it as 24/7 tracker and still wear a watch on the other wrist. I was hoping the 5th one is even smaller or Garmin can release one without screen like the Whoop. Guess I am staying with my 4.
yeah, Garmin already offers full-featured smartwatches for every price point - seems like a misstep to try to size this up to "watch" instead of the minimalist activity and sleep tracker.
So. I bought VIVOSMART 5 as a daily companion for FENIX 7X. I just cant get to sleep with 7X well and have buch of watches to wear. For all the questions i found on internet there is a one answer. DONT BOTHER. VIvosmart 5 dont count your HRV. Training status, body battery was absolute mess if you using 2 devices. IT SUCKS. I absolutely love small band as i had Whoop for a year which absolutely suck in metrics and readings for me. Last and not least ... I just love my custom activities on Fenix 7X as cold bath, stretch etc. Overall.. Sad. Hopefully garmin will let me buy some BAND with all the metrics with higher price tag any time in future so i can get rid of Fenix. My thoughts are they wont, otherwise people wont buy expensive watches and stay with lightweight unexpensive bands which is not good for bussines i quess. Regards.
Great video but I would add that the Fitbit payment option was super annoying because I didn't want to sign up for it but it kept reminding me. Garmin not requiring a subscription is HUGE for me. The backing of the watch caused a rash and I lost it because the band came loose
i have come to the conclusion watching these videos that these fit bands are all junk and it's kind of ridiculous in 2022 no one has made something worthwhile yet
To be fair, the smaller size of the previous model was a real plus. I was wearing a shirt for work on a daily base and wearing a Garmin forerunner simply looked horrible. The vivosmart 4 was a great companion until I changed job and got rid of the shirt requirement :D
Wouldn't have minded the lack of features if this was as skinny or skinnier than the 4. Something to be said about a small band that isn't very noticable, esp on days I'd want to wear a traditional watch.
Thank you for this review. I had the fitbit 5 and I'm trading for the vivosmart 5. I place a lot of value on the HR accuracy and the monochrome display is more "night friendly".
Please can you do a video coving the Vivosmart 5 with a fenix? I have a Fenix 6 and the Vivosmart 4 and they don't really sync up well in Garmin Connect. I am hoping with this new one I can switch between them during a day and things like pulse and body battery will be logged in Coonect as I set off data 🤞
@@hyedefinition1080 Thnk you for the update. So if you are waring one for half the day and then swap for the rest of the day, thing like Body Battery sync up in Connect like you were just waring the same device all day?
any chance they'll ever bring back the Vivosport fitness tracker, it was the one with color display and built in gps; was an awesome little device. I used it for several years until the straps broke apart at both ends (even after that I ran with the device itself in my hand for a while, just for the gps data haha), wish they'd update that one for 2022 and beyond!
I had the vivosport for years, it only just broke recently (gets stuck screen). I think this new vivosmart 5 is combining the best of the vivosport/smart. It looks good I'm going to buy it.
Not that the Garmin Sleep accuracy that heavily scores the BODY BATTERY is currently highly inaccurate, but yes, in the future they will become more accurate as research on them increases. Beyond that everything seems to be accurate enough.
Awesome! Man I love how fast paced you are and so good at clearly and succinctly bouncing through the features and aspects. Excellent work - much for me to learn from.
The Vivosmart 5 is compact and fits my wrist a lot better than *any* other watch that I've tried (yes, even high-end Garmins!). Therefore, the HR readings are closer to the ones of my ECG strap. Because of its accuracy, it's hard to justify a more expensive and ultimately less accurate watch for me.
It still looks like a watch and it's not that compact. A lot of us wear mechanical watches daily and it does look stupid having this on the other side. The Whoop is the only option that you can get away with wearing a watch on one side and a band on the other side. Wish Garmin came out with something similar.
So, yes. The Fitbit Charge 5 is definitely a better product with more onboard useful features, but is the Garmin free ecosystem better than the Fitbit free ecosystem? I owned both Garmins and Fitbits, and in my opinion Garmin gives you way more once that data is downloaded. Fitbit wants you to pay monthly to get more.
More in my next video. The Garmin free ecosystem is better than the Fitbit free one, but for certain paid Fitbit metrics, Garmin doesn’t have them anyways (like more than 7 days of HRV history, which costs money on Fitbit, but isn’t even an option on Garmin). Same story for skin temp.
@@Dcrainmaker thank you for the info. I keep gravitating toward Garmin, Coros, Polar and Suunto. Hate paying those monthly fees charged by Fitbit and not sure, bit i think Apple+ or something like that.
1:17 That's why you're the best. I mean.. i knew why thew screen flickered but your all-encompassing and every possible angle considering reviews are the reason why you're an S-Tier reviewer. You're a smart guy.
@@dominicfernandez2695 - I tend to only bring my phone on my Sunday long runs but any Bluetooth interface would cause GPS dropouts and I’d probably just default to using a tracking app like Strava at that point. 🤷🏻♂️
Excellent review and comparison, highlighting all the right details and technical considerations. The tracking comparison charts were a nice plus. Thank you for creating reviews that are honest, comprehensive, well-structured, and interesting. Subbed.
I'd love Garmin to make something like this but without a screen and without all the sports activity stuff. For sports I can wear a dedicated sports watch like the Epix. It would be Garmin's version of the Oura Ring but on the wrist.
Depends on what you want to track? If you want to track your load on your hearts sleep and recovery, nothing better than whoop combined but only sleep and some of the ode readiness score, nothing better than Fitbit. But if you want to track many other sports and activities, then Garmin Watches the best.
@@yuanyuanintaiwan - Oura ring might be a good whoop alternative if you ever did want to track sleep without a watch. There’s also some sort of smart mattress but I’ve never tested it. Venu 2 will be a great option but if you ever want to combine your sports and do a triathlon you might want to consider a few other options. 👍
Thank you for the review! I’m from a mechanical watch background but I just bought a Garmin Fenix 7s SS and love it. That said, I miss wearing some of other watches. Obviously wearing two wrist watches is a little much, so I looked into getting a Vivosmart 5. The goal would be to wear it while I wear my other watches so I don’t miss a beat health stat wise, but obviously the primary tracking device would be the Fenix. What do you think of that? Would doing so keep track of my stats accurately? Too bad Garmin doesn’t offer a small band that just tracks stats for you while you have your main wearable off. They could literally program it so they the only way the data uploads is by linking to a Garmin product if they are worried about cannibalize their other products. It would add so much flexibility…anyway curious about your thoughts. Thanks!
Same situation here, I just bought Fenix 7, love the Garmin Eco system however, some situation i need to wear luxury watch but still need data and wearing two watches is look weird. So Vivosmart 5 seems like a good solution. My only concern is that I'm gonna miss some data or not from Vivosmart 5.
Same boat love my mechanical watch collection and only wear my garmin for sport. The only option to be able to track and wear a normal watch is to go with something like the whoop but I hate the subscription model. really wish Garmin would come out with something discrete. I tried the vivo 5 but it's too large and looks silly for everyday use.
i wonder why they followed Fitbit and deleting the stairs tracking. I read many peoples complained that Fitbit did this to all their bands and many people mentioned they will not buy a Fitbit again because of it (me including) so i think it was not a smart thing to do from Garmin
Yeah I'm disappointed by that as well, and is one of the few things that might keep me from upgrading to it from my Vivosmart 4. I suspect they removed it since it never worked very well or reliably to begin with? On my Vivosmart 4 it rarely ever picked up the flights of stairs I climb or descend.
@@Koolstr Not sure if the reason is because it never worked very well. For Fitbit i noticed they only deleted this function from the bands not from the more expansive watches they still have the function which makes me think it is to produce a cheaper product for the same price or pushing people to buy the more expansive product. I started some years ago with a Fitbit Charge 2 and a friend and me always pushed each other in who made the most steps and who climbed the most stairs now we have 1 less thing we can race each other. Besides Fitbit i now use a Garmin Fenix 6X for about 1 and half to 2 years and i love it the stairs climbed may not be fully accurate but it is close enough for me. We should also not forget nothing in a Fitness tracker or smart watch is fully accurate no matter stairs climbed or steps taken and even GPS they are always a little bit off. For me Garmin rules but that is a personal choice
Waiting for vs5 for a long time. Done with Fitbit and its clunkiness. Had to replace a lot back in the day. And lolwhut fitbit has these subs? Easy pass
If Fitbit didn’t keep so many data features important to me, I would go with it. As it is even though the Garmin hardware is less appealing, it wins because i don’t have to pay 80 dollars a year to use all its features
I just ordered vivosmart 5, after using vivosmart 4 for two years. The strap fell apart. I chose 5 mainly because of replacable strap. Otherwise I would have bought another 4. I hope I will like the 5, and I hope the oximeter is more accurate. In the 4 the measurments always showed between 80 and 90. Such values qualify for medical treatment. Normally my oxigen level is between 96 and 98. And I really like the minimalistic black and white design. I could only wish it could measure HRV. Regarding charging I charged it every morning for 10-15 minutes when taking shower and the battery level was usually at ca. 80%.
Hi Ray, thanks so much for your continual output, you and Desfit are the only guys I watch. My main device is an Epix Pro in conjunction with an Edge 1040 for cycling and a Garmin smart scale. May I ask a question? If I wanted to wear a traditional watch for a night-out and swapped the Epix over for a Vivosmart on the opposite wrist, would my metrics remain constant?
The connected GPS on the Vivosmart 4 is cumbersome. 1. Select activity 2. Wait for question if you want to connect to your phone. 3. Select yes. 4. Fail go back to number 2. Succes 5. Again tap to start activity. Is this better on the Vivosmart 5? The dorm factor seems to close in on the Vivosport which does have GPS. For me the small form factor of the 4 is still a big plus. So probably will hold on to the 4 a little longer. Unless the GPS connection to the phone is a lot better. Any ideas if it is better?
I've had my Vivosmart 4 with no issues and particulary since i have a small wrist for a guy, I like the new updates on the Vivosmart 5 but I will wait til the price goes down
Kinda lazy just saying you dont know why they cost different at the end without elaborating. I mean you did jist 2 minutes before that show all the teash fitbit reaults. 🤔 Maybe it's cheaper because they use trash components and inferior construction and assembly practices? Just one of the many reasons to explore
At night, without my glasses, I need an analog watch face. It's hard to find wich analog faces are available in almost all reviews of trackers, smartwatches, etc! In this case, before I buy this watch, please tell me where I can find the analog watch faces of the vivosmart 5 and how do they look. Otherwise the watch is useless for me. Thx.
Its not overpriced if were looking for teh basic information and not paying $120 for a subscription per. Cost of overall ownership is sky high for the fit bit in comparison.
How can one still use the Vivo smart4 because i don't seem to like the letter size for Vivosmart5, my eye sight is not good , but the Garmin connect can not sync with the iphone.
A great and comprehensive video! This is exactly what I am looking for! I don't need all the bells and whistles of the Forerunner watches. Not a runner, (yet),but definitely could be very handy for my elliptical workouts and walking.
I am using Fitbit charge series for more than 6 years and I think you exaggerating Charge 5. Hr accuracy is terrible for workouts. Readiness soccer is not really helpful or let's say still premature. ECG sensor is not working for many countries. You can't customize the clock face and existing clock face are really tasteless and since google bought Fitbit, customer service dont car customers anymore...
Garmin customer care is non-existent, in my honest opinion. After 9 months of trouble free use, the vivosmart 5 unit popped out of the strap unnoticed and was lost. This was the second time this had happened; the first, some six weeks beforehand, I found it in my car. After some 5k hours of wear, the strap was not fit for purpose, in my experience. Garmon offered a 30% reduction on anew watch, but absolutely refused to adhere to the 24 month warranty in the EU and replace it. The strap should hold the watch in place. I have bought Fitbit's previously and suffered a number of technical failings with them and getting a replacement was never a problem. The difference between the way the two companies care about their customers and their brand, couldn't be much wider, in my experience. Avoid Garmin. They just don't care about their customers.
Is this a joke?🤔Sports band for 149 $/€ without GPS module, built-in memory, NFC and pin-size screen? Who is this device for? The upcoming Mi Band 7 will tear this parody of the band to shreds.🤞Complete misunderstanding. Garmin! Shame on you!👎
Garmin's sleeping tracking is garbage. I always feel like I have a toy on my wrist when I go to review last nights sleep tracking. It does not recognize when I get up to use the restroom (shows that I am still sleeping) & before I even fall asleep (when I'm in bed reading or watching TV) it shows that I was asleep. Also, it does not track naps. It's so disappointing.
Hi Ray! Question - I want to were a dress watch instead of my FR945LTE and therefore I was thinking about buying an activity tracker to wear on the other hand (still looks stupid but less than wearing two watches) - will Vivosmart5 be the best choice from Garmin? I would like to get the best tech possible inside that tracker. Thanks!!!
Verrryyy helpful. Maybe I missed it, but how do you choose which information shows on the main screen (time display)? I want time, date, and step counter.
Would love to have seen this review include a comparison of the Garmin vs. Fitbit ecosystems. I think if you're going to do a parting shot where you say one is a better/poorer value than the other, the supporting app and company's customer support have to factor in. I'm a Garmin guy, but was watching this on behalf of a Fitbit user who is considering a move to a Garmin. Unfortunately, my time invested here still left me in doubt as to which is overall a better value.
I use a Fenix 6 Pro most of the time, with a Vivosmart 4 when testing motorcycles and anything else where a watch would get in the way. Much as I value my Garmin products, particularly for multisport training, will anyone at Garmin address the elephant in the room? Sleep! Guys, the implementation of sleep tracking on wearables and in Garmin Connect is like something out of the ark. In common with many, I'm a bimodal sleeper who often has a couple of hours between night time sleeps, and who also occasionally naps during the day. OK, so body battery regenerates (a bit) during a daytime nap but why is the Garmin sleep tracking supplier making such an outdated assumption about sleep habits? For reference, my old Huawei devices GT2, GT2 Pro, and Honor MagicWatch 2 used to pinpoint my sleep start and finish to within a couple of minutes accuracy and had no problem dealing with bimodal sleeping and daytime naps. Come on!
Great Review!!! would you recommend Vivosmart 5 if continuous Stress monitoring and Continuous Breath tracking are my main requirements? Or can i go with Venu Sq (i am getting in same price as Vivosmart 5 in India)?
@@Dcrainmaker oh no... I was hoping that they would change this as I love wearing my “real” watches, so swapping between a band during the day and then a 745 (or similar) for exercising is my goal. Thanks for the fast answer.
@@JW-th5hh It does have Physio TrueUp, but Physio TrueUp doesn't actually cover Body Battery sync. It only syncs it one way to Garmin Connect, but other devices won't pull the Body Battery status back to themselves.
thanks for the summary, i was thinking how to keep daily stats on garmin and at the same time have apple watch. I was thinking about vivo...but looks like it might be good in my particular use case. Overall yeah, worse offer than the competitor...which uhm shouldn't happen, right?
Do you know if there will be a clip option like with the vivofit 3 or the fitbit inspire 2? I like to wear mechanical watches and don't want to wear something on both wrist. I would still like to be able to have a tracker to get my steps and my sleep though.
Hi thank you for the amazing work you do. I had a query. If i was to track my workouts with a chest HR strap paired to the Strava app. the calorie burn recorded will be basis ONLY the heart rate recorded ? or will some algorithm based estimates also be used (like the wrist based trackers use) ? is there anyway to track calorie burnt purely by heart rate data when pairing a chest sensor to an apple watch/garmin venu/samsung watch 4 ? thank you
Nice video. Can I purchase the Large model and use it for one year and then later buy the Small / medium band size, install it on the tracker and give it to my wife? As in the only difference between Large and Medium size is only the band size, right? The size of the tracker is same, right?
I really hope someone comes out with non-silicone bands...I just detest the feel of silicone all day long. I have the venue 2 on a canvas band and it feels lighter than this just due to the non-stickiness Otherwise this device is discreet and perfect for me.
The fact that it was based on barometric pressure differences always made me suspicious. I suspect that it wasn't that accurate since the pressure different between the bottom and top of the stairs is normally very small and there are a number of other factors that impact the reading.
I've tested the Charge 5 for a while now and just started testing the Vivosmart 5. I agree with you on your review so far. My only disagreement is on your comparison to the Charge 5. I agree that the Charge 5 is a more feature rich product, but I find the Charge 5 to be quirky and unreliable. As a general statement I find that on past products, Garmin made a more reliable, less quirky product and I'm that to be true in this situation also. In my opinion, I would rather have a more reliable less feature rich product.
Wait a minute, it has no gps? I have this love-hate relationship with Garmin. So many crippled products they have... For example why my Fenis 5x plus doesnt have bodybattery, pacepro or raspatory rate? All these functions should be in a easy software update. Oh I know I should buy the Fenix 7 for £999. No thanks.
Do Garmin devices actually talk to each other these days? I’d love something like this for daily activity and sleep/recovery tracking then be able to swap to my 945 for running, swimming, gym etc and Edge units for cycling with things like body battery, stress, recovery, intensity minutes, metrics etc syncing and tracking in harmony across the lot. When I last tried this a few years ago each device was essentially unaware the others existed and just got a load of mangled, misaligned, inconsistent, and sometimes duplicating data. Ended up using the Garmin ecosystem purely for fitness activity and Fitbit for sleep, daily HR, steps just because the Garmin interconnectivity was so bad.
I wear a Vivosmart 4 24/7 and then stick my FR245 on for running, Edge 530 for outdoor cycling or just plain old sync between TrainerRoad and Garmin Connect…it all works together, it’s great.
@@tomknight really? That’s good to know. I found the Vivosmart 4, my 945, 735XT, and Edge 520 didn’t communicate with each other at all. I could go out on a 150 mile cycle using the 520, or run a marathon with the 945, sync it with the Connect app when I get home, then put on the Vivosmart the same evening, and it would think that I’d been sat on the sofa all day. Guess I was doing something wrong. I’d also find things like recovery time was very device dependent, if I did a hard gym session using a watch that advised 24 hours recovery then went to ride the next day, the head unit wouldn’t register that recovery time, and vice versa.
@@grahamstenson8571 so to get them all to sync up I’m meant to wear two or three unnecessary watches when cycling and have a Edge head unit in my pocket as well as watches up my arm for every non-cycling activity I do? Yeah, that’s not happening. Surely it wouldn’t be that difficult for Garmin to pull the relevant data from their app. I know they tie a lot of their licensed training metrics to their devices rather than the app, basically as a way of shafting consumers into upgrading, but this really hinders them in my opinion. I’d rather pay a monthly subscription than have to jump through hoops to get all my fitness devices from one manufacturer to sync up.
It's so funny how many people pay so much money for these watches they are all gimmicks. none of the functions aren't even 80% accurate. They are all guesstimate functions. Some of these gimmick watches are over $1000 and people buy them thinking the heart rate it accurate what about the ones with the key fetcher. There's no way they work. It's impossible for it to scan for it with sensors on the top of your wrist. Totally a gimmick. The only heart rates that work decent is the ones that use the chest strap. These companies are totally ripping people off but people are not so smart and buy them. O well
There are some reviewers that uses a chest strap and the smart watch / band they are reviewing. It is not so far off. Some cheap or no name brands are very inaccurate. But I think it is mostly a point of reference.
Heart rate accuracy is important to me. I would rather pay $20 more for a no frills model of Garmin with good HR accuracy and not have to pay for a membership service for additional features. I returned the Fitbit when it was consistently 35 to 48 bmp off when my HR was at a higher level and it severely lagged taking over 3 to 5 minutes to catch up when my HR returned to resting. Thank you for the review, it’s much appreciated. I hope a future review will have some more in-depth info about HR accuracy for those of us looking for a budget friendly tracker.
