Garmin Vivomove Hr Sport Hybrid Smartwatch Test

If you want a smartwatch that looks like a normal watch your options are limited. Hybrid smartwatches mix the looks of a archetype sentinel with smart functionality and should actually be more popular than they are. But cheers to limited choice and consumer disinterest at that place are few to choose from.

Apple tree Sentry dominates the smartwatch market while Fitbit undoubtedly does that for fitness trackers. Garmin has a pes in both those markets, so information technology's no surprise to us that the Vivomove 60 minutes is an excellent hybrid smartwatch.

For less than £200 it brings every characteristic yous'd desire in a smartwatch aside from GPS in a slim attractive casing that just doesn't expect like a smartwatch. Given the garish appearance of many wearables, we found it a breath of fresh air.

Information technology works with iPhone and Android, making it an attractive alternative to a Fitbit.

Garmin Vivomove 60 minutes cost and availability

The Garmin Vivomove HR is £169.99 in the Britain and $199.99 in the US. You lot can buy it from the official Garmin shop, Amazon Great britain or Amazon Us.

This is a little more than the Fossil Q Commuter, a favourite hybrid of ours, but the designs are quite different.

Our sample comes from the expert folks at First Grade Watches, where you tin likewise pick upwards the Vivomove Hour.

Garmin Vivomove Hour design and build

The design of the Vivomove HR appears quite different depending on the color y'all choice, and to be honest Garmin hasn't been at all subtle with its perceived mens and womens versions for the Sport model. While we don't e'er hold with the blatant dichotomy here, at that place's an all-blackness version with yellow second hand or a white and gold version with white second hand.

In that location's a tertiary that'due south a gold and black mix, while two £249.99/$299.99 premium versions have metal bodies and leather straps. Whichever you go for, make certain y'all get either a small/medium or large strap depending on your wrist size.

Nosotros mention the second hand as it's the only that is coloured and on the blackness in particular makes the yellow stand out in a way nosotros personally like. Likewise yellow are the twelve and half-dozen markers, with grey minute markers the whole way around and the Garmin brand logo where you'd expect.

No colour combo is obviously a smartwatch. We had the black version and no ane asked us the whole time nosotros had it on if it was ane. And so, this is non the piece of tech to wear if you want to get people fawning over information technology.

But when we showed off the hidden screen, many were impressed given its subtly. Information technology sits in a body casing that is very slim because information technology also has a center rate monitor on the underside next to the proprietary charging pins where the charger clips on, crocodile manner.

The Vivomove HR sits very snug on our wrist and never felt too bulky. The Sport model we had has a silicone strap that's smooth on the inside and has a crosshatch pattern on the outside.

It's not the most high-quality strap merely it'south the one y'all want if you're going to be getting sweaty using information technology for fitness tracking. Each side of the strap has quick release tabs to modify straps or make clean the parts.

We personally similar rocking the Vivomove HR, but its pattern isn't for everyone – for the price, some might find the black version is quite nondescript.

Garmin Vivomove HR features and specs

As well as telling the time, the Vivomove HR has a surprising amount of fitness tricks upwardly its sleeve. It has a centre rate monitor and stress monitor function, total notification support, auto activity detection and full activity tracking with the Garmin Connect app. Here's what we think of each feature.

Display and notifications

The screen is offset centre to the left to adjust a back button merely displays about information centrally. It is sometimes obscured past the hands given they are counterpart but raising your wrist or a double tap on the usually camouflaged screen area reveals a white LCD with uncomplicated dot manner read out.

The watch's party play a trick on is the hands mechanically moving to ten by 10 to get out the fashion of the screen so returning to the correct time when the screen fades. Information technology's pretty absurd.

From here the display responds to taps and swipes, just in that location'south quite a loftier learning curve to acquire how to get the well-nigh out of information technology. You tin choose what is displayed offset (for us, steps) then yous swipe to the left to whorl through menus.

Time, steps, floors, calories burned, music controls and more, and most you tin can then tap to go into menus, with a dorsum button appearing to go out. Information technology tin get a little confusing here equally there'due south not much text and the settings card is mainly suggestive symbols.

Luckily, it's actually best to exit the scout to monitor your action and then view it in the app. But you might non similar how little you tin can really interact with the watch itself due to the limited menus.

Notifications from apps appear, and you tin cycle through texts for example, but this tiny screen can't display much at a time.

Heart rate monitor

A heart rate sensor is great to run across in such a slim watch design and gives y'all a constant 24/7 reading (non all smartwatches and trackers do). It also measures your stress level which is slightly derisive – it basically says your stressed if your heart rate is high and yous'll near likely exist aware of that already.

This likewise comes into play in the pretty accurate sleep tracking that combines center and motion metrics to let y'all know how well you lot've rested.

As a fitness tracker

The Vivomove Hour works well when tracking your runs, walks and more (it'southward also waterproof for swimming) but we recommend you leave the car-find on for tracking action. Information technology'due south relatively authentic at recognising runs, and when nosotros had information technology off it was a minefield of taps and swipes to detect how to manually start a run.

This is the downside to the watch – you don't have much say in how it's recording your action, and the fact it is a hybrid is odd considering its main purpose is to do and then. OK, it is subtle and yous tin wear it to fancy dinners, simply when you can't hands start a conditioning information technology becomes annoying.

Swim tracking is basic just tin handle distance and lengths, while in that location'south also basic interval and weights tracking. Only walking and running are the strengths here.

Bombardment life

Battery life is blindside on what Garmin quotes – if you are using the tracking modes every day, it'll last for well-nigh five days, which is great but perhaps not every bit long as you might want from a hybrid.

If y'all are turning off Bluetooth and simply using it every bit a watch so it'll last ii week, only without it tracking your daily movements information technology sort of defeats the betoken. And don't lose the proprietary charger!

Garmin Vivomove HR app

The Garmin Connect app for iOS and Android is decent. The home page gives a clear read out of your ongoing wellness stats, while there are tabs for challenges (that y'all can create or compete with others on), a calendar of your activities (the most useful part) and a news feed where you can bring in social media accounts (which we ignored).

The read outs from running in particular were impressive with eye rate data front and heart, along with graphs of your step. As there is no GPS on the Vivomove Hr then y'all won't get a map of your road – there's also no option to tether information technology to your phone's GPS to become 1 like you can on some Fitbits.

Specs

Garmin Vivomove Hour: Specs

Lens material: Drinking glass
Bezel cloth: Stainless steel
Case material: Fibre-reinforced polymer or stainless steel
Quick Release Bands: yes (20 mm, Industry standard)
Strap textile: Silicone or leather
43 x 43 ten 11.6 mm
Pocket-sized/medium fits wrists with a circumference of 122-188 mm
Big fits wrists with a circumference of 148-215 mm
Weight Sport: 40.viii grand
Premium: 56.5 yard
Water rating: Swim
Touchscreen
Display type: OLED
Brandish size: 0.38" x 0.76" (9.vi mm x 19.two mm)
Display resolution: 64 10 128 pixels
Battery life: Smart manner: up to 5 days
Analog mode: upwards to ii weeks
Retention/History: 7 timed activities
14 days of activity tracking data

Tags:

Note: Nosotros may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site, at no extra cost to y'all. This doesn't bear on our editorial independence. Learn more.