Wrapping up Vivosmart
HR
I have been using
Garmin Vivosmart HR about a half month.
Overall, this is a good one to keep tracking daily activity including
heart rate 24/7. The embedded wrist
based heart rate sensor gives very similar reading as a chest strap heart rate
sensor I have been using for a while.
The detail review is still on-going, however, overall it is reasonable
to monitor the heart rate based on the past data I got with my usage, such as
running, walking, hiking and cardio in a gym.
I probably keep using the chest strap sensor for running. But it is probably good enough for hiking
based on the result last 2 weeks. Here
is summary what I feel about this product.
Battery life
With my current
usage, which is wearing the device almost all day with 30 minutes to 90 minutes
workout with heart rate monitoring, the battery life with a single full
charging is about 3 ~ 4 days. So I
probably need to charge the device twice a week. I have not tried to use this device with
activity tracking mode for very long time like all day yet. However just check the heart rate, we do not
have to use activity tracking mode. Therefore,
we will be able to use at least 3 ~ 4 days without charging again. The heart rate sampling in non-activity
tracking mode would not be so often.
However it is probably all right for managing the pace during a hiking I
have been talked in this blog.
Sleep tracking
This feature exists
in the previous model “Vivosmart”, however, the auto-sleep detection feature is
much better in Vivosmart HR. For most of
automated detection, I do not have to adjust it. This is a big improvement from the previous
model.
Display
It is also improved
from the previous model. It is better
even if under sun light. Also, I think
the operation is improved as well. In
the previous model, to enable the display, I need to tap the display. Also to get a menu, I also need to hold the
display. In the new model, the basic
display is always on and there is a dedicated button to get the menu. The touch screen operation is also getting
much better. In my opinion, it is much
better to use this device than the previous “Vivosmart” during hiking. Although the heart rate trend graph is small,
it is a good information to see the heart rate trend during hiking.
Activity tracking
The menu is
changed, there are categories, running, walking, cardio and others. I do not know what is actually different
between them. At least running and
walking, they are using different a step length to calculate the distance. Also, there is no distance / pace information
for cardio, only heart rate information shows up in the result.
The big difference
from the previous model is Vivosmart HR has embedded wrist based heart rate
sensor. Therefore, I do not have to wear
the chest band based heart rate sensor to monitor during a training. The detail evaluation is still on-going, but
so far I am getting very good result for my usage, such as running, walking and
hiking. As I mention earlier, I would
probably use the chest strap sensor for some training for running, but it is
good enough for hiking and some “casual training”. Especially some indoor activity which cannot
be tracked with GPS, this is a good device for such purpose.
Floor climbing
In the Garmin web site,
a feature table shows there is “barometric altimeter”, however, it is not
really “altimeter”. The feature probably
just using to find out “stair climbing”.
It shows some, however, it is not very useful for me. So I disable this display.
24/7 Heart Rate
Monitor
This is a new
feature. For most of healthy people,
they might not be interested in so much.
However, I am interested in this feature to see if there is any difference
between the daily heart rate and high altitude environment, especially during
sleep. Actually, that is one of
motivation I am evaluating the embedded wrist based heart rate sensor. This would be an interesting data after the
actual walking to see if there is any new finding and some sign for the
altitude acclimatization. Overall, the
embedded heart rate sensor could be close enough to check this type of
data. So I will plan to capture some
data in my next Mt. Whitney trip.
Also, it is very
easy to figure out the resting heart rate for the heart rate zone
definition. There are a few different
method to define the heart rate zone for the heart rate based training. One is using just the maximum heart rate with
a percentage of the maximum heart rate.
The other is using reserved range which is defined by the resting heart
rate and the maximum heart rate. The
second option would be a better way to define the heart rate zone in my
opinion. The Garmin device has another
setup based on a lactate threshold.
However it is not easy to find out a person’s lactate threshold. There are some devices which can estimate the
lactate threshold value. That would be
another item I want to evaluate in the future with the other device.
Wrist based heart
rate sensor
To measure heart
rate during a workout, I used to use chest strap heart rate sensor during a
workout. I compare the measurement data
between the two sensors how much gap we can see. Based on my experiment, overall reading is
close enough for typical running, walking, hiking and cardio in a gym. The both sensors might have incorrect reading
sometime. I am not really sure why the
incorrect reading happens. I usually
wear them almost the same way and the incorrect part is not the entire workout,
it is usually just a part of workout only.
Once one of sensor reading becomes incorrect the offset between the
sensors is getting bigger. Based on the
past data, the chest strap type sensor tends to be inaccurate in the
beginning. However, I saw sometime in
the middle of a workout. The wrist based
sensor sometimes gets incorrect reading anytime or random, but usually the
duration of incorrect reading is short, most of them are spike. Overall, the chest based sensor gives us
more stable reading comparing with the wrist based sensor. It seems the chest strap sensor could be more
accurate than the wrist based sensor in general and I probably continue to use
the chest strap sensor for some point training for running. But for a casual running, jogging, walking
and hiking, I would use the wrist based sensor.
It is much easier for me not to wear the chest strap sensor for those
activities. Especially during hiking,
without wearing the chest strap based sensor, I guess I would be much more
comfortable in many cases.
One item I have not
done my testing is broadcasting the heart rate reading through ANT+. Basically for the other device such as handy
GPS device with map, a legacy GPS watch which requires an external heart rate
sensors like my Forerunner 910, they can pair this Vivosmart HR and we can get
the heart rate number instead of the chest strap sensor. This feature is probably useful if people
using a handy GPS device with map to log a hiking data. This is one of good option to track heart
rate and the location information during hiking. I will plan to do some testing in the future.
My conclusion
Vivosmart HR is a
good device to track daily activities.
It could be a good option to use for the heart rate based pacing I have
been talking in my posting. This device
can broadcast the heart rate data to the other device through ANT+. Therefore, we can track the locations and
heart rate with those device. It is a
good option for hiking. The battery life
with some active tracking mode is something around 3~ 4 days. So most of hiking can be covered. The handy GPS device is usually using
standard size of battery and it is easy to replace. Thus, people do not have to worry about the
battery life so much. The high end running
GPS device with longer battery life is usually very expensive just for
hiking. Unless people also do some
serious running, it might be too much. I
am basically stick to Garmin due to the past data in Garmin Connect website,
based on the recent product line, running GPS devices battery life is something
around 12 hours for most of product.
They are probably not enough for most of people for a day trip to Mt.
Whitney. The round trip probably takes
more than 12 hours for most of people.
So for those people, they probably need Forerunner 735 / Fenix 3 with
the embedded wrist based heart rate monitor to cover a day trip hiking to Mt.
Whitney. People just need up to 10 hours
a day, then they have more choice to pick low end models which is starting from
around USD $200, such as Forerunner 35, 235, Vivoacitve HR and etc. If people look for a low cost solution,
Vivosmart HR could be a good option
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