I wanted to write a review on this because I feel like people who leave reviews of this product haven't given it a reasonable amount of time to become acquainted with using it, therefore unfairly bashing the product.

My specs:
I am 38 year old female, 161lbs, Beachbody on Demand user [Challenge du Jour program (means blending of P90X, Insanity, Hammer and Chisel, etc workouts = 6 days per week, Sundays off.) I love workouts that burn over 350+ calories in 30+ minutes]. I surf. I do not run. If you are a runner, you'd probably want a watch with GPS. I am not a runner so I don't need that feature. Vivosmart HR was purchased from Best Buy on Oct. 27, 2015.

I absolutely LOVE this watch! I used to have the vivosmart band + chest strap and found it to be extremely glitchy and a pain in the ---- to use the heart rate monitor during my workouts - as for the vivosmart band itself, I really liked it.

These activity monitoring watches take some time getting use to and understanding what the symbols mean - just like when you first get an iPhone or smartphone, at first you don't fully understand the flow of the buttons and apps until you have used it for at least 2 weeks. That's a smartphone...this is a smartwatch. With this Vivosmart HR watch, you should allow enough to become acquainted with how it logs information your body sends it. This watch has a heart rate monitor built in AND is water resistant. I have used it to go surfing with and it works. It is secure and comfortable on your wrist. I could not live with a watch that was not water resistant. It would not work with my lifestyle.

I've bumped the screen a few times against hard surfaces and it hasn't scratched; a great feature for me because I am not delicate with my things. I like durable. It is quite streamlined though so it does look nice with a dress on.

Heart Rate Monitoring:
Your heart rate is read every few minutes while NOT in ACTIVITY MODE. This is to conserve the battery and because while you are not in an activity, usually your heart rate remains somewhat the same.

Before you start your killer workout :) ------> Tap the side button, tap the Running Man icon, tap the side button to start: Your Vivosmart HR is now in ACTIVITY MODE - While in ACTIVITY MODE, your watch will read your heart beat every few seconds and measure your calories burned + more. You can tell when it's in ACTIVITY MODE because the back-light will be on for the duration of your workout. While in this mode, you can swipe and choose the screen you would like to continuously view during your activity. I always like to keep mine on the heart rate monitor screen because I like to see how hard I'm working and if I can max out just a little more [I'm at 148bpm? Bah! Let's get to 170bpm! More squats!] When you have finished your workout -------> Tap the side button, then tap the little disk icon to SAVE your workout stats.

The heart rate monitoring on my wrist works great. I found that you don't have to wear it super tight for it to take an accurate reading. I wear mine 2 holes looser than what could be tightly flush around my wrist. The only time I find it to not function properly is if I haven't washed the watch with a mild dish [like Palmolive] detergent for a while (3-4days) - I take the watch off and wash it by hand in the kitchen sink. Makes sense because I am sweating a lot during those days and the screen should be freshly cleaned with more than just shower gel.

The Garmin Connect app:
Is great! Garmin has been doing a good job of making it better with each update. All I really care about is heart rate, intensity minutes, calories, and sleep data. All of the other features of the watch are quite accurate. I don't have stairs so I can't speak for the stairs, however the steps counter seems to nail it every time. This watch calculates calories burned throughout the day accurately.

Garmin Email Support:
Is AMAZING! When I first got my watch, every time I had a question, I would email Garmin and submit a form at https://support.garmin.com/support/sw/escalateForm, and a rep would ALWAYS get back to me by the next day. I asked them about the difference between heart rate monitoring between non-ACTIVITY MODE and ACTIVITY MODE (That's how I found out how to use it properly), what the screen is made out of, and other things, and each time a rep emailed me back with a full explanation (They actually READ each part of your email and answer it). :)

Other notable features:
The notifications are great to see on your wrist - I like the simplicity of it, to be able to read what your phone just buzzed from, move bar makes me laugh and works well when it "yells" at me to move.

Battery Life:
Is impressive...usually last 4 days [that's all day + 4 ACTIVITY MODE workouts]. You charge it via USB cord - takes about an hour to fully charge so I don't even notice the battery life because I feel like it fully charges so fast that it doesn't even matter. I'll usually work out, and if I see the low battery icon, plug it in, make my smoothie and take a shower, in less than an hour it's fully charged.

There are so many more awesome things I could mention but I wanted to stick with exactly what I use it for and enjoy.

My wife uses the Vivosmart and I have the Vivosmart HR for about a month now (Currently it’s exclusive to BestBuy). A friend of mine has the Fitbit charge HR – so I considered them all

Design:
Vivosmart wins the beuty contest, looking more like a bracelet than a wearable electronic device. No buttons and you don’t even see there is a screen until it lights up. Fitbit charge HR is thinner, while the Vivosmart charge HR is certainly the ugliest. All 3, BTW, feels quite comfortable on the wrist.
Winner: Vivosmart

Battery life:
Vivosmart really does give you 7 days on normal use. The smart HR can give slightly more than 5 days presumably due to the HR sensor. It has a menu option to turn it off – but strangely enough it remains on – probably a firmware bug. The Fitbit charge HR can last for ~3 days
Winner: Vivosmart

Software and support:
Garmin devices were launched with tons of bugs. On the other hand - In the following week after getting the Vivosmart HR, there were 3 (!) over the air updates, that improved some of the features – and it seems the Vivosmart also just received another update. Garmin clearly didn’t abandoned their released products.
The iOS Garmin Connect application is so-so, but their web interface (accessible from a PC) is actually quite good
Winner: Fitbit

Features:
The Fitbit charge HR has the smallest screen, and does not do too much then activity tracking (Which it does very well). Vivosmart HR clearly wins with always on screen quality. Both Garmin devices offer phone notification. Sounds great on paper – but we both found ourselves turning off the notification – leaving only call indication. This feature is actually very nice – you can leave your phone in your bag, and you will feel a small vibration on your wrist when someone calls! I found heart rate monitoring to be very useful during workouts – but the ‘all day’ functionality is not too meaningful (Again – didn’t even saved me power…). Find my phone – is a nice touch in vivosmart and vivosmart HR – actually use it quite a lot (Before, I used another phone to call myself – no now its way less awkward). Never thought I will say that, but the move line and daily/weekly goals is indeed working. Lastly, water resistant is a deal breaker for both me and my wife. An activity tracker that you need to remove when you get into shower does not make too much sense. Vivosmart and Vivosmart HR can do 50M while Fitbit just got disqualified…
Winner: Vivosmart HR

Final verdict:
If you don’t care for heart rate during workout – the Vivosmart is the one for you. Otherwise, and assuming you can live with the more geeky design, Vivosmart HR is the best tracker out there at the moment

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Update 2/20/2016:

Looks like firmware 2.9 suffers from a bug with the altimeter / stairs counting. This thing now count stairs climbing even when I am walking on flat surfaces - rendering it useful. I therefore disabled this feature at the moment by setting the goal to 999 and removed the screen using the menus. I hope Garmin will fix this annoyance quickly...

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Update 1/27/2016:

Today Garmin update firmware to version 2.9
Noticed the following:
- Notifications now support non-English characters (A big thing for me as I am using Hebrew a lot; Before this update the notification feature was not too useful)
- 3 different options in run mode: Run, Cardio, Other --> this allows you to mark out what activity you are doing
- Backlight brightness control

Other updates:
- I have recently learned to appreciate the barometer function. Its nice to get such feedback - especially when hiking
- The 'find phone' feature is extremely useful (Before that - i always had to ask someone to call me when I could not find my phone) Aside of playing a sound, the screen also shows a sort of distance bar, so you know how close you are to the phone
- My wife's Vivosmart (non-HR) had a screen problem - a deal pixels line appeared on the top. Sent to Garmin support and received a replacement. However - looking at responses from other reviewers - it seems to be a common problem of the older Vivosmart screen. Again - its not an issue with the LCD found on the VivosmartHR

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Update 1/7/2016:
Recent firmware version (2.6) fixed the issue I had with turning off the HR monitor - now it really turns off and allows you to save precious battery juice!

The upside:
I turn HR on only during exercise - and just managed to get 11 days on a single charge

The downside:
there is no mode in which it will be off only for activity tracking. I therefore need to go into the menu to turn it on before I begin the exercise, and turn turn it off again at the end of the run. I wish they will add an option so it will be on only in 'run mode'...
Still - its an improvements - and a single charge in 11 days is way better than what you get with the other products (and certainly better than the daily charge needed in real smart watches, like the apple watch or Microsoft band)

Some additional insights:
After using the product for over 2 month now, I can testify to be extremely pleased with the overall experience. I actually did get myself into a repeating workout schedule, I am motivated to move much more than before and my fitness has never been that good. Perhaps - other fitness trackers or smart watches could have made similar changes, but I would not have used them without full showerproof rating, and I really like the heart rate monitoring during my workout
(Raised to 5 stars!)
:)
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