An all-around fantastic GPS watch

Update: October 13, 2020: We updated our Garmin Vivoactive 4 review with details of a big drop in prices for Amazon Prime Day. Right now, you can buy the Garmin Vivoactive 4 for just $ 199.99 ($ ​​150 off)! You really don’t want to miss this deal.

Garmin’s bread and butter is the extensive range of GPS fitness watches. They are often unrivaled by the competition – at least in terms of fitness functions – and that could be the case with the new Vivoactive 4. However, if you’re in the market for a new GPS fitness watch, should you buy the Vivoactive 4 or the new OLED promotional Garmin Venu? Read our Garmin Vivoactive 4 review to find out.

What is the Garmin Vivoactive 4?

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is the continuation of the popular Vivoactive 3 and Vivoactive 3 fitness watches from Garmin. It’s a multisport fitness watch and sits somewhere in the middle of Garmin’s lineup. It’s definitely more advanced than the base Vivomove 3 or Vivosmart 4, for example, but also a notable step up from a more advanced watch like the Fenix ​​6 or the Forerunner 945.

Do not miss: Garmin Venu review: Garmin goes OLED

The Vivoactive 4 is the base upon which all of Garmin’s other multisport watches will be built for 2019, including the Garmin Venu, Legacy Saga and Legacy Hero series. The main differences between the four product lines are that the Venu has an AMOLED display, the Legacy Saga series is Star Wars watches, and the Legacy Hero series is based on Marvel’s Captain America and Captain Marvel. Other than that, all core functions are the same for every product line.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is designed for hikers, runners, swimmers, and general outdoor enthusiasts who don’t want to spend nearly $ 1,000 on a dedicated outdoor watch. It’s Garmin’s cheaper device for everything but the kitchen sink. If you spend a lot of time outdoors doing various activities, this is the device for you.

What’s new compared to its predecessors?

This time Garmin has released two sizes of its Vivoactive fitness watches. The 45 mm Vivoactive 4 (our test device) has a 1.3-inch MIP (Transflective Memory-in-Pixel) display, while the 40 mm Vivoactive 4S has a 1.1-inch display . Aside from the sizes, the displays are essentially unchanged from the Vivoactive 3 and 3 Music.

Support for Garmin Pay is now standard on both models, as is the integrated music storage. In particular, the Vivoactive 3 had no music support, but the updated Vivoactive 3 Music did. The Vivoactive 4 has approx. 3.5 GB of storage space for local music or for offline playlists via Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer or iHeartRadio.

Also read: What music services work with Garmin smartwatches?

Also new with Vivoactive 4 and 4S are animated workouts on the device for strength training, cardio, yoga and Pilates. New coherence, relaxation and focus (long and short versions), as well as calm breathing work have also been added to the clocks.

Both new watches also have post-workout breathing, hydration, estimated sweat loss readings and all-day pulse oximeter records. Earlier Garmin watches had pulse ox sensors, but these were only recorded sporadically throughout the night. Now you can set the pulse ox sensor to record all day, night or never. None of the predecessors of the Vivoactive 4 had pulse ox sensors.

There are also some aesthetic changes. Both devices now have a new two-button design. The top button serves as the exercise and context menu, while the bottom button is the back button and the settings button.

Since there are two watch sizes this year, there are also two different battery capacities. The Vivoactive 4 can last eight days in smartwatch mode (six hours with GPS + music), while the 4S can last up to seven days in smartwatch mode (five hours with GPS + music). See below for more details on battery statistics.

These are the successors to already advanced fitness watches, so many other legacy functions are also returning:

• Menstrual cycle tracking
• Advanced sleep tracking
• 5ATM water resistance
• Body battery
• Stress tracking
• Garmin Coach
• Event detection and Garmin support
• Bluetooth + Wi-Fi connectivity, but no LTE version
• Sensors: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Garmin Elevate heart rate sensor, barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer

In mid-December 2019, Garmin introduced software version 3.80 for Vivoactive 4 and 4S, which included fixes for occasional crashes during training at high altitudes, repeated prompts for software updates, and general stability improvements. On January 20, 2020, Garmin introduced version 4.0 with fixes for battery usage, an improved calendar interface, fixes for a GPS and Connect IQ error, and much more. The update to version 4.0 is very extensive. If you are a Vivoactive 4 owner, you should take a look at the changelog.

A number of significant bug fixes and performance improvements have been introduced each month since launch, which you can find out on the Garmin forums. Software version 4.60 is the latest update that was released in mid-May. It improves music playback, introduces improvements to Garmin Pay, a fix for the calendar icon, improves loading time of the activity history, and much more.

Is it even good with the new things?

Here I refer you to the Garmin Venu review for most of these articles. This article will provide you with extensive information on fitness and activity tracking, GPS and heart rate performance, sleep tracking, and everything else.

I specifically went into the new features of the Vivoactive 4 and found the animated workouts on the device to be very useful, as well as the breath tracking, the new valued sweat loss metrics, and the breath work activities. Please see our other review for more details.

So far, my 45mm Garmin Vivoactive 4 is on track to last as long as Garmin claims. I have the watch on my wrist for four full days and it has a battery capacity of around 45%. I also used it for exercising, yoga, sleep tracking, and listening to music while exercising. I can’t speak to the 40mm Vivoactive 4S’s battery life, but I expect it to last about as long as Garmin projects.

Are there any disadvantages?

Garmin’s fitness watches are good at tracking fitness, but they’re still a long way off when it comes to smartwatches. The Vivoactive 4 can display smartphone notifications for Android and iOS, but only Android users can reply to messages via predefined replies. You can also archive emails and delete them from your wrist, but I’ve found that only partially works.

The Vivoactive 4 does not have a built-in voice assistant, and there is no speaker like many other watches. Support for third-party apps is also limited, but nowhere near as limited as the Fitbit app ecosystem.

Basically, you buy a Garmin watch for its fitness tracking capabilities, not its smart features.

Garmin Vivoactive 4 vs. Garmin Venu: Which is the Better Buy?

You should only buy the Garmin Venu if you want to own a Garmin watch with an AMOLED display. Don’t get me wrong – AMOLED displays are great and definitely welcome on the Venu – but it doesn’t change the core experience. In fact, I’d bet to say that it makes the overall experience worse than the Vivoactive 4.

The Vivoactive 4 is typically $ 50 cheaper at $ 349, has a longer-lasting battery (albeit with a worse display), and has the same fitness and health tracking features. There are also two sizes. I don’t think it’s as attractive as the Venu, mostly because of the non-OLED display. So if you want something more stylish, you might be better off with the Venu. Functionally, however, the Vivoactive 4 is a better buy if you don’t need a better screen.

Garmin Vivoactive 4 review: is it a good value?

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 and 4S are available on Garmin.com for $ 349.99 at Amazon for around $ 300 in light gold, rose gold, slate, and silver color options. With the $ 50 discount on Amazon, now is the time to buy!

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a more accurate fitness watch than the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and has more advanced features than the Fitbit Versa 2 (although the Versa 2 is almost half the price of the Vivoactive).

As mentioned earlier, the Vivoactive 4 doesn’t really intend to compete in the smartwatch space. It is technically a smartwatch and can provide basic smartwatch functions, but is limited in third-party app support and does not have a voice assistant. However, this is not why you should buy a Vivoactive range device. You buy it first for the fitness functions and then for the smartwatch functions. With that in mind, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a fantastic fitness watch and is sure to impress Garmin’s core fan base.

We hope you enjoyed our Garmin Vivoactive 4 review. Let me know in the comments if you have any plans to pick one up.