Garmin Vivomove HR Review
The new Vivomove HR could just be the best-looking Garmin watch yet. Its understated, yet innovative design houses a host of fantastic features that will ensure you not only look good but feel it too. The Vivomove HR hybrid smartwatch is the first of its kind to offer both a high-tech wrist based heart monitor and a simple touchscreen display.
Read reviews of the Garmin Vivomove HR hybrid smartwatch, to see why this tech-packed wrist wear is perfect for when you’re out on the track or working in the office.
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PROS
- 24/7 heart rate monitoring with Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate technology
- Wellbeing tools, including a stress tracking monitor and relaxation timer
- Understated design
CONS
- No built-in GPS
- Screen difficult to read in daylight
- Less battery life of up to 5 days in smart phone mode
Garmin Vivomove HR – Where fashion meets functionality
Activity based watches have become more and more popular, offering a convenient way to monitor fitness levels and keep tabs on our health and wellbeing. Similarly, the smartwatch market has seen a surge in popularity as a stylish accessory that helps you stay connected to the world.
For years we have had to choose between fashion and functionality; often interchanging our watch depending on our daily activities; but now with the Garmin Vivomove HR, you can truly enjoy the best of both worlds.
Whether you’re pounding the pavements, lapping in your local pool or making your way to a meeting, Garmin’s Vivomove HR hybrid smartwatch packs a serious punch when it comes to functionality.
Feel great with the new Vivomove HR features
Take a look at our review of the Vivomove HR hybrid smartwatch, to hear how this understated yet hi-tech watch manages to seamlessly blend timeless design features with fitness tracking tools.
There is no need to compromise on fashion with the Vivomove HR as this sophisticated, state of the art watch has been made to look good as well as helping you to feel great. Elegant yet cutting edge and with precision ticking hands, its new and clever touchscreen design means that your fitness plan is just a tap away.
At the mere flick of your wrist; as the hands of time dynamically move to the top of the screen; this smartly designed watch will allow you to swipe through its fitness monitoring tools. Here, at a glance, you’ll find all your exercise stats such as steps, intensity minutes, sleep patterns, stress levels and heart rate as well as smartphone notifications. There’s also a new anti-stress feature that lets you know you when your heart rate is rising and helps to identify your most stressful times of the day.
And when you stop swiping, the stats screen magically disappears leaving you with a classically designed watch face. Simply genius.
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Wrist heart rate, VO2 max estimates and more
The Vivomove HR is a smartwatch that does exactly what it claims in its name. Perfect for cross training, its tracking and fitness monitoring tools will provide you with a breakdown of your current fitness levels, whilst its additional wellbeing features ensure that you find time to relax. The built-in heart rate monitor will provide you with information on calories burned whilst quantifying the intensity of your daily workouts.
Even when you are not building up a sweat, its heart rate monitor and stress tracking tools are designed to pinpoint your most stressful parts of the day. A good excuse for some time out, you can make use of the relaxation timer as you work your way through some deep breathing exercises aimed at lowering your stress levels and changing your lifestyle choices for a calmer, cooler you.
You can also use the heart rate monitor to calculate a VO2 Max estimate. This is a health measurement based on the maximum amount of oxygen in your system. Plug this number (if you dare!) into Garmin’s software for a prediction of your current fitness age.
What’s great about the Vivomove HR is that it is setup for those who enjoy exercising in several different ways. Preloaded with a variety of profiles – walking, running, cardio and strength training – with Garmin Connect you can review your daily activities. Automatically uploaded when you sync to this app, you can access your stats, compete against others and share your successes on social media.
If you are one of those people who simply can’t switch off, you can stay connected with smartphone notifications. Allowing you to receive messages simultaneously across all your mobile devices, you can even send an alert to locate a missing phone.
Packed full of features, this smartwatch also performs what are now considered to be the essentials – such as counting steps, monitoring sleep, tracking intensity minutes and stairs climbed – to perfection. This intuitive watch houses an automatic timer that will start and stop the moment you move, so simply crank up the music from your Vivomove HR and prepare to up those fitness levels.
What I loved about the Vivomove HR
There is no denying that Garmin’s new and improved hybrid watch has had an upgrade. Having previously catered mainly for the male market, I was excited to see that this new range would also appeal to women (that’s my Christmas present sorted!).
Not only is this watch aesthetically pleasing, but highly responsive with each display screen cleverly hidden behind the beautifully designed watch face. I found the individual screens big and legible enough to house all the fitness stats I could possibly need when reading them at a glance.
What could be better
Of course, there is no such thing as perfection and although the Vivomove HR is an excellent hybrid smartwatch, we did find certain functions (or lack of them) that let it down.
The big omission must be a built-in GPS device, and less significant (but still worth mentioning) is its relatively low battery longevity. While the previous Vivomove was powered by a standard coin cell battery giving you up to a yearlong battery life; and with other hybrid watches managing to stay charged for months at a time; we were slightly disappointed to find that the Vivomove HR had a battery life of just five days in smart mode and two weeks in watch mode.
Finally, the hidden screens are incredibly difficult to read outdoors without any daylight. On a dark day, the fitness data display is almost invisible – which kind of defeats its purpose.
Garmin however, would simply argue that what the Vivomove HR lacks in substance it more than makes up for in style.
Style and design
The Vivomove HR is available in two different designs – Sport and Premium.
The Sport model comes in a plastic design with a silicone strap, making it the perfect companion when you are in the gym or on the move. Available in two sizes, the large model is black with a black band, while the smaller model is a more feminine rose gold with a white band.
The Premium model of the Vivomove HR is more expensive, but you get what you pay for with a full aluminium metal body and a leather strap. This upmarket watch can be purchased in silver with a dark brown leather band for the larger model, or gold with a light brown band for the smaller version.
Both watches are comfortable to wear both day and night, have quick release straps and have a waterproof case that allows you to keep it on the wrist when swimming or showering. If you do need to take it off, there are several fashionable cases for you to store it in.
Battery life
The number of high-tech features housed within this watch have impacted on the battery longevity of the Vivomove HR. Whilst with previous versions you could expect up to a year without having to worry, you can expect little more than 5 days whilst in smart mode and up to two weeks in watch mode before recharging.
Bottom line
Garmin certainly listened to the feedback it received from the original Vivomove, and have upgraded the Vivomove HR to include a heart rate monitor, additional smart phone notifications and a ton of other features such as a stress tracking device.
But the cherry on this hybrid smartwatch cake, is the elegant and timeless design – it truly is a thing of beauty.
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Is the Vivomove HR worth buying?
The Vivomove HR is a watch you will love wearing as long as you steer away from purchasing the rose gold design, which makes the data screens almost impossible to read. Sexier and slicker, you will find the design options better, the tracking features more high tech and the touchscreen way cooler than the previous version.
