Smartwatches are handy as a result of they assist observe varied well being parameters, whereas serving all of the notifications of your smartphone proper in your wrist. Whereas such gadgets are very fashionable in the present day, not everybody desires a display on their wrist. There are those that nonetheless favor a standard watch design, however should still need the capabilities of a smartwatch. The Garmin Vivomove Sport is a hybrid smartwatch that goals to serve simply this want. It appears to be like like a standard watch, however it additionally has a hidden show for all of the smartwatch capabilities. Does it supply one of the best of each worlds? Right here is my assessment.
Garmin Vivomove Sport Value in India
The Garmin Vivomove Sport is priced at Rs. 18,990 for the 40mm single variant. It’s out there in Cocoa, Cool Mint, Ivory and Black colours.
Garmin Vivomove Sport design
The Garmin Vivomove Sport is a unisex smartwatch with a 40mm dial. I discovered the dial measurement to be barely small for my massive arms and would have most popular a 42mm or 44mm measurement possibility. The Vivomove Sport has a round metallic dial that sits on a polymer case. The dial feels nicely constructed and ought to be capable of face up to some unintentional knocks. The case helps 20mm silicone straps with a fast launch characteristic. The bundled straps are top quality and you may all the time use another 20mm strap as nicely.
Garmin says it used chemically strengthened glass on the highest of the Vivomove Sport's dial. The watch has an hour and minute hand together with even quantity markings on the watch face. Garmin has neatly hidden a small OLED show within the decrease half of the watch face. This show lights up once you double-tap the glass or elevate your hand.
Garmin managed to make the interface work with contact controls, so there are not any buttons on the watch, which provides it a clear look. The decrease a part of the watch has the guts price and SpO2 monitoring sensors together with the charging mechanism. The charger pogo pin clips to the charging port when the watch is charging. Garmin says the Vivomove Sport is water-proof as much as 5 ATM.
Garmin Vivomove Sport software program, options and ecosystem
The Garmin Vivomove Sport runs on proprietary software program and makes use of the Garmin Join app to attach the watch to an Android or iOS machine. Since it’s OS-agnostic, you’ll be able to join it with any smartphone you’ve gotten, which is an enormous benefit. When paired with an Android smartphone, the app means that you can reply to messages, however this isn’t the case when paired with an iPhone.
The smartwatch will provide you with a warning for incoming calls and these might be accepted or rejected, however you’ll be able to reply the decision by way of the watch as there isn’t a speaker or microphone in it. Talking of what's lacking, the Garmin Vivomove Sport lacks built-in GPS and depends on the paired smartphone for GPS knowledge. This could possibly be a disappointment for these trying to go for a run with out their smartphone.
I talked concerning the Garmin Join app intimately in my earlier Garmin Venu 2 Plus assessment, so I'm not diving too deep right here. The Vivomove Sport has a touch-based interface and you may slide on the glass to see completely different parameters that it has tracked. It means that you can test the variety of steps you’ve gotten taken, distance coated, physique battery (which predicts your vitality ranges), stress ranges, coronary heart price, SpO2 and respiratory price. The Vivomove Sport syncs with the app so you’ll be able to test all these settings on the telephone. You too can observe all of your completely different exercise actions on this app itself.
When interacting with the OLED show, the arms of the watch mechanically transfer to 9 and three positions to keep away from blocking the show. The touch-based interface on the Vivomove Sport requires you to swipe left or proper on the decrease half of the dial to test varied health metrics. You too can lengthy press the glass to entry exercises, SpO2 monitoring, and varied watch settings.
The contact response was surprisingly good, however to do one thing on the watch required a mixture of a number of touches and swipes that will be annoying. It took some time to seek out my means round once I first began utilizing it, however it acquired simpler over time.
Efficiency Garmin Vivomove Sport
I used the Garmin Vivomove Sport for greater than a month to trace my walks and in contrast the outcomes with the Apple Watch Collection 7 (Evaluate). I walked a distance of 1 km and the Vivomove Sport confirmed 0.98 km, which was a minor however acceptable deviation, regardless of not having built-in GPS. The step monitoring was fairly correct and this hybrid smartwatch measured 994 steps for each 1000 steps I counted manually.
The Garmin Vivomove Sport might observe coronary heart price constantly, displaying any minor modifications in actual time. I in contrast the readings from the Vivomove Sport to these on the Apple Watch Collection 7 and located them to be in the identical vary. SpO2 monitoring was additionally correct and matched the outcomes of a medical grade pulse oximeter. The Garmin Vivomove Sport can even observe SpO2 whilst you sleep, however this characteristic should be enabled. The latter has a big effect on battery life, which I’ll speak about shortly.
The sleep monitoring on the Garmin Vivomove Sport was correct and was even in a position to observe completely different phases of sleep. Particulars might be considered within the Garmin Join app. Sleep is split into deep sleep, mild sleep, REM and durations of wakefulness. In case you activate SpO2 monitoring whilst you sleep, it would additionally present your SpO2 ranges and respiration price in the course of the evening.
Battery life is the place the Garmin Vivomove Sport didn't meet my expectations. I anticipated this hybrid smartwatch to supply no less than per week's battery life, however it solely managed to final 4 days on common, which remains to be a bit decrease than the 5 days that Garmin claims. With SpO2 monitoring whereas sleeping enabled, the Vivomove Sport barely lasted greater than two days. Garmin might supply the Vivomove Sport in bigger dial sizes, with a bigger battery. Charging the Vivomove Sport took about an hour with a regular 10W charger.
Verdict
The Garmin Vivomove Sport hybrid smartwatch combines the look and performance of a standard watch with the options of a smartwatch. It’s a well-built machine with a clear design and understated look. It supplied a number of health options and the monitoring was fairly correct. Nevertheless, at Rs. 18,990, the worth is on the upper facet. The Fossil Hybrid Smartwatch HR FB-01 is an alternate with virtually the identical characteristic set, however with a promise of two weeks of battery life, and in addition prices virtually half as a lot. In case you don't thoughts a bigger dial measurement, then the Fossil Machine Gen 6 Hybrid (Evaluate) is a significantly better various because it's priced equally to the Garmin, however really delivers on its claimed battery lifetime of two weeks.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (Evaluate) is a full smartwatch various to the Garmin Vivomove Sport at about the identical value, however you'll must compromise a bit on battery life.