Garmin vívoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch Contactless Payments Built-in Sports Apps, Black/Slate

UPDATE July 14, 2020 - I have been wearing this watch almost every day for almost 2 years and I like it very much. (I had forgotten that I hadn't liked this watch, so am updating this review. See my previous reviews below for what my problems were at the time.) In the end, I was able to convince Garmin Support to send me a new watch instead of a refurb. I think I had to pay for shipping or something. The new watch has not had any of the step tracking issues the prior watch had. Nor any of the synching issues. I think the O/S update did in fact solve the synching problems. (I'm an Android user, for reference.)I use the Strava synch all the time and it works great. Every now and then there's a delay for the watch to synch its data to the Garmin app on the phone, but as soon as it's on the phone it posts to Strava. I primarily use this watch to track cycling activities, but have also used it for running, hiking, swimming, skiing stand-up paddle, and some others.It's been quite durable as well. I did buy a tempered glass screen protector, which now has a chip in it, but the watch itself has taken something of a beating.The waterproofing works as well. I basically never take it off. Always shower with it. Swim with it, etc.Sleep tracking has been good.HR has seemed accurate to me.Battery life has been excellent. I go about a week between charges when I'm not using the activity tracking feature. This is great. I really don't worry about the battery. When I am going to go cycling, I charge it up fully and then I can get about 8-9 hours of tracking. If you want to use it mainly for tracking runs and you run for less than an hour every other day, you could probably charge it only once every five days. When I do charge it, it will go from 20% to full in about half an hour or forty-five minutes, so even when I wake up to go cycling and realize I forgot to charge it I can just do it then while I'm getting the gear ready.Two years have passed since I bought it and I had expected that there'd be a better watch out now that was a Wear O/S watch with LTE capabilities (which is the only thing this watch lacks, IMO, b/c I"d love to be able to leave the phone at home), but there isn't. If this watch broke today, I'd just buy another one. For the current price, it's a steal.------------------UPDATE Nov 15, 2018 - I can't recommend this watch. More and more problems are occurring. The first problem is that it stopped tracking any floors on the stair counter. This happened after I took a trip on an airplane and other posters had mentioned that maybe their altimeter (barometer) broke in conjunction with a plane trip. I called Garmin Support and they discussed this and they said that maybe and update to the O/S from 5.4 to 5.5 (which was due any day) would help, and/or they'd be happy to send me a new watch and if i wanted even faster they would send it immediately if I'd pay a deposit which they would refund when I got the new watch. I said, okay, well, I'll wait til 5.5 comes out and see and the maybe return it and they said that was all fine.So, I waited, it didn't fix it, and I contacted them to do the exchange, and they sent me a form for payment and I see that the watch they intend to give me is refurbished. They did not specify this earlier. I'm annoyed b/c at the time I was still in my 30 day return window and could have just returned it and bought another new one.Additionally, since that time, other problems have occurred:--synching has become a real problem. The watch just sometimes will go days without synching to the phone app. Also, the app seems to be built in some stupid way where it needs Internet connectivity in order to sync the watch. So, forget synching if you're traveling to some country where you only receive 2g, or are otherwise in an are with poor signal.--Relatedly, I discovered while in the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest, is that even the GPX maps that I had loaded to the Garmin Connect app cannot be displayed without an Internet connection. Seriously, Garmin?!?!? You are making fitness devices for people to use out in the wild, and yet they can't even access their loaded routes in your app without an Internet connection?--the heart rate monitor seems to have gotten much less reliable. Often it sits at 90 when I'm clearly in aerobic or anaerobic range (130+)--I have noticed... why is there no Timer app on this watch? So simple. Why didn't they include it. Or an Alarm feature.---my original review from Oct 2018-----I have had this watch for a couple of weeks and have been very happy with it. I had tried the Amazfit Bip and Ticwatch E and both failed to accurately track my heart rate when going over about 130bpm. No watch is as good as a band yet for that, but those were so obviously wrong doing things like showing 80 when I was huffing and puffing. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 seems accurate enough for my purposes.The battery life is acceptable/good. You can get multiple days unless you are tracking long activities. If you are running GPS and doing long cycling rides (4-8 hours) like I am, you will not get more than one ride per charge. I suppose this is asking a lot of the battery.The problem I am having is that already the stair step counter has stopped working. It worked for awhile but now has just stopped. Not sure if that is a common problem. Have tried to contact the seller but there doesn't seem to be any way to do that here. May have to return it for a replacement if I don't hear something back from them based on this post.

Update: 4/10/18: I take back what I said on floor counting accuracy on my 4/6 update. Floor counting is still awful. Battery life is even better than what I reported on my last update. If I don't use GPS at all, I get up to 5 full days of battery life. I think that's awesome. I don't wear at night so I can't comment at all on sleep tracking accuracy. All in all I am sticking to my 5 stars rating, and did I mention, how light weight and comfortable this watch is? I will report back sooner if I notice anything different otherwise I will come back with an update after 1 month.4/6/18: I did not talk about battery life in my original review as I wanted to be sure before I comment. I get around 3-4 days of battery life depending upon my usage. Without GPS, it comfortably lasts at least 4 days, which in my opinion is great. After recent update, floors count accuracy seems to be better. It's not perfect by any means, but lot more acceptable now. It could be because of update or it probably gets better by learning behavior and location overtime. Nothing negative to report yet. It's all positive.Garmin Vivoactive 3 is exactly what I am looking for in a smart watch/fitness watch, and more importantly it looks and feels stylish in its classic circular form and light weight design.Before I talk about its smart and fitness features, I will briefly talk about its display. Display has good enough clarify for a watch. Its always on display is a huge positive compared to Fitbit and apple watch. Outdoor visibility of its display is great and definitely better than other OLED displays due to its specific display technology. On paper its display is inferior to Apple watch, Fitbit Ionic and other wear os watches (formerly Android Wear) in Pixel density and colors, but don't let it stop you from buying Vivoactive 3 as its diplay is perfectly fine and always on display more than makes up for its other shortcomings. I like it even better than other high resolution displays for its positive impact on battery life.Let's get less important things out of the way first, and that is its smart features. It does what it supposed to do as a smart watch. It notifies me for the applications I have selected in Garmin connect app on my phone. I only keep text and phone call notifications on, and may be couple other important apps to avoid constant vibrations on my wrist. It does notifications very well. Just to clarify I have connected it to my Pixel 2 XL, and I have no connection issues. The only issue I have found is with phone call notifications, where notification persists even after I pickup or decline a call directly on my phone, but other than that it works perfectly fine.Now I will get to more important part of the watch, and that is fitness. When it comes to fitness, I like everything about Vivoactive 3. The amount of detailed data you get on your workouts is well worth it. My most favorite part of all is being able to see what heart rate zone I am training in during my exercise. It does everything fitbit and other smart watches do and lot more. You get usual matrices like daily steps count, active and inactive calories, floors count, heart rate data and then some extras like weekly intensity minutes, VO2 Max, Fitness age, Stress level etc. You also get move reminders. I like the way I can look at it and tell how long I have been inactive. It reminds you when the red bar of inactivity reaches halfway and then again when it reaches all the way. If you want to varify its accuracy, there are plenty of you tube videos, and based on all reputable sources data you get is fairly accurate.Three things I want to mention on accuracy though.- Heart rate: I like the fact that it can connect to external ANT+ chest strap for accurate heart rate monitoring during exercises in which wrist heart rate monitors are not that reliable. I connect it to Garmin Heart rate monitor during my strength training, and I am very happy with the results I get, which by the way only costs $20.- Floor Count: As many reviewers have mentioned, floor count on vivoactive 3 is very disappointing. Sometimes, it counts fairly well and sometimes it doesn't register it at all. Something to keep in mind.- GPS: GPS signal is very quick to acquire and accurate. The route it tracks even detects the slightest variations in route (running on right side of the street vs running on left side of the street)It tracks outdoor run/walk and indoor treadmill run well with plenty of data to review. Rep counting on strength training is surprisingly accurate. It even identifies the type of exercise based on the arm movement. It even identified me doing push ups every time I tried, which is very surprising given the fact that there is very little wrist movement in it. Starting and stopping sets and advancing in a next set is done by double tapping the screen which is very convenient.All the activities and workouts are saved in Garmin Connect app with plenty of data. It even tells your fitness age based on your VO2 Max.I can't believe I waited this long to buy my first Garmin Watch, and I am positive that Vivoactive 3 won't be my last Garmin Watch either. I did not come across any of the bugs other users have encountered during my first week of usage. It's been few months since its release and it seems like Garmin has fixed most of its bugs.SUMMARY:- Very light weight design, which looks classy in its circular form (I specifically love my slate version)- Fairly accurate heart rate monitor, and activity and workout tracking- Ability to connect to external heart rate sensor is a huge plus in my opinion- Somewhat hit or miss floor count- Smart watch/smart notifications features are minimal but very useful and reliable- Advanced dynamics on workout data are very informativeAll in all, Vivoactive 3 is a solid smart watch for fitness enthusiastics and everyone who want to live and lead healthy life. I highly recommend it..