I’ve a rising record of expectations from my health tracker or smartwatch. Does it observe coronary heart charge repeatedly, present notifications from my telephone, and supply superior stats about my well being? Can I put on it to mattress, within the pool, on the workplace? Can I depend on my watch as a lot as my telephone as a result of it has GPS, contactless funds, and music onboard? The Garmin Vivoactive three Music checks all these packing containers and extra. It is the direct descendant of the Garmin Vivoactive three, solely beefed up with storage for music and audio information, which you’ll be able to hearken to by way of Bluetooth headphones. And it is a robust contender if you need a watch that does all of it.
What’s New within the Vivoactive three Music?
In case you’re already accustomed to the Garmin Vivoactive three, not a lot within the Music model can be new to you, except you have not run any firmware updates shortly (a couple of sleep monitoring enhancements rolled out earlier in 2018). The colour choices are barely completely different for this launch, and it prices $30 greater than the older model.
The first distinction is that this model performs music, podcasts, and audiobooks by way of Bluetooth headphones. The innards of the watch are completely different from the prior model, too, to accommodate the extra three.5GB of storage (sufficient to carry as much as 500 songs). In case you’re extra into music from streaming companies, you too can hook up with iHeartRadio and Deezer, which now provide downloadable playlists to appropriate Garmin gadgets.
To place music, podcasts, or different audio information onto the Garmin Vivoactive three Music, it’s a must to set up the Garmin Categorical app on OS X or Home windows. You possibly can’t load audio information out of your telephone. You possibly can, nonetheless, use your telephone to arrange a connection to iHeartRadio and different supported third-party music streaming companies to snag music from them. However word that the Vivoactive three Music must be related to Wi-Fi to obtain songs.
As soon as your music is loaded and your headphones are related, you’ll be able to hear from the watch. Seeing because the Garmin Vivoactive three Music additionally has GPS, this implies you’ll be able to run, bicycle, stroll, swim, and do loads of different actions while not having your telephone in any respect.
Type, Consolation, and Battery
The Vivoactive three Music is available in two colour choices: black with silver (the buckle), and granite blue with rose gold. I examined the black-and-silver mannequin, which has a easy and unassuming look, bordering on sporty. I would not describe it as premium or luxurious by any stretch, but it surely’s stable.
The watch ships with a quick-release silicone band in a normal 20mm dimension, which suggests you’ll be able to simply swap it out for any strap you want, whether or not it is made by Garmin or not. A spherical, colour face appears sharp and shiny even in daylight. When customizing the watch face, you’ll be able to select a readymade possibility or choose the precise knowledge factors you need to see at a look.
The 1.2-inch diameter contact display screen permits you to swipe by means of settings and stats, resembling steps and flights of stairs climbed. A crown on the periphery provides you fast entry to begin recording a brand new exercise and again out of menus.
The heft of a wristwatch at all times provides me pause. I’ve but to discover a system that encourages 24/7 put on that additionally feels mild and comfy on my wrist on a regular basis. The Vivoactive three Music weighs 1.38 ounces, which does not really feel heavy throughout on a regular basis put on, however coupled with its zero.54-inch thickness, I desire to take away it whereas sleeping. I managed to maintain it on lengthy sufficient to check the sleep-tracking options, nonetheless.
Garmin watches are likely to have distinctive battery life, and that holds true right here. A totally charged Vivoactive three Music lasts as much as seven days in smartwatch mode and 5 hours utilizing the GPS and taking part in music by way of Bluetooth concurrently. Contemplating how a lot it gives—Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Ant+ connectivity; knowledge storage for music and exercise stats; coronary heart charge monitoring; GPS; to not point out no matter apps you load onto it from the Join IQ retailer—that is an actual feat.
To cost the watch, you join it to any USB energy supply by way of an included cable. A magnetized finish attaches securely, and whereas it is a proprietary charger, not less than it is the identical one used for a couple of different Garmin merchandise. All the information the watch collects syncs to the Garmin Join cellular app (for Android and iOS), which in flip syncs to the online app of the identical identify. There, you’ll be able to view and analyze all your stats in higher element and with extra ease than on a cellular system.
Selection in Actions and Music
Although some sports activities watches concentrate on one exercise, resembling diving or climbing, selection is the secret for the Garmin Vivoactive three Music. With the push of a button, you’ll be able to file greater than 15 completely different sorts of exercises, resembling operating, strolling, stand-up paddle boarding, yoga, indoor biking, and rowing. There’s additionally a function you’ll be able to allow in order that walks and runs are mechanically tracked every time the watch detects that you simply’re doing these actions. In case you’ve used the Garmin Join cellular app earlier than, your prior knowledge carries ahead if you arrange the Vivoactive three Music. The app even suggests customized objectives primarily based in your historical past, and you may change these objectives at any time.
Along with monitoring your coronary heart charge day and night time, the Vivoactive three Music displays stress. Garmin partnered with the corporate Firstbeat to research coronary heart charge variability and different components in figuring out stress ranges, which you’ll be able to see on the watch or within the app on an easy-to-read graph.
Garmin additionally crunches the information it collects out of your day by day well being and exercises to estimate your health age, VO2 max, and coronary heart charge variability. To get a few of these readings, you could use the look ahead to not less than every week whereas recording rigorous actions, and it helps to have an correct most coronary heart charge within the settings, too. In case you’re into the sort of well being evaluation, Garmin makes it really accessible.
One other side of the Vivoactive three Music that health lovers will recognize is the flexibility to each obtain and create exercises to comply with, resembling interval coaching or energy coaching. The watch helps you observe and file the exercise whereas following reps, units, and interval instances.
Superior Metrics
On the subject of gathering and reporting superior health metrics, Garmin has at all times been beneficiant, and the Vivoactive three Music gives the information that health lovers have come to count on.
Once you file a run, for instance, you get a abstract of typical knowledge, together with distance, time, common tempo, elevation acquire, and energy burned. You additionally get detailed graphs of coronary heart charge, tempo, run cadence, and even the outside temperature. Curious for extra? You possibly can view your most velocity and common, or dive right into a breakdown of the period of time you spent in several coronary heart charge zones. You possibly can view knowledge over splits, or in the event you desire to create a customized breakdown, segments. As talked about, in the event you use the watch typically sufficient for exercise monitoring, you may additionally see VO2 max (the utmost charge of oxygen consumption measured throughout incremental train) and different wealthy stats.
A determine the Vivoactive three Music does not observe is one for menstruation and contraception. Only a few health trackers embrace it, Fitbit being the notable exception.
Accuracy
To get a way of accuracy in step depend and coronary heart charge, I used a treadmill and the Wahoo Health Tickr X chest strap coronary heart charge monitor and in contrast their knowledge with these reported by the Garmin Vivoactive three Music. I additionally ran outdoor with the watch to get a way of how nicely the GPS labored, and the ensuing route and distance matched Google Maps to a tee.
For the typical individual, a one-mile stroll contains round 2,000 steps. I’ve used a click on counter to substantiate that my gait matches this normal fairly exactly. After a one-mile treadmill stroll with the Vivoactive three Music, I clocked 1,998 steps.
As for coronary heart charge, the vary and common had been spot-on with what the Tickr X reported. In real-time, nonetheless, I observed some lag. In the beginning of the exercise, my coronary heart charge was practically 20 seconds behind the Tickr X’s readouts, and by as a lot as 10bpm. The longer I labored out, the nearer the readings turned. In case you’re doing extremely exact coronary heart charge coaching or interval coaching, you may be higher off utilizing a chest strap coronary heart charge monitor that makes use of electrical somewhat than optical elements.
Smartwatch Options
This Vivoactive three Music has a lot packed into it that I’ve but to say it has a compass, or that it may well double as a distant management for a Virb motion digital camera, or that it shows a climate report. I briefly talked about that it has contactless fee, which is a boon in the event you stay someplace with good help for that possibility (it is ubiquitous the place I stay, and I take advantage of it for every thing).
After all, it additionally delivers notifications out of your telephone. You possibly can even reply to textual content messages instantly from the watch, however provided that it is paired with an Android system.
Conclusions
Discovering the options you need in a health tracker or smartwatch is crucial, but it surely’s equally essential that it checks a couple of different packing containers, too: reliability, ruggedness, accuracy, and stable battery life. Relaxation assured the Garmin Vivoactive three delivers on all of these fronts. In case you’re purchasing for a high-quality wearable that gives a little bit of every thing, from smartwatch performance to in-depth well being stats, the Vivoactive three Music needs to be on the prime of your record. I might even argue that it is a greater buy than the Apple Watch if health options are a very powerful aspect of your watch. The Vivoactive combines lots of our favourite components from health trackers and smartwatches into a flexible system that earns our Editors’ Selection. In case you’re wanting to avoid wasting cash, try the Fitbit Cost three, which delivers a ton of performance for $150.