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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Garmin Vivoactive 3 NotesReview}}ItIf you're looking for a running watch, I'd recommend looking elsewhere. Even if the price of the Vivoactive 3 drops significantly, I think it would still be a poor option. This is a real shame, as I's early in my testingve got quite a soft spot for the original [[Garmin Vivoactive]], but which I'd avoid purchasing much rather use than the Vivoactive 3 . The Vivoactive 3 is pretty, and I love the large display in the small form factor, but there are so many issues, and there are so many better options available. =Support This Site=<table style="margin: 0px 5%; border: 1px solid #aaa; background: #fbfbfb; border-collapse: collapse;"><tr><td class="mbox-image"> [[File:helping-hand.jpg|120px]]<td class="mbox-text" style="padding-left:25px; padding-right:15px;"><div>This review was made possible by readers like you buying products via my links. I buy all my gear at the same retail outlets you do to avoid even subconscious bias. I'd like to thank the many readers who buy products through the links on the left-hand navigation bar. Your funding for this pointsite helps enormously. However, Ican'm still testing t in good conscience give you a link to buy a product that I dis-recommend as much as this one. Consider this me "putting my money where my mouth is."</div></table>=The Big Questions=For a [[Best Running Watch| simple evaluation of a GPS watch]], I look at how well it can answer some basic questions. There are many things a runner might look for in a running watch, but I feel these four questions are critical. * '''How far did I run?''' This is the most basic question, and the Vivoactive 3has grim [[GPS Accuracy]], and normally I wait until lousy support for the [[Stryd]] footpod. I've completed my evaluation before writing anything repeatedly had the Vivoactive 3 come upmore than a mile short on a long run. This * '''How fast am I running?''' Knowing how fast you're running can be a nice to know, or it can be vital for your training or race performance. The poor GPS accuracy and lack of [[Stryd]] support means the Vivoactive 3 is pretty useless most of the time . I thought frequently see it displaying a pace that's out by 2 minutes/mile. * '''Where am I? '''The Vivoactive 3 only as a "back to start" arrow, which is better than nothing, but not great. If you can get the [[Stryd]] footpod to work, you'd publish ll lose even that as you have to turn off GPS to get the accurate pace/distance that Stryd supports.* '''What's my ongoing thoughts cadence? '''[[Cadence]]''' '''is one of the most critical and often overlooked aspects of running. If you get your Cadence right, many other things naturally fall into place. The Vivoactive 3 has an internal accelerometer, and it supports alerts for those Cadence, which is really nice. For ultramarathon running the battery life of the Vivoactive 3 makes it a poor choice and the cable makes it harder to [[Charge On The Run]] than earlier versions. See [[Best Running Watch#Watches for Ultrarunning| Watches for Ultrarunning]] for more details. <gallery widths=300px heights=300px class="center">File:VA3-3Q.jpg File:VA3-Side.jpgFile:VA3-Rear.jpg</gallery>=Pros and Cons=I find that focusing on the positive and the negative aspects of a running watch provides greater insight than a "user manual" style of review. If you want to know how to use the menu system, I recommend the online manual, or check out other reviews that focus more on that area. ==Pros==Sadly, this is a really short list. * The Vivoactive 3 has a really small bezel, which means it has the same sized display as the watches that are interestedmuch bigger. It makes all the other watches I have seem dated and bulky by comparison. It's also reasonably thin and light, creating a watch that looks good, and feels unobtrusive to wear. I'm hopeful this is a sign that future Garmin watches will continue this approach. The display is lovely quality, and is brighter, with more saturated colors than earlier watches. As far as I can tell, it 's the same display that the [[Garmin Fenix 5X]] has. * This is the first Garmin watch that allows NFC payment, which will most often be a convenient novelty. However, I have been caught short on a long run that turned warmer than I expected, and NFC payment on my phone allowed me to buy some refreshment even though I hadn't taken my wallet with me. (I have wondered if the NFC antenna might be causing problems with the sensors, though I don't have any evidence to support that idea.)* The alerts feature of the Vivoactive 3 is nice, and you can have an alert for [[Cadence]]. The built in Cadence meter worked reasonably well, which is good given the issues the Vivoactive 3 has with a Footpod. * The Vivoactive 3 works as a smartwatch, with similar functionality to most of the recent Garmin running watches (see below for details.) ==Cons==Even things that should morph over time into be an advantage for the Vivoactive 3 become cons due to the flaws when compared with other Garmin devices. Obviously, this is not a high-end watch like the [[Garmin Fenix 5X]], but the Vivoactive 3 compares poorly to watches that are older and/or cheaper. I'd rather have the original [[Garmin Vivoactive]] that's now much cheaper, or the [[Suunto Spartan Trainer]] that's a full reviewsimilar price. * I'm concerned that the VA3 Vivoactive 3 might have the same hardware flaw that is causing so many issues for the Fenix 5 and Fenix 5S (but not the [[Garmin Fenix 5X]])). This is a problem with connecting to sensors, and because if it's a hardware issue, it's unlikely to get fixed. ** I've had some problems with [[Footpod]]s on the VA3Vivoactive 3. I've found that the [[MilestonePod]] and the Adidas Speed Cell (both Bluetooth) work fine, but I've can't get the Garmin Ant+ footpod to pair, nor can I get [[Stryd]] to pair over either Bluetooth or . ** I can get the [[Stryd]] Footpod to pair over Ant+, but to link the Stryd at run time, the watch and the Footpod have to be within a few inches of each other.
** Strangely the Stryd [[Connect IQ]] app works fine (it doesn't require pairing.)
** I can't get the RunScribe V3 footpods to connect to their Connect IQ application, though currently RunScribe is still in what I'd consider Alpha test, so it might not be an issue with the VA3Vivoactive 3. However, I get the data field to work with the original Vivoactive, the Fenix 3, and the Fenix 5X.
** I've not had any issues with heart rate monitors such as the Garmin HRM, Suunto, or Polar H7. However, the location of a heart rate monitor positions it much closer to the watch, so distance might be an issue.
* The battery life is worse than claimed. I got only 10 hours under optimal conditions, rather than 13 hours claimed. This is a little better than the previous firmware where I got only 8 hours, and it's unusual to see a company claiming longer than actually provided these days.
* It will take me a few weeks to gather enough data to evaluate The [[GPS Accuracy]], but initial results suggest it will be is similar to the previous [[Garmin Vivoactive]] and [[Garmin Vivoactive HR]], which is pretty poor. * I've not gathered enough data to understand the accuracy of the [[Optical Heart Rate Monitoring]], but superficially it seems no better than I'd expectother devices, which is terrible. * The Vivoactive 3 has a gesture backlight, so you raise the watch to look at it and the backlight comes on, which is awesome and I really like it. Sadly, I've had some odd issues syncing found that the Vivoactive 3 will sometimes turn the VA3backlight on when it's taken off, both via a PC and via iOS. This might be intermittent issues with the Garmin serversbacklight will stay on, but I'm not seeing any similar issues with draining the various other Garmin devices I'm syncing over a similar periodbattery.
(I'm testing with Firmware 2.60, and future updates may resolve some of the issues.)
=GPS Accuracy=
The [[GPS Accuracy]] of the Vivoactive 3 is quite poor, coming near the bottom of my accuracy testing. The results are not statistically different to the [[Garmin Vivoactive]] (p=0.23) or [[Garmin Vivoactive HR]] (p=0.54). However, you can see from the tracks below the Vivoactive 3 does occasionally "get lost" and wanders quit a way off the path. The blue lap markers are not quite as closely clustered as its predecessor's are, and you can see its accuracy is especially poor through the S-bend, which causes problems for many watches.
[[File: BridgeGarmin Vivoactive 3.jpg|center|thumb|x400px|This diagram has tracks color coded with green indicating good accuracy through to red indicating poor accuracy, and the lap markers as blue dots.]]
Here's the tracks from the predecessor to the Vivoactive 3 the Vivoactive HR, showing similar issues.
[[File:BridgeGarmin VivoActiveHR.jpg|center|thumb|x400px|This is the [[Garmin Vivoactive HR]].]]
To show how a more accurate watch performs, check out the [[Polar V800]] shown below.
And here's the tracks from the predecessor to the predecessor, the Vivoactive. The better accuracy here is not statistically significant, though you can see the section under the bridge is quite a bit better than the later watches.
[[File:BridgeGarmin VivoActive.jpg|center|thumb|x400px|This is the [[Garmin Vivoactive]].]]
To show how a more accurate watch performs, check out the [[Polar V800]] shown below. You can see that even through the S-bend the V800 does really well. The only obvious flaw is the spread of the lap markers, though this does not degrade the accuracy of the distance recorded..
[[File:BridgePolar V800.jpg|center|thumb|x400px| The [[Polar V800]] tracks.]]
And here's the tracks from the extremely accurate [[Suunto Ambit3]]. It doesn't do as well as the V800 under the bridge, but it has more closely clustered lap markers.
[[File:BridgeSuunto Ambit3 R.jpg|center|thumb|x400px|The [[Suunto Ambit3]] tracks.]]
=Activity Tracking=
The Vivoactive 3 has great activity tracking capabilities. Here's a breakdown of the aspects of your daily activity that the Vivoactive 3 will track:
* '''Workouts'''. Obviously, it will track your runs, and will integrate that information into an overall picture of your daily activity levels.
* '''Steps'''. The step counting is comparable to other devices. When you're walking or running its pretty accurate, but there are other situations where it's a genuinely ambiguous as to whether you are taking steps or not, such as preparing food in the kitchen. I found that the recorded a very similar number of daily steps as other Garmin devices I wore on the other wrist, which gives me some confidence in their consistency at least.
* '''Floors Climbed'''. The Vivoactive 3, along with a number of other recent Garmin watches, use the barometric altimeter to determine when you're going up or down steps. This is a rather nice idea, but the accuracy seems to be rather poor. I find it will report a different number of steps ascended to descended, even though I've never used an elevator on those days. There's also a significant discrepancy between Garmin watches worn concurrently.
* '''Intensity minutes'''. It's not clear how Garmin calculates "intensity minutes", but it seems to use heart rate to determine intensity, with high levels of intensity counting as a multiplier on the actual number of minutes. I've seen some strange discrepancy in intensity minutes when using the optical heart rate monitor, which is not surprising given the accuracy issues. I suspect that changes in the heart rate zone also impact intensity minutes, but the lack of transparency in this calculation makes it hard to evaluate.
* '''Sleep'''. The estimation of sleep can be a little flaky on occasions, but overall it seems to do a reasonable job. It's hard to verify the estimation of sleep, other than checking if the bedtime and rising time seem reasonable. I'm not convinced by the Garmin estimate of how much deep and light sleep you are getting, and I tend to ignore that information as suspect. I have noticed that changing time zone can really mess up the sleep calculation, but hopefully Garmin will resolve this at some point.
* '''Resting Heart Rate'''. It seems that Garmin looks for the lowest heart rate it sees while you're awake, using its sleep detection to ignore heart rate during that time. That closely matches the medical definition of resting heart rate. I'd love to use this to keep an eye on my resting heart rate, as this is a potential red flag for [[Overtraining]] or other health problems, but the accuracy is too limited for me to put any trust in it.
* '''Move IQ'''. Garmin will estimate when you're performing an activity even if you've not explicitly recorded it. So, if I walk the dog, which I don't add to my training log, Garmin will automatically detect this as an activity.
* '''Feedback'''. The area where Garmin really shines as an activity tracker is the feedback and inspiration that they provide. The [[Connect IQ]] watch faces can provide an overview of your weekly activity and how today is comparing with other days, which I find is a good way of motivating myself to get moving. Watch faces also provide a progress bar for how close you are to your daily step goal, though I wish that they'd implement some way of seeing your continued progress after you've hit the goal. Some days I can reach several times in my minimum goal, and it would be nice to see this visually. There are also a number of firework displays the watch gives when you hit your goal. These little firework displays could be considered cheesy or annoying, but I found over time that I really appreciate the little bit of positive feedback. You can also get more information on your activity by scrolling through the widgets on the watch, as well as a vast array of information and visualization on both the Garmin Connect smart phone app and their website.
=Smartwatch features=
These features are quite common on smart watches, allowing you to get some basic information from your Bluetooth attached phone. Remember that these features are only available when your smart phone is in a Bluetooth range.
* The find my phone option is useful to those of us that are absentminded and can never remember where we left it.
* Like other smartwatches, you can get your text messages displayed on the Vivoactive 3 when it's connected to your phone via Bluetooth.
* You can get weather details on the Vivoactive 3, but it needs a Bluetooth connection to the Garmin Connect app to function, so it just saves you the effort of unlocking your phone.
* You can control you phone's music playback. I prefer a dedicated music player, but I know many runners use their phone.
* You can access your smartphone's calendar, which some people might find useful. (I don't.)
=Internal Photos=
The FCC web site has pictures of the Vivoactive 3 internals, including the antennas and chips used. [https://fccid.io/IPH-03190/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-3562062].
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
