Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Note: Review updated 4/8 and 6/15 – updates are integrated into the review where appropriate. If audible alerts don’t matter much to you, this device is fantastic. But I upgraded from the original Vivofit because of the new audible alerts, and I’m very disappointed. I was really happy with the original Vivofit except for 2 things – I couldn't see it in the dark and there were no alerts when the inactivity bar gets full. When I learned that both of those issues were fixed with the Vivofit 2, I couldn't wait to upgrade!! I purchased it March 14, from a local sporting goods store because Amazon still said it wouldn’t be released until March 31. For a quick review of the pros and cons (more detail below): PROS: No recharging Waterproof (to 50 meters) Shows time and date Audible alert (when you’ve been inactive for an hour) Backlit screen so you can see it in the dark Default/home screen option Locking strap Automatic or customized step goal (optional) Activity timer Pairs with a HRM (sold separately) CONS: No reminder alerts to bug you when you remain inactive** No vibrating alert** No customization with alert reminders No manual alarms that you can set ** Indicates why stars were lost – if they fix, I’ll update my review (I explain below under "Alerts") GENERAL: I chose the Vivofit fitness tracker over the other options out there because it doesn't need to be recharged and its waterproof (to 50 meters) - two very important things for me. I wear my Vivofit in the shower, washing dishes, swimming, etc. -- basically, I never have to take it off except to give it a little cleaning once in a while. It took me about 2 days to get used to having it on my wrist – at first it seemed annoying, but now I rarely notice it there. My skin is sensitive to certain metals or other items that are worn long-term. As long as I clean it once in a while (once a month or so), I don’t have any issues. I don’t ride bike much, so having it only on my wrist is never an issue for me. AUDIBLE ALERTS (new to the Vivofit 2): Audible alerts were lacking from the original Vivofit, and I was so excited for this option. The new audible alert is almost great, but it has a huge problem – let me explain. Here’s how the new audible alert works on my device: as the inactivity bar first starts to grow (after 15 minutes of inactivity), it gives you a single chirp. When the bar gets full (after 1 hour of inactivity), it gives you another chirp. Once I clear the inactivity bar (by walking about 300 steps), the cycle starts over again. Great, right? Well, where's the reminder??? This is where 2 stars were lost – MAJOR issue here, in my opinion. I’ve now been inactive for over 2 hours, but I’m not getting any audible reminders to get up and move!! What a HUGE oversight!!! This is a really big deal for me and was THE KEY reason I spent the money to upgrade to the Vivofit 2 – I REALLY needed this device bugging me to stop working and move (hopefully, they’ll fix this with a software update). If they fix this, they should also allow you to customize how often you get a reminder. Now for the good: It’s a very subtle little chirp that shouldn’t annoy anyone else (you can turn it off if you don’t want to hear it). However, it might even be a little too quiet, in my opinion – many times, I don’t even hear it (which is why it should have a silent/vibrating alert). I sit at a desk for the most part of 9 hours a day, and this feature is really key for me. As I’m engrossed in my work, the alert should remind me to get up and move (which is why I upgraded). I was very disappointed to find out that it doesn’t have a vibrating alert. What if it’s noisy around you and you can’t hear the audible alert (which happens A LOT). What if you just don’t want an audible alert that others could hear if close to you…. I was also hoping that along with the new audible alert option, you could set up your own manual alarms (like you can with the Fitbit Charge HR), but you can’t. I’m hoping they can/will add these other features with a software update. **Update on 4/8/15: I’ve learned that some devices chirp at 1 hour and 2 hours, but mine chirps at 15 minutes and 1 hour as I described above. BACKLIGHT (new to the Vivofit 2): The new backlight is wonderful!!! To turn on the backlight, you just push the button slightly longer than a regular click. The digits light up so you can see it perfectly in the dark (it’s not too bright)!! It turns off after no activity for about 1 second. With the original Vivofit, I gave up on using the sleep function because I couldn’t see it in the dark to turn it on. I had to use my cell phone or lamp to see the screen – well, that was a major pain. So instead, I just manually entered my sleep time in Garmin Connect (when I did that, it still showed my activity level, but the sleep time was a total guess). Now, I can easily switch to sleep mode and wake mode using the device – way better!!! Plus, I can see the screen in any low-light environment – say I’m in a dark place and want to see the time. This is fantastic, but I wouldn’t have upgraded from the Vivofit 1 for this reason alone. SCREENS (on the device): I LOVE that the device shows the time!!! I can see the time of day anytime I want without having to pull out my cell phone. What’s great is that you can set a “default” screen for your device! I set mine up so the time is showing by default instead of steps. If I want to see my steps, I just press the button. After a short time, the screen changes back to the default! So great! On the device, you can scroll through the following screens: Time, Date, Steps, Step Goal, Calories, Distance, and Heart Rate. You can select which of these screens you want to see on your device by going to Garmin Connect > Device Settings. Distance is determined based on step length and number of steps taken – there is no GPS on this device. You can customize your step length for running and walking so the distance is more accurate – do this on Garmin Connect > User Settings. The Heart Rate screen is used when you pair your device with a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). I don’t know how accurate the calories are since I feel that they are really only an estimate on any device (including when I use my paired HRM), so I just use that as a rough estimate. ACTIVITY TIMER: The Vivofit 2 now has an activity timer on the device. You just press and hold the button for a second, and the timer starts. When you’re done, you press the button again and the timer stops. I just noticed this feature last night as I was switching into “sleep” mode so I don’t know how it works yet, but I’m kind of excited about the potential. With the original Vivofit, activities showed up automatically only when I used my paired HRM. Without the HRM, I had to go into Garmin Connect and manually add an activity if I wanted it to show up. That was kind of a pain, so I didn’t do it often. A little side note (in case the manufacturer is reading): the “t” on “Start” and “Stop” is really hard to distinguish because they put a little tail at the bottom of the “t.” It took me an embarrassing amount of time flipping back and forth on the screens before I figure out what it said. **Update 6/15/15: I’ve been using the activity timer more lately, and it’s pretty nice. It tracks time, distance (based on step – not GPS), heart rate (when using a paired HRM) and calories burned (which I’m sure isn’t perfect). The device sends the activity info to Garmin Connect when it syncs – which then pushes the activity out to My Fitness Pal (more on MFP below). Sometimes it says the activity is “running,” but I can easily edit the title of the activity in Garmin Connect as needed. In the device settings area, I can choose the default activity screen and also which screens are available on the device during that activity, for example, I can hide the date screen during an activity but show it when not in an activity – very nice! **Update 6/15/16: Today, I used my HRM for the first time with my Vivofit 2 (I had misplaced it and just found it!) I read some reviews from people who said they had trouble with their HRM. Mine (the Garmin Premium Soft Strap Heart Rate Monitor) synced with no problem – just like it did with my original Vivofit. I added a picture of what today’s activity looked like on Garmin Connect using both the activity timer and my HRM. Note that this was an elliptical workout using the “interval” setting, thus the change in my HR during the workout. It shows my pace as ‘0’ when I was holding onto the stationary handles which makes since it wasn’t recording any steps. The HRM on the machine (when I held it) showed my heart rate to be about 1-2 beats different than the device showed, but went up and down at the same time, so I think it’s pretty accurate. Hopefully this info is helpful. SLEEP TRACKING: This is really just tracking how much you move during your sleep time. You can manually set the device to sleep mode when you go to bed and then turn off sleep mode when you wake up. After syncing, you can see your level of movement on Garmin Connect. In User Settings, you can set up your “Normal Sleep Time.” If you forget to turn on sleep mode, just go into Garmin Connect, confirm your sleep time for the night and it will show your movement levels anyway (so don’t worry much if you forget to turn it on). **Update on 4/8/15: This is really cool, so I wanted to give an update. My device has been tracking my sleep time automatically (I think this came from a firmware update and will work on the original Vivofit also). I always forget to turn on sleep mode, and I had to go into Garmin Connect and manually enter my sleep time before it would show my activity level during sleep. With the Vivofit 2, my actual sleep time shows automatically – even if it’s not the same as my “Normal Sleep Hours.” For example, my “Normal Sleep Hours” are set to 8:00 p.m. – 5:00 a.m. Last night, I didn’t turn on sleep mode or confirm my sleep time in Garmin Connect, yet it shows that I slept from 9:34 p.m. – 5:37 a.m.!! This is really awesome for someone like me who always forgets to switch to sleep mode. It seems to be fairly accurate from my point of view! STEP GOAL: By default, the device gives you an auto goal for steps that automatically adjusts depending on whether you miss or meet the goal. If you don’t meet the auto goal for a couple days, it adjusts down a bit. If you exceed the goal for a couple days, it adjusts up a bit. The great thing is that you can turn off the auto goal and set your own goal if you want. You do this on Garmin Connect > Device Settings. WRISTBAND: The strap now has a locking mechanism (new to the Vivofit 2). This is great, although I found it a little harder to put it on. After getting used to it being on my wrist, I find it comfortable and hardly noticeable. It doesn’t give me any issues with my sensitive skin – as long as I clean it once in a while (every 3-4 weeks or so). It’s very easy to swap wristbands (the basic ones, anyway – I haven’t tried any of the new fancier ones). **Update on 6/15/15: I still find that the band is hard to get on, but this isn’t a big deal since I never have to take it off. I do want to note that sometimes, I’ll find the locking mechanism has rotated to the unlocked position. I also once banged my wrist hard against something and the band fell off – I think this happened because the locking mechanism rotated on me. So I just check it when I think about it to make sure it’s still in the locked position. GARMIN CONNECT: Garmin Connect is fairly easy to use. I use it on both my computer and my Galaxy S3 phone. It’s not perfect, but what is. There are lot of options for customizing the dashboard as you want it (both on my computer and on my phone). You can even add new tabs/pages so you can see what you want/how you want it. It didn’t take me too long to get used it. I tried a Fitbit Charge HR for a few days and preferred Garmin Connect to the Fitbit dashboard. The device now auto syncs with Garmin Connect. I haven’t figured out how often it auto-syncs or what triggers it to auto-sync – the online user manual just says “periodically.” But I can tell you that my device DOES auto-sync. It’s not very often, but it’s at least once a day. Sometimes I go days between manually syncing, and I can see my info is there. This auto-sync feature isn’t a big deal to me because if I want to see where I’m at, it’s easy and quick to manually sync. However, knowing that the device doesn’t store data indefinitely, it’s nice to know I won’t lose my data if I don’t manually sync for many days. I haven’t had any serious issues with syncing to my computer or my Android phone recently (back in December 2014/January 2015, there were some major issues with the app, but I think that’s all been resolved). Every great once in a while, it won’t sync for some reason, but if I wait a couple of hours, it works the next time. **Update on 6/15/15: Occasionally, I have syncing issues. I push the button and it doesn’t sync, it just chirps and stops the sync mode. When this is happening, I can’t sync to my computer or my phone. This is very annoying and frustrating…but if I’m patient and try again in a few hours it usually works. I do wish syncing was more dependable because they would probably get better reviews – which would be nice, because this really is a great device. MY FITNESS PAL CONNECTION (for those who use MFP): I use My Fitness Pal (MFP) for calorie tracking. Garmin Connect and MFP sync with each other and share data back and forth. So when I’m active, Garmin Connect sends that activity (and calories burned) to MFP. When I track my meals in MFP, it sends the info back to Garmin Connect so I can see the calorie data in the dashboard. On MFP, there’s an option to “Enable Negative Adjustments.” When I’m particularly inactive (very low on steps), Garmin Connect sends a negative activity adjustment to my MFP “Exercise” page. In case you can’t figure out where to find this option (it’s not terrible intuitive), go to MFP > My Home > Settings (sub-menu bar) > Diary Settings. Then scroll down to the Calorie Adjustments section and select or deselect the checkbox. Back in December/January, there were some major syncing issues happening, but that all seems to be resolved now. I haven’t had any major issues since that got that fixed. I think it’s pretty neat how they work together. CLOSING: Overall, this is a really great device. I’ve considered returning it several times because of the disappointing audible alerts (and lack of a silent alert), but in the end, I kept it because it’s the only device I know if that’s waterproof and doesn’t have to be charged. If they would just fix the alerts, I’d happily give it a full 5-star rating!!