Garmin Vivomove Sport review

The Garmin Vivomove Sport is a hybrid smartwatch for individuals who do not just like the look of a conventional smartwatches or health trackers.

Garmin has been flexing its hybrid-making muscle tissue since 2016, and with each new model it is made the Vivomove sequence extra succesful, including options like coronary heart charge monitoring, Garmin’s Physique Battery vitality monitor and crucially, including a digital show to indicate off extra knowledge.

The Sport joins the Vivomove Luxe, Model, and Vivomove 3, providing blood oxygen monitoring, built-in sports activities apps, the power to trace out of doors exercises (utilizing your telephone) and as much as 5-day battery life.

The value of the Vivomove Sport is engaging too, coming in at $179.99/Â£159.99. That makes it the most affordable possibility within the Vivomove household, sitting beneath the Vivomove 3, which is available in at $199.99/Â£199.99.

So does the Vivomove Sport ship on model and smarts? We have been residing with it to seek out out. Here is our complete verdict.

Garmin Vivomove Sport: Design and display screen

Garmin’s Vivomove sequence has at all times seemed to ape the appear and feel of conventional watches and for us, the Vivomove Sport undoubtedly conjures up ideas of Swatch’s Pop watches. It is brilliant, vibrant, light-weight and enjoyable.

The 40mm case is all polymer with chemically strengthened glass lens up entrance and a silicone 20mm, quick-release band conserving in place. It weighs simply over 30g, so it is tremendous mild watch to put on, and it is one which’s undoubtedly a superb match for slimmer wrists too or anybody who prefers smaller instances to hulking large ones.

Garmin presents three appears together with the mint case model we needed to strive, which has attracred a good few compliments about its look and enjoyable design.

The star of the present is the watch face, which mixes analogue arms with an OLED show that sits on the backside half of the face. You’ll be able to faucet, press and swipe to work together with that baked-in display screen and the arms will dynamically transfer out of the way in which to allow you to learn the display screen.

The display screen stays asleep till you wake it up by elevating your wrist or tapping on the display screen. Display screen responsiveness was good on the entire and t.’s is not a horrible lag once you’re interacting with the show.

It is a 72 x 54 decision show, so that you’re getting a decrease decision display screen in comparison with those used on the dearer Vivomove Model and Luxe (240 x 240 decision), which alternatively use extra vibrant AMOLED shows.

Visibility is ok typically indoors and outdoor, however it could at instances really feel a bit of dim exterior in brighter out of doors mild. It is not unreadable, however undoubtedly a bit more difficult to see .rmation on the show.

If you wish to take it swimming or bounce within the bathe with it, Garmin has given it a 5ATM waterproof score, making it protected to be submerged as much as 50 metres depth. It presents extra fundamental swim monitoring in comparison with Garmin’s Venu or Forerunner 55 watches although, which does sit in at across the identical value.

It is a watch total that we have loved having on our wrist. It has been snug to put on 24/7 together with for sleep and whereas its look is perhaps a bit too playful for some, t.’s going to be loads of folks that may desire this design to the undeniably sporty exteriors you will get on a Forerunner or your typical sports activities watch.

Garmin Vivomove Sport: Smartwatch options

The primary Vivomove had no smartwatch options in any respect. It did not also have a display screen. Issues have fortunately progressed on that entrance. You are still getting one thing that performs good with iOS and Android units for starters, and our testing time was with an Android telephone. We did not have any points to report when it comes to the setup, pairing or syncing course of.

What you are getting . so far as core smartwatch options is the power to view notifications, reject telephone calls or reply with a textual content (Android solely) and you’ll view calendar appointments and examine climate forecasts.

T.’s additionally smartphone music controls, which you’ll be able to entry throughout sports activities monitoring, and discover my telephone and discover my watch modes are supplied as properly.

That slither of a display screen does inevitably imply t.’s some limitations you need to settle for when it comes to how these above options talked about work.

For notifications, t.’s a devoted display screen to indicate you incoming .s or messages. You’ll be able to really learn some message of their entirety, but when it is a lengthy one, you are going to be tapping to get scroll by means of it.

It’s also possible to clear notifications when you’re carried out with them and whereas the small quantity of display screen ought to make it onerous work to learn notifications, it really handles issues fairly properly on that entrance.

Options like calendar appointments and music management work properly and also you by no means really feel like they’re displayed in a cramped means that makes them powerful to make use of and take in on the transfer.

Getting across the show primarily revolves round swiping by means of the totally different screens (or widgets), and you’ll select which widgets are displayed on the watch from the Garmin Join app.

Urgent down on the display screen will get you into the sub-menus w. you’ll be able to see secondary modes like train monitoring and in addition get into the settings. A lot of the icons that signify settings are moderately simple to decipher however you would possibly must do some urgent round or reaching for the guide to be taught precisely what all the pieces is.

As we stated, you make compromises on the environment that you need to use smartwatch options, however Garmin utilises that area fairly properly on all fronts. The notification help works advantageous, you have obtained simple to make use of music controls and watch software program that is simple to become familiar however can get a bit more difficult to make use of once you get to the sub-menus.

Garmin Vivomove Sport: Health and wellness monitoring

Whereas we’ll get into the Vivomove Sport’s sports activities monitoring prowess, we would say its efficiency as a health and wellness tracker is absolutely w. it excels.

It’s going to monitor steps and neatly present you your progress towards goal each day step counts, which adapt primarily based on progress. It presents Garmin’s Transfer Bar to maintain monitor of inactivity in the course of the day and also will provide a break down of energy burned and depth minutes. You do after all get computerized sleep monitoring to maintain nearer tabs in your mattress time.

If you step into the wellness realms, you will discover you’ll be able to constantly monitor coronary heart charge by the second and seize each day resting coronary heart charge. It’s going to monitor respiration charge constantly and may provide blood oxygen spot checks and monitor ranges throughout sleep. T.’s all-day stress monitoring, guided respiratory train and you’ll manually monitor your water consumption from the watch too.

Garmin additionally consists of help for girls’s well being options, which incorporates menstrual cycle monitoring and being pregnant tracker.

Step monitoring in contrast: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Oura Ring 3 (proper)

When it comes to health monitoring, we have been sporting it alongside the Oura Ring 3 and located each day step counts to be inside 300-500 steps of the good ring â so t.’s no wild discrepancies. It has been dependable in our comparability assessments with different trackers from the likes of Fitbit and Polar we have examined it towards.

For sleep, the Vivomove Sport breaks down sleep levels with a timeline of these levels and presents insights on pulse ox knowledge (if enabled) and respiration charges.

Monitoring respiration charges is a comparatively new metric that is began to realize extra consideration on wearables. Apple now presents respiration monitoring with its native sleep monitoring. The Vivomove Sport tracks common breaths per minute and lowest and highest respiration charges throughout sleep.

Sleep monitoring in contrast: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Oura Ring 3 (proper)

For core sleep monitoring, we discovered that towards the Oura Ring 3, the Sport typically recorded hour further of sleep, which meant some sleep levels tracked tended to be barely longer compared. This was evident for mild sleep and REM sleep levels.

Whereas the respiration charge and pulse ox knowledge is cleanly displayed, you will must dig into the well being stats to assist perceive and interpret the info.

That is definitely one thing Garmin ought to get higher at doing if it feels that wellness knowledge issues. It must ship knowledge and metrics in a means that you will really take note of it and what it might imply.

We did discover that respiration charges matched up with the respiration monitoring on the Oura, however not like the Oura, the .rmation feels a bit of remoted when it comes to placing the .rmation to good use.

Respiratory charge in contrast: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Oura Ring 3 (proper)

We’ll additionally dive into coronary heart charge monitoring and stress monitoring. We discovered steady coronary heart charge monitoring and each day resting coronary heart charge readings have been fairly dependable.

Resting coronary heart charge knowledge was typically inside 1-2bpm of the Oura Ring 3 and a chest strap monitor. Nevertheless, once more that knowledge is not actually put into better context of what it means on your total well being and wellness, as we have seen on units comparable to Whoop 4.0 and Fitbit Cost 5.

Resting coronary heart charge in contrast: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Oura Ring 3 (proper)

For stress monitoring, Garmin makes use of coronary heart charge variability (HRV) measurements to point on the watch and within the Join app w. stress is taken into account excessive, medium or low.

So after a run, we are able to see that stress ranges have been excessive and begin to decide up as properly earlier than train time too.

The each day timeline within the app can provide you a greater sense of when these demanding moments happen that will help you perceive w. that stress normally hits and whether or not t.’s a sample primarily based on what else you do in the course of the day.

Garmin’s Physique Battery vitality monitor knowledge in Garmin Join app

We’ll end up on Garmin’s Physique Battery vitality monitor, which on the watch provides you with a rating and let you know whether or not vitality ranges are low or excessive.

These vitality ranges are primarily based on HRV, stress, sleep high quality and exercise.

The presentation and rationalization of Physique Battery as a function nonetheless feels prefer it might be higher, however seeing that your battery has drained and understanding you must get good sleep to cost it again up are simple sufficient prompts to be sure to’re properly outfitted to resolve whether or not you are in fine condition to tackle a troublesome day of coaching.

Garmin Vivomove Sport: Sports activities monitoring

With Sport within the identify you would be forgiven for considering this watch is able to monitoring your train time.

The very first thing to say . is that you simply’re not getting Forerunner ranges of sports activities monitoring options, however it’s not as restrictive as you may think.

T.’s help to trace runs, swims and biking together with power coaching and Pilates, so t.’s a good quantity out there ..

Trying on the sensors you’ve gotten at your disposal, t.’s Garmin’s Elevate coronary heart charge monitor to constantly monitor coronary heart charge and monitor coronary heart charge throughout train. ANT+ help means you’ll be able to broadcast coronary heart charge knowledge as properly.

T.’s a Pulse Ox sensor to trace blood oxygen throughout sleep and constantly, although that doing that does come on the expense of total battery life.

T.’s no altimeter or onboard GPS, however you do have related GPS, which implies utilizing the Garmin Join app in your telephone to trace out of doors routes.

It is mild on coaching and evaluation options, however you do have Garmin’s improved Health Age perception, which debuted on the Venu 2, and for many who care about security options, you are getting Dwell Monitor and incident detection modes included too. Once more, these are reliant on having your telephone close by and your watch related to it.

T.’s a sequence of preloaded sports activities profiles with core operating, treadmill operating, biking and fundamental swim monitoring coated off. To get going, you must maintain down on the display screen to entry these profiles after which swipe to pick your sport. For runs, it’s going to immediate whether or not you wish to use your telephone’s GPS, for which you will must grant entry in your smartphone.

A double faucet on the display screen begins the monitoring and you’ll swipe by means of a number of knowledge screens displaying off coronary heart charge, tempo and distance coated.

As we talked about, it may be difficult to see that knowledge clearly in brighter out of doors circumstances, however the expertise of utilizing the related GPS help was good and simple, which is not essentially the case for related GPS help supplied on different sports activities watches and trackers.

GPS take a look at: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Garmin Epix 2 (proper)

In our run assessments, we put it up towards the Garmin Epix (Gen 2) in its highest GPS accuracy mode and we discovered distance monitoring, and metrics like common tempo and common coronary heart charge knowledge fairly related.

T. was a number of seconds distinction with common tempo, however t. was little or no in it.

We additionally put the center charge by means of a little bit of excessive depth testing, and did discover t. was a bit extra disparity within the numbers for common and most coronary heart charge readings.

You do not have the power to pair up exterior coronary heart charge sensors with the Vivomove Sport, so that you’re actually trusting the center charge from the optical sensor to be dependable ..

Interval HR take a look at: Garmin Vivomove Sport (left) and Garmin Epix 2 with coronary heart charge chest strap (proper)

When it comes to different modes you’ll be able to monitor ., biking follows the identical model of monitoring as operating, utilizing the related GPS to trace runs.

For swims, you’ll be able to edit pool measurement and examine swim intervals and pool lengths.

If you use the yoga mode, it merely works to show length of exercises after which immediate you to maneuver to the subsequent pose. In contrast to the Vivoactive 4 or Venu, it could’t show animation or counsel poses, so it is extra fundamental help.

As we stated, the Vivomove Sport is a reliable sports activities watch that does allow you to lean in your telephone to higher monitor out of doors exercise time. In case you’re searching for an excellent fundamental Forerunner-like expertise although, then it would depart you a bit of upset.

Garmin Vivomove Sport: Battery life

If you need battery life that goes for weeks, the Vivomove Sport will not provide you with that â maybe a shock given the minimal display screen tech on board. We obtained round per week.

Garmin says you’ll be able to count on as much as 5 days in smartwatch mode with a further day supplied in fundamental watch mode, which

T.’s a widget to point battery degree, however not like different Vivomove fashions which hid away battery proportion readings within the About part of the settings, t.’s no signal of the identical .rmation on the Sport.

Meaning it is onerous to get a gauge over how a lot the battery drops off from utilizing steady coronary heart charge monitoring to utilizing the related GPS help. We might say primarily based on our testing, the Vivomove Sport is match for five days off a single cost, which is not an enchancment on different Vivomove fashions.

You’ll be able to undoubtedly discover hybrids from different manufacturers that may go longer, although you will possible sacrifice the extent of smarts you get in return in comparison with what Garmin presents ..

Garmin Vivomove Sport

By Garmin

The Garmin Vivomove Sport is a hybrid smartwatch at a superb value that provides a surprisingly good quantity of options all wrapped up in an excellent look. The digital show does has some limitations so far as how a lot knowledge it could actually exhibit, however it does stable job total bringing smartwatch-like smarts to an reasonably priced and engaging watch.