Garmin Vivoactive 3

A very disappointing product! – very disappointed with this watch it only lasted 3 years and the screen became non functional. Totally unexceptable for I watch that cost $389. Show details

Save your money! – DO NOT BUY THIS JUNK WATCH! I'm part of a health and well-being program and for that I need a smartwatch to record my HR etc. I've lost track of the number of times I've been doing an upper body workout, sweating like a bushy and barely able to breath, only to look at my watch to see it showing a HR of around 80! This isn't a once-off, it's… Read more

every single time.

Want a watch that will last a while on a single charge? Don't buy this one. I fully charged my watch last night, put it on my wrist at around 10pm and just now (8am the next day) I noticed the charge is down to 1%.

I have used the watch for swimming in the past, and it does a good job of counting laps (just rememebr to set your pool length before using), it counts steps well and I like the GPS function when I go for walks. I do also like the ability to change the watch face via the Connect IQ app, but these positives are not sufficient to outweigh the negatives.

Ultimately, the watch is dissapointing. I'm not sure what other smart watches are like, but if you're in the market for a smart watch I'd give this one a wide berth!

Does the job, great battery life – I was given this as a gift. Although this watch isn't all bells and whistles like a Samsung or Apple watch, this is an active watch and is built like one. I have had a Samsung watch but I went back to the Garmin. I got the one with a white band and rose gold face. Its simple classy and looks great and the watch is really light on the wrist. I had… Read more

a Samsung watch and the Garmin is so much lighter I prefer it. The Good: Great for tracking activities. GPS is pretty ok ,fairly accurate. Battery life is awesome. I can do about 3-4 days with my watch which is great and charging is about 45 mins to 100%. I can do a 4 hours on a golf course and use the golf app (which uses GPS) and I have only used about 50% of the battery. I like how the screen is always on as well. You also get all your notifications on the watch from your phone. Water proof to and extent, I wouldn't swim in this, but I don't mind splashing water on it. The golf app is good and I love using it on the golf course with the watch. Good to see my distances and i also can add in all my clubs for my shots. Its not perfect but for me a high handicapper, its fine. The Bad: Syncing issues. I had some serious syncing issues with Garmin and it was extremely frustrating. I lost so much data, i.e. daily step count, golf scores etc. It took me a few weeks to figure out what was going on by using the Garmin Forums. To sum it up, my Garmin profile hadn't updated properly to the Garmin Server. Don't ask me how this occurred, but I had to log into my account, remove the device and the added it again. I had also done this numerous times before and reset the watch, but it took 2 weeks for the Server to actually see my profile properly again and sync my data correctly. Really frustrating. The ransomware attack Garmin also suffered was pretty bad too. It renders your watch totally not usable besides being a watch. I lost ALOT of data during this time. The OK: As stated above, the battery is great, but its because you don't have an screen like a smart phone, don't expect amazing resolution. The watch UI is very basic. You can read notifications, and emails and texts that are sent through, but you don't have option of going back to them to view at another time. I'm not fussed with this, but if you want that option then you need a Samsung or Apple. Room for improvement: Garmin Connect UI could be better. The watch doesn't have a speaker therefore there are no beeps or sounds. I tried to find my watch once, and all the watch does it vibrate. Overall if you want a fitness watch I recommend this. I am not sure why people are talking about bad battery life, I have amazing battery life.

Just bought Vivoactive 3 - white with rose gold – I've only had my Vivoactive 3 for 3 weeks, though I'm wishing I bought it earlier. Being my first smart watch, it's hard to compare, though I'm enjoying the look of it, functionality (particularly the sleep tracking) and all for a great price on sale. The only issue I've had is that it disconnects from my Garmin App about once every day or two,… Read more

which I need to shut down and restart both phone and watch to get them re-connected. I charge every 4-5 days, once it gets below 20% - as I'd hate for it to go flat during the day.

Altogether a great watch and it can be worn from the beach to work without a worry.

Cracked Screen in 2 Days, Customer Service Not Responsive – Watch face cracked within first 2 days of receipt. Contacted Garmin, quick to tell me not covered by warranty and provided no other assistance. Still waiting on a response from Garmin. Received response and they are replacing watch. Show details

very good watch! – never had a bad experience, all features work well and reliable. had for over 2 years, found garmin also very helpful, easy to connect to phone and costume watch faces and Bluetooth is good Show details

Great watch - terrible battery life! – I have owned this watch for 3 years and have loved it. But overnight the battery went from lasting 5 days to not even a day! I went to bed last night at 53% charge, and it ran out of battery over night!! This appears to be a very common issue with these watches. Don't waste your money. Show details

Terrible battery life – The watch i have is only 18month old and the battery lasts no more than a day. It was working fine but literally overnight the battery went from 5 days to not even 1. Show details

Do not waste your money on it – Went from Fitbit 2 to Garmin Vivoactive 3. What a mistake. Always dropping out from blue tooth. Apps open and run with out you pressing any buttons. The alarm never works.  Show details

BAD battery life – I purchased vivoactive 3 last year. Battery life has been fine until Garmin app went down for maintenance for over a week. Since then I have to charge my battery twice a day. It is not reading my sleep patterns either they have been really wired since battery trouble. I like the watch but it is really frustrating me charging it so frequently. I have tried all the trouble shooting suggestions but to no avail. Show details

Poor customer support, ripped off for parts – The watch band keeper broke after 14 months - $5 to replace - fair enough - $10 postage and no pick up option! Prefer genuine parts but no wonder people end up buying copies. Show details

Very Poor Garmin Vivoactive 3 and Poor Customer Support – I have owned a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for 2 years and 1 month and now have a mark on the Vivoactive 3 glass. No damage to the outside but a hugely annoying white mark that is in the centre of the watch face. This is caused by a fault that many other people are reporting on chat forums. The watch was bought on 1st February 2018 for 249.99. It has been… Read more

well looked after. Garmin responded, 'we have determined that your Garmin device will need to be booked in for a replacement' but as my warranty is 1 month outside of the guarantee period I am being asked to pay 96 for a replacement. I asked for a 'good will' gesture but they refused. I am now left with a 'bad taste' in my mouth, it is evident that Garmin are selling a watch with a manufacturing fault and have poor customer service in relation to this issue. Very disappointed as I don't think this watch is worth 249.99 + 96 and will now make a point to inform as many people as possible so that they are aware of the issue before they consider purchasing this watch

Regrettable Purchase – I bought the vivoactive 3 watch in august 2019. Today it was 100% charged at midday, then battery was already dead at 5am when i woke up. Does not last long! Regrettable purchase. Show details

A watch, a fitness tracker, plus more! – Haven't worn a watch in 10 years, but was after a GPS fitness tracker. Looks like a watch, week long battery (if lazy), and basic smarts & notifications, including tap-&-pay. No issue with build quality, I work with chainsaws and other machinery and was concerned of damage, nearly a year on not a scratch! Despite it's water resistant rating, I… Read more

don't shower with it on, it's usually dusty and dirty under the band after work, plus it allows me to charge it.

Good device, easy to use – Set up was very fast and easy. More accurate the. The Fitbits I used to use. Heart rate more accurate, more exercises and can customise more. Battery life is about the same. Show details

Clunky, not much better than my older 235 but not as good as Samsung – The Vivofit Active 3 is a nice looking watch and has great specifications but is a let down as soon as you turn it on. It struggles to connect to an android device and needed to be reset multple times before it would connect permanently (ie it would forget connection). It was very challenging to work out how to then connect the watch to my phone… Read more

so that calls and texts could be received. It continued to be a challenge to simply receive phone notifications and wouldn't do the most important task - turn off the phone's alarm. Sumsung's watch just worked/synced so much easier. The Vivofit Active comes with many settings turned on in its default state which is very annoying as you need to take time to turn most of them off. Garmin would do good to determine what it is that people really need to see and turn everything else off. Due to this, battery life was very short, but too my surprise, battery life wasn't much better after the settings were adjusted. And then came the final straw. The watch got stuck on the charging screen just as my older 235 had done years before. I could have waited for the battery to deplete and restarted the watch (as I did for the 235), but for a current generation watch that costs $450, this is not acceptable. The watch has been returned and I now have the current gen Samsung Watch.

Great for me – I started out with a Fitbit Zip, then received a Fitbit Flex from someone who had no need for it, they were both great and I was happy with the Flex until sadly my dog chewed it. I did a lot of research on what to replace it with and found at the time the Fitbit range just wasn't what I was looking for. I then obtained a Vivofit 3 via a program… Read more

and had that for around 15 mths, while this was a good wearable it was lacking in detail. I saw that Garmin were releasing the Viviactive 3 and it was what I was looking for. I have had mine now since Nov 2017 and am glad I purchased it. I find the battery life is great, usually only have to charge it every 3-4 days. I don't use the GPS much at all however if I do I need to charge more frequently. I use this for notifications from SMS, Messenger & WhatsApp daily and this has relatively no impact on the battery life. I love the timer & alarm feature, the ability to customize my watch face and the text responses, that it is smart enough to adjust my daily goal to the amount of exercise and alert me to changes in my activity with insight. At a glance on either the wearable or the app I can see what is happening and it can keep me on track and focused. I did have an issued in the last few weeks with the battery draining in the space of 12 hours or so however I phoned Garmin Australia for support and was help by the team there with a number of solutions and the offer to call them back if these did not fix the problem. Thankfully the issue was resolved and I am now back to 3-4 days battery life and enjoying my Garmin once more. I would recommend it and am looking forward to the Vivoactive 4.

It was great... But battery and support suck – Watch works well at first...but battery life doesn't last long before going down hill.. updates in the middle of the day delete your steps for no reason. Turn off updates and it'll turn them back on and mess with your battery life.. really not happy with product..I came from 5 fitbit devices now that's another brand I won't ever purchase again Show details

Perfect running companion – I love the understated design of the watch, it look like a normal watch and not a training watch. You can easily change the wrist strap to match different occasions. GPS tracking is excellent. The only negatives are that battery life could be better and sleep tracking is not always accurate. Make sure to update your watch with the latest software to fix a lot of issues. Show details

Too many technical issues – I am really disappointed in this watch. The Bluetooth connection Barely worked with my phone. It doesn’t play music underwater. The distance when I’m swimming in REALLY not accurate or doesn’t work at all. I have it since only two months and the step tracker stopped working. Everytime I contact customer service, their solution is to update. I… Read more

always update. Still having constant issue. I really don’t recommend spending that much money in something that works half of the time.

Works great – Works to average standard. Doesn’t talk or sync as well as I expected with an iPhone (apple health) Like the “move” feature as it gets me up to remove the bars on my step count. Heart rate is great too Show details

Vivo va-voom – I recently purchased a vivoactive watch which replaced my Tom-Tom. I am continuously impressed with the level of functions and accuracy Garmin have imported into this watch. I’ve never looked back, the rose gold also adds a feminine element Show details

Better than a fit bit Versa – Went from fitbit versa to Garmin vivoactive 3 music. Won't look back from switching over. Notifications from my phone come through promptly compared to the Versa. More on screen workouts and tracking activities. Battery last between 2-3days depending on how often the gps is used. Show details

Beware! – I was given the Vivoactive 3 Music as a birthday present following much research and deliberation. I chose the music as all of the marketing and advertising states that your Apple playlists can be simply dragged across! Beware. This is not the case. Your Apple playlist cannot be used!! The option to use Spotify may console, however, that's also not possible. Garmin fail to respond to any contact with a solution. I'd go buy an Apple Watch!  Show details

Easy to use! – Good, easy to use fitness tracker/watch. Love the gps tracking. The battery life is great only need to charge once a week (this is after using the gps for 30-60min/4 times a week). I find that the charger connection isn’t as snug as it should be, it often falls out if moved the bit slightest when charging.  Show details