Fitness trackers/smart watches

[loveawineloveacrisp]

Hi, I need to replace my Apple watch. After years of wearing Apple I want something with a better battery life so have been looking at a couple of the Garmins. (Vivoactive, and Venu 3.) I want to track my swims, gym classes, walks etc as well as general health tracking and sleep tracking.

What are your recommendations please?

Anyone?

I have a Vivoactive 5 and really rate it. I had a forerunner before that which was better for exercise tracking tbh but i wanted something that actually looked like a watch this time.

Oh the battery lasts about 5 days but more if i don't exercise that week!

Thanks I've looked at that one, and the Venu 3

The new Apple Watches charg really fast. I charge it for an hour before bed but it doesn’t need an hour.

Nah, am over Apple. The fact that they can't make the charge last longer than a day is not good enough.

Also a vivo active 5 user. I’m really impressed with the battery life. Much better than my previous fitbits.

I know you’re right but I can’t do it 🤣

Your boldness is impressive

This is after no less than about 5 Apple watches over the years!!

My previous watch was a vivoactive and I replaced it with a venu. Both fantastic and highly recommended. Very intuitive design and long battery life (5-7 days but I tend to give it a boost once it gets to about 20%).

I find it great for tracking runs, swims, strength and Pilates. I’m not an expert but did read reviews rating Garmin over Apple for running.

I don't run, my knees are fooked! These are exactly the two I'm trying to decide between. Only about £60 difference. Is there an advantage to the more expensive one?

I have a Venu 4 and rate it

I would say the Venu as I upgraded to it and have no complaints but I don’t think you can go wrong with either.

I have a Polar, it’s three years old and still going strong. It was VERY important for me to support an European business so Apple and Garmin were out of question.

DH has a Suunto and he’s also very happy with it, it’s more rugged so great for diving, trail running and general outdoorsy pursuits.

Polar is a Finnish company producing in China and Suunto is now a Chinese company producing in Finland.

I have a vivoactive 6 and really love it, it logs all the sport I do. Garmin can be a bit on the sarky side where I've run my fastest and it tells me I was slow and could go faster😀

I had the venu 2 and have just upgraded to a venu 4. Previously I had apple and would never go back! Battery life is 10 days and the data it gives me is far superior to my old Apple.

I have the Vivoactive 5 and I love it. I agree above Garmin can be a bit sarky on my performance but I love it

I have had a vivoactive for a few years and love it. excellent battery life, does everything I need it to. Will get another garmin when it needs replacing, so far its doing so well it annoyingly doesn't need replacing.

I'm interested in what others have, I looked at the venu as well, not sure why its an upgrade on the vivoactive. Fancied a forerunner as I would like a solar charging watch and quite like the idea of the coaching functions on them. But I think they are huge and ugly. The venu and vivoactive come in a small size which works on my petite wrists.

I went from Apple to Garmin due to the battery life too. From daily charging to once every 6 days or so, so much better. The Apple was a nightmare for some of my longer runs.

I’ve got a Venu3s that I’m happy with. DH has one of the Vivoactive models and he’s really pleased with it.

Another vote for vivoactive here, I have the 6 and it has been amazing so far. The battery life is incredible and it has great tracking features for running too (very much starting out here) but seeing the progress In the stats is very encouraging.

I think I've decided on the Vivoactive, I can't see what the extra £60 is getting me for the Venu other than the ability to take calls from my watch which I don't ever do anyway (as it looks wanky 😂).

Thanks for all the feedback, big help.

Sorry to jump on your thread @loveawineloveacrisp but can any of the Venu owners answer a question? Does the Venu give real time audio prompts during runs? So pick up your pace or slow down? I had a feeling one of the running watches did (forerunner or fenix) but my Vivoactive doesn't even push lap alerts to my headphones, they just pop up on the screen, but I find that distracting and would love to be told how I am doing as I run. The 'coaching' features are pretty basic on my Vivioactive, I was looking for something more, but the premium watches don't come in the smaller sizes.

Thanks