The biggest complaint that we heard from consumers with the Garmin vivoactive HR was that it looked too much like a sport watch with its boxy design and plastic/silicone materials. Garmin clearly heard the same story and has now totally redesigned the vivoactive 3 with a round face.

Lightweight; sleek design with full-color display + fully waterproof; Activity and sleep tracking + sport tracking + smart features; New Garmin Pay feature for mobile payments; Ambidextrous design for right or left wrist; Increased training features + VO2 Max estimates

Expensive at $300; No native storage for music; Limited app support in Connect IQ; Side Swipe feature is not very helpful; No open water swimming

It's hard not to think about our overall impressions of the Vivoactive 3 without comparing it to the other recently announced smartwatches. It directly competes with the Fitbit Ionic because of price, tracking functions, and features.

Overall, the Vivoactive 3 is a very solid and fitness-focused watch. It's likely the iteration that many folks have been waiting for in terms of a more stylish unit than the Vivoactive HR was in the last version, and more functional than the super-slim original Vivoactive was a few years back.

In the Vivoactive 3, Garmin has tried to build a device which is predominantly an everyday, normal persons', lifestyle-focused fitness watch. Think of this as more competition for your high-end Fitbit than a "serious running watch for serious runners".

Affordable; Long-lasting battery life; Lightweight design; Versatile and capable of tracking multiple activities; Degree of data detail

Garmin Pay isn't supported in the UK yet; Some connectivity issues; Screen less attractive than Apple/Fitbit competition

It was about time for Garmin to enter the market with a touchscreen fitness/smart watch. Tracking is accurate so far. A lot of preloaded activities. You can also create your own. Some improvements can be made in the strength training but I understand is kind of hard to track all exercises in a gym.

"The Vivoactive 3 is an activity tracker that's perfect for the rider who's not necessarily interested in picking apart data with a fine-toothed comb but wants to keep track of their rides and monitor fitness"

Built-in sensors; Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity; battery life

Optical HR struggles riding on bumpy surfaces; app integration could be improved

Garmin's fitness bands have almost always been large, even massive, smartwatches. In fact, we nicknamed them BBWs - or big, burly, watches. With the new Vivoactive 3, Garmin left the big behind and delivered a GPS multisport smartwatch that's smaller, more refined, and a nice reminder that watches...

Connects to ANT+ sensors; Smart Notifications; Garmin Pay

Weak vibration alert; Easy to miss notifications

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 is light, comfy and packed with features - what's not to like

Garmin are the market leader in GPS hardware and are steadily creating a stronger foothold in the activity tracking market for themselves with some solid hardware choices. The Vivoactive 3 is a step outside the standard activity trackers that are on the market, into a casual watch that has all the...

This watch has been great. The battery life is fantastic and alll of the features make it a must for anyone into exercise. The detail it provides is in-depth and easy to access on the watch face as well as on the accompanying phone app. It can be customised to look great too.