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Garmin Vivoactive 4

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Battery life
Design
Apps
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15 Verified Hands-On Reviews

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Expert reviews [15]

86
Total expert reviews: 15
  • with a score: 12
  • without a score: 3
Highest score by travelgpshq.com
100
Average score based on 15 reviews
86
Lowest score by runningshoesguru.com
70

Score distribution:

80-100
60-80
40-60
20-40
0-20
80
Garmin Vivoactive 4 review
The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a mid-range fitness watch with touchscreen features that is a good alternative to high-end running watches. It offers accurate GPS, heart rate tracking, and music streaming for a lower price, making it ideal for regular exercisers who want to track their progress accurately.
+ pros
  • Cheaper than Garmin's high-end Forerunner and Fenix watches.
  • Accurate GPS and heart rate tracking.
  • Comfortable and durable design with water resistance and screen protection.
  • Includes general health metrics like Body Battery and breathing/SpO2 figures.
- cons
  • Partially touch-operated interface can be annoying.
  • Fewer performance and training metrics compared to Forerunner watches.
  • Charging requires a proprietary cable and takes about an hour.
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Expert consensus

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a highly customizable smartwatch with a wide range of fitness tracking features, making it ideal for fitness enthusiasts.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a feature-packed smartwatch that is ideal for fitness enthusiasts. It has a wide range of fitness tracking features, including tracking calories burned, distance traveled, floors climbed, intensity minutes, sleep, steps, stress level, and more. It also features an optical heart rate monitor, a pulse oximeter, and built-in GPS with GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems.

The watch comes with over 40 sports and fitness apps, animated workouts, and music storage. It has a water rating of 5 ATM, making it suitable for swimming and other water activities. The Vivoactive 4 also includes enhanced health tracking features such as respiration tracking, menstrual cycle tracking, stress tracking, and hydration tracking.

The watch is highly customizable, with thousands of free watch faces, apps, and widgets available from the Connect IQ store. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a great choice for those who prioritize fitness tracking and performance analysis. If you're looking for a smartwatch that can help you achieve your fitness goals, this is definitely a watch to consider.

However, if you're looking for a watch that offers a wider range of features beyond fitness tracking, you may want to consider other options.

Features

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a versatile and customizable smartwatch with a wide range of fitness tracking features, making it an ideal choice for fitness enthusiasts.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a feature-packed smartwatch that is ideal for fitness enthusiasts. It has a wide range of fitness tracking features, including tracking calories burned, distance traveled, floors climbed, intensity minutes, sleep, steps, stress level, and more. It also features an optical heart rate monitor, a pulse oximeter, and built-in GPS with GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems.

The watch comes with over 40 sports and fitness apps, animated workouts, and music storage. It has a water rating of 5 ATM, making it suitable for swimming and other water activities. The Vivoactive 4 also includes enhanced health tracking features such as respiration tracking, menstrual cycle tracking, stress tracking, and hydration tracking.

The watch is highly customizable, with thousands of free watch faces, apps, and widgets available from the Connect IQ store. Overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a comprehensive fitness tracking smartwatch.

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Battery life

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has a varying battery life depending on usage, with up to 8 days in smartwatch mode and up to 6 hours in GPS mode with music.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has a varying battery life depending on usage. In smartwatch mode, the battery can last up to 8 days for the Vivoactive 4 and up to 7 days for the Vivoactive 4S. However, using GPS and music apps can significantly drain the battery faster, with the watch lasting up to 6 hours in GPS mode with music and up to 18 hours without music.

The charging time from zero to full takes about an hour. The watch does have a power-saving mode to extend battery life, which can last up to 8 days in smartwatch mode. The battery life can also vary depending on the type of activities or workouts being tracked, with daily workout usage decreasing the battery life.

Overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a good option for those who need a smartwatch with GPS and music capabilities, but may need to charge it more frequently if using those features frequently.

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Design

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a durable and stylish smartwatch with a scratch-resistant screen, stainless steel bezel, and comfortable silicone straps, making it a great choice for active individuals.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has a durable and high-quality design, with a scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 3 screen, stainless steel bezel, and fiber polymer exterior. It comes in two sizes, 40mm and 45mm, and is lightweight and comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. The always-on, sunlight-readable Garmin Chroma Display is crisp and clear, with a sleek and simple interface.

The default silicone straps are comfortable and versatile, with plenty of clasp holes to fit virtually any wrist size. The watch is also compatible with QuickFit 22 bands for easy customization. The circular design resembles a traditional wristwatch and has been praised for its aesthetics.

Overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a good choice for active individuals who want a durable and stylish smartwatch that can handle a variety of activities.

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Apps

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a fitness-focused smartwatch with over 40 pre-loaded sports and fitness apps, customizable workouts, and a well-designed phone app for tracking workouts and analyzing data.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a smartwatch that comes with over 40 pre-loaded sports and fitness apps, making it an ideal choice for fitness enthusiasts who want a large variety of sports and fitness apps. The watch also offers hundreds of yoga, cardio, weight, strength, and Pilates workouts that you can follow along with, and you can even customize your own workout and download it to the watch.

The dedicated phone app, Garmin Connect, is well-designed and user-friendly, offering a range of features for tracking workouts, analyzing data, and setting goals. However, the app library is somewhat limited compared to competitor apps like Fitbit or Apple Watch.

Overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a great choice for those who prioritize fitness tracking and performance analysis, but may not be the best option for those looking for non-fitness related features.

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Connectivity

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a reliable and versatile smartwatch that can connect to other devices for music playback and fitness tracking.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has reliable connectivity with other devices, including smartphones, Bluetooth headphones, and speakers. To connect the watch to a smartphone, users need to download the Garmin Connect app and enter a code on the watch's screen to connect via Bluetooth. The watch has Wi-Fi connectivity and can display smartphone notifications for both Android and iOS, but only Android users can respond to messages via canned responses.

The Vivoactive 4 has music capabilities and supports music streaming services for offline playback, with 4GB of music storage. Overall, the Vivoactive 4 is a great option for those who want a reliable and versatile smartwatch that can connect to other devices for music playback and fitness tracking.

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Compatibility

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a highly compatible smartwatch that can connect to smartphones and tablets via Bluetooth, ANT+, and Wi-Fi, making it a versatile and convenient choice for staying connected while working or working out.

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a highly compatible smartwatch that can connect to smartphones and tablets via Bluetooth, ANT+, and Wi-Fi. It is compatible with both Android and iOS devices, but messaging features like texting can only be used with compatible Android smartphones.

The watch is compatible with devices running iOS 12. 0 or later and smartphones running Android 6. 0 or later. The watch offers several ways to stay connected, making it a great choice for those who want to stay connected while working or working out. Overall, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is a versatile and highly compatible smartwatch that can meet the needs of a wide range of users.

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Position in ranking

We maintain a monthly ranking that sums up expert recommendations for all smartwatches.

Rank Change Price Smartwatch
Reviewed
Android Authority
10Beasts
Trusted Reviews
Tom's Guide
Popular Science
PCMag
Ars Technica
Wareable
TechRadar
1
+2 Check price
Apple Watch Series 10
-
2
-
-
1
-
1
-
1
-
2
-1 Check price
Apple Watch Ultra 2
6
-
-
8
6
-
7
-
6
1
3
+2 $400
Google Pixel Watch 3
-
1
-
-
3
-
9
-
2
4
4
- $250
OnePlus Watch 2
5
5
-
3
-
-
10
-
-
5
Show all rows
Garmin Vivoactive 4 did not receive any endorsements this month.