Garmin
Vivoactive 5 Smartwatch

I got this watch a few weeks ago and have really enjoyed the features on it, there are a lot that I haven't used yet that I'm looking forward to using. The only complaint I have is that the second week I had it it randomly turned off and I couldn't get it back on for awhile. I looked online and a lot of people were stating they had this same issue with this model even though it was new for them. I haven't had it happen again so far and I hoping it doesn't happen again but it's definitely a bug. I love it otherwise, it's a great size for my wrist and has all the features of a smartwatch you could want but has a nice simple look so it's not bulky and I feel like it looks good to wear any time/occasion.

I used garmin for 6 years and I upgraded my watch, no regrets at all!

I bought my Vivoactive 5 a few weeks ago. I've worn a watch my entire life, but not a "smartwatch". I've had GPS watches that I bought for exercising, but never used them as a day to day watch. I'm enjoying my purchase.

The main reason I bought the watch was for running. The ability to download music and listen without carrying my phone combine with Garmin's top of the line GPS were important in my decision. I also realized this might replace my Garmin S42 golf watch.

I've enjoyed the ease of changing watch face designs via the IQ app. I still haven't gone for a run or played golf with the new watch, but will explore both this week.

So far, a versatile, economical watch with a lot of potential. I'm happy with my purchase.

Still getting use to. Used Fitbit for 5 years.

I am happy so far

I came from a vivoactiv 4. I like the 5th version with the OLED screen! Very dynamic and feels better than the last. My only gripe is that altitude is measured with GPS not a tue altimeter.

I bought this a month ago and really glad I did. Amazing battery life, gives reminders to stretch, GPS enabled. At first it was having some trouble picking up on my walks vs bike trips, but it's learned now.

Got my watch as a gift from my sons and I live the watch because it is so easy to see day and night! Also love the work out options!

I had the Instinct Camo before this and got tired of the plain gray/black/white. Besides the colors, I like the swipe feature for viewing steps etc, the timer, and the wide variety of watch faces I find right on the watch.

I upgraded from vivoactive3 and the improvements are impressive. Great resolution, better performing activities.

This is my 5th Garmin watch and all was well until this weekend when a bug in the software (not sure if it's the watch or the Garmin Connect App) meant the only way I could get back in action was too completely wipe all my data. I've lost 3 years of stats. Besides that, the watch is good value for money. Great features, decent battery life and is comfortable.

I really like this smart watch. It is very functional and has good build quality. I wear it all day long, and the battery does not need to be charged for several days. I also like the ability to connect to a smart phone using the Garmin app. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a versatile smart watch that can be used for a wide variety of purposes.

I have had practically every fitness watch on the market-FitBit, Polar, Galaxy, etc. My Polar cracked so I compared many brands. The Vivoactive 5 checked all the boxes so I pulled the trigger. I am SO happy I did. The features are all there and it was very easy to get comfortable with how it works. Bonus for the variety of bands and watch faces.

I have been using my Vivoactive 5 now for a little less than a month. I had previously purchased various cheap fitness watches to use as a step counter, but they all broke after a few months of wear. My Husband's colleague suggested this watch, and so we both decided to give it a try.

Overall, I would recommend this watch to anyone who is looking to get more from their health and wellbeing. Besides cheap fitness watches, I have not owned a watch to this caliber, so I can't compare it to other watches of its kind, but here's my overall thoughts:

PROS

- This watch does a great job at motivating me to MOVE. I've literally put off going to bed to make sure I reach my step count and find that I'm more active than ever before.

- Being able to customize your strength training workouts through the watch is a game changer. I love that I don't need to carry my phone around the gym to track what I'm doing.

- I love that it's waterproof and that I can track my laps while swimming. (See notes regarding swimming under cons, too).

- The band is comfortable and isn't distracting or anything (as opposed to previous watches I've had), and the lilac color is nice and not as stand out as a black band.

- The body battery and sleep score are a nice touch - we're constantly asking each other what the others is at. It's also helped me realize how awful my body reacts and sleeps when I drink.

CONS

- When swimming, I've noticed that the tracking isn't 100% perfect. If I'm swimming free style at a fast pace, it's fine, but if I want to casually swim during a cool down it typically counts my meters as farther than I've gone. Not a total issue, just not a perfect forecast. Additionally, not being able to customize swim workouts is a bit of a bummer, but again not the end of the world.

- As someone who's not technologically advanced, I feel there could be better tutorials or deep dives into how to use it. I had a really hard time connecting my Spotify account, as well as understanding how to create a workout (once I figured it out it's super easy, but my Husband and I both put our workouts in incorrectly at first because there isn't much explanation about how to use it).

Opportunity for Improvement

- Would love to see an additional work out option for aerial yoga.

- The challenges are great. I feel there's an opportunity to make the weekly challenge for steps against others more competitive/like a game. I'm not sure that would be useful to all, but I feel like it would help incentivize me to walk event more!

- Would highly recommend purchasing a screen protector for your watch as well, easy to scratch.

I have had the watch about a month. The learning curve took me a few days. What helped me was Utube.

I have had my watch for a week and am highly impressed. The watch is very lightweight and feels very comfortable on my tiny wrist. The graphics are amazing and easy to read. I did an indoor marathon and my previous watch did not accurately measure the laps but this one did! I love the new features compared to the old one. I am still getting used to the functions as it does work slightly different but this is an improvement as the Vivoactive 3 sometimes did weird things at night due to the touchscreen feature. I originally charged the watch to full power and it seriously will last a week which will be great for weekend trips. I haven't explored any additional features such as triathlons on it but I am sure with the activity readings I won't be disappointed. Thank you Garmin!

Two weeks into my first smartwatch and it's been great! Easy to use, comfortable and durable so far. Does exactly what I need it to do, plus the additional golf app features are a bonus!

This was a replacement of my Vivoactive 4 which quit on me. I loved the 4 and love the 5 even more. I love that I can track my meditations, I also like the more indepth sleep report. I especially love the readability oh the screen and how much easier it is to access settings for my activities. Thank you Garmin.

I switched from a Fitbit to the Garmin vivo5 and wished I did it sooner. It's a great watch. Easy to use and stats are simple.

The only feature I would have appreciated is the workout options. I would add just a basic workout feature or cross training for those that do mixed training such as strength and conditioning.

I bought this in hopes to replace my Apple Watch and keep some features like text notifications and so far I have not received any.

This watch is so functional and has allowed me to become more proactive with my health. I enjoy all of the features, and it is so handy in my everyday life! I would absolutely recommend it!

Love this watch. Took awhile to find the perfect one. Needed a watch for casual fitness and some smartwatch features. It strikes the perfect balance between smart and fitness watch features. Love the sleep tracker.

It's the best smart watch I've ever bought. All of my nursing friends have them, I run everyday with it. So I use for work and regular workouts.

I absolutely love this watch, I would give it 5 stars but the screen locks up frequently. I had one prior and it was doing it so we sent it back and I got a new one on the 9th. It locked up 3x in the first 24 hrs. It has done it 3 more times since. Once for well over an hour. The watch still counts steps while it's locked up but vibrates a lot so I have no clue what it is doing. It once sent out the emergency alert while locked up and I couldn't shut it off. Other than this I love the watch. I wish it had a hike function. I love the stats it gives me after a run and how it breaks them down. I love the night time mode.

I've had a vivoactive 4 for ~4years and love it

I recently decided to upgrade to the 5 about 2 weeks ago. I wish the size was bigger, like the 4, but I've gotten used to it. The graphics are outstanding and I enjoy many of the other new functions. However, there is a SETIOUS, FATAL flaw. The "Naps" function is GARBAGE. Any time I sit still to work, or rwad or watch TV it registers a nap. I cannot even sit to watch a 30 minute show unless I constantly wave my arm around. There is no way to delete these "naps" and you can't disable it without disabling all of the sleep functionality. I am considering returning the watch if this cannot be fixed.

I'm so glad I bought this watch!! Links directly to the app so that I can track my steps.

The Garmin VivoActive 5 is a great tool to know where my body is at physically. I can see my heart rate, body battery (very cool), and even my stress level at a glance. This provides feedback so I can modify my activities, or better yet, get more active, as needed. I enjoy the sleep score and knowing how I slept. Activities are easy to track and there are many default activities to choose from. This is a nice looking, easy to wear, smartwatch. I really like it.

I bought the watch about a month ago primarily because of the battery life. I am getting over a week of life between charges. The watch, along with my phone, give me an all the data I need. VERY happy with the purchase.

It's been 3 weeks now and I'm loving all the features of Vivoactive 5. Graphics are beautiful! HRV is a new addition. All is helping me to better understand my body.

I looked at every possible smart watch I could and I narrowed it down to Garmin. I did feel a little overwhelmed with all the different options. I know you want to hit a larger market, but I think you could really benefit from lowering the number of models you offer. It makes it a little confusing. Especially, for new garmin users. I do love the vívoactive 5, but I wish the whole face was metal, instead of plastic. I get the appeal of it being more light weight though. I absolutely love the battery life. Love all the features. I wish that it was a little easier to use the weight training feature. It works fairly well with my iPhone. I have type 2 and the Dexcom feature is cool. It doesn't work sometimes, but I think once the bugs are worked out it will only get better. Overall, I love this watch. 10/10 will buy Garmin again.

I received the Vivoactive5 as a gift. Charging the phone was easy. Getting music downloaded on the phone was a challenge but got all my songs loaded. Downloading the watch face I liked proved challenging also. The watch face disappears around 11 pm and I can not get it back until after 6 am. There is no instructions on how to get it to stay on 24/7. The written instructions are not easy to follow and some instructions do not work at all.

I am so happy I made the jump from the competition to Garmin. The features are endless! I wish I had switched sooner.

I've had the watch for a few weeks now and mostly love it. I've upgraded from the vivoactive3 which I loved, but started acting up on me. My biggest and only issue with it so far is that it tracks my heartbeat less than half the time. I was excited to try the new sleep functions but it's useless if it doesn't track your HR. i've tried different bands, tightening the band, loosening the band, shaving the hair on my wrist. Nothing seems to keep it consistent. Body battery and sleep tracking are useless. I've considered going back to my VA3 site to the frustrations.

This is my fourth Garmin watch and by far my favorite! I love the look and feel (super comfortable) of it, but I also love the additional data features it has (sleep, body battery, etc.). Love it!

Fitness stats very interesting. Body battery, etc.

Auto sleep tracking misses first 1 - 3 hours of sleep. I do wake up frequently.

I had used a Fitbit Versa 2 whose auto sleep tracking also missed sleep, but let me enter sleep start time and wake up time.

Display is great. Lots of on watch stats. Great battery life. 10 days.

Very happy to buy this watch as a replacement for the watch I had, nice to be able to track sleep, heart rate, steps and other health related things. Nice to get alerts from phone notifications too.

Got it for my birthday and am so enjoying it. It was a step up from my Vivoactive 3, which was a step up from my Forerunner 35. I have had Garmin smart watches for a number of years and have never had a problem, just wanted more features. Have never been disappointed with any of them. I am a slow runner but have improved with the coach programs. I love the vibrant colors and all of the great features of the vivoactive 5.

Watch works very well. The touch screen is annoying at times. The buttons were better. The brightness of the display is great. The functions are very useful for tracking your health. I replaced the band on day two with a nylon one. Less chaffing on the wrist.

The watch has some fantastic features for all sorts of activities and does a great job of tracking your progress. I like that I can simply add my music to it and carry it along for those long runs. Battery life is very good, as well.

However, the watch has one major flaw. When I select an activity while listening to music, the watch will immediately disconnect all Bluetooth devices (e.g., phone, headphones, etc.) as it tries to geolocate using GPS. Changing the setting from "All Systems" to "GPS Only" works sometimes but I have still encountered the issue. Reconnecting to Bluetooth devices takes a few minutes, which is tedious and annoying.

I've had my watch for about a month and I'm so obsessed. Got it after my Fitbit Versa 2 died. This watch is so much better for tracking fitness and customizing it to my personal settings. Love love love! Thank you!

I absolutely love this watch I'm so happy I switched from apple to Garmin.

Only thing i have to address it needs a motocross feature

Great upgrade from my old reliable vivo HR

Good GPS sleep tracking could use a lot of improvements

Definitely estatic w/Vívoactive 5... Strongly recommended!

It's totally awesome sauce!

I recently upgraded to the Vivoactive 5 watch. This is the third Vivoactive watch I have owned over the past number of years. The other two watch still are functional, however, like most new models of anything, there are increased functionality. The watch works and looks great and has way more functions than I will use, but it has the ones that I use most often.

Received this as a birthday gift and upgrade from my vivoactive 4, which I had for about 2 years. Seems to offer some upgraded features but has so far been difficult to use them. Even after reading manuals and spending hours tinkering…hard to change the watch face, hard to access music, ect…I miss my old watch. This watch does have a better feel on my wrist. It was a gift, so I will keep it. If I bought it myself, I would have returned it.

I was using a forerunner 245. The hr sensor in this watch seems so much more accurate! I've had problems with the charging cable on the 245. This charges the same way...I hope it's not a problem!

Love this smart watch! Size is perfect. Love all of the features. Do miss auto stair tracking.

I bought this watch to replace an Apple Watch I shattered. Glad I purchased this as it has all the fitness features I need.

I upgraded to the 5 from the 4 of the Vivoactive series and I love it! This is my favorite series. My new favorite feature is the rundown of my sleep first thing in the morning. I also love the upgrade to the graphics.

I bought this Vivoactive 5 about a month ago. I have owned Vivoactive 3 and Vivoactive 4. The only Feature missing is a Bigger size. It should be a 45 or 47mm