vivofit top view showing step count
After 600,000 steps with vivofit, my latest adventure in wearable tech, I’m ready to review it for you.
First of all, it is not a Fitbit Force, ok? No litigation over causing rashes on your wrist like the Fitbit that was recalled. LA Times story on wearable tech growing pains. (As a lawyer, I keep you abreast of wearable tech litigation!)
You can pick your color (and there are many choices), I chose royal blue.
Vivofit back view-yes, it’s a Garmin!
FEATURES: It will count your 1) steps per day/week/cumulatively, 2) automatically set daily step goals for you (and adjust them as your average step count fluctuates) and tell you whether you are over/under and by how many steps, 3) mileage (like a pedometer), 4) calories (look out here though I think the calorie burn is slightly inflated), 5) sleep quantity (or lack thereof) and quality–getting inadequate rest is a problem for me so I like this aspect; 6) time of day (a watch), and 7) what month & day it is in case you forget (or are over 40 like me!). 8) It also monitors your active or sedentary level with red arrows (if no arrows, you are active! If solid red line, you’ve been sitting for an hour! STAND UP and MOVE! If red arrows past the solid red line, you’ve really been sitting too long. Good news: You can “walk off” the red arrows and red line and see that on your watch by being active for a while.The red arrows/red line “blink” as you walk them off. Pretty cool to see the results of your labors.) So if you don’t know if you’ve been active or not, guess what? We’re all a little more sedentary than we think (especially after running, right?). You switch between these 7 indicators with the button shown in my photo (arrows are visible on the face).
vivo side view-see control button on top/side to right of screen
WATERPROOF? vivo is supposedly waterproof but I haven’t really tested that. I don’t wear it in the shower or the pool (would swimming kicks count as steps and if so how?). I just take it off and
HOW TO WEAR: I wear it on my right wrist if I’m running or my left during the day. I wonder if anyone is wearing the vivo on the same wrist as their Garmin GPS watch (mine is 620 Forerunner). It has replaced my much heavier dress watch I used to wear during the day (my dress watch I used to wear for work looks nice but doesn’t count the things I care about). It’s really like wearing a medical bracelet at a hospital. I like how thin and lightweight it is.
WEIGHT/DOES IT MAKE NOISE? It’s lightweight, doesn’t buzz at you (although you swear that it does the first day you wear it because you expect it to do that). It’s adjustable for the size of your wrist and you can loosen it so it’s not leaving a visible “ring around the wrist”.
POWER: Happy news here! You don’t have to charge it constantly like my wife has to do with her Fitbit. Vivofits are supposed to not need charging for at least a year or more.
SYNC: You can sync to your computer (your data) and/or through your phone. For the computer, you just have a tiny little chip you insert in the USB port and you press “SYNC” on your vivo & keep it within range. Don’t press “SLEEP” mode for syncing; that’s for ZZZZZZZZ! (don’t forget to put your watch in sleep mode when you go to bed or your sleep data is off!) Also, don’t lose that tiny little sync chip or it’s tough to sync data. I try to sync my data daily.
MODERN or CLASSIC mode in Garmin Connect: The modern mode simply allows you to see your step and/or run data in different tabs. If you want to see something in the “old mode” select old mode temporarily, then return to modern. The Modern mode is much better than the “Garmin Classic” but sometimes it’s easier to see certain things in the Classic mode if you are looking and run & trend data. I’m still learning the modern mode, I’m old-fashioned.
PAIRING with phone: I haven’t been able to get this to work yet to sync my vivo data with my phone (my Garmin GPS data syncs). Just haven’t had time to pair it yet.
EASE of use: Super easy to use, just learning how to use it on the first day/first week is not too much.
COST: $129.99 (like buying new running shoes but worth every penny). You get your money’s worth.
DOES IT MAKE YOU MORE ACTIVE? Yes, the red line/arrows do make you pay attention, that and your step counts. I used to like to be lazy after runs. Not anymore!
DRAWBACKS: Not very many. Three tiny things. First, if you step very lightly, vivo doesn’t appear to count those steps (if you’re walking on air/tiptoeing/stepping in clouds). Secondly, if you want to sleep in corpse pose (or recline like that for a while), it does press the vivo into your wrist on the thick (computer chip side), causing some discomfort. Haven’t tried loosening it to deal with that. Thirdly, it is slightly distracting on the treadmill/watch your step. I almost fell off the treadmill staring/glancing at my vivo but I caught myself. If you are prone to electronic distractions with wearable tech, you just have to be more careful. Could be a problem running outside if you try to check both wrists at the same time for GPS data on watch and step count on vivo.
REWARDS: Pedometers have never really worked for me but having a vivo is really a fun way of challenging yourself to take more steps/be more active. We receive accomplishment badges every 50K-100K steps and you can see how many steps your Garmin Connect friends have taken in a day/week and who is in the lead in step count leaderboard. I also compete against random people I don’t know in weekly step count that Garmin assigns to me (still haven’t won a weekly competition against the randoms) but have come in 2nd. I also love being able to compare step counts with my wife at the end of a day even though she has a Fitbit. (She does outstep me sometimes!)
FINAL ANALYSIS: Especially if you already have a Garmin and are on Garmin Connect, this vivo will knock your socks off! Even if not, I think it beats the Fitbit because of better design (my opinion) & no need to charge it regularly. ***** (5 stars)
UH-OH! Inactivity. Time to STEP it UP!
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Good review Jeremy. Below is a list with my pro’s and con’s which I think align with your review. Also, I purchased mine from Dick’s, I had a $20 off $100+ so got $20 knocked off, they even let me use the coupon twice since I was getting one for my wife as well.
Pros:
– battery life, I mean a year without charging, I already depend on electrical outlets for too many other things in my life.
– get off your ass red bar, love it. It makes me get off my butt at work and go down and back up the stairs
– you barely feel you have it on your arm, I always wear mine on my right arm, I don’t wear a watch unless I’m running
– easy peasy to connect to my Galaxy S4, I never tried the +ANT connecting adapter
– Challenges are pretty cool, I won the first one, since then I finished 2nd twice I think and 4th in last week’s. It’s just like a race, competing with strangers and myself.
– One thing missing from your review is the ability to track individual activities if you wear a heart monitor. I track my weight lifting and cardio class (you know, Zumba). For example, last Friday I tracked a 47 min weight lifting workout and even though I only 0.86 miles for that time it gave me a calorie burn of 379 cals and an HR graph. I find this is one of the best features, being able to track non running activities.
– It is waterproof, I also don’t shower with it but submerged it in water a few times the other day when I opened my pool
– love the sleep feature although I think my wife moves more in bed than I do so may affect my movement chart
Cons:
– no backlight, at night sometimes I forget to set it to sleep so I need to turn my bedside lamp on to see the screen.
– arm band came off a couple times, it got caught on whatever I was working with and I dropped the Vivofit. I wish it had a stronger “lock”
– Garmin need to come with a firmware update to allow calibration, my steps on the fit are about 3″ to 4″ longer based on GPS distance and Vivofit reported distance, it may not seem a lot but this past month I had a 150K-175K steps/week pretty much every week, it’s over 43000′ extra in terms of distance. I don’t pay too much attention to the Vivofit distance yet, hopefully something will come out soon that will allow calibration
– GarminConnect is still a work in progress, so much potential but very slow progress, this has been an issue with Garmin for a long time though so nothing new here
– Another GarminConnect downfall, it doesn’t yet distinguish Vivofit activities (with HR band) from running activities so when I do a 47 min weight lifting and only “walk” 0.87 miles it gives me a pace of 55:00/mile and it shows in my Modern dashboard Running Pace, so a glitch for Garmin to fix
I would still buy the product again knowing what I know now, it is helpful to stay in one platform even though it is not perfect. I think my frustration with being on other device platform and having separate dashboards would be bigger than having to deal with the downfalls of GarminConnect. I also don’t believe the other devices would provide a many additional features.
I guess I just wrote my own review :-)
Thanks Augusto, we should have officially collaborated on a vivofit review. Yes, you have written your own review. I agree with you the lack of a backlight is a problem, especially if you’re running/walking in the darkness or lacking other light to adequately see vivo. Sometimes I’m using my headlamp or my Forerunner 620 light to illuminate the vivofit. Did you notice that Wirecutter just named vivofit best fitness tracker? I haven’t had the vivofit really fall off although I have dropped it a few times. I like that it has the holes in it to allow it to “breathe” unlike the Fitbit which is generally solid without perforated airholes. I finally won a weekly stepping challenge (I thought it was my first but I guess I won one before that without realizing it). GarminConnect isn’t perfect either, still don’t like having to switch between Classic & Modern modes at times to see data/analyze data.
Lots of great info in your review.
I am generally pretty pleased with my Vivofit. I have only had it for a few weeks.
I have showered with the Vivofit, but not had a chance to swim.
Synching with my Windows 7 computer and the ANT adapter is hit or miss. Usually my best success is right after a restart of the OS and browser.
Pairing with my Motorola Razzr MAXX bluetooth has been unsuccessful. The instructions on how to pair are unclear to me. I haven’t had a chance to really figure this out.
Arm or hand movement…like tying my shoes or toe touches while stretching and even adding or removing clothing can add a bunch of steps. Cycling also seems to add lots of “steps”
I haven’t compared the Forerunner 305 mileage to the Vivofit mileage on runs. But I do wear both.
The biggest win for me is the realization at how sedentary I can be on non-running days and the need to keep active throughout the day.
Thanks Greg for your insights. I was having trouble syncing Vivofit with Windows XP but have worked that out (just needed a vivo software update to fix it), no trouble syncing with our Mac as long as the “Garmin AntAgent” is closed/disabled (I think that’s something I used to need to sync my old Garmin, the 410 but I don’t think I need it anymore for the 620). If Garmin AntAgent is open on our Mac, it blocks Garmin Express from syncing it. If you figure out the pairing through Bluetooth, please let me know. Seems strange that my wife can show me her Fitbit data on her phone and I can’t show her my vivofit data on my phone.
Other vivofit friends are telling me that if you don’t swing your arms (like pushing a grocery cart in the grocery store), vivo doesn’t count those steps. And a mystery to me: how do you get past zero steps in your sleep overnight if you don’t get out of bed unless you are running in your sleep or sleepwalking?
Yes, I agree, the red bar/red arrows for inactivity were really eye-opening for me, too.