A new entry in the smart watch category, the Garmin Vivoactive has built-in sports apps, including GPS enabled golfing, running, biking, and swimming tracking. It pairs with your smartphone to notify you of incoming calls, texts, emails as well as notifications from social media and other mobile apps. You can also customize the eatch faces.
They’ve got plenty of competition from things like the Pebble and Apple Watch, so I wonder how this will ever catch on. The main saving grace, I think is that it’s sport focused and that it keeps track of things even when not paired with a phone.
I like the idea of the thing.
Discover more from GolfBlogger Golf Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
With the 18 hour battery charge, and the cost, I decided to go with the Garmin VivoActive instead of the Apple Watch for this go around. I was really wanting the activity + golf features of the Apple Watch…. where my Garmin Vivofit only did activity, and my Garmin Approach S3 only did golf… I wanted both (and notifications too).
The Vivoactive has Activity+Golf+Notifications. Now the Golf is not as robust as it is in a dedicated Golf GPS watch.. it doesn’t have green view, for example. It has plenty of Activity functions (it does not have built in heart rate like the Apple Watch). And it does do Notifications.
But the best thing about it, is the weight and comfort. It is feather light compared to my Garmin Approach and to my Casio GShock. I have an add on Silicone band ($15) – which is incredibly comortable and also weighs about nothing.
I have had it a little more than a month, and it has had some bugs, but they are being addressed, and the latest firmware (2.70) combined with the latest iOS (8.3) it seems very reliable and solid.
I recommend this.
BTW, the battery life on the VivoActive? 4 days with no golf to a 1/2 charge.
A full round of golf dimisihes about 1/3 charge.
I generally charge about every 3 days, and/or the night after any round of golf.