A smartwatch maker for sports lovers

Garmin has a good reputation for its smartwatches with best-in-class sports features. Many sports people that I know own a Garmin watch and consider it as an essential sports gadget. Since Garmin is a brand that pursues a very professional field, its watches are not mere sports watches but collections with a wide range of categories from fitness, running, cycling, golf, multisport, swimming, diving and aviation watches. Among analog watch brands, there are some watchmakers that only make sports watches, but Garmin is the only maker of sports smartwatches. Garmin does have the Vivomove HR, a dress watch for women in rose-gold, but this is just a sideline model and shouldn’t be considered as one of its main collections.

vívoactive® 3 Music

Among the several product lines, I tried a model that belonged to Garmin’s ‘wearable’ line which has the smoothest performance. Probably the most noticeable feature is that it can download up to five hundred songs and enable the user to leave the phone behind and still listen to music with a Bluetooth headphone. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to experience this core feature because I don’t have a Bluetooth headphone. I hope you would understand.

As for general smartwatches, high-end models such as Apple’s Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch carry only a limited number of workout categories such as fitness, running and walking. This one though, as it is made by Garmin, has a huge range of workout subcategories that include running, treadmill running, indoor tracking, cycling, indoor cycling, walking, indoor walking, stair climbing, pool swim, golf, ski/board, snowboard, XC ski, surfing, muscular workout, aerobic exercise, yoga, elliptical, stepper, rowing, indoor rowing etc. In other words, despite being Garmin’s lowest grade sports model, the vívoactive® 3 Music is equipped with everything a hard-working athletic person would need.

The design is also optimized for daily use. There aren’t any design elements that tell it is a sports watch. It goes well with business outfits too. Maybe because of that, the watch can track stress level by gauging the heart rate. It’s an interesting feature because for someone who can exactly remember what happened at a certain time during the day, this watch will help giving an objective idea about who gave the most stress.

The rubber strap attached to a 20mm wide lug can be replaced without any tools thanks to its quick-release pin and can be worn by users with extremely skinny to substantially bigger wrists with an appropriate distance between the holes of the strap. The watch is waterproof up to 50 meters, so you don’t have to be worried about getting wet and the battery life felt good enough. There is no charging pad to transmit power because a small cable is directly plugged into the watch. This is another element that makes it simple and easy to carry the watch.

Weakness

The resolution of the display is very bad, or almost the worst. The watch applied the Garmin Chroma Display™ developed by Garmin. Not only are there jaggies, meaning that the pixels are protruding from the curves but also the colors of the display look worn and faded like an old poster from a nightclub that has been on the wall for many years. The weak contrast makes a blurry display and the swiping doesn’t run smooth. Garmin is certainly a high-end brand when it comes to smartwatches for workouts. But it is unacceptable that Garmin has applied such a low-grade display that not even low-cost Chinese brands would go for. The technicians of Garmin’s head office would have known that they should have gone for displays from other companies.

The edge that looks like a bezel is pretty much useless because it will not even protect the watch from external shock, as the watch has an inner bezel underneath the glass. It’s not pretty and it just takes up space. Wouldn’t it have been better to have that space used for more screen?

Finally, a price tag of 359,000 ₩ for a plastic case is the most fatal weakness. For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Watch made of stainless steel with a satisfying finishing is only 700 ₩ more expensive.

Conclusion

I don’t think there is a reason to opt for this watch unless you are an enthusiastic sports person who works out every day. Even if you were that kind of a person, I would still ask whether you really need to buy this watch.