Garmin watches are among top selling Sports Watch Brand popular among men & women. Here I am comparing $200 budget popular models Garmin Forerunner 230 Vs Garmin vivoactive HR. I am also comparing Garmin Forerunner 235 since it is next version of 230 and it will be interesting to know what I can get directly jumping to $330 (by spending $130 more)
[Price spends indicated above are at the time of writing this post, please refer below table where prices are shown dynamically for your reference]
Once you go through the Technical Specs & Features comparison table below, you will easily understand why the Garmin Vivoactive HR is called as All-rounder model 🙂 Its Running, cycling, golf, swimming, fitness tracking, smartwatch notifications and heart rate: All in one !!! Feel free to use it for Cross country skiing, Indoor cycling, Indoor running, Indoor rowing and more.
Garmin forerunner 230 vs 235 vs Vivoactive HR Smartwatch Comparison
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Prices are updated daily on this website |  Out of stock Best Buy |  $249.95 Best Buy |  $230.79 Best Buy |
| Color Options | Black/White, Force Yellow, Purple Strike | Black/Gray, Frost Blue, Marsala | Black, White, Slate |
| Changeable bands | Midnight Blue/Frost Blue Lava Red/Black Force Yellow/Black Black/Gray White and Black Frost Blue/Midnight Blue Black and White Purple Strike Midnight Blue Force Yellow Silicone Black and Gray Silicone Marsala Silicone Frost Blue Silicone | Midnight Blue/Frost Blue Lava Red/Black Force Yellow/Black Black/Gray White and Black Frost Blue/Midnight Blue Black and White Purple Strike Midnight Blue Force Yellow Silicone Black and Gray Silicone Marsala Silicone Frost Blue Silicone | White Silicone Black Leather White Leather Slate Silicone Dark Red Silicone Dark Blue Silicone Berry Silicone Dark Purple Silicone Black Silicone |
| Features |
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| Physical & Performance | |||
| Physical dimensions | 1.77″ x 1.77″ x 0.46″ (45.0 x 45.0 x 11.7 mm) | 1.72″ x 1.52″ x 0.32″ (43.8 x 38.5 x 8.0 mm) | |
| Display size, WxH | 1.23″ (31.1 mm) diameter | 1.13″ x 0.80″ (28.6 x 20.7 mm) | |
| Display resolution, WxH | 215 x 180 pixels | 205 x 148 pixels | |
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Touchscreen | No | Yes | |
| Color display | Yes | ||
| Weight | 1.4 oz (41 g) | 1.5 oz (42 g) | Without bands: 18.0 g (0.63 oz); With bands: 38.0 g (1.34 oz) |
| Battery | Rechargeable lithium-ion | ||
| Battery life | 16 Hours training, 5 weeks watch + AT + Notifications | 11 hours training, 9 days watch + activity tracking + notifications + heart rate | Up to 3 weeks (10 hours in GPS mode) |
| Water rating | 5 ATM | ||
| GPS-enabled | Yes | ||
| GLONASS | Yes | ||
| High-sensitivity receiver | Yes | ||
| Smart notifications | Yes (Displays email, text and other alerts when paired with your compatible phone) | ||
| Vibration alert | Yes | ||
| Music control | Yes | ||
| Find my phone | Yes | ||
| VIRB® control | Yes | ||
| Watch functions | Includes date and alarm | Time, date, calendar, and alarm | |
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Maps & Memory | |||
| History | 200 hours of activity data | ||
| Running Features | |||
| V02 max estimate | Yes | No | |
| Recovery advisor | Yes | No | |
| Race predictor | Yes | No | |
| Accelerometer | Yes (Calculates distance for indoor workouts, without need for a foot pod) | ||
| Personal records | Yes | No | |
| Cycling Features | |||
| Bike speed/cadence sensor | Yes (optional) | ||
| Performance Features | |||
| Heart rate monitor | Yes (Some versions) | Yes (wrist-based) | Yes (optional) |
| Foot pod | Yes (optional) | No | |
| Auto Pause® | Yes (Pauses and resumes timer based on speed) | ||
| Auto Lap® | Yes (Automatically starts a new lap) | ||
| Auto Scroll | Yes (Cycles through data pages during workout) | ||
| Advanced workouts | Yes (Create custom, goal-oriented workouts) | No | |
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Pace alert | Yes (triggers alarm if you vary from preset pace) | ||
| Time/distance alert | Yes (triggers alarm when you reach goal) | ||
| Interval training | Yes (set up exercise and rest intervals) | No | |
| Heart rate-based calorie computation | Yes | ||
| Calculates calories burned | Yes | ||
| Training Effect | Yes (measures impact of an activity on your aerobic fitness) | No | |
| Customizable screen(s) | Yes | ||
| Shock Resistant | Yes | ||
| Swimming Features | |||
| Pool swim metrics | No | Yes (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count/rate, calories) | |
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Golfing Features | |||
| Measures shot distance | No | Yes (calculates exact yardage) | |
| Yardage to F/M/B | No | Yes | |
| Yardage to layups/doglegs | No | Yes | |
| Activity Tracking Features | |||
| Step counter | Yes | ||
| Auto goal | Yes (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal) | ||
| Move bar | Yes (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it) | ||
| Sleep monitoring | Yes (monitors total sleep and periods of movement or restful sleep) | ||
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Garmin Connect™ | |||
| Garmin Connect™ | Yes (online community where you analyze, categorize and share data) | ||
| Automatic sync | Yes (automatically transfers data to your computer) | ||
| Additional | |||
| Additional | Connect IQ™ app support: Yes |
Supports heart rate & zone: when used with an ANT+ heart rate monitor | |
| Sports Watch | Garmin Forerunner 230 | Garmin Forerunner 235 | Garmin vĂvoactive HR |
| Prices are updated daily on this website | Out of stock Best Buy | $249.95 Best Buy | $230.79 Best Buy |
What makes Vivoactive HR so famous model among men & women ?
- Touch-Screen
Needless to say that touch-screen is obvious part of your life, its difficult to imagine a device operation with buttons !! The Vicoactive HR has easy to use touchscreen, simply swipe down through the daily activity and notifications menus.
Look at an overview of your daily activity – steps, intensity minutes, last sport completed, weather report, notifications and heart rate over the last four hours including resting HR. - Sports tracking [Running, Swimming & Golf]
When running, you get pace, cadence, heart rate and the obvious pace/distance data. Only point where it lacks is a dedicated Forerunner by neglecting to add more advanced details such as VO2 Max or recovery details, but for most runners, it’s a decent set of metrics. - Golf tracking
You get distances to the front, back and middle – also you can call up a map of the green and check lay-up distances too. A live score card is also available as well. - Swim tracking
Vivoactive HR is waterproof up to 50 metres [5ATM] and equipped with a dedicated swim tracking mode. The screen inverts giving you data fields for interval time, interval distance, total time and distance. - Smart features
Vivoactive HR’s can connect to your smartphone to deliver notifications and information.
You get a call, message, Facebook update or tweet and the watch tells you about it.
You can also see weather forecasts, with enhanced views for hourly and weekly outlooks. - Battery life
Last and the most important is Battery life, you’ll get around five days of battery life using all the features and a good dose of GPS. So you can easily track multiple rounds of golf, long weekend walks and ultra runs too.
So comparing all the three models Garmin vivoactive HR specially with chabgable bands which is loved by girls & women to suit their style needs  stands out to be clear winner with spend of $200 ! Although style matters in that case someone may like to dwell upon Garmin Forerunner 230 at similar price
Look at the below advertise featuring a women wearing Garmin vivoactive HR
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