Garmin has announced the Vivosmart 5, its latest wearable and first fitness tracker in almost four years. Just like wireless earbuds, fitness trackers are another type of wearable that have flooded the market and are available in different shapes, sizes, and colors. When it comes to fitness trackers, both established and new players try to outdo one another on features and price.
After announcing several new smartwatches in the first quarter of 2022, Garmin is now turning to its fitness tracker line which was last refreshed in 2018. Its 2022 product lineup already includes the hybrid Vivomove Sport, the stylish Venu 2 Plus, and the Fenix 7 series. The latter of which is targeted at adventurers and those who prefer outdoor workouts.
Garmin has made some significant changes to the design of the Vivosmart 5. The new fitness tracker has a larger and sharper OLED display that measures 0.41 × 0.73 inches and has a resolution of 88 × 154. This is a big upgrade over the Vivosmart 4's 0.26 × 0.70-inch screen with its 48 × 128 resolution, but it also means that the wearable is no longer as slim. The screen supports touch input and can also be operated using the physical button placed below it. Apart from the bigger screen, another design change is support for interchangeable bands. Additionally, there are also some material changes such as the use of acrylic for the lens instead of polycarbonate. Acrylic transmits light better than polycarbonate and doesn't turn yellow over time, even though it isn't as strong.
Garmin is offering more than just design upgrades with its new fitness tracker. While features such as heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen saturation level measurement, Body Battery energy monitoring, and stress tracking have been carried over, there are a handful of new additions too. The Vivosmart 5 now has support for women's health tracking (menstrual cycle and pregnancy), respiration tracking, and hydration tracking. In addition, users will now get a score to reflect their sleep quality with insights on how to improve it. There is also mindful breathing to help with relaxation and a fitness age feature that uses chronological age, weekly activity, resting heart rate, and BMI or body fat percentage to determine the "age" of the body.
The fitness tracker is capable of tracking steps and calories burned. There are several built-in sports apps for walking, running, yoga, Pilates, cardio, swimming, and strength training. Garmin's new wearable also has a 5ATM water-resistance rating making it suitable for swims and showers. Unfortunately, it still lacks GPS and has to latch on to a connected phone to track outdoor running, cycling, and walking. However, there is support for incident detection during outdoor activities, which will send the user's location to emergency contacts if assistance is required.
The Vivosmart 5 has 7-day battery life and is compatible with Android and iOS. When connected to a phone, it will be able to display email, SMS, and app alerts. The new fitness tracker comes with a price tag of $150 and is available in Black, Cool Mint, and White colors. Buyers will have the option to choose between small/medium and large sizes, with the latter only available in black. Those who pick up the small/medium size can also buy extra bands in the aforementioned colors, which Garmin has priced at $30 each.
Source: Garmin
