So I bit the bullet and finally got a Garmin watch. It is a VivoActive 4 which is neither the top of the line nor the bottom and I guess I like it so far. I should have seen this coming but it is considerably more complicated than I hoped it would be.
I like some of the features on the watch but so far, I don't really think I am going to be using this all that much.
For starters as someone that has only ever had a regular watch, I wasn't expecting it to be turning itself off so frequently. Sometimes I am not exercising.... ok most of the time... and I just want to know what time it is. I don't want to have to stand there to wait for my watch to boot up. I am sure this is something that can be managed in the settings but jeesy peasy, it's complicated but I will admit that this is likely something that just takes some getting used to.
On my very first run I was not so delighted that while it told me my pace and how long I had been running, it didn't register how far I had gone at the end of it. Why the hell not? If it can tell how fast I am moving and telling me my per km pace how the hell does it know that but not how far I went by the end of it? This was just annoying.
This (the above) is the most annoying thing about this watch and might end up being the reason why I end up not using it a great deal. I live in a VERY urban area with lots of buildings all around and I swear I stood there stretching for a good 20 minutes before the GPS even activated. I went online after this inaugural first run to find out some information online and it turns out that TONS of people have been having the exact same problem with this exact same model. The official solution to the problem is to "stand outside with no overhead obstructions and wait for it to connect." Ok, that is probably all fine and dandy if you live in the suburbs of DeMoines, Iowa, but a little bit more difficult to find in a place like where I live in which is one of the most vertical cities in the entire country, if not the world. I don't think I've had an unobstructed view of the sky in weeks.
Another gripe I have is that when I simply want to adjust the settings, which right now the only thing I want to do is change the main display from analog to digital, I have to go through the app in order to change it, but wait! I can't do that until it is done updating the software!
I've been stuck on this screen for at least the last 10 minutes and the only thing I want to do is make a simple adjustment to the display. Again, this could be something that I am actually able to accomplish using the watch face but it simply isn't evident where the settings actually are
Which one of these things would you press to access the settings? Well it turns out it is none of them. Instead, you have to hold down the bottom button on the right and then scroll down to get to the settings. How the hell am I supposed to figure that out?
Urgh. I guess I am being fussy because I just want things to work out of the box. The next hurdle I am going to encounter is how it is that I am going to get music to work on this thing because the entire idea behind buying this thing wasn't just to track what I am doing but also to NOT have to bring my phone with me as well. For now the hundreds of dollars watch has not succeeded in doing either of the major things I bought it for, which was to actually track my distance traveled and to have some tunes for me in a more portable item than my phone. I suppose it has done a decent job of tracking my heart rate, so that is good I guess.
We'll see how I feel about it a week from now. As it stands now I kind of feel like I wasted a bunch of money.