Garmin, a company known for its GPS-enabled products, including sports watches for high-performance athletes, has thrown its hat into the activity tracking ring with the Garmin Vivofit (from $129.99)($220.00 at Amazon). It's a well thought-out device, balancing features and design with price and value, although the trade-offs won't appeal to everyone. If you prefer coin-cell batteries that work for a year over USB-rechargeable ones, and appreciate an always-on display, keep reading. On the other hand, if you want a fashion-forward wristband that can quantify how many flights of stairs you climb or effortlessly calculate your REM cycles, the Vivofit's modest look and capabilities won't impress you. You can buy Garmin's Vivofit for $129.99 solo, or bundle in a chest strap heart rate monitor (HMR) to bring the total cost to $169.99. If you're in the market for a new chest strap and use one often, that's a deal worth considering. On the other hand, if you're not a competitive runner o...
Garmin's Vivofit activity tracker makes a few trade-offs to balance features, style, and ease of use into a mid-priced device. The results will appeal to a certain crowd, but not everyone.
Comfortable wrist-worn activity tracker; Monitors steps, distance, sleep, calories burned; Syncs to computer via USB ANT+ stick and Bluetooth Smart-enabled phones
Not particularly stylish; Doesn't count stairs climbed; No natively supported activities other than walking and running; Must actively enable sleep mode