When comparing Suunto M5 vs Garmin Vivoactive HR, the Slant community recommends Suunto M5 for most people. In the question“What are the best fitness trackers with heart rate monitoring?” Suunto M5 is ranked 9th while Garmin Vivoactive HR is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Suunto M5 is:
The watch can adapt to the routine one is using for their workouts in order to suggest other workouts the user may be able to handle. This basically works as a simple personal trainer, which can be encouraging to the user.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Adapts to ones workouts
The watch can adapt to the routine one is using for their workouts in order to suggest other workouts the user may be able to handle. This basically works as a simple personal trainer, which can be encouraging to the user.
Pro Heart rate monitor is not necessary for every workout
Luckily the extra monitor is not necessary for every workout, which is nice as it can be a pain to hook up correctly and is a bit of a chore being an extra piece to worry about.
Pro Good display
The fitness tracker has a large backlit full-color touch-display that's sunlight-readable and responsive.
Pro Easy to use
The fitness tracker has two buttons, a back button that also locks the device and a start button that also enters settings, and an intuitive touch interface that is controlled with swipes and taps. The learning curve is close to nonexistant.
Pro Step, stairs, heart monitoring
Cons
Con Setting up the heart-rate monitor can be a chore
Finding the correct placement for the heart rate pad to record correct reading can be difficult to do, which may be time consuming and a PITA.
Con Movestick can't be run on OSX
Software for the device is not OSX compatible, though users could emulate a Windows environment and use the software that way.
Con Heart rate monitoring can be hit or miss
There may be times where the monitor fluctuates out of the norm, which leads to incorrect readings. Normally this is understood when using something like a smartwatch, but to see it happening with a device that has a separate band to record heart monitoring it is a shame to see.
Con HR monitoring does not work during swimming
The fitness tracker's heart rate monitoring gets turned off during swimming.