Your friends have convinced you that you need a fitness tracker, and you've narrowed your choices down to two of them: the Garmin VivoSmart HR and the Fitbit Charge HR. You've chosen these two because they both monitor your heart rate. You know that the American Heart Association recommends that healthy adults perform moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes every day, and you want to get healthier. But now you have another problem: which one should you buy? Let's compare the two.
VivoSmart HR
The VivoSmart HR is Garmin's middle-of-the-road fitness tracker. It sells at a similar price point as the Charge HR, but it includes a few features that the Charge HR lacks. For instance, it has a touch screen which gives you access to all smartphone alerts, while the Charge HR has Caller ID only. Unique among fitness trackers, the VivoSmart also monitors activity intensity. This is particularly useful if you do interval training or Tabata training and need to exercise at a high intensity for the best results.
Tracked activities: Steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and activity intensity.
Display: Touch screen. Shows daily stats plus smartphone alerts.
Sleep monitor: Yes.
Heart rate monitor: Yes.
Colors: Black, imperial purple, and midnight blue.
Sizes: Regular and X-large.
Battery: Rechargeable. Lasts up to 5 days between charges.
Unique features: Water resistant for swimming and showering. Has ability to control music from your wrist and can be paired with a VIRB action camera. Has reminders to move with a move bar and vibration alert. Has the ability to monitor activity intensity.
Charge HR
It may seem like the VivoSmart HR has the Charge HR beat in terms of features. However, there are two areas where the Charge HR has more to offer than the VivoSmart HR: color choices and sizes. While the VivoSmart HR comes in just three colors—two of them unavailable in the x-large size—the Charge HR comes in five colors. The Charge HR also has more sizing options than does the VivoSmart HR.
Tracked activities:, Steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed and active minutes. Has exercise mode and automatically logs workouts to Fitbit app.
Display: OLED. Shows daily stats plus Caller ID and time.
Sleep monitor: Yes.
Heart rate monitor: Yes.
Colors: Black, magenta, blue, orange, and mint green.
Sizes: Small, large, and x-large.
Battery: Rechargeable. Lasts up to 5 days between charges.
Unique features: Exercise mode detects activity and logs it into the Fitbit app without any human intervention needed. Offers more color and size choices and has a slimmer shape.
Which one should I buy? Tell me now!
Slow your roll, sparky. Which one you buy depends on you. If you're a feature-hog, then it makes sense to go with the VivoSmart HR because it has more bells and whistles than the Charge HR. On the other hand, if styling is what you're about, then the Charge HR will do almost as much as the VivoSmart HR, but with more verve and panache. Check them both out.
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