Garmin Vivoactive 5 it’s not what you expect.
Or rather, it’s not what we expected.
The American company has been a reference for athletes for years now: there is a Garmin for those who run marathons, there is one for those who climb mountains, there is even one for those who want to play golf. However, Vivoactive 5 has a double soul: satisfies athletes and performs great even in everyday life, guaranteeing you both the connection with the world you need and timely tracking of everything concerning your health.
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 review
Garmin Vivoactive 5 has been keeping us company for a few weeks. He spent the Christmas holidays with us. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice. It tracked our CES passes with a daily average of 11,471. Together we walked and ran 129.4 km. And we never got tired of him.
Unisex
Vivoactive 5 is not a smartwatch for women or even a smartwatch for men.
It’s for everyone.
The design chosen by Garmin, as well as the size of the dial – 42 mm – make it perfect for anyone. Unisex.
However, you can choose the color that best suits you and your tastes among the four available: Orchid Metallic, Black & Slate, Cream Gold & Ivory and Navy (it’s ours).
All variants have a silicone strap while the main body is reinforced plastic, the bezel is in anodized aluminum and the display, a 1.2-inch AMOLED, is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The weight therefore remains extremely low: 26 grams without strap and 36 grams overall.
This allows it to be very comfortable in any situation, from sleeping to physical activity, without sacrificing durability given that the construction quality is high and the solidity of the product is undoubted.
There is another element that we appreciated: i taste.
There are two, positioned along the edge and allow you to access apps and activities and quickly return to the home screen.
They are perhaps a little harder than you would expect but this is actually an advantage: pressing them by mistake is impossible, even when your hand is bent at 90 degrees, which happens on other smartwatches.
Technology on board
Under the body we find the processor, 4 GB of RAM, the battery (which we will talk about later) and a lot of sensors: GPS, Glonass, Galileo, Garmin Elevate heart rate technology, pulse oximeter, compass, accelerometer, thermometer and ambient light sensor. In addition we have Bluetooth, ANT+ and Wi-Fi, as well as the proprietary input which allows you to recharge the device when it is empty.
Let’s take a small step back: we mentioned the AMOLED display but it is necessary to say a few words about this screen. First of all, yes, you read that right: AMOLED. It is not a MIP (Memory in Pixel) screen, a technology known for its energy efficiency, but the work done by Garmin allows Vivoactive 5 to last a long time, while offering vivid colors and good readability even in direct sunlight, even the peak in California didn’t give us any problems. The frames are a little thick but not bad, nothing that really made us turn up our noses.
Garmin Vivoactive 5 review: how does it work?
Two buttons and the touch screen: that’s all you need to use Vivoactive 5. Or almost. In reality there are also two applications to support it. But let’s go in order.
Basically you do everything with the smartwatch.
A swipe up or down shows you the data collected: steps, intensity minutes, heart rate, body battery, HRV Status, sleep score, sleep coach, recovery and naps. In addition you have calendar, notifications and weather.
Swiping to the right instead opens i “Recent” with apps and data you have consulted lately; at the bottom of this list there are 4 dots that lead you to the list of apps and activities, list that you can also call up with the top button. Instead, go back with a swipe to the right or with the lower button.
The interface is intuitive although not the most current among those on the market but on the other hand the list of traceable activities is really long. On the app front you have all the essentials: the wallet to use Garmin Pay, Spotify for music, the alarm clock, the stopwatch, the hydration app and much more.
Do you need any that aren’t already pre-installed? There is the Connect IQ app from which you can download both those and the watch faces.
Then there is a second app, Connect, which, to be honest, is the main one. Here you will find all the recorded data, the challenges to take part in, your calendar to quickly find the information collected on a specific day, the news feed which includes friends’ data and the smartwatch settings, including the Personal Coach which also you can choose by selecting the one with the style most similar to yours.
Our user experience
There are a lot of things we appreciated while testing this smartwatch. The first is the body battery.
It is a parameter that you will hardly find on other devices and essentially shows your energy levels over the course of the day, with activities that increase it – such as sleeping – and others that
instead they lower it. What is it for? On the one hand it is a good way to understand if you have the strength to train or it is better to recover your energy first, on the other it helps you understand how your day went. Let’s take a practical example. Was the day stressful? Vivoactive 5 will suggest you take a break and do some physical activity. Light day? You may have problems falling asleep and therefore he or she will advise you to do some sport to release excess energy.
Also the sleep coach gives you valid suggestions. During our trip to Las Vegas, for example, he told us that our average hourly rate had dropped and our need for sleep had increased. Also useful is the system that shows you the time needed to recover after physical activity so you understand the effects of training on your body.
Then in the morning, as soon as you wake up, visualize he reports with sleep quality, calendar, heart rate variability information and more.
Garmin’s smartwatch can also do much more, from monitoring your menstrual cycle and pregnancy to guiding you in meditation, including the ability to track your naps. In short, nothing is missing in terms of well-being, not to mention that you have all the necessary notifications, even if it is not possible to reply.
And sport? Well, it is the company’s strong point and this Vivoactive 5 does not disappoint. We compared it to other high-end smartwatches and the data coincided almost perfectly, from average speed to heart rate, kilometers traveled and active calories burned. The GPS is also very accurate, with the route shown both on the small display of the watch and on the app, where obviously you have a slightly more accurate map available. You then have different types of training available and more it is waterproof therefore it fears practically nothing, easily adapting to your needs.
Autonomy is the bomb!
Autonomy is another big plus of this product.
If you are away from home for a few days you can easily do without the charging cable. With average use, all day and sleep included, we’ve got you covered 7-8 days without difficulty and without sacrifices.
You know when your smartwatch tells you it’s at 20% and you’re shaking? With Garmin Vivoactive 5 we didn’t worry even when faced with a paltry 6%.
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 review: conclusions
We really liked the Garmin Vivoactive 5: con 299 € you take home a truly very complete product both for everyday life and for athletes who wish to monitor their activity.
Of course, if you are professionals and athletes, Garmin has more advanced products for you but here we are faced with a smartwatch with a sober and minimal design, perfect for keeping track of your health and capable of providing timely information. There are still some aspects to be refined, such as the graphics of the software, but for us it’s a big yes.
