Garmin Vivoactive 4s Review: So Many Fitness Features, So Little Time

My biggest gripe with the Connect IQ app is that it takes a long time to download and install watch faces and programs. The app connects to Garmin Connect so your chosen wearable appears at the top-right corner of the screen. After you select the watch face or program you want, you have to sync the device with Garmin Connect again before you can see anything new. It took me a few syncs to see some new watch faces I downloaded in my watch face queue, and those syncing periods often took longer than I anticipated. Fitbit OS apps and watch faces have the same issue, and inefficiencies like this help the Apple Watch, with its nearly instantaneous syncing, stand out among the competition.

The Apple Watch also stands out as a supremely intuitive device, and Garmin devices still don’t quite match up. The Apple Watch is not the best wearable for everyone, but it makes itself the best option for many iPhone users because watchOS is so deeply integrated and similar to iOS. Garmin’s wearables, and Fitbit’s and those of other companies, don’t have that bridge connecting them to every user—being compatible with multiple operating systems has its pros and cons. What Garmin devices lack in intuitiveness they make up for in fitness features, which is more in-line with Garmin’s brand as a whole.

Refined, but not best for everyone

I thought it would be hard for Garmin to top the Vivoactive 3 Music. It’s a wearable that does almost everything users would want—from a smart perspective and a fitness perspective—and it works with both Android and iOS. With its $249 price tag, it offers a lot more than other smartwatches at that same price point.

Does the Vivoactive 4s top the Vivoactive 3 Music? Not in the most common sense of the phrase. It’s certainly more capable than the Vivoactive 3 Music, and unfortunately it will remain that way because there will be no trickle-down of features to the Vivoactive 3 Music. That means all the new features that came with the Vivoactive 4 series will never make it to the Vivoactive 3 Music in a software update.