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Garmin Vivoactive 4: the smart health connected watch that tracks your health closely

Garmin Vivoactive 4: the smart health connected watch that tracks your health closely

April 03, 2020

Features of the Vivoactive 4
Vivoactive 4 overview: comprehensive health monitoring
Garmin Vivoactive 4 in depth review
Other new features around the Vivoactive 4: Garmin Venu and Legacy Hero Series
Our opinion on the Garmin Vivoactive 4
Garmin Vivoactive 4 price and availability

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€ 279

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€ 279.99

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€ 299.99

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After announcing Fenix 6, its latest high-end sports watch at the end of August, a few days later, Garmin presents the Vivoactive 4, an improved version of the Vivoactive 3 Music that had hit the headlines last year, especially for the holidays . This new model which is at the same time elegant, thin and light and proposed in 2 case sizes (Vivoactive 4S and Vivoactive 4) embeds a plethora of new functionalities for health monitoring, more relaxation exercises (including cardiac coherence) and ehealth animations to do your cardio, bodybuilding, yoga or Pilates exercises well. A model that should appeal to many casual and less athletic athletes.

Features of the Vivoactive 4

WeightVivoactive 4S: 40 gVivoactive 4: 50.5 g

Topographic maps–

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO0MBgv0hx8 (/ embed)

Vivoactive 4 overview: comprehensive health monitoring

The Vivoactive is a smart health connected watch for sport, fitness and health monitoring. It offers many practical functions, a means of payment (Garmin Pay), a music player and many sensors (GPS, cardio on the wrist, thermometer, barometric altimeter, gyroscope, compass). Its color and touch screen makes it easy and pleasant to use. It was designed for occasional athletes or less athletic people concerned with staying healthy or improving their physical condition. Elegant, it can be worn everyday.

This new model incorporates the characteristics of the Vivoactive 3 and adds many new features to it which we derive below.

Vivoactive 4 new features at a glance

The Vivoactive 4 benefits from the latest innovations in Garmin watches released in 2019 but also offers new functions, most of which will be added to other watches (Forerunner 945, Fenix 6 in particular). We detail these new features later in our article.

2 case sizes (40 and 45 mm) instead of one size (43 mm). The small model (4S) is suitable for thin wrists.
The mp3 player is now generalized (no more separate version with and without music)
A smaller screen (1.1 ") for the small model (4S version) and larger (1.3") for the large model
A new heart rate monitoring that works underwater (already present on the Forerunner 45/245/945 series and the MARQ series)
A pulse oximeter (measurement of blood oxygen level) for an assessment of acclimatization at altitude and better sleep monitoring
A Body Battery energy monitoring that estimates the body's energy level throughout the day.
monitoring hydration and estimating water losses (sweating)
Measuring the frequency of breathing during exercise (yoga, relaxation, etc.) and during sleep
Menstrual cycle monitoring for women
More complete breathing exercises (you can choose between relaxation, cardiac coherence, etc.)
Coaching and more than 40 animated exercises (mini videos) for cardio, bodybuilding, yoga and Pilates. The animations show how to do the exercises well. It is possible to create your own exercises in the Garmin Connect application
A revised design of the display of health statistics (already present on the latest Garmin watches)
More sports profiles (more than 20 versus fifteen on the Vivoactive 3))
A new function for golf (automatic club tracking, with compatible accessory)
A new, more energy-efficient Sony GPS chip (already present on the latest Garmin watches)
An additional push button (it makes navigation more efficient)

The other functions of the Vivoactive 4

These new features complement the functions already offered by the Vivoactive 3, here are the main lines (more details in our review of the Vivoactive3 and review of the Vivoactive 3 Music):

Garmin Pay payment system to pay for purchases directly from the watch
Detection of incidents during an activity (fall for example) and assistance in the event of an incident
LiveTrack, to be followed on the internet (position)
Ultra-complete activity monitoring functions (number of steps, distance traveled, calories burned, climbing floors, intensive minutes, deep sleep analysis, stress monitoring, Body Battery recovery assessment, daily effort monitoring, physical age )
Functions for sport (training programming and downloads, VO2max evaluation, adaptive training programs for a 5 km, 10 km, half-marathon and marathon race). Support for external sensors (speed & cadence (running, cycling), Varia via ANT + and Bluetooth Smart). Functions for swimming (metrics of swimming, detection of the type of swimming but no profile for free swimming), for skiing (accounting for the number of descents) and for golf (ten functions and the possibility of downloading a route on the watch).
Basic GPS navigation functions (position recording, return to starting point)
smart health connected functions (Smart notifications (SMS, calls), calendar, weather, "Find my phone" and "Find my watch" functions, VIRB camera control)

Go directly to our opinion on the Garmin Vivoactive 4

Garmin Vivoactive 4 in depth review

Design and technical characteristics: 2 sizes of cases for all wrists

The big change to note is the size of the watch. To offer a watch more suited to fine wrists, Garmin now offers 2 case sizes for the new Vivoactive (like its Fenix 6 offered in 3 case sizes):

Vivoactive 4S: it offers a small box (40 mm versus 43 mm for the Vivoactive 3, compared to the 42 mm of the Fenix 6S), a screen of smaller size and definition (20.7 mm and 218 x 218 px versus 30.4 mm and 240 x 240 px) and a thinner bracelet (18 mm instead of 20 mm).
Vivoactive 4: it offers a 45 mm case (2 mm more than that of the Vivoactive 3), a larger screen (33 mm) and better definition (260 x 260 px).

The Vivoactive 4S is therefore a small watch (it is among the smallest of sports watches) which will satisfy people with small wrists looking for a discreet and pretty watch (see also our comparison of the best cardio watches for women).

This new model also offers a new look that is even more elegant than the old one. The idea is to offer a watch that is chic and pretty enough to be worn permanently. This is the minimum you can expect from a watch to wear 24 hours a day! The Vivoactive 4 sports a stainless steel crown like the Vivoactive 3. The Vivoactive 3 Music did not have a crown (we don't like or we don't like the all-plastic look). Tool-less interchangeable straps (QuickFit system) are available in many colors, in particular for the small model (colors mainly intended for women).

The weight of the Vivoactive 4S remains similar to that of the Vivoactive 3. On the other hand, the Vivoactive 4 gains ten grams.

Watch glass does not change: Garmin always uses Corning glass® Gorilla®, marketed by the company Corning, which is an ultra-resistant material, in particular to scratches, and used on certain Smartphones.

The Vivoactive 4 can be personalized by downloading screens from the thousands available or by creating your own from the IQ Connect interface.

Autonomy

The autonomy of the Vivoactive 4 improves slightly with the new more economical Sony chip. In GPS mode, the autonomy increases to 15 to 18h (depending on the 4S or 4 model) compared to the 13h of the Vivoactive 3. Overall, this is very correct for a smart health connected watch

The general mp3 player

Unlike the Vivoactive 3 which was offered in 2 versions, with and without mp3 player (and obviously a different price), the Vivoactive 4 is sold with an integrated music player. People who don't want to pay more for a music player they don't use will have to live with it and pay the price.

The watch allows you to synchronize your playlists from Deezer, Spotify and Amazon Music (paid subscription). The memory capacity remains unchanged (approximately 500 songs can be stored).

New sensors: GPS chip, heart rate monitoring, oximeter

The Vivoactive 4 has Sony's brand new GPS chip, which consumes less energy than the Mediatek chip used before. This chip is fitted to the latest Garmin watches. This change allows a substantial gain of autonomy.

The watch is also equipped with the latest Garmin heart rate monitoring (third generation). It now works underwater. No need for a chest belt to go swimming.

The Vivoactive 4 also has a pulse oximeter (red LEDs on the optical monitoring) which assesses the blood oxygen level. It is particularly used in the evaluation of the quality of sleep and for the measures of acclimatization.

New health monitoring functions

The Vivoactive 4 offers new health monitoring functions which make this watch one of the most complete on the market in this area. Even if the measures are to be taken with caution (their reliability is not guaranteed), they allow to follow the evolution of the data on the medium / long term and to get to know each other better.

The Body Battery energy monitoring: already present on the latest Garmin watch models, estimates the body's energy level, as we would estimate the level of an electric battery. Basically, the watch assesses the capacity to produce an effort. This level decreases with fatigue, stress, work, physical activity. It increases with rest, sleep, relaxation. This new indicator makes it possible to judge whether it is wise or not, at a given moment, to go to play sports.
Breath monitoring: Vivoactive uses the variability of the heart rate to determine the respiratory rate. The watch continuously monitors throughout the day and during sleep. This function is also useful in activities such as yoga or in breathing exercises to get feedback on the quality of the exercises. Unlike the last models of Garmin watches which required the use of a chest belt or arm, the measurement is now made from the cardio optics on the wrist.
Assessment of blood oxygen saturation: the optical monitoring is equipped with red LEDs capable of evaluating the pulsed oxygen saturation of the blood (SpO2), provided that it does not move … A low rate (below 95%) indicates poor oxygenation (this can arrive when you climb too fast at high altitude for example). The measurement is used to supplement sleep monitoring and to assess the athlete's acclimatization to altitude.
Hydration monitoring: this function allows you to track your daily consumption of liquids, set goals and activate alerts. The user can enter the quantities of water absorbed by selecting a container (volume to be defined) from 3 available. Vivoactive then follows up, taking into account any outings (sports activities) carried out to adjust the objectives as a result of the water losses suffered (estimation of perspiration).
monitoring the menstrual cycle: it is done from the Garmin Connect app but the watch also displays useful information and notifications. Women can indicate their physical and emotional symptoms and receive practical information regarding the training and diet to be adopted according to each phase of the cycle.
Advanced sleep quality monitoring: the watch thoroughly assesses the quality of sleep: deep sleep, REM sleep and restless sleep. The heart rate, its variability, wrist movements, respiration rate and oxygen saturation (if the function is activated) are taken into account. We can thus control his sleep phases, observe how the lifestyle (diet, stress, meal times, sports activity, etc.) acts on the quality of sleep and take actions to sleep better.
Stress monitoring: the Vivoactive 4 continuously assesses, from the heart rate and its variability, the level of "stress" (we should rather speak of the level of effort or stresses) and displays on the watch a curve over the last 4 hours.
Breathing exercises: Garmin had previously offered a simple relaxation exercise based on deep breathing. The new Vivoactive offers more comprehensive mindful breathing exercises. The user can choose from a list of exercises (cardiac coherence, deep breathing, etc.) with specific recommendations to follow in order to do the exercise properly.

Animated exercises: to properly perform Pilates, yoga, cardio and bodybuilding exercises

This novelty is perhaps the most amazing feature of this new smart health connected watch.

Vivoactive offers training to follow from the watch with objectives to achieve (distance, time, number of repetitions for example). For yoga, Pilates and weight training, Garmin offers more than 40 ehealth animations to know which exercise to do and especially how to do it well. Just choose an exercise and let the watch display the movements to do!

The user can also create their own exercises on Garmin Connect and transfer them to the Vivoactive

Other new features around the Vivoactive 4: Garmin Venu and Legacy Hero Series

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is announced at the same time as 2 other identical models in terms of functionality but with different design and presented one in a special edition, the other with a new high definition AMOLED screen offering an exceptional display.

Garmin Venu: the first Garmin watch with an AMOLED screen

Garmin announces its first sports watch with AMOLED screen, a technology used in smartphones and on Apple and Samsung smartwatches. The display offers exceptional rendering and vibrant colors on a large definition screen (390 x 390 px!) For a screen size of 43 mm, i.e. 2 times more pixels than on the Vivoactive 4 and 3 times more than on the Vivoactive 4S! The watch offers animated and full-color watchfaces.

Read our review of the Garmin Venu and our opinion on this model.

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9RH7sQKbC8 (/ embed)

Legacy Hero Series: 2 special Captain Marvel and First Avenger editions

Garmin also offers 2 special editions of Captain Marvel and Captain America, First Avenger, characters from the Marvel universe, the famous imaginary world in which fictional characters evolve and which has inspired films and television series. The models are equipped with high-end materials derived from the universe of superheroes, a unique design inspired by the characters (brushed steel bezel inspired by the shield of First Avenger, high-quality leather strap lined in nubuck, word of the heroes engraved on the back of the watch …) and of dials, animations and avatars on the theme of the Marvel universe and its heroes. The on-board functions are the same as those of the Vivoactive 4.

(embed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEsftoycyKU (/ embed)

Our opinion on the Garmin Vivoactive 4

We liked Vivoactive 3 and Vivoactive 3 Music, we like Vivoactive 4 even more for its news comprehensive health monitoring functions and his animated exercises easy to make and follow as on a ehealth. It is a complete smart health connected watch at a reasonable price for the functions offered (difficult to find the equivalent at a lower price). It should therefore be a great success especially with the general public, occasional athletes and also the less athletic.

This model is suitable for leisure sports and for monitoring health. It is perfect for people who want to know their daily expenses, maintain their form, record their sports outings and have in-depth health monitoring. For a more sporty use and a similar price, prefer a model like the Forerunner 245 or 245 Music which offers tools for performance analysis and assistance to the sportsman.

The Vivoactive 4 can be worn everyday, in the city or at work, as well as for sports. It is pretty, robust, thin and light and can do almost anything thanks to its many instruments, including a barometric altimeter (rather rare for this type of watch). Garmin has successfully combined sports functions, activity tracker and smart health connected watch all in one in a beautiful and easy to use watch thanks to its touch screen (absent from the brand's more sporty watches).

The design of the watch is to our taste prettier than that of the Vivoactive 3 Music, which encourages us to choose it as an everyday watch. The various bracelets allow you to match it with your clothes while having a bracelet reserved for sport.

The case, available in 2 sizes, is really a plus: people with fine wrists will be able to choose the 4S model and its 40 mm case and finally wear a watch adapted to their morphology. Admittedly, the screen and its definition are a little smaller than the 45 mm model, but this is preferable to a watch that is too big on the wrist. Attention also to the autonomy which is a little weaker on this model.

The mp3 player allows you to listen to your favorite music during sport without having to carry a Smartphone! However, you can no longer choose it as an option (which makes the watch a bit expensive if you don't use it). The Garmin Pay payment system seems a bit gimmicky but is very practical on occasion (no need to take cash or a bank card to go to the beach or go running). It offers many sports profiles, which makes it versatile.

This watch is located between a Smartwatch (Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch) and a performance-oriented sports watch (Garmin Forerunner 245, Suunto 5, or, in more high-end, Fenix 6 and Forerunner 945). Its price is very competitive (excellent value for money) for the functions offered. It is probably a great gift idea to make: difficult to disappoint with this all-purpose and complete model (a real Swiss knife!). For a person with a more sporty profile (regular sportsman) or who practices competition, hiking or exploration, it is better to have a watch more suited to these activities (see our comparative comparisons of cardio watches).

We liked

"Swiss army knife" side of the watch (wealth of functions, number of sensors)
Ultra-complete in terms of health monitoring functions
2 case sizes (S for small wrists and M / L)
Design and touch screen
Over 20 integrated sports
Contactless payment
Music player (mp3)

We'd have liked

Stainless steel and nylon bracelets (in addition to leather and silicone)
The optional mp3 player as on the old model

Garmin Vivoactive 4 price and availability

The Vivoactive 4 will be available for sale in September or October 2019 at a price of € 279.99 to € 299.99 (model 4S) and € 299.99 to € 329.99 (model 4). It is already available for pre-order on Amazon for availability announced on September 14.