TL;DR — This is a great basic fitness tracker which, with a little extra effort on your part, can be turned into a shockingly robust data collection device, comparable to much more powerful and expensive units. When combined with the Garmin Connect app, which IMO is the best fitness data collection app out there (and 100% free, no paywall), you’ve got a real powerhouse system.

My review will cover some tips for how to get the most out of the device, as well as one annoying bug fix. I hope all of this is helpful to you!

ABOUT ME AND MY PARAMETERS: I am a daily cyclist and I also do strength training 2-3 times a week. I do not want or need to use my full-function Garmin head unit on every ride, and I also wanted to track my weight workouts; but there are not many (affordable) products which can effectively track both things in the same place(s). I was not interested in the overkill of the ubiquitous fruit-logo company's watch, and I did not have the money for any of the larger Garmin watches. But researching the vivosmart5 gave me hope that I could manipulate its default functionalities into a tracker robust enough to compete with much, MUCH more expensive devices, and I have — so here are a bunch of use-case tips (and a few bug fixes) which I hope are helpful to you too.

Out of the box, the vivosmart5 is a great little fitness tracker — unbelievably accurate HR readings, extremely detailed and effective sleep tracking, custom settings for motivation (can remind you to hydrate or to get up and move, etc), bare-bones fitness effort data collection, super fast charging and long battery life, water/sweat proof, and easy to clean.

For default effort tracking, you can click through little preset activity recording functions and get rudimentary data such as “bike ride, X minutes, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” or “weight workout, X minutes, X reps, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” or just a simple “walk/run, X minutes, X steps.”

And all of that is awesome, particularly because the app (which, again, is 100% FREE, no paywall) is one of the strongest fitness data collection apps out there. So even just these minor collections of data are compiled into an easy-to-read daily/weekly/monthly/yearly format showing areas in which you can improve, or just giving you the knowledge you need to evaluate your efforts for your intended results.

Plus it can sync with other apps, such as Strava, Ride With GPS, or even the fruit company’s default Health and Fitness apps.

BUT, here’s what it can really do. Let’s start with cycling (and probably running, too). The vivosmart5 does not have its own GPS, but you can pair it with the Garmin Connect app on your phone and it will use your phone's GPS. So now instead of just “bike ride, X minutes, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” you’ll get a breakdown in the app which is much more like a proper head unit’s data, including a map of your effort with multiple overlay choices, total distance, moving time versus total time, elevation — practically everything other than cadence and power-meter based stuff. That’s … HUGE for a sub-two-hundred-dollar fitness tracker.

And for strength training? The vivosmart5 will automatically count your reps (not always super accurate, but you can adjust that right on the watch face itself during rest periods), and if you attend to your sets by starting/stopping them on the watch face, you’ll end up with a loose dataset at the end of your workout, which you can THEN go through item-by-item in the app and flesh out by choosing the exercise type and the weight/resistance. Now instead of “weight workout, X minutes, X reps, top/avg heart rate X/X bpm,” you’ll have a full breakdown of your effort, including a little illustrated human figure showing the muscle groups worked (primary and secondary).

As you can see, and as I’ve said before in this review, you must do some of the work here. But to me, this little extra effort is worth the huge price difference between this and even the lowest-price-point Garmin GPS watch, especially because when you do these things, the Garmin Connect app will begin to give you comparative points, awards for accomplishments, and other things that it would normally only do when you’re using much more expensive Garmin devices.

It is not without its faults, though, and in the interest of full disclosure, here you go.

1 - An annoying bug fix! Because the vivosmart5 does not have a lot of RAM or a very powerful chip, you’re going to need to restart it every once in a while, especially if you’re really pushing its functionality, as I do. In fact, if you DON’T restart it every once in a while, it will do some weeeiiird buggy stuff when recording GPS-based efforts. Sometimes it will randomly record your speed at several THOUSAND miles an hour. Sometimes it will add your current distance to an old ride and record the whole thing as a new ride. It can get wonky, but I’ve solved this by simply turning the watch off and then on again before every ride (takes 30 seconds) — I have not had a single problem since I began doing that.

2 - The band’s buckle and keeper loop are positioned to the outside of the wrist, meaning that when you write or type, you’re resting your wrist on this uncomfortable little knob. I almost returned it on day one because of this but then I realized that you can reverse the band — just pop the actual watch unit out, turn the band around the other way, and put the watch unit back in. Now the buckle and loop keeper are on the inside face of the wrist, and no more problem.

3 - It has a proprietary charging cable. COME ON, MAN, REALLY?

Even with a few little annoyances, I am a full-time proselytizer and apologist for this little device. It is unobtrusive and bare-bones, but contains so much potential and power that you’d never know it. I really hope this helps you because I’ve found a huge amount of value in this little device. Why spend almost five hundred bucks when you can … NOT?

I was a loyal FitBit user until last week when Google decided to enshittify the FitBit app by turning it into AI slop loaded "Google Health" with a completely inaccurate heart rate tracker, amongst other issues. I picked the Vivosmart 5 because it seemed the most similar to my Inspire 3 and I have to say, I really like it. The app is easy to use and seems more accurate data wise. The only downside is that I prefer the bands for the Inspire 3 and the battery life isn't as long as my FitBit, but those are just minor nitpicks.

UPDATE*** TRASH. My previous review was 5 stars. They had a perfect product that they ruined with an entire app redesign. Read the app reviews before purchasing, it’s a dumpster fire of issues. Most of the key tracking features (for me anyway) like exercise activities, sleep and steps no long work. Readings saying I walked 57 miles in 30 minutes, I apparently haven’t slept since the update, and my stress levels are through the roof 24/7. 2 months later and they have made no effort to fix the issues or comment on what their plans are. Chucked it and bought the Apple Watch SE. ******

was very frustrated with my vivosmart 4 and was looking for a new activity tracker when I saw the vivosmart 5 was out. I love everything about the Garmin app, it was the watch itself I didn't like. Despite Amazon warning me this had a high return rate, I decided to give V5 a chance and I am so glad I did! They have improved every single complaint I had with V4!!

DISPLAY. The screen has been enlarged so it is much easier to read and the messages stay on the screen longer, giving you the time to view them if you are mid-workout. There are many more watch display options on this version.

NOTIFICATIONS. You can now scroll through and read messages on your vivosmart5 , V4 only displayed a headline so you had to head over to your phone to read the whole thing. Now you can read and delete the notice on the watch itself, leaving your phone in your pocket!

LOGGING ACTIVITIES. The biggest improvement is how you end the recording of your activity. With the V4 you just tapped the screen to end it, which was easily done accidently with brush of a sleeve or bumping the watch against your leg, EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!! Now it is very intentional, you hold the button for a few seconds while it counts down that is about to end your activity. Going hand in hand with this, because it is no longer easy to end your activity accidently, it is easier to check the time without worry. Also mileage tracking has vastly improved. V4 would alert you when you reached a mile, but you were blind in between. With V5 You can see how many miles you have walked/ran/cycled while the activity is being recorded. Example 2.49 miles is displayed. This is very motivational for me to push to reach the next mile!

ACTIVITY RESULTS. Your mappable activity is now displayed on a map on the app in iPhone. I enjoy this feature so I can compare routes and see which one helps me hit the most goals.

CHARGING. The charge time is much longer and displays as a percentage, not a battery icon which I find more helpful. The charger itself is much easier to attach as it is now a snap in.

THE WATCH ITSELF. The watch is now far more comfortable for everyday wear. On the V4 the band always slipped out and flapped around, this one stays in place. They eliminated the trim around the watch face which in my opinion was a great call. I owned 3 of the v4 watches and they all ended up having that trim fall out leaving a gap around the screen. I also think the increase in size makes it more attractive. I bought mine in white and I love it!!

SUMMARY I have had this over a week so far, working out everyday using primarily the walking and cardio actives. I wear mine 24/7 to record steps, heartrate, sleep, pulse, ox etc. They have in my opinion perfected this activity tracker, I couldn't be happier. Will update if anything negative comes up in the future!

Overall this one is a good one for those who don’t want to spend any more money than necessary, but want heart rate and not just pedometer functions. Battery life is a week or more unless you have features like full time pulse ox or other power hungry features turned on.

The main issue with it is that the sleep tracking is more limited and less reliable than the next model up (vivoactive 5) and there are currently some problems with the “body battery” feature unless they can fix the firmware.

In particular, it doesn’t do “nap tracking” but then again the nap tracking even on more expensive models is currently rather inaccurate with things like sitting in a recliner reading while awake being detected as a “nap”.

Basically this is the model you want if you just need the essential features of a fitness/health tracker, don’t want to be paying for subscriptions, and don’t need stuff like ConnectIQ apps (most of which aren’t that useful). It does almost all of the “built in” stuff the more expensive watches have “built in” to the firmware.

And the iPhone app is good quality and actually works, syncs reliably, etc, even with Apple not being helpful since they want you to buy their bloated extremely short battery life watches.

Not fancy, but the garmin watch is the most accurate in terms of distance tracking of any watch I have used. I like that I don’t get too many notifications - will notify of texts & calls, which makes it easier to leave your phone put away when socializing or meeting, without constant distractions of email notifications. Most importantly, when I compare the mileage totals to a marked trail, it is spot on, whereas FitBit, Apple Watch, phone apps are always off by 1/4- 1 mile. Also the charge will hold for 7-10 days, which is great.

I love that I can easily count my steps and jumps on my trampolines (my spring one counts each bounce as one step, and my bungee trampoline counts each bounce as two steps). Plus, I can easily track my time bouncing. It motivates me to get more movement in each day.

I chose this one specifically because I can "turn off" Bluetooth, which I didn't want connected for health reasons. I also love how small this watch is!

It's been fun to monitor my sleep as well.

Mine stopped working after 6 months. Even with a reset and charged battery, the screen kept going black and wouldn't revive without another reset. I contacted Garmin through their live chat, and within 10 minutes, they had sent me an email with a prepaid label to send mine back with so they can send a replacement. Excellent customer service!!

I wore a Vivosmart HR for more than 5 years and had few problems.

I bought a Vivosmart 5 two weeks ago and started wearing it on July 15, 2024. The results were reasonable and consistent for the first week. Then, for six days, my sleep score dropped from the 80s and 90s to poor (49-52) and my stress was high. Yesterday, it was off-wrist, charging for a few hours, so it recorded lower stress. Suddenly my sleep score was 89, even though my sleep stage durations were about the same as when I had poor sleep. I conclude that sleep score depends on the prior days’ stress.

During that first week, when I slept, the Vivosmart 5 heart rate dropped quickly to my resting heart rate in the low 40s (I was a long-distance runner), just as my Vivosmart HR had measured for several years. During the second week, the Vivosmart started measuring my heartrate at 60-70 for 5 hours of the night before it dropped to the 40s. Needless to say, I thought I might have a problem.

To investigate this, I first did a factory reset on my Vivosmart 5. Then, I did an overnight test. I wore my Wahoo TICKR X chest strap (often referred to as a “gold standard” of heart rate measurement) overnight to compare its heart rate measurement with my Vivosmart 5. The difference was surprising. For example, when I got up to use the bathroom, the TICKR X showed that my heart rate rose to the 90s. It quickly dropped back to the 40s, which was my usual night measurement on my Vivosmart HR. The Vivosmart 5 barely noticed when I got up. It showed a heart rate in the 60s for most of the night. As a computer scientist, my intuition is that the heart rate algorithm gets “stuck” at a value and can’t get out of it. The algorithm appears to average heartrate over an interval of at least 2 minutes.

As a related note, I wore my Vivosmart 5 during my recent Stress Echo Test. I have accurate data from the test, showing my heart rate was raised from 47 to 162 over 10 minutes. The Vivosmart didn’t capture it. It showed a reading that started in the low 50s and that peaked at 83 during the test time interval. I conclude that the Vivosmart algorithm averages more than a 2 minute window. It is clearly not a medical device.

As another experiment, I did a 30 minute walk yesterday using both the Vivosmart 5 and my Wahoo TICKR X. Midway through, I stopped at a yard sale for 3 and a half minutes. The TICKR X showed my heart rate dropped from 90s to 70. The Vivosmart 5 showed my heart rate dropped from 97 to no lower than 95 during that time.

The body battery was useless: mine showed “very low” (5-6) at each day’s end during the second week, when I felt fine.

Conclusion: The Vivosmart heart rate is averaged over a period of several minutes and doesn’t show short bursts of activity over a few (2-5) minutes. It appears to get “stuck” at certain values during the night. The sleep score is a function of prior day’s stress. My body battery was not useful, presumably since it was calculated from inaccurate stress and heartrate scores. I am returning it.

I purchased a Garmin tracker because of good experience. (March 2024) My last Garmin was a Vivo Smart 3.

The features I planned to use most: Exercise, Heart rate, intensity, calories burned, stress, fitness age, track weight, sleep tracking, body battery, and fitness age. I also used it for the alarm and calendar.

Just past the one year mark the alarm feature stopped working. It started vibrating for no apparent reason and wouldn’t shut off. The only thing that fixed it was to turn that feature off. I figured I could live with it since it was no longer under warranty and the main features still worked

About August 2025 the sleep feature stopped working properly. Occasionally it would report no sleep data. I tried troubleshooting with the Connect App. It worked off and on. Now, 1/15/2026 it has been about 19 days since the sleep feature has worked.

I can’t afford to purchase a new watch. I don’t think it is unreasonable to expect this fitness tracker/watch to last longer. I purchased this tracker because it had all the features I wanted and believed I would not need to purchase another fitness tracker for many years.

Now because of my circumstances I am unable to purchase a new watch. My husband passed away in September after a long illness. I was his only caretaker There are so many things that I need to deal with because of his death finding the money to purchase a new tracker should not be one of them.

I spent a lot of time researching fitness trackers before choosing the Garmin brand. I choose it because of the features and reasonable price.

I hope my review helps other people in their decision when purchasing a fitness tracker.

Good value for a basic smart watch. Works well. Was a bit tricky to set up with my Samsung phone.

Thee are great watches to keep track of your routine and receive phone notifications. Great quality for the price

I bought the Fitbit Inspire 3, returned it, and upgraded to Garmin. Here's what I noticed between the two:

Step count: Fitbit step count is ridiculously inaccurate, it counted hundreds of steps while I was sleeping or sitting. Garmin step count is indeed very accurate, it never miscounted when I was being still, and always on point when I quickly monitored it while I was walking.

Heart rate: I can't do intense workout so I have limited info on this. Generally it feels Garmin gives more accurate heart rate numbers and it's abnormal heart rate alert is quick to react to your hr changes. Fitbit also has a hr alert but felt non-existent and is mainly for advertisement purpose.

Ox saturation: Fitbit advertised they have this feature yet it is only available during sleep. Garmin has the option to monitor day and night Ox (this feature battery draining). Neither is accurate enough to replace an actual Ox monitor.

Sleep track: Both are meh, I think this has to do with one's sleeping habit as the tracker is relatively loose on your wrist while you move around during sleep. I think Garmin is betterish on tracking once I fell sleep, but both tends to mistaken my awake time.

Unique feature from Garmin, the vivosmart shows your "body battery" and "stress level". In general I think these mainly for entertaining purposes, but they are pretty much on point in terms of how I feel, especially so for the stress level monitor.

The app: Garmin's app is noticeably a lot more informative, fully accessible, no monthly fee. Some of the features such as a clear daily/weekly/monthly etc. trend of your health stats, as well as most stats let you see hourly or even greater detailed tracking. The interface is intuitive and straight to the point. Although finding settings on your tracker is a bit tricky in the app.

I don't really recall what the Fibit app looks like, except I remember I was unimpressed and users are constantly being reminded of the feature blocked by paywall.

The tracker: Fitbit has prettier selection of watch face, while Vivosmart is monochrome. It's less appealing but is easier to read in the sun. Both are informative. Although Vivosmart seems to have a really simplicit and minimal tracker, but you can acctually go into every stat detail on the tracker. The screen is small, so that such feature is less feasible, I mostly read it off the app.

Battery: Fitbit has about 1 more day of battery life than Vivosmart.

Aesthetic: Fitbit Inspire 3 is pretty plasticty, I tried the lavender band, wasn't flattering, looks like a toy almost. Vivosmart has this muted sage color that I'd much prefer, the tracker itself also feels plasticty but is well tucked in the band and the band is really nicely crafted and feels much more comfortable on the skin.

Overall I find that Vivosmart just has better sensors and delivers what they advertise.

Love the device and I started using it when I received it. My previous device, Fitbit Inspire HR, died on me and I was contemplating to either go for Fitbit Inspire 3 or Garmin Vivosmart 5. I decided on the latter as I read that there are more data that I can get access to, rather than Fitbit. The only downside is, the battery life is shorter than the equivalent tracker (7 days versus Fitbit Inspire 3's 10 days lifespan). Otherwise, it is lightweight and almost non-existence, what tracker is meant to be. The quality of the leather strap is also better than Fitbit's leather strap.

I replaced my vivosmart with a newer version as I lost the previous one on vacation. Garmin products have always been dependable products for the use I make of them. Both the watch and its app are easy to use and understand. The watch and it's band are sturdy but not that fashionable.

Unlike its predecessor, the vivosmart 5 has an actual button, which I appreciate - no mistapping possible. Battery life is also good. After 4 days, I'm at around 50% (started wearing it when it was at around 96%). I do not use the blood oxygen function, as it drains a lot of energy.

The sleep tracking function is ok. It tracks your sleep and sleep phases, but not always? It's odd: I get a message it didn't get tracked, but later in the day, the data becomes available.

Regardless, it is a dependable product.