Sumawatch is fun to measure.
There was a time when I thought Garmin was synonymous with GPS. But what you want in a smartwatch or activity tracker depends on the person, and there's always a trade-off between versatility and battery life. Do you really need that GPS?
The new product "Garmin vívosmart 4" announced in September 2018 is an active tracker that has a good design while well summarizing the functions around it. A unique function called "Body Battery" that scores physical strength from 0 to 100 is popular, and while wearing it, various people asked me "How much battery do you have now?" The remaining HP will be exposed!
So, let's deliver a review after trying it for a full month.
Garmin vívosmart 4
What is this? : Garmin's middle-end active tracker Price: 16,482 yen Likes: Smart functions and size, tough battery, unique Body Battery function Dislikes: Reliability as a watch is just one step away
As an activity meter, you can measure the number of steps, heart rate, amount of sleep, number of floors climbed, distance traveled, calories burned, stress value, etc. You can also display notifications that fly to your smartphone, weather forecasts, vibration alarms, and play music from your smartphone. The battery lasts up to 7 days and is waterproof enough for swimming.
The texture of the band is uneven silicon, and it feels like it is resistant to dirt and sweat. It doesn't feel plasticy, it looks elegant. There are four colors available, but I like this merlot/rose gold shade because it has an elegant atmosphere that is not typical of active trackers.
The display is organic EL. Operate by touching or swiping up and down. Also, the bottom of the display is like a home button. Good touch feeling. You can quickly check notifications and steps while walking.
Body Battery, a unique element that comprehensively judges heart rate variability (HRV) and amount of sleep, and scores the user's energy level from 0 to 100. It seems like a recommended factor for the manufacturer, but frankly, I thought, ``What's the point of looking at numbers that have no medical basis?'', until I used it.
But this was surprisingly interesting, and I got hooked on it. Let's talk while looking at the life log of the app "Garmin Connect" that works with vívosmart 4.
This is a log from a holiday. If you look at Body Battery, you'll see that you've slept soundly until late afternoon to recover your physical strength, and then slowly decrease from there. I did some shopping locally on this day, so the stress value and the number of steps are fixed around the evening. The reason why I recovered a little around 20:00 is because I slept under the kotatsu (I will also track this well).
So, here is the log of the day I went to Makuhari Messe from early in the morning to cover an event (Inter BEE).
Battery is very low! The place where the stress value is small is probably the time when I was writing in the press room. I hadn't had much sleep the night before, and I was in a situation where I felt like I was a little sleepy, but I wanted to do my best.
Let's take another look. This is the log of the day I spent all day playing the recently released Super Smash Bros. SPECIAL.
Reduced at all~. I'm not active, so it's only natural, but there's such a difference in the amount of physical strength I lose between activity days and rest days. By the way, the stress here is not frustration but the load on the body, so even just being awake can cause some damage. Working at McDonald's and working from home have different stress values. I wonder if the amount of change in heart rate is different.
When these daily energy transitions are graphed, it is interesting to see physical strength as a sensory thing quantitatively. For example, if you measure the Body Battery of a person who gets tired easily, you may be able to find out where the cause is. If the amount of recovery is small, it may be good to improve sleep, and if the amount of consumption (exercise amount and stress value) is large, it may be better to increase the time for rest and meditation. Not a medical approach.
On the other hand, there are times when I don't think I'm that tired, but when I see my Body Battery numbers go down, I wonder if I'm really tired. Body Battery is just Garmin's original figure, so I think it's good to see it as a rough index.
How can it be 0? During the review, the lowest value was 23 or something, but I wonder if 0 is a state where the life battery is dead, or something like Pokemon. Is it cool if I do two sets?
To get the most out of the vívosmart 4, you have to wear it while you sleep. Otherwise, the recovery amount of Body Battery cannot be measured. Then, is vívosmart 4 a size that you can comfortably wear on your wrist while sleeping? The answer is of course yes. Rather, it became a problem that there was too little opportunity to remove it.
As a style, I took it off to charge when I took a bath. Since the editorial department bought it for review, I was wondering if I could take it to the bath, and I don't need to charge it every time. That means you can wear it all day long. The charger is also a type that clicks into place, so you won't miss charging like a wireless type. It is enough to charge when you take a long bath on the weekend.
No complaints about the battery either. It claims to last 7 days, but lasted 6 days during my review. Considering the elements that can be tracked and the frequency of charging, it can be said that it is an excellent durability. The Steel HR I usually use lasts more than 20 days, but the tracking numbers are too different.
Regarding the GPS I mentioned at the beginning, in my case I rarely work out and use it as a life log, so I didn't feel it was particularly necessary. And if GPS is included, the battery should go down greatly. Many people want to prioritize battery over GPS.
The vívosmart 4 lights up with a wrist-twisting gesture, but the user settings on the Garmin Connect app side Gestures do not respond during the sleep time set in . Gestures don't work when I wake up early (during the set sleep hours) and I have to tap the display to see the time. It's annoying to see you on the train. Then I said, I'll watch it on my smartphone.
Also, if you walk for about 15 minutes, it will automatically be recognized as a walking activity and lap measurement will start. In this case, the clock will not be displayed until you manually finish the lap or finish the lap measurement. You can turn off this feature by going to the Garmin Connect app > Device > Activity Options > turn off automatic laps in your walk.
In a sense, I felt that I had made a mistake in the major premise of displaying the time. If you say that the active tracker is not a watch, then I would like it to always display the time. I think I can do a little more with the accuracy of gestures.
There are many reasons why you might not choose the vívosmart 4. No GPS, no oxygen saturation measurement in Japan, no blood pressure measurement (this can't be helped). But for those who want to take lifelogging a step beyond heart rate and step tracking, the vívosmart 4 is an attractive tracker.
Because it has all the elements that make it easy to use every day, such as a size that won't get in the way while you're sleeping, a design that won't get in the way of your clothes, a price, and a battery life. Yes, vívosmart 4 is just right. Of course, activities are also cool!
As for the Body Battery, I don't think you should take it too seriously, just say, "Hmm, it's like this." You can look back on the changes in your activity level over the course of the week and adjust the amount of exercise and rest, or reminisce about how busy you were that day. I think it's good to have a sense of distance like that.
But when I saw Body Battery, I realized that taking a nap really restores my strength. Power nap!
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Source: Garmin