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TECH NEWS
Garmin launches Vivoactive GPS smartwatch
Garmin has launched the new Vivoactive GPS smartwatch at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, marking the company’s first venture into the increasingly popular smartwatch market. This is a watch that can be used for multiple sports with full GPS capability, can sync with a smartphone to provide SMS and call alert, and can be worn all day without looking out of place. It's a growing market, with the likes of Apple and Samsung both launching feature-packed smartwatches last year.
Garmin has plenty of experience in the fitness market to call on though, it already has a wide range of Edge GPS cycling computers, and introduced the Vivofit fitness band not so long ago. The new Vivoactive bridges the gap, a device that offers much of the functionality of an Edge computer but is sleek and light enough to be worn all day. It's a light weight, thin (just 8mm, much less bulky that most other GPS watches) and stylish design packing a high resolution screen. The battery lasts a claimed 3 weeks in watch and activity tracking mode, or 10-hours using GPS.
“Vívoactive combines signature Garmin fitness technology, such as built-in GPS, long battery life and a sunlight-readable display, in an ultra-thin smartwatch that lets users stay connected and achieve more,” says Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Designed to be worn all day, vívoactive can be personalized in many ways - from interchangeable bands to watch faces, apps and widgets - making it versatile, stylish and functional for your life. ”
Smartwatches such as the new Vivoactive are designed to be worn all day, not just when cycling or running. So you can wear it round the office, use it at the gym at lunchtime, track your cycle ride home in the evening, everything. It’s designed to track and monitor your level of activity constantly. It'll even kindly alert you when you've been lazy and inactive for a long period of time.
It can be used for numerous activities, including cycling, swimming, running and even golfing with the built-in sports apps. The cycling app can provide all the usual metrics like current speed, distance etc, and can also be synced with heart rate and cadence sensors for further data collection.
Pairing with a compatible smartphone means it can display alerts for incoming calls, texts, emails and calendar events, plus alerts from social media apps. You can also use it to control your tunes and if you have a Virb Elite video camera, well it can remotely control that.
But Garmin already has the Forerunner 920XT GPS multi-sport watch doesn’t it? True, and on the surface there does seem to be quite a bit of crossover. It looks like the Forerunner is a more dedicated sports watch for serious fitness freaks and athletes, with much more detailed data analysis compared to the Vivoactive, which is aimed at a broader section of the market and where appearance, for something intended to be worn all day, is equally important. It’s also more versatile as third party apps can be downloaded to it, such as a calendar app to keep track of appointments.
We’ll be interested to get a closer look at the Vivoactive when it’s available, which looks like being sometime this spring. It does remain to be seen whether smartwatches will really capture the imagination of consumers, but it’s still early days for the product sector and there's definitely a lot of interest from the big companies in offering the right blend of design, usability and functionality.
The Vivoactive will cost £199.99, and you can pre-order it from the Garmin website now.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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16 comments
Buy direct from Garmin UK £199.99. £239.00 with a heart rate monitor.
Battery Life??? Recharged every day of use...? I don't think I have the temperament to be charging yet another device every day...
OK just read DCrainmaker and it does have ant+ and ConnectIQ coming out.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/01/vivoactive-smartwatch-vivofit2.html
Maybe Garmin need to look at the poor app/website for connect ?
I have the vivosmart band which links via ant+ to my HRM and cadence meter.
It says links to HRM (separate) but not cadence ?
Also surely Garmin should be looking at a inbuilt HRM and not have people wear a band. I only got a Vivosmart because the Mio looks too bulky to me and others not yet released.
As to the price, as we know we get ripped off in the UK and they usually charge the dollar price in sterling.
That's not quite true and rather simplistic a view.
US "retail prices" as often quoted by (lazy) journalists do not include sales tax(es), which do vary within the USA, which is greatly misleading. If you're going to guestimate the UK RRP at least do add our own sales tax (20% VAT to the converted £164) and you'll get around £199 (I rounded it UP to make it "retail friendly"). My own guess is that it's going to cost a little more seeing how Garmin products are generally on the pricey side over here.
Fair comment I guess as sales tax in NYC is I think 6% when I went there this year. Obviously here it is 20%.
As to the range of items it is now a lot, with smart watches down to bands and the inevitable arrival of Apple soon. No question that any one of these is significantly cheaper than say the edge 810.
Garmin really do need to up the app/website though soon.
Fair comment I guess as sales tax in NYC is I think 6% when I went there this year. Obviously here it is 20%.
As to the range of items it is now a lot, with smart watches down to bands and the inevitable arrival of Apple soon. No question that any one of these is significantly cheaper than say the edge 810.
Garmin really do need to up the app/website though soon.
There's also *much* more everyday discounting from RRP in the US, so yes, we're definitely getting ripped off.
Last gadget I bought in the US was half price compared to here, despite the RRP (once converted) being within 10%.
This looks pretty compelling for most people, including me!
looks good, but no watch will ever better my CASIO F91W, a true classic
A classic, but unfortunately is now has the aroma of hipster to it.
Hmmm ... better grow my beard and have another cup of coffee ...
I just did....
IMG_20150106_163252.jpg
I have to agree, the f91 is my favourite sports watch ever. I like strava and gps too for dorking out on some stats once in a while but nothing beats the simplicity of the casio. No need to wait for a gps signal, no signal outages, no messing with maps, click that stopwatch and go !
Looking at the write-up, this offers pretty much everything I'd be interested in. I've been looking at the Garmin GPS watches for running but thinking that they don't really do enough for the money. This sits perfectly for me between the Forerunner range and the what I expect the Apple Watch will be.
First smart watch I'm actually interested in buying, I think.
Looks interesting but will wait to see what the apple watch does first. Are we approaching the era of a watch for each arm ?