Garmin vívoactive 5 GPS Smartwatch, AMOLED Touchscreen

I bought the Garmin Vivoactive 5 because I had been making my own running plans for a while but felt like I had stopped improving. My goal was to eventually run a 10k in under an hour, but I was struggling to make consistent progress. Another reason I bought it was because I hated running with my phone. I needed it for music, running feedback and payments, but I could never find a comfortable way to carry it. After only a couple of weeks with the Vivoactive 5, I can honestly say I am enjoying running more than ever. The biggest improvement for me has been pacing. I always had a habit of starting too fast without realising it, using up too much energy at the beginning and struggling later in the run. This watch has completely changed that. It keeps me at the right pace and warns me if I am going too fast or too slow. I am currently using Garmin Coach for a 10k training plan and it has been excellent. The runs feel realistic and achievable, but they still push me slightly more each time. It gives you a mixture of easier runs and faster sessions like sprints to build endurance and speed. After each run it asks how you felt and how difficult the session was, which makes the training feel more personalised. The running feedback is probably my favourite feature. The watch vibrates on your wrist and also gives audio feedback through my AirPods, so I don’t need to constantly look at the screen while running. The display is beautiful. It looks modern, feels premium and is easy to read. The watch itself is very comfortable and lightweight. The only small issue is that after a sweaty run the strap can become slightly itchy, although I think a different strap would probably solve this. One of the best things is being able to leave my phone at home. I have Spotify directly on the watch, which means I can run without carrying anything else. The only downside is that the music quality is not quite as crisp as using an iPhone, but for running it is still more than good enough. Garmin Pay is also a nice feature. It does not support as many cards as Apple Pay, but I use it with Revolut and it works well. The battery life is amazing. Coming from an Apple Watch, the difference is huge. After a full run the battery barely seems to move. It is so refreshing not having to constantly think about charging. The setup was very easy. Everything connected smoothly with my iPhone, and syncing between the watch and Garmin Connect works really well. You do not need your phone connected during your run, which is a big advantage. I have not explored every health feature yet, but I have tried the sleep tracking and it is a nice extra. The watch has many other features that I have not fully tested yet. There are a few downsides: Spotify only allows you to download playlists, not individual songs or albums. Downloading Spotify playlists seems to use a lot of battery. The sound quality is good enough but not as good as an iPhone. Garmin Pay supports fewer cards than Apple Pay. There are no full maps or live directions. It tracks your route with GPS and you can view where you ran afterwards on your phone, but it does not give turn-by-turn navigation. Overall, I think this is an excellent watch for someone who wants to improve their running. You set your goal, choose how much you want to run and by when, and Garmin creates a realistic training plan for you. If you want a watch that helps you become a better runner, gives you feedback and removes distractions, this is fantastic. The beautiful display and excellent battery life make it even better, especially considering the price. 5 stars from me.

I've had this watch now for 3 days, and so far I am very happy. Look and feel - it is relatively small and comfortable to wear - I've been looking at Garmin watches for a while, but not ordered because I was worried they would be too heavy and bulky (my wrist is 140mm/5.5inch around). It is a little bulky, but very light, and with a smaller strap (not the one included with the watch) it fits my wrist pretty well. I have been able to sleep with it for 3 nights without feeling uncomfortable. It does feel a bit... cheap and plasticky, but I guess that is why it's so light, so I will take that over a heavier stainless steal model. It *IS* also relatively cheap, compared to the heavier models. Battery time is great - I've used it for 2.5 days / 60 hours since last charge, and it is down to 67%. This has been pretty heavy use (setting up, chancing screen layouts, learning how to use the watch, a couple of workouts etc, with all sensors and features switched on), so I expect it to last even longer with "normal" use. Gesture to see time works well - I wear the watch face on the inside of the wrist, and I've had problems in the past with smart watches not understanding the gesture when I turn my wrist to see the time - I had to manually press a button for the watch face to light up or use the always on feature. Responsiveness - I find the screen a little less responsive than other smart watches. There is a small delay between button/screen press and screen update. It's not too laggy, so I can live with it. But when I just want to see the time and the screen comes on automatically, there is that small delay that makes me almost go for the button before it comes on. Still better than actually having to press the button, like I did on other watches. Easy to set up - it was very easy and quick to set up and connect it to my phone and wifi. Connectivity to phone - the app doesn't seem to sync/update until you open it, which is a little bit annoying for me as I use the step count to connect to many other apps, but at the same time I guess it preserves phone battery, so I'm ok with having to open the app to update step count. Watch interface and app is well documented - I do not find the watch or the app very intuitive/easy to use, but so far I have managed to find everything I wanted quickly by searching it or asking AI. Very customisable - I've been able to make my own watch face the way it suits me, and change many settings to what works for me. More customisable than other brand smart watches I've had in the past. Screen size - the screen is quite small, and there is a wide, black frame around what is ACTUALLY the screen. This is not noticeable until you change the background to something other than black. I guess the smaller screen is what you trade in return for battery life and weight. Brightness of the screen - I've had no problems seeing the screen outdoors, and at night there is a red light mode to make it less bright. I don't think that comes on automatically - you have to switch it on manually. Waterproof - this is the one feature I really wanted, and I haven't tested it yet. My previous 3 smart watches (FitBit Versa 2, 3 & 4) were NOT waterproof even though they claimed to be, so I am really hoping to actually be able to swim with this one. I will update in April, once I've been swimming in the sea. App/subscription - the app is FREE, and you don't have to pay for any of the features (you can buy watch faces if you want). Overall - so far this is the winner out of the 3 brands of smart watches I've tried.

Review after <1 week of use. For background, my fitness routine is currently weights training around 1 hour 2 times per week and occasionally a 1-2 hour casual walk at the weekend. I wanted a smart watch that could track my overall health, fitness and my workouts, but not something with crazy accurate GPS and gate analysis etc for runners. For my use, it’s perfect so far. Mostly easy to setup using the Garmin Connect app, and found a good watch face that matched the info I wanted displayed using the Garmin Connect IQ app which is a separate app that you can use to customise the watch and the data it displays. Slightly annoying there’s a second app for this but not the end of the world for something that once you set up you may not change for a while. One barrier to updating the watch face is that the watch needed a firmware update as most tech does, but to do this update I had to connect to my laptop and download the Garmin Express software, there were a few updates to run but all was easy. The charging cable is USB C, so consider if you need an adaptor. The end that attaches to the watch is secure. Extremely secure. It fit so well that when I unplug it I’m worried that I’m going to cause damage because of how hard I have to pull it. I guess I’d rather it was tight than loose and didn’t charge well. I’ve turned off the always on display and turned off gestures so that the watch doesnt light up when I turn my wrist in order to preserve battery longer. I just have to tap the screen or press a button the activate the screen. On full charge it said on screen the battery would last 12d, that seems to be tracking accurately 4 days later. One small annoyance I have is the “play” in the side buttons. You can press them in but not enough to actually activate the click which is frustrating. I’m used to it now and just have to be more firm, but it would be nice to have more responsive buttons. The watch tracks your calories burned during the day and during activity, this needs to be calibrated by tracking a 10-15 minute walk or run which is easy to do. The Garmin Connect app can link to apps like MyFitnessPal so when I’ve done activity it’ll update my calories in MyFitnessPal so I can see my deficit easily. The watch sleep tracking I’m not convinced on accuracy yet, last night for instance it thought I fell asleep an hour after I actually did. Overall great watch I’d highly recommend, it has many inbuilt workout routines & sports tracking I’ll never use but it doesn’t feel I’m missing out of functionality. It does exactly what I’m asking of it brilliantly

Had the vivo active 3 and went for this one for my upgrade, disappointed to find the altimeter for stair count isn’t in this one but overall a great watch, has many features the other brands do, comfortable to wear and have been swimming a lot with it on and it works perfectly, from tracking swims to heart rate monitoring. If you want an all round physical activity/day to day watch without paying a fortune, I would definitely recommend! Would have been 5* if not for the removal of the stair count tracker.

Excellent watch, I was in two minds to getting this watch as I have had my Apple Watch for some years. The battery life is amazing, I only have to charge my watch once every two weeks and that’s going to the gym on a daily basis and walking around 16000 steps a day. I was fed up of charging my Apple Watch daily. The amount of exercise tracking apps is unreal and the watch face is easily customised. I can confidently say I will never go back to an Apple Watch. The watch is very comfortable and the strap is nice. I would highly recommend this watch

I use to only use Fitbits but decided it was time for a change. This is a fantastic watch and I'm so glad I bought it. As a fitness tracker it's not the cheapest on the market but it's good value as you get so much for your money. It tracks all the usual stuff plus lots more. I liike the indepth sleep reports and body battery feature which gives me an idea of how well I'm looking after myself. The sleep tracking seems to be in line with what I expected each night, especially the start ands end times. I like the nap feature but find it only pickls up some of my naps regardless of whether they are 20 minutes or 3 hours but I'm happy to set it going manually so not the end of the world to me. I use it to track my gym sessions which is so easy to do, press a button to start and stop each set which means it also records rest periods. After the workout Garmin guesses what each exercise was and surprisingly it gets some correct like flat bench press but it's easy to correct/add any it missed which then also highlights what parts of the body you worked amongst other things. I like that Garmin is compatible with so many othyer platforms. I use Zwift and although I rely on my bike for stats including heart rate (chest straps will always be more accurate) it's nice to get my stats included into all my other Garmin stats including seeing the details of my rides on my phone or watch. I use Conquerors challenges but I manually log steps and get activites indirectly from Strava as I found linking Garmin directly double counted steps i.e. added my overall steps each day plus the same steps from activities such as walking on top of that. Contact them and they blame Garmin which is an annoying shame. As a watch it is bright, easy to read, well made, looks sleek and customisable. The battery life really does last around a week or so, I don't tend to use GPS very much so can't comment on battery with it's use. I like features such as the find my phone, which I've used lots of times. I like the meditation on the watch including the follow along programmes but mostly I just set it running while doing my own thing just for ease of recording. Lastly, I love the fact you get so much without subscription fees unlike Fitbit which would require you to pay to get all stats.

After always having an Apple Watch was wanting something different. This watch is amazing and so much detail into your sleeping habits stress level and body battery and the watch only needs charging once a week.

This is my first Garmin and not the one I wanted - this will eventually be just a backup, for which it will be fine. I first started using trackers a few years ago. My first tracker was one of those really cheap options that you got for less than £20.00 and found that I used it a lot and yes, it kept me on my toes and made me more active, so I decided to upgrade to something that would track swimming too and I moved onto a Fitbit Charge 3 (which died within 7 months) - at this point I got the watch that I really wanted which was the Fitbit Ionic. Brilliant watch! Unfortunately, they all got recalled and in all honesty the Fitbit app has been decimated by Google so I did not really want to get another Fitbit. The day arrived that I had to sort the recall of my Ionic out but I needed something that would take it's place while I saved up for the Fenix 7s pro, so I got the Vivoactive 5 at a price point that was similar to the Ionic 3 years ago. Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad piece of tech, but there are a few issues given its price. Issue number one for me is that it does not have an altimeter. Admittedly, at the price point it was of over £200.00 I did not even think to check this and I assumed that it did as it seems to be quite a basic component in most trackers/smartwatches. If your exercise activity has included the GPS it will give you incline and decline details in the stats of that activity but it uses location details to work it out so may not be all that accurate, however I do think that the GPS is pretty accurate, but the incline/decline may not be. That said, you can start runs and walks but you cannot start a hike which seems ridiculous! If you do go on a hike, you will have to record it as a walk and then edit the activity afterwards in the Garmin Connect app or online. My other big issue with this watch so far, is the sleep functions - the amount of times it thinks that I have had a nap when I am sitting at my desk in a meeting is insane - same thing happened when I watch a movie in the cinema and again at home while I was reading. The other issue is it seems to think I have gone to bed before I have actually gone to bed. I have to edit my sleep times through the app probably about 4 or five times a week. The nap things seems to be a known issues as I found many people online complaining about the same thing! The only other niggle I have is with the strength training - now maybe I just don't have the hang of it yet but when I do my weights I want to not mess about with the watch. The first time I used it for strength training I started the activity and just let it run - later when I came home I edited it and put in the reps and weight used - unfortunately, I did find that if you use gym equipment for some weight training, the exercise that you do may not be available as an option, in which case you have to just try and find something close. However Garmin claim that this model watch is a good fit for strength training so I will persevere for a while and edit this review if my opinion changes but for now - it's not great. Do I regret my purchase, honestly, I have to say I do a little bit, but that is based on what I want to use it for. If your main exercise is walking or running I think it may be okay except for it not having an altimeter (if that aspect is important to you which it is to me). I have also done some open water swimming with it and for this purpose it was okay. It is also good that you can listen to music stored on the watch so you can effectively go phone free if you want. This watch is capable of a lot, but the devil is in the details with the way it is marketed! I have to say though, just because I find this particular watch to be lacking does not mean I have changed my mind on Garmin and yes, I still plan on getting a better Garmin (with an altimeter and better sensors for sleep etc.) I would suggest that you check every function that you want is available before making a decision - for example, I do a lot of hiking and when you check if this feature is available (which I did) everything points to yes, BUT - you cannot record a hike from the start, you have to record it as a walk and then edit it in the app - the devil is in the detail - also don't assume that because of the price it has what I think these days is a basic feature, such as an altimeter!!!

Muy bueno y ligero. Es mi primera experiencia con Garmin Pero hasta ahora todo muy bien.

Opinie piszę po około 3 tygodniach od zakupu, więc zdążyłem już dobrze zapoznać się z zegarkiem. Produkt jest rewelacyjny i spełnia moje wszystkie oczekiwania, a nawet więcej. Świetne wykonanie, zegarek jest lekki, a pasek bardzo miękki, dzięki czemu praktycznie nie czuć go na ręce. Rewelacyjny wyświetlacz, na którym wszystko idealnie widać nawet w pełnym słońcu. Przy ciągłym pomiarze tętna, włączonych powiadomieniach ze smartfona, rejestracji kilku aktywności i dokonywaniu nim kilku płatności dziennie, zegarek wytrzymuje na jednym ładowaniu 7 pełnych dób i zazwyczaj jeszcze jest około 20-30% baterii. Jak dla mnie wynik rewelacyjny. Świetne modyfikowalne tarcze, które możemy za darmo pobrać ze sklepu Connect IQ. Zegarek sprawdzi się w przypadku osoby która chce mieć nieduży i lekki zegarek z płatnościami zbliżeniowymi, z ciągłym monitorowaniem stanu zdrowia i rejestrowaniem aktywności. Oczywiście dla wyczynowych sportowców Garmin ma lepsze urządzenia, jednak dla amatorów jest to bardzo dobry wybór.

I’ve been using the watch for a while now. It’s amazing and well worth the price. Highly recommend

So far good. Size just nice not too big or too small. comfortable to wear all day in and out. For health enthusiasts. Sufficient data work as it is. Not too many unwanted features which could confuse and hard to navigate around. My second simply watch for health tracking purposes

Good product.