When comparing Garmin Vivosmart vs Garmin Vivoactive HR, the Slant community recommends Garmin Vivoactive HR for most people. In the question“What are the best fitness trackers?” Garmin Vivoactive HR is ranked 19th while Garmin Vivosmart is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Garmin Vivoactive HR is:
The fitness tracker has a large backlit full-color touch-display that's sunlight-readable and responsive.
Specs
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Pros

Pro Smartwatch-like functionality
Vivosmart is capable of showing smartphone notifications and control music playback.
Pro Logs exercise
Pro Week's battery life
Pro Some customization options
Pro Displays time
Pro Good step counter
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 Companion app is difficult to use
The way the information is presented is confusing and incoherent and there's no logical way to find necessary information.
Con No activity autodetection
Vivosmart does not automatically detect when you start to walk or run, you have to start and stop activity manually.
Con Reps counting feature does not work for some exercises
Reps counting feature is not reliable, sometimes it misses few reps and with some exercises it can count 1 rap, even if you did 10 reps for example. And it can't detect when you start the exercise, so you have to start and stop the counter manually. In practice I frequently forget to start and to stop the counter so after some time I simply sopped using this feature.
Con Difficult to check current time because display most of the time is turned off
In order to turn on the display, for example to see current time, you need to raise you hand and after some delay display some times turns on, sometimes not.
Other option is to double tap the display, which requires both hands.
If you frequently checking current time, it is really annoying.
Con App requires you to provide personal data in order to work
You have to register in the app providing information about your age, gender and weight.
Con App does not work without internet connectivity
It is not possible for example to enter your weight if you are not connected to the internet.
Con No GPS data is collected
Con HR monitoring does not work during swimming
The fitness tracker's heart rate monitoring gets turned off during swimming.
Con No sleep monitor
