Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Out of the box, I've been pretty impressed with this watch. As someone who tried ad returned the Fitbit Surge due to the lack of functionality at that cost, I found this to be a very solid addition. With that said, there are some quirks and improvements to be had. Activity Tracking - seems solid. When compared with the Fitbit Flex I had, it was pretty much right on with minimal variation. I actually think it calculates more accurate distance in general activity tracking than the Fitbit. This is based on me entering identical stride lengths in each app but Fitbit appearing to show a greater distance despite the calculations not adding up. GPS/Workouts - only 2 so far but GPS came up quickly and tracked my run very well. The alerts for pace and distance worked well. I like the display that the screen offers and the fact that it can be customized. Does not seem that this supports workouts created on Garmin Connect though (at least for now)...this is one area where Garmin can improve. Heart Rate monitor - this does not come with a HR monitor but I coupled this with my Schosce Rhythm Plus. This was extremely easy to set up and seemed to work well. Watch Apps - Major potential here. Not too much Garmin IQ offers right now other than some Watch faces and such but this is where Garmin can really get some traction if they can get solids apps. Right now the ones that came loaded for workouts seem to be adequate...the apps that you can get will supplement the data that you can see (e.g. different ways of displaying heart rate, elevation, etc.). I'm also a fan of the built in Weather widget. It seems very convenient that I can look at my watch and quickly get the current weather as well as the immediate forecast for the coming hours. Smart Notifications - in addition to Text and Calls (like the Surge) it appears that any notification that comes up on my phone also displays, which is a positive to me. Screen - this is by far the most disappointing area. In person, the colors are not as vibrant and it is not as bright. Touch sensitivity is solid. Charging/Battery Life - so far so good. I was playing around a great deal with it right out of the box and it did not seem impact the battery very much. When I did put it on the charger, I was able to get a 20% increase within 30 minutes. Garmin Connect App - not as strong as Fitbit but I had not problems setting it up and customizing. Does not seem that there are many people using it as of yet though; it does, however, synch well with other tools such as Strava. It's only been a day but I'm not having that disappointed feeling as I did with the Fitbit Surge. I have enjoyed the few workouts I've done with this and can see myself keeping this for some time. To me, it was worth the wait and for the price, it really does a great deal, especially when you compare it to other watches at the same price point. I will update this as I see fit after some more rigorous use in the coming days/weeks. UPDATE March 20 Sleep tracking - You do have to turn it on and off. I agree that given what is out there now, auto sleep should have been part of the package...perhaps a firmware update, Garmin? The tricky part is finding where that is. In order to do it, you have to go to the Activity tracking widget screen and then expand the menu by pressing the bottom right of the watch. Once you're in sleep mode, its easy to remember to turn it off since it clearly states you are in SLEEP mode when you look at the watch for the time. If you get up in the middle of the night, I wouldn't bother turning it off and on again. It will just register as "movement" when you look at it on the graph the next day. Battery life - so I went to bed and my battery dropped significantly last night. I'm wondering if it is b/c the GPS was pretty much on the whole time. By default, the setting appears to be in the ON mode. I just turned if off and verified that when I go into an activity mode (RUN, WALK, etc.), I still get a GPS signal. I'm not clear as to what the purpose of the On/Off setting for GPS is. Also, the manual is not very helpful at all. Really just gets you through pairing your device. Once you are in that you pretty much have to figure out how to get to different menus and change settings (e.g. alerts while on runs, etc.) on your own. UPDATE - March 26 Just a quick comment on battery. Apparently there is an issue with Bluetooth where if you are just out of range of your phone for, the battery will drain very quickly. This has been a particular problem for me when I go to sleep as I don't typically bring my phone with me. They way it was explained to me was that when your phone is close enough that the Vivoactive is searching and is just in range that it will connect and disconnect constantly from your phone all night and that is what is draining the battery. Garmin's suggestion was to either turn Bluetooth off when going to sleep or to bring my phone with me. I've suggested that they incorporate a feature to Sleep mode that would automatically turn off the Bluetooth when activated and then turned back on when out of Sleep Mode. Anyway, I thought that this is something that people would like to know assuming that a good number of people may be in a similar situation as me.