Garmin vivosmart 5, Smart Health and Fitness Activity Tracker with Touchscreen, White, Small/Medium

Great little tracker that does far more than I need it to. I wore an Apple Watch for years, but realized it was actually creating more stress in my life, causing me to worry about all sorts of variables that I didn't need to and the size and weight of it was annoying. However, I do like to keep note of how far I walk and sometimes it's useful to know heart rate etc., so I decided to look for a lightweight, basic, tracker that was accurate. I found this Garmin Vivosmart 5 and it turns out that it does most of the things my Apple Watch can do, but it's it far more comfortable to wear.

Lovely little fitness tracker

This watch is great if you're wanting a more affordable option with a great app to track steps / water intake / sleep etc (btw I don't wear it to bed and it still calculates my sleep recovery at 85-90% so make what you will of that). However, my primary purpose was to monitor my heart rate - particularly during workouts including strength and HIIT - and in that, it is frustrating. The Garmin optical technology works fine for basic gradual cardio such as walking, but is inconsistent, delayed, and inaccurate with HIIT or any interval strength workouts (known issue come to find out). For this reason, a chest strap is a better choice.

Now in daily use, battery life is good, the screen is very clear and easy to see. It's early days yet, just 4 weeks in, but so far, it is perfect. Unlike the FitBit it replaced which had a very common problem of a fading display.

Bought 3 of these for family members. Two have been fine. The other switches on but won’t charge - this is after just 20 months. To be fair it was not used much so maybe this affected it? No idea but suspect it’s too late for a refund! User manual doesn’t give any support on what to do when this happens which is disappointing.

Love the watch as it is much smaller and more comfortable than the Venu Sq I had. It seems to record the data well enough but the battery needs charging every two days. I don't carry my phone around the house with me and I regularly get 'phone disconnected ' and then 'phone connected' messages on the screen throughout the day which cannot help the battery life. I cannot find a setting to stop these messages. I didn't get them at all with my Venu Sq but that was simply too big for my arm and acting as a ligature. Feel a bit stuck, as I love the size of this and the comfort on my wrist, no problems there. I don't wear it at night, so can't comment.

Initially it worked fine, but 3 months in & it keeps disconnecting & I have to go through everything again to connect, very frustrating.

I am sure this might well be a good item if it was comfortable enough to wear. After only one hour my wrist was hurting badly so could not continue to use the product.