GARMIN VIVOMOVE

Garmin is known for making solid and extensive tness trackers, which is odd that they made the Vivomove such a basic tracker. In fact, it’s better to think of the Vivomove as a watch instead, with a little bit of tracker thrown in, and none of the smart features that the other hybrids o8er.

Do the various Vivomove editions look like good watches? Yes, I think they do, plus you can easily swap out the straps for more looks. I tested the white Sport version, but if I were going to buy one, I’d probably spring for the black Sport or the classier stainless steel Premium edition with leather strap. It’s a steep choice though, with a US$50 price di8erence between the two.

But I really wouldn’t buy either, because there’s just so little to be had from this hybrid. It can count your steps and monitor your sleep, but it lacks notications of any sort. Syncing with the app was nicky, you can set how often the Vivomove syncs to the app, but even opening the app doesn’t always trigger syncing — I often had to press down the crown to start a manual sync.

I have to admit though, that the way the Vivomove informs you about your daily activity is pretty clever. There are two e-ink meters on the watch face, one lls up in black, the other lls up in red. The black meter shows you how far along you are for the day’s daily steps goal, while the red meter lls up when you’re inactive.

Move around a bit, and you increase the black while eliminating the red. But the problem is that when you’re inactive, you’re unlikely to look at your watch to see if you’re in the red in the rst place. It’d be more useful if the Vivomove had an idle alarm like the Mist Phase’s, which vibrates and waves its hands around to tell you to get up and move.

The one thing that disappoints me the most, however, is that it doesn’t sync time automatically with the smartphone, even though it’s already paired. You have to manually turn the dial yourself to set the time, which annoys the time-keeping OCD part of me to no end — plus, there’s no way to tell the date.

The best part about the Garmin Vivomove is that it’s a good-looking watch that also happens to track your steps — but it doesn’t do much else.

• Stylish and classy design • E-ink meters cleverly display activity • Easily interchangeable straps • No smartphone noti cations • App syncing is nicky • Doesn’t sync time with smartphone

Two e-ink meters cleverly ll up to tell you how much you’re active or inactive.

The Garmin Connect app is not easy to use.