I've had various Garmin watches. I love the look and features of this watch but with the phone (Samsung A12) close by, it will disconnect from Garmin Connect. My phone will be on the nightstand as I sleep, it disconnects. I have to restart my phone each time. I sent the 1st watch back to Garmin after support team could not figure it out. When the 2nd watch arrived, I had issue pairing it. We need to uninstall/reinstall Garmin Connect. Needed Garmin support again. Still had issues. I had to send a report to my support person. I uninstalled/reinstalled again on my own. For a few days, everything was working as intended but...once again more connect/disconnect then restart phone. It nice to get an actual person to talk with but the issues keep arising. I'm not sure the next step to take. Send this one back and look at another Garmin or go with another company. As I said, I like having a fitness watch but this has been going on since December (Christmas present) and I'm not satisfied.

Coming from a VivoActive 3, the 5 tends to disappoint. The battery does not seem comparable. I get about the same battery life on my new 5 as I got on my 5 year old 3. To maintain a second hand on the screen at all times is now not possible with the face I like (it wasn't a problem or a battery drain on the 3). The updated menus seem to take longer to get to and get through. The physical markers around the watch face are now at 10 second intervals instead of 5. The lighting at night is not intuitive. The brightness apparently isn't capable of going to lowest brightness when on Auto. Sometimes it detects sleep and goes into sleep mode (turning the watch face off which then requires touch to see the watch vs just motion on the 3. Sometimes it doesn't detect sleep, so the watch face stays on. I understand these things are small and nitpicky, but they are quality of life features I really came to love on my 3. I am considering returning the 5 and going back to the 3 with hopes of the battery lasting a few more years.

I had very high hopes but this is not for me. Limited number of activities. Hiking, rucking are not included & not able to be downloaded. Some days pedometer did not activate. One day I did a very challenging highly very vertical 3 mile hike and the watch messaged me I had a relaxing day and needed to move more (even though my heart rate was over 130 at times on the hike).I am returning it.

I have had this about 2 weeks. Still getting used to some of the features. It's very responsive and minimum time for the GPS to work. Right now, I am not completely sold on the running or walking features using the GPS. It does verbalize my time at each mile split; however, I cannot locate that information once my run or walk are complete! According to the help area I should be able to locate that information. I haven't been able to do that! That is frustrating. I like that I know my overall time and average pace. I want to be able to find each mile and the calories burned as I did on my old 220 Forerunner. Supposedly I can find it on my home screen...I haven't been able to do that. I really don't want to have to return this watch, I like most of the features and the cost of this model. I do need some of the basic information that I am used to finding.

I made the switch in early August from Apple Watch to Garmin, and the difference has been night and day! From being able to actually track my sleep because I don’t have to charge it every night to customizable workouts and reminders to rest, this watch has changed my life. I work a corporate job so I wanted something that could function as a smartwatch, but I’m also a group fitness instructor and hiking enthusiast so I wanted a watch that could track my varied athletic activities. This watch really hit it out of the park! The Body Battery is my favorite feature, because it lets me know when I need to listen to my body and rest—something I’m not great at doing on my own. I’m never going back!

My daughter gave this to me to replace a Fitbit. This watch has more useable features than the Fitbit had WITHOUT the need for an annual fee. I would write a longer review, but my Garmin just told me it’s time to get up and move. Oh yeah I LIKE IT.

I will say I love this watch and all its features. It does take about a day to getb used to with understanding all the features. The only thing I don't like is its not 100% accurate but what really is this day and age. That's the only thing I don't like but its about a 1/4 mile off when doing 2 miles from what I have noticed. It doesn't bother me to much as I more keep this for health instead of training.

I have had the Vivoactive 5 a few weeks now and it is more than what I thought it would be. I wanted something for keeping track of my pulse and O2 level during the day and my workouts, This watch does that very accurately and is easily used and it is doing more. Still learning

I bought this mainly due to some health issues that I’ve been having and needed to be able to check my heart rate. I’ve had the opportunity to compare the heart rate versus monitor and it is very accurate, no complaints at all with this aspect. But to track these I have everything running in the background and can get barely two days out of the battery. Besides the issue for me it does everything it should and the price point was very reasonable.

As compared to my Vivoactive 3 there are a few things I used regularly that are missing from the activity screens. No current altitude, ascent, decent. As an avid hiker I am very disappointed. The dedicated hiking watches are way over my budget hence not an option.