The Garmin Vivoactive range of smartwatches are designed for fitness fanatics but come with a wide range of other features too, and Garmin has just unveiled the newest entry in the series, the Vivoactive 4, alongside a variant called the Vivoactive 4 GPS.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 was an adept mid-range smartwatch, and it looks like the newer devices build on its foundation with new features. These are mainly in the realm of fitness, but there are also useful additions like music playback that will have wider appeal.
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Unveiled during IFA 2019, an annual consumer tech event in Berlin, Germany, the two new smartwatches share a design bone with the older Vivoactive devices, but with improved fitness tracking.
There's also improved sleep tracking, advanced perspiration monitoring, 'Body Battery' (a feature that tells you how much energy you have left, like a phone battery, but for you), menstrual cycle tracking, and a way to monitor how hydrated you are.
One of our biggest issues with the Garmin Vivoactive 3 was that the base model didn't have music playback, but that's changed now with a built-in Spotify app.
All the popular features of this older model are back though, like Garmin Pay and GPS tracking. The Vivoactive 4 and 4S are said to have eight- and seven-day battery lives respectively, though we'll need to test this out over the course of a full review.
The main difference between the Vivoactive 4 and 4S is the size – the former is a little larger, with a thicker band too
You can pick up the Garmin Vivoactive 4 right now from Garmin's website, from $349.99 / £259.99 / AU$549. In the UK the price for a Vivoactive 4S is a little lower at £239.99, but elsewhere the price is the same for the two wearables.
We haven't got a chance to test out these two new smartwatches yet, but we will a soon as possible to let you know if they're as big steps up from the Vivoactive 3 as they seem to be.
