GARMIN WARRANTY POLICY.
After having gone back and forth between Fitbit and Garmin, I am going with the Vivofit 2 (for now). Here are some reasons I switched from the most recent devices, which might help you decide between these.
*** Garmin Vivosmart *** I liked the Vivosmart but realized that I didn't really like the alerts from my phone because I already have a smartwatch (Asus Zen). If you are often in a noisy environment or can't easily access your phone but want to see alerts (and don't have some other device that gives you alerts), then the alerts on a Vivosmart could be helpful. However, it was somewhat difficut to see full messages on the screen and really best serves to let you know that a message or call has happened - it's not great for a substantive alert. Additionally, the screen is just slightly hazy. It bothered me initially although I did get over it - but it definitely has a somewhat 'frosted plastic' appearance to it. This is something other reviewers of the Vivosmart have noted. The Vivosmart is more narrow and less thick then the Vivofit 2. I suspect this is partly because of the battery size in the Vivofit 2. I found the swiping or selection responsiveness to sometimes be a little inconsistent but nothing big on that front. There is a "Find Your Phone" feature on the Vivosmart that I did find useful. The Vivofit 2 does have auto-sleep tracking. The Vivosmart did not. (A software update may have changed this.) This meant that I either put the Vivosmart in sleep mode via my phone before I fell asleep or I put the time in on the app after I woke. The Vivofit 2 doesn't require this manual effort - it does it automatically. Both devices are safe to shower and swim in.
[Battery Life in Vivosmart and Vivofit 2] I had the original Vivofit and did a lot of international travel at the time. I really liked that I didn't have to think twice about bringing a charger for it with me and I very quickly grew accustomed to not having to think about charging it. I charge a lot of devices regularly and all of them use micro-USB - not the Vivosmart. That was more annoying than I thought. To be fair, none of the most popular tracking devices use a micro-USB so the options are either a specific charger or a long lasting battery.
So for me, Vivofit2 > Vivosmart because:
1) I don't need alerts (on both wrists)
2) I don't have to charge it or even really think about charging it
3) Readability of the screen
4) Vivofit 2 has auto-sleep tracking (this may have been added via a software update to the Vivosmart - I do not know.)
If Alerts are very important to you and you don't mind charging the device regularly, the Vivosmart might be great.
*** Fitbit Charge HR *** I had this for about six weeks. The first thing I disliked rather quickly was that it instantly looked dirty or dusty. I don't know if a textured surface was the way to go. (I had a black one - maybe another color wouldn't have appeared so dirty so quickly.) Having said that, I think some people will like the design more than the Vivofit2. (Though, the Vivofit2 will now have some different bracelets to place it in - an option not available to the Fitbit Charge HR.) I was not a fan of the watch styled clasp on the Fitbit Charge HR. This is really rather minor but it made me feel like I was wearing two watches - one on each wrist. I felt over-accessorized. Fitbit Charge HR measures flights of stairs climbed - the Vivofit 2 does not. Like the Vivofit 2, the Fitbit Charge HR does auto-sleep tracking. I'll boil it down to the deal breaker for me - it's only "splash proof". It's recommended that you not shower with it and you can't swim with it. (I did see a video on youtube where DC Rainmaker said a month of showers hadn't broken the thing but it's not rated for that kind of water exposure.) That may not be a big deal for many people but more than once, I got into the shower, got it wet and then took it off and dried it immediately. I would also take it off to do dishes or bathe the dog and then forget about it. The battery life was shorter than I expected, as well. I was charging it twice a week. Alerts for calls usually didn't hit the Fitbit Charge HR until I'd already answered a call so, again, not particularly useful for me but YMMV. I realized I don't really track my HR very much. I sometimes do while I exercise but realized I don't really care about my HR at every moment. If there was a way to turn it off to save battery life and only have it kick in during a tracked activity, that would be really helpful and I might find more use for it. The Fitbit Charge has an optical HRM. These are not as accurate as a chest-strap based HRM (which the Garmin devices connect to/with) but are more convenient. Last, I found that the little nagging red bar on the Garmin devices (Vivofit, Vivofit 2, Vivosmart) really does make me get up and move. There wasn't any kind of "Hey, get up" alert on the Fitbit Charge HR.
Fitbit gives you a 10,000 step daily goal which you can manually change. Garmin devices start you at 7,500 and adjust automatically based upon your activity to encourage you to increase your steps each day. I found that I disliked the straight 10k step goal in Fitbit and liked the more substantive step-goal setting that Garmin offered. Here's where I think that makes a big difference. If you are like a lot of people who aren't very active and you start off at 5,000 steps and you do 5,000 steps - that a successful day for you. The next day, Garmin will ask you to do 5,200 (for example). And if you do it, you've had another successful day of reaching your goal. Then the next day, you do 5,450, etc. And each day, you would be encouraged to push a bit more. I find that effective for a lot of people. However, all of those days are 'fails' in Fitbit. I think that could be really discouraging to someone trying to improve their activity levels. Again, you can adjust the step goal in Fitbit but I really love that Garmin does it for me and I find it personalizes the effort for me. Again, YMMV.
Vivofit2 > Fitbit Charge HR because
1) the Vivofit 2 is waterproof to 5 ATM
2) battery life is amazing
3) the inactivity alert does work for me and
4) it connects to a HRM when I want it to (which is not FULL time)
5) some style alternatives
6) adjusting daily step goals
*** Fitbit Platform/Dashboard v Garmin Platform/Dashboard *** Here's what will be a big factor for many people that is not going to be obvious from a hardware review. 1) The dashboards for Fitbit and Garmin are different. Most people prefer Fitbit - it integrates with more applications than Garmin and it is a pretty flawless experience. Having said that - I got used to the Garmin dashboard quickly and find it easy to navigate, too. 2) If you want motivation from friends, most people have Fitbit over Garmin. This was ultimately why I tried going back to Fitbit. I wanted the motivation I got from competing with friends. I found, though, that I just didn't like their wrist-based wearables. So I ended up getting the Fitbit Zip because I could just clip it on to the center of my bra and forget about it. It does little more than track steps for me and that's the basis of all of my competitions with friends in Fitbit so... that's how I keep the wrist-based wearable I like but can pretty easily still compete with friends on Fitbit (if you find yourself also debating these things). If you happen to use both, like me, when you do "activities" in Garmin, those *can* sync over to Fitbit so your jogs, workouts, swims - all of that - can be synced with Fitbit and show up there. (Fitdatasync.com)
I realize this isn't an in-depth review of all of the features of the Vivofit2. It's really intended to point out some differences between the Vivosmart and the Fitbit Charge HR.
In the end, these are the things that made me choose Vivofit2:
1) Battery Life
2) Water proof
3) The red bar (and audible noise) really does get me up to do a quick one or two hundred steps until it disappears
4) Adjusting daily step-goals
Edited to add: I would give it 4.5 stars in reality because it is slightly larger than other trackables in its class.
*** Potential Sync Issue in Garmin Connect *** I have a Note 4 and when I first tried to pair the Vivofit 2 through Garmin Connect (the mobile app), it would initially pair, show as connected - and then immediately disconnect. This is NORMAL. The Vivofit 2 should not always show up as "connected" when you look at your devices in Garmin Connect. When it auto-syncs or when you manually sync, it will connect. Having said that, I was having trouble with it syncing. I'd try to manually sync and it wouldn't sync. I called Garmin and was told that I may have too many devices paired via bluetooth, even if only one device was actively connected. I was skeptical but I deleted about 5 of the paired devices I used the least (I started with about 10-12 and got down to 5-7 that I use the most) and sure enough, that fixed it. It now syncs flawlessly.
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