Garmin vivosmart 4, Activity and Fitness Tracker w/ Pulse Ox and Heart Rate Monitor
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Adams Parker
Product Images
Product Features
- Slim, smart activity tracker blends fashionable design with stylish metal accents and a bright, easy-to-read display.Supported Application:Sleep Monitor,Heart Rate Monitor,Messages,Fitness Tracker. . Wireless comm standard:2.4_ghz_radio_frequency
- Includes advanced sleep monitoring with REM sleep and can gauge blood oxygen saturation levels during the night with the wrist-based Pulse Ox sensor. (Not a medical device and not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition)
- Fitness and health monitoring tools include estimated wrist-based heart rate, all-day stress tracking, Relaxation breathing timer, Vo2 Max, body battery energy monitor and more
- Features dedicated activity timers for walks, runs, strength training, yoga, pool swims and others
- Get vibration alerts for All notifications, including calls, text messages and more (text replies available for Android Device users)
- Battery life keeps up with you; lasts up to 7 days (excluding Pulse Ox sleep tracking) and is safe for swimming and showering, too
Product Specifications
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Product Dimensions | 0.41 x 0.78 x 0.59 inches; 0.64 ounces |
| Item model number | 010-01995-10 |
| Department | Unisex-Adult |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. (included) |
| Date First Available | July 24, 2018 |
| Manufacturer | Garmin |
| ASIN | B07GM7WHBG |
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Product Price History
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Another Great Wearable from Garmin–this one needs to learn about you, too. I upgraded from the Vivosmart 3 and I am excited about most of the upgrades made in the 4. I love that we now have a button to get into the second level menu or go back to the home screen. It has a nice sleek look. It is a little narrower than the Garmin three. At first, I disliked reading the scrolling text but after a week I adjusted and it no longer bothers me. So I think the new narrow design is a plus.I had hoped I could use the Garmin 3 charging cable but the charging connection now sports an extra prong making it incompatible with the Garmin 3 charging cable. But it holds a charge much better than the 3 ever did. I only have to charge it once a week now instead of the begging and end of the week. And I use the nighttime SPo2 feature.I love the pulse ox. I’ve seen a lot of reviewers complain about it. Unfortunately, all of the reviews I watched or read about only used the Garmin for two or three days and at most, a few, used it for a week. This is not enough time. First, I tested the pulse ox feature against a finger pulse ox monitor. The Garmin is typically read 2% below the finger pulse ox. On a separate occasion when I was cold, it read 4% below the finger pulse ox. It shouldn’t be a surprise that a wrist-based pulse Ox doesn’t match the doctor’s office device. However, it’s within an acceptable range for me to use it. Especially, when I see I dropped down to 73 a couple of times during the night. One of the things to note is that you do need to wear this snug to the wrist for the HR and the Pulse Ox to work ideally. Many of the reviewers when they showed it, they were not wearing it snug. I can still fit my index finger between my band and wrist so it isn’t tight.Another sore point in most reviews is the overnight SPo2 monitoring. This frustrated me for the first week as it has many reviewers. But after that, it worked consistently. I learned that it only runs for about the middle 4 hours of your sleep time. Now, if you are a restless sleeper and move around a lot or get up, it will stop reading. In order for it to take your Pulse Ox your wrist needs to be straight. If you bend it, it will stop reading. If you make a fast move, it will stop, if you get up, it will stop. But, once you settle again, the Vivosmart will start back up again. If your band is loose enough to slide around, you will not get a consistent pulse ox at night Especially if you move around.I also tested the Heart rate feature at the doctor’s office and it was always dead on. Not once has it strayed from the doctor’s reading. I tested both the pulse ox and the HR at five different doctor’s offices. So I am fairly confident in the Garmin Pulse Ox and Heart Rate readings. But again, it needs to be snug to your wrist in order to achieve an accurate reading. When it is loose, it can be off.I did have to work a little to get my custom step size just right before it would take an accurate read of the distance I traveled and the number of steps I’ve taken during the day. For those who want to put it on and not worry about, you may or may not have an accurate measure of how far you’ve walked/run or the number of steps you’ve taken. I do feel my Vivosmart 3 was a little better there. Not sure if it’s specific to my band or why it is. But I did get it to work perfectly through the custom step and matching it to a handheld GPS to confirm distance.The Body Battery is an interesting and unique feature. This one really needed time to learn me. It took a couple of weeks for this one to mesh with my life and activities. Once it did, I’ve found that it has been useful to make decisions on working out or not. At one point I couldn’t figure out why my reading was 44 because I felt great. Well, the next day I was sick. If I had looked at the hrv and pulse ox during the day (you have to manually ask it to take the pulse ox), I would have realized I was getting sick and could have adapted my activities for the day. I certainly don’t use the body battery a lot but I do find it useful.For those who like to auto-count workouts, I’ve enjoyed that feature quite a bit. I don’t run, but I love to walk and I swim, which is why I decided on the Garmin Vivosmart 3, it was waterproof. It misses a stroke or a rep here or there but it hasn’t been very often. And if you do find it missed something, you can certainly add it in the App.Yes, it really is waterproof. I use it in the pool all the time and don’t worry about it in the shower. Garmin says the Vivosmart is waterproof up to 50 meters. And yes, it is! I don’t normally scuba dive with it on. During the last trip, I forgot to take it off before climning into my gear. My husband was about to head below deck so I handed it to tuck it away in our bags. He dropped in his shorts pocket and well, yes, he forgot. So, this wonderful little band survived a thirty minute, 40-meter dive. It’s not a dive computer and I probably won’t wear it diving again because I can only handle so many wrist-based devices but I certainly won’t be worried if I forget it again.So, whether you want it for the gym, running/walking, swimming, snorkeling, take it scuba diving, tracking sleep, this little wearable is an excellent choice.
Improving with firmware updates. Edit, November 2019:I added a star today.The review is fairly critical, and I still think it’s fairly accurate. However, several things have improved my opinion of this product, so I have gone from 3 to 4 stars.1) GPS capability added. The device can now coordinate with the app on your phone to associate a workout with GPS data. That gives you speed, distance, and after-the-fact mapping of workouts.2) Cycling added. There was no accommodation for cycling at all. Now you can specify a workout as cycling, and (probably, I haven’t tested this) it will auto-recognize cycling.3) Improved heart rate. This could be some combination of a firmware update and my habits, but high-effort heart rate has suddenly gotten much better. I haven’t tested rigorously, but on the bike trainer I’m seeing HR within 5 beats or so of a system I trust. This was after telling the system that I was cycling and tightening the wrist strap pretty tight.Before I commented about reliability and ease of use. I have had only one problem, when the screen semi-froze. I tried everything I could think of to un-freeze it during a long walk, but it nothing helped. Connecting it to the charger got things back to normal, so the solution was easy once I found it. It still recorded steps and such during the walk, but the “activity” record was lost.=====I like the overall features of this product, as well as the small size, which is nice for sleeping. On the other hand, Garmin (like most fitness band makers) may be trying to do too much with too little.Sleep: It’s fun to think that I can see my sleep phases when I get up in the morning, but can this really be done without electrodes? I sleep pretty well, and the device records almost zero deep sleep. I can’t prove anything there, but I do know that when I am awake the band doesn’t know.SpO2: Again, it’s fun to think that the oxygen level in your blood can indicated something about how hard you are exercising or how fit you are. In fact, this number hardly changes in a healthy person, at least not in a predictable way. I suppose that the sleep test could serve as a good warning if you should go see a doctor about apnea, but if you suspect sleep apnea you should go straight to a doctor and not to do-it-yourself tests.Heart rate: Today I rode my stationary trainer with its ear-clip heart rate monitor, a Garmin Edge with a chest strap, and the Vivosmart. The first two tried-and-true devices stayed within 2 beats per minute of each other while the Vivostart was off by nearly 50 beats in the first of several intervals! I had the band on fairly snugly already. I tried moving it higher on my arm, but that didn’t help. For the next interval I rotated it to the inside of my wrist (less hair). That brought all three heart rate measures into line. Here’s the odd thing: for a third interval I rotated the Vivosmart back to the original position. It still registered correct values. This was in the exact same position where it failed 10 minutes before!One paragraph added April 6th: After a firmware update with some unspecified heart rate improvements I tried a similar test. This time I rotated the band to the inside sooner and my heart rate looked good right away. Problem solved? Not so fast. On the next interval it was underestimating by 30 bpm.To be clear, I don’t need the Vivosmart for intense cycling training. I have other devices for that. The problem is that I expect the Vivosmart to monitor my overall efforts (for Body Battery for example). If I can’t trust it on a stationary trainer, how can I trust it on a walk or a hike where I won’t be using specialized monitors?Yet another thing to know about: Garmin’s forums could be a good source of information, but the software is flaky. Today I logged in about 10 times, only to be logged out or told that I wasn’t allowed to post. After I while I got lucky and was able to post. Just don’t expect to interact efficiently.Another forum thing: today I got an automatic firmware update to 2.90. One of the changes was “Heart rate improvement”, but there is no indication of what to expect. I tried their forum which came up in a search and “Connect IQ developer community forums will be temporarily unavailable for database maintenance.” No indication of how long this will last. Also, they use the same numbering system on different products, making it hard to look things up. For example, searching for this 2.90 update I keep getting other Garmin product updating from 2.90 to 3.00 or from their own different 2.80 to 2.90.Steps and stairs: no complaints. Nothing is perfect, but it seems close.Movement reminders: these seem a little inconsistent, but they do happen.MoveIQ: after reading a range of reviews I forgot that this thing doesn’t do cycling workouts at all. My mistake. The workaround is to start a running (or other) workout and then edit it to be a cycling workout after the fact. Right now the workout doesn’t show up the same on the Garmin Connect web site and on the app, but maybe that will fix itself.Vivo* names. It’s odd to me that they chose such similar names. Vivofit, Vivosmart, Vivosport (7 of 9 letters the same), Vivosport HR, Vivoactive, and more. I’d rather see a few distinct products with distinct names, but I’m no marketing guru.Okay: more good things. This device was easy to use out of the box and the connections to the app and the web site are very smooth. For what it does, this seems like a solidly build device that will keep working reliably, like most Garmin products.
Overall good activity tracker. I have had this for nearly a year and have been waiting to give a review as I have been using it during a unique time and wanted to give my input.I bought this tracker while pregnant because I wanted to encourage myself with what I was doing rather than thinking I wasn’t being active at all. For starters, the activity tracker made me feel justified in taking it easy, haha. It’s “body battery” feature was rarely above 50% during my pregnancy even after getting 10+ hours of sleep. Yeah, pregnancy is tiring. And it usually felt pretty accurate. Days it said my “battery” was low, even if I felt ok to start, once my day got going, I would feel drained. Days it said it was high (like 75% – wow!), I really did feel it. In comparison, after baby was born and I was getting way less sleep, the sleep was more refreshing, so I regularly started seeing 80-100% “battery” even though I was only getting 4-7 hours of sleep. I don’t know what magic it uses, but it’s good!Now speaking of sleep, that may be it’s largest failure. It wants to know between what hours you normally sleep (maybe 10pm-7am) and it only tracks sleep in those hours. If you take a nap, no record. If you stay up for a couple hours in the middle of the night to feed a baby, it either says you totally woke up then or that you were in a light sleep at that time. So highly inaccurate, I wish you could treat it like an exercise where you tell it you’re about to go to sleep or it does better at recognizing sleep.One feature that I thought I would like but was actually super annoying during pregnancy was it’s high stress detection. Pregnancy is weird, and with that the body does not function normally. Now the app has a menstrual cycle setting that I set to pregnancy and it had its own little information thing each week. but it clearly doesn’t apply that information to other things. I could be sitting doing nothing and my watch would inform me that I was highly stressed and needed to take some deep breaths. I have seen that a lot less since baby was born.It’s heart rate feature is pretty cool, and I imagine what they base the stress levels off of. I don’t know if it takes a couple weeks to learn your normal heart rate or not.I haven’t used the exercise tracking all that much, so I can’t say much on that, lol.I learned that if you want to get notifications on your watch that option only comes up once and it’s in the initial setup. I opted out at first and then tried to find the setting again later to change it. I think the music control settings only work if notifications are allowed. I had to reset up my watch with the app to change it.Their customer service is pretty good. My original watch stopped vibrating for notifications or alarms or anything. They confirmed that I had tried everything to get it to work, and then I had to mail mine back in and I got another one. I think my first one had some other defects as the alarms were kinda iffy on the first one, but they are pretty reliable on my second one.Overall I am very pleased with it. I researched a lot of activity trackers before settling on this one and I believe I made the right choice for me!
Overall good activity tracker. I have had this for nearly a year and have been waiting to give a review as I have been using it during a unique time and wanted to give my input.I bought this tracker while pregnant because I wanted to encourage myself with what I was doing rather than thinking I wasn’t being active at all. For starters, the activity tracker made me feel justified in taking it easy, haha. It’s “body battery” feature was rarely above 50% during my pregnancy even after getting 10+ hours of sleep. Yeah, pregnancy is tiring. And it usually felt pretty accurate. Days it said my “battery” was low, even if I felt ok to start, once my day got going, I would feel drained. Days it said it was high (like 75% – wow!), I really did feel it. In comparison, after baby was born and I was getting way less sleep, the sleep was more refreshing, so I regularly started seeing 80-100% “battery” even though I was only getting 4-7 hours of sleep. I don’t know what magic it uses, but it’s good!Now speaking of sleep, that may be it’s largest failure. It wants to know between what hours you normally sleep (maybe 10pm-7am) and it only tracks sleep in those hours. If you take a nap, no record. If you stay up for a couple hours in the middle of the night to feed a baby, it either says you totally woke up then or that you were in a light sleep at that time. So highly inaccurate, I wish you could treat it like an exercise where you tell it you’re about to go to sleep or it does better at recognizing sleep.One feature that I thought I would like but was actually super annoying during pregnancy was it’s high stress detection. Pregnancy is weird, and with that the body does not function normally. Now the app has a menstrual cycle setting that I set to pregnancy and it had its own little information thing each week. but it clearly doesn’t apply that information to other things. I could be sitting doing nothing and my watch would inform me that I was highly stressed and needed to take some deep breaths. I have seen that a lot less since baby was born.It’s heart rate feature is pretty cool, and I imagine what they base the stress levels off of. I don’t know if it takes a couple weeks to learn your normal heart rate or not.I haven’t used the exercise tracking all that much, so I can’t say much on that, lol.I learned that if you want to get notifications on your watch that option only comes up once and it’s in the initial setup. I opted out at first and then tried to find the setting again later to change it. I think the music control settings only work if notifications are allowed. I had to reset up my watch with the app to change it.Their customer service is pretty good. My original watch stopped vibrating for notifications or alarms or anything. They confirmed that I had tried everything to get it to work, and then I had to mail mine back in and I got another one. I think my first one had some other defects as the alarms were kinda iffy on the first one, but they are pretty reliable on my second one.Overall I am very pleased with it. I researched a lot of activity trackers before settling on this one and I believe I made the right choice for me!
Some features work well and some don’t. I loved the idea of this watch. I love the features that it offers. It is very robust in that aspect.I’m a very stressed person, so I thought it would be neat to see when I was most stressed and to have something remind me to breathe. I also thought it would be neat monitor my sleep since I have sleep apnea and insomnia. No, I didn’t believe that it would replace a doctor’s advice or that it would be my AI doctor. I just thought it might give a little insight even if the information wasn’t exactly accurate.I also liked that the battery was SUPPOSED to last 6 days on one charge. Yes, I read the reviews that said it didn’t really last that long, but I thought I would at least get 4 or 5 days. NOPE. I get 2-3 days max. I don’t even have the watch synching to my phone all of the time. I’m also not using all of the features on the watch. I do synchronize my watch and the app on my phone once or twice a day, but that is about it.I love that the watch gives you step goals and that the step goals start small and increase as you keep meeting the goals. That is fun. However, it never measured my stairs at all. It has a stair feature that tells you how many floors you walked when you go up and down stairs. I go up and down the stairs in my house (there are 22 of them) several times throughout the day. I very rarely get any credit for the stairs or the steps. That was frustrating. I thought I was going to knock that out of the park.The step counting seems to be pretty accurate as long as you calibrate it to your stride and aren’t carrying anything or pushing anything, so just know you won’t get credit when you are shopping. I knew that going in, so I wasn’t surprised. I still wish someone would invent something that would track that, but then I guess it would think that when you are in a car or on a bike, it should count steps too. :)I am sad that I’m going to return it, but this watch was too expensive for me to keep tracking only most of my steps and if I have to keep charging it almost every other day. There are watches that were a lot less expensive that can do that. I am going to miss the stress feature though. That was fun to watch. Who knew that work and talking to your mother could stress you out? Well, O.K. we all know mothers can stress you out sometimes. It turns out that the only time that I’m not stressed is when I am asleep. I guess I should just hibernate. LOL. O.K. Maybe the stress feature didn’t work very well, but it was fun.
My favorite and very accurate of 3 health trackers but stopped working after a year. After using 2 or 3 other favorite brands of fitness and health trackers this is the best and most useful, accurate and has a long battery life. It really helped me with knowing when to rest, when to add more activity or steps each day and measure my sleep, heartrate, and O2 with accuracy of my medical devices. I love the body battery measurement that helped me know when to slow down with my personal health issues. The alerts for dangerous heartbeat actually alerted me to a medication issue. Bring water resistant I did not have to protect when doing the dishes or washing my hands, This model however is no longer sold or supported by Garmin and the body battery just stopped working in under a year. I guess the cost for one year of service with all its features and health improvement is worth it.
Fitbit killer. Two Fitbit charge 5’s failed so I figured i would try a new brand. Garmin came to mind so after researching I wanted to try this one before maybe upgrading to the Vivosmart 5. I didn’t need all of the power of a smart watch just wanted a fitness tracker that had a bit more capability than steps and heart rate. So far this has performed perfectly. Battery life is the only downside, which is notable, considering I don’t use the gps tracking usually, it only lasts maybe four days between charges. I could only imagine how poor it would be if I used gps more. Other wise it’s fantastic. I can pause and skip what ever is playing on my phone. It sleep tracks, not super precise but good enough for me. Heart rate seems more accurate than the charge 5. The garmin more closely reflects my chest strap heart rate monitor than the charge 5. It also automatically switches to do not disturb so the face doesn’t turn on while sleeping. The app is free, with features that I like better than Fitbit. More details on the app than Fitbit. It has relaxing breathing reminders. FITBIT KILLER! and this is the cheapest tracker garmin offers. The charger is annoying also. Two “negatives” buried by mounds of positives. Exactly what I was looking for. Not over powered and loaded with useless apps.
Comfortable, easy to use, easy to read. I am 65-years old and not the most technologically savvy person. But, I decided to get this to encourage me to move more. It was really easy to set up. Just download the app to your phone, and it walks you through the steps. I’ve only had it a couple days, and will update the review after I use more of the features. But, so far, it’s really nice. It’s also compatible with my health insurance fitness program, so that’s a plus.
I got this to kick my butt more after a heart attack. I do a lot of calisthenics but needed more movement for cardiovascular gains. Seen as I’m 50 now lol..Best one I’ve ever bought as I’ve had others in the past that were total rubbish and never right, this little garmin does everything I need and most importantly I have never worn watches as I just don’t like them (personal choice).. This is nice and small and I don’t even know I’m wearing it. Battery lasts around a week before a quick charge up. The stats on the app are bang on. Great for steps, sleep, calories burned and my heart rate. Plenty of other things on there but I don’t really need them. Brilliant product and was only £65, total bargain. Really pleased I bought it as it really has kicked my butt 💪🏼💯
Comfortable and function, but not perfect. I am generally pleased with this watch. I use it primarily as a heart rate monitor. The accuracy of the HRM is quite good. The blood O2 feature is off by about 5%, so I add 5 to each reading. The watch is comfortable and slim so it isn’t a bother to wear while doing activities like showering or sleeping. The touch screen is not very sensitive, which can be a pain, but it also isn’t constantly activating itself. So I suppose that’s the trade off. I’ve noticed that it does not register stairs well, but I’m not trying to track that. It has a lot of features if you are using it for workouts and some great customizable alerts. My one big criticism is that numbers on the screen are really thin and I find that hard to read at a glance. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with it.