The vivoactive is Garmin’s latest mid-priced fitness smartwatch. It has all the features one would expect of a high-end watch.
It's a great tool for tracking all types of sports and gym activities, including yoga and strength training. There are also some animations on the screen to get you started. There's even a breathwork mode that uses a mindful breathing technique to help you improve your oxygen intake and lower stress levels.
The device also comes with a number of useful fitness tracking tools, including heart rate monitoring, VO2 max and a breathing rate pulse oximeter (see FirstBeat). The battery life is also good, lasting up to 8 days in smartwatch mode or 16 hours with GPS and music.
Vivoactive 4 is water resistant up to 50 meters, making it ideal for swimming and other aquatic adventures. Gorilla Glass 3, which protects against scratches and dents, is also used to cover the device.
It's an attractive smartwatch that has a touch screen. It looks like the touchscreen could handle the rigorous workouts at a gym. It has a nice design and is a lot better than the previous model, which had drab plastic.
Garmin sports tracking features are impressive. The heart rate monitor works reliably and consistently. It's still not perfect. Heart rate data is typically smoothed more than what I prefer. But it's still not bad.
The vivoactive 4 has a good range of music capabilities, with support for offline playlists and local storage for up to 500 songs. The music integration is not as smooth as it could be. It's possible for the vivoactive to be used with Spotify or Deezer. To link your account you need to have a smartphone, and you cannot add music directly from the watch.
The vivoactive4 is far ahead of its competitors when it comes fitness tracking. It can log over 100 different health metrics including stress, hydration and calorie burn.
With all this tracking ability, it's no wonder that the vivoactive 4 is so popular among Garmin fans. It comes with an impressive range of fitness functions, and is priced affordably to appeal to many users.
The app can play music and can even display a map that shows where you were when you finished your run.
However, it's worth noting that the vivoactive4 does not feature an integrated speaker, or microphone. This means you'll have to use your smartphone if you want to use this device. It's also possible to connect an ANT+ cycling speed/cadence sensor and footpod, which can help improve accuracy in areas with poor GPS reception.
The vivoactive is an upgrade from the vivoactive 3. It has a touch screen with a more responsive interface and a better navigation system. The vivoactive 4 has a button to add and remove activities, and it can display multiple pages at once.