New Vivoactive HR announced

[alphasports]

Looks like Garmin will be releasing an update to the Vivoactive, now with optical HR, sometime in the next couple of months, $259 USD. After just trying out a Microsoft Band 2 and giving up on it after a couple of days, I guess I'll hang tight for this new "real" watch. Let's hope the onboard optical HR is more accurate than the Microsoft Random Number Generator!

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/02/vivo ... ofit3.html

[alphasports]

An update on this thread: got my Vivoactive HR a couple days ago and it's really very impressive. A few bullet points:

- much smaller than I expected, it's more like a slightly oversized fitness tracker than smartwatch
- seems to have excellent built-in HR detection (bang-on with my gym's Polar built-in grips), easily overridden by using any Ant+ HR strap
- long battery life 5 days + thanks to reflective LCD screen (the brighter the ambient light, the brighter the screen...and vice versa which some are complaining about)
- full bluetooth smarts for phone connectivity (I don't use this crap but it works)
- seamless integration with smartphone Connect app, no more waiting to get home before uploading workouts
- pretty affordable, I can't really see the benefit of spending 2-3x the money on a Fenix
- I use this exclusively as a fitness watch for workouts, not a daily wearer, so YMMV

That's all I have at this early stage