The Garmin Vivoactive takes a bit of a flight away from a brand that many already know better as a lineup of devices that offer all-out-run-tracking. A notable example would be the Forerunner 225. Unlike other offerings by the same company, the Vivoactive is not your ordinary fitness tracker nor is it your run-of-the-mill smartwatch. It is aimed to become your daytime all-rounder.
The Garmin Vivoactive is a Jack of All Trades
The Garmin Vivoactive is a fusion between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker, and it does so quite well. Other than doing the norm of being a “watch that can tell you time and track running activity,” it also has a built-in GPS for smarter tracking. Still, users would have to deal with the large screen.
Even though it does look and feel gigantic on the wrist, the Vivoactive watch and fitness tracker looks to be one of the best-looking wearable techs out in today’s market. But if you compare it to other smartwatches in the market from bigger names in the industry, such as the Apple Watch, then Garmin’s offering may want to take a back seat.
But to be fair, this device is not really “ugly” to look at nor it is quite the looker. It gathers attention with its large display. But even though the length and the width of the watch’s face is quite big, it is surprisingly thin and light. It is only 8-millimeters thick and the weight is just under 40-grams. For the full dimensions, they are 43.8 x 38.5 x 38.5-millimeters.
The silicone strap attached to the Vivoactive’s watch face is comfortable to wear. As for the LED display, it is gently colored and uses ambient light. This works quite will in bright sunlight, but when it comes to looking at the watch’s face during nighttime, well, let’s just say that’s another story. However, the company already knew about this problem and decided to put in a button to activate a blue front light for easy viewing while in darker environments.
The display measures in at 1.38-inches and has a resolution of 205 x 148 pixels. The pixel count is comparable to the first wave of Android wearable devices. While it does work, it won’t win any awards. However, swimmers everywhere will be happy to know that the watch has a water resistance rating of about 50-meters in depth.
Fitness tracking for the Garmin Vivoactive also works surprisingly well. Therefore, it can be truly stated that the watch is a Jack of all Trades, but a master of none.