Garmin has just announced the new Vivoacitve 6, which brings it even closer to their mainstream consumer watch, the Venu 3. This new version adds in some 50 sport profile modes and a ton of running features, including running dynamics, running power, running PacePro, course following, and on-watch workout animations. Meanwhile, on the hardware side, it doubles the music storage, and increases GPS connectivity.
Thankfully, unlike most other Garmin launches over the past year, Garmin didn’t raise the price on the watch. Instead, it’s kept at $299USD, including the ability to do offline music (such as Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music).
Now, this isn’t a full review yet, but rather, just a quick first-look at things, including a first run to take a crack at the expanded running metrics. Expect a full in-depth review down the road in a few weeks.
What’s New:
The Vivaoctive 6 is overall a very modest hardware upgrade from the Vivoactive 5. In much the same way the Apple Watch SE2 was a modest upgrade from the Apple Watch SE1. These sorts of product launches are more about ensuring you have a ‘recently released’ hardware model in the market for buyers, and less so about huge splashy releases. However, from a software standpoint, Garmin has substantially increased the features here, especially in the sports realm.
Still, here’s what’s changed from the Vivoactive 5 to the Vivoactive 6:
– Completely revamped/changed user interface (especially around settings/controls)
– Added ~50 sport profiles/apps
– Added Smart Wake Alarm
– Added Running Dynamics support (Ground Contact Time, Vertical Oscillation, Stride Length)
– Added Running Power Support
– Added PacePro
– Added Course/Route following
– Added Daily Suggested Workouts (Walk only)
– Added Mobility activity/sport profile (for flexibility & strength)
– Added Workout Animations (previously on Venu 3, but not Vivoactive 5)
– Increased data fields per page from 4 to 8
– Increased custom data pages allowed
– Added compass & compass fields
– Increased display brightness (but didn’t disclose nit values, my guess is 1,500 nits now)
– Doubled internal storage from 4GB to 8GB
– Increased GPS/GNSS types: Added Beidou & QZSS to multiband list (but not dual frequency)
– Same 1.2” AMOLED display size as Vivoactive 5 (390x390px)
– Same 42mm case size as Vivoactive 5 (one model size)
– Same Garmin Elevate Gen4 Optical HR Sensor
– Same 11 day (smartwatch) battery life as Vivoactive 5
– Same 21hr GPS mode battery life as Vivoactive 5
– Same 23g weight as Vivoactive 5
– Price is same $299 as Vivoactive 5 (329EUR)
When it comes to the sport profile modes, here’s the full list on the Vivoctive 6:
Walk, Run, Track Run, Treadmill, Virtual Run, Indoor Track, Trail Run, Obstacle Racing, Bike, Road Bike, Handcycle, Bike Indoor, Handcycle Indoor, MTB, eBike, eMTB, CycloCross, Gravel Bike, Bike Commute, Bike Tour, Pool Swim, Openwater, HIIT, Yoga, Meditation, Mobility, Strength, Pilates, Treadmill, Elliptical, Stair Stepper, Row Indoor, Bike Indoor, Walk Indoor, Pool Swim, Boxing, Mixed Martial Arts, Jump Rope, Hike, Golf, Mountaineering, Disc Golf, Horseback, Cow Tipping, Archery, Obstacle Racing, Inline Skating, Ski, Snowboard, XC Classic Ski, XC Skate Ski, Snowshoe, Ice Skating, Snowmobile, SUP, Kayak, Row, Snorkel, Soccer/Football, American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Softball, Volleyball, Cricket, Lacrosse, Rugby, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey, Ultimate Disc, Tennis, Pickleball, Padel, Racquetball, Squash, Badminton, Platform Tennis, ATV, Snowmobile, Overland, Motocross, Motorcycle, Breathwork, Cardio
Now, as a reminder, the Vivoactive 5 when it released about 18 months ago, was a *massive* upgrade over the Vivoactive 4, which was pretty stale. So, in case it’s been a while since you’ve looked at the Vivoactive lineup, here’s what was added from the Vivoactive 4 to the Vivoactive 5:
– Changed display type from MIP to a 1.2” AMOLED
– Switched back to a single size, 42mm
– Added Sleep Coach feature, including sleep recommendation factors
– Added Nap detection support (new to Garmin, finally!)
– Added HRV tracking support (at night)
– Added Morning Report feature
– Added Daily Summary report feature (new to Garmin)
– Added Recovery Time (for sports)
– Added Workout Benefit feature (tells you what the benefit of a given workout was)
– Added on-watch interval workout creation (plus existing downloadable structured workout support)
– Added eBike sensor support (ANT+)
– Added support for tracking Wheelchair pushes, as well as wheelchair sport-specific workouts
– Added ‘Recents’ quick switching between widgets
– Added more new live watch faces
– Added a number of new sport profiles (openwater swim, handcycle, etc – listed below)
– Added new guided Meditation Activity
– Added muscle map feature in strength workouts
– Expanded ‘Shortcuts’ feature
– Added ability to switch between small fonts and larger fonts for text
– Added quick-access Flashlight feature (using screen, not dedicated LED flashlight)
– Added photos in text messages (Android only)
– Revamped user interface in a massive number of different ways
– Upgraded from Garmin ELEVATE V3 HR sensor to ELEVATE V4 HR sensor (but V5 is latest)
– Switched GPS sensor to multi-GNSS (but not multi-band)
– Battery life is 11 days in smartwatch mode
– GPS battery life up to 21 hours, depending on mode.
– Contains VO2Max Estimates
– Supported sensor types: Headphones (Bluetooth audio devices), Heart Rate Sensors, Speed/Cadence, eBike, Foot Pod, Tempe (Temperature), ANT+ Cycling Lights, Cycling Radar (ANT+), Golf Club sensors
– Contains offline music capability as standard (Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, MP3, Podcasts)
– Removed barometric altimeter
– Removed floors counted (stairs) metric
– Reduced functionality in skiing/snowboarding modes (no longer automatically counts runs)
– Removed workout animations in strength/yoga/etc (but added muscle maps, per above)
Phew, got all that?
Now, when it comes to colors, here’s a quick look at the four colors:
For comparison sake, here’s the Vivoactive 3S, the Vivoactive 6, the Venu 3, and the Forerunner 165:
Ok, let’s take a quick look at the new features.
A Closer Look:
The first new feature is the new smart alarms. This can be found by going into the alarms menu, and setting an alarm just like before:
Except, now when you do that, it’ll ask if you’d like to set it as a ‘Smart Wake’:
When you toggle that for the first time, it’ll explain that it’ll wake you up using vibration alerts, up to 30 minutes ahead of your wake-up time, by looking at your current sleep phases/stages, to find the time that’ll make waking up hurt less. In the event there isn’t an optimal time during that 30-minute window, it’ll still alarm at the predefined time:
After which, you can see the confirmed time range:
Next, let’s take a look at the new user interface. At first glance, the watch face looks essentially in line with past Garmin watches. The display is, by default, gesture-based, but you can toggle it to always-on, as I did. And, of course, you can customize the watch face with other stock/included watch faces, or anything from Connect IQ.
The next user interface change is that you can’t get to the settings by simply long-holding the lower right button. Rather, that’s now going to set up a quick-access control (such as accessing heart rate broadcasting or other features).
Instead, to access settings you’ll need to first swipe from the right (or tap the upper right button), which brings you to the main activities page. Here you can jump to starting a workout (like in the past), or other apps:
But to access settings, you’ll swipe down till you find ‘Settings’, and tap that open:
Within that, you’ve got the new settings list. At a conceptual level, this starts to follow the new UI found on the Fenix series, in terms of some of the groupings. It’s different from the past Vivoactive/Venu units. At that point, you’ll find all the familiar settings options, just in different spots.
Meanwhile, backing out a step, you’re in that Activities menu, and within that, all of the sports I outlined above. If I tap the ‘Walk’ sport mode though, you’ll see the new ‘Walk’ Daily Suggested workouts. Daily Suggested workouts have historically only been Run or Bike on Garmin watches, so this is actually legit new to Garmin.
Sidestepping to the running profile, you’ll see the new options here for course following, as well as PacePro loading. The course/route following means you can navigate a course. While there are no maps on the watch, it will at least follow a breadcrumb-style trail and tell you when you’re off-course.
Meanwhile, for PacePro, it’ll allow you to create a PacePro plan (such as on Garmin Connect mobile), and push it to the watch:
And then you can see/load it onto the watch:
Of course, you can still do any structured training that you want, such as loading plans from Garmin Connect (it includes free running/cycling plans), as well as creating your own custom workouts, or having custom workouts pushed from various training platforms (such as TrainingPeaks or Final Surge). Likewise, there’s also a smattering of included interval workouts, and the ability to create your own interval workouts.
Once you’ve picked whatever you want, course or structure-wise, you’re off onto a run. These runs will now include Running Dynamics details, without any chest strap or RD pod required. Likewise, it’ll include Running Power too. What’s somewhat notable about this is that historically Garmin has always required a barometric altimeter on their watches to display running power. Here, they don’t advertise that the unit includes that, yet, still has running power…and 3D Distance…and 3D Speed….and downhill Skiing mode, and all these other metrics that in every single Garmin watch over the last 2 seconds, has required an altimeter. Yet, Garmin says there’s no barometric altimeter here. And there’s at least one snippet of evidence to support that. Check out my run here with the Vivoactive 6, Venu 3 (baro altimeter), and Fenix 8 (baro altimeter). Note in particular that moment where I stopped to take some watch photos, standing very still. In that moment, the Vivoactive 6 showed absolutely zero wiggle/movement (as a GPS-based one would). In contrast, the baro altimeters showed very slight sub-1m movements.
In terms of data fields, you can now customize up to 8 data fields per page (from previously 4 data fields per page). There doesn’t appear to be a hard limit of 3 custom pages like there was in the past, either. There’s even a magnetic compass in there now, which will correctly change as you rotate the watch (versus an electronic compass, which requires you to be moving forward).
I’ll be adding in some more post-run data pages here shortly, with more details on that, though, that remains the same as previous Garmin watches.
Wrap-Up:
The Vivoactive 6 is actually much more feature-packed than I expected. In fact, I’d argue it’s one of the best deals in Garmin’s lineup today. In fact, in some sport areas (such as route/course following), the Vivoactive 6 exceeds that of the Venu 3 (which lacks course/route following). Of course, the Venu 3 has ECG features and Garmin’s newer optical HR sensor, plus various voice/microphone/speaker features. The Venu 3 was launched at the same time as the Vivoactive 5, so I’d expect a Venu 4 refresh is probably in the cards. Though, historically Garmin has released the Venu series in the September timeframe (much like the Vivoactive series). Thus, things are a bit askew in terms of historical data.
Still, it seems clear the Vivoactive 6 is designed to compete most directly with the Apple Watch SE. While that was the case previously, I gave Garmin a hard time in my Vivaoctive 5 review, due to lack of many sport features that Apple included but Garmin didn’t. Given Garmin’s jam in life was sports/fitness features, it was a pretty big gap that Apple had bested them in some of those areas. The Vivoactive 6 is clearly Garmin saying “Nope, we own sports and fitness.”
Now, I’ll do a full in-depth review in the coming weeks, diving into all the details of the Vivoactive 6 after a bunch more workouts. Till then, thanks for reading!
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Garmin Connect+ is the start of the end, Garmin. Re-think it, now.
Thanks though Ray. Looks nice! Waiting for the FR975 though :'(
They completely lost their minds. I hope most of people will not accept this.
Do you know what support this watch does have for external sensors like the Stryd and does it work with ConnectIQ apps?
Yes, works with Garmin Connect apps.
Do you know if it has the same issue with Stryd or Garmin footpods as Fenix/Epix/Forerunner have where easy runs are categorised as Tempo and Tempo as VO2MAX, etc.
What’s an easy run? :)
That said, I don’t run with Stryd/Garmin footpads, so I don’t see the mis-categorization issues.
And the compatibility with external sensors like Stryd and Power Meters?
Nice April Fools Easter Egg
link to garmin.com
… Horseback, Cow Tipping, Archery…
Two of the three are very much real.
Thought this was an April’s Fools joke for a second there!
Interesting, the first watch that does running power without an altimeter. How on Earth do they do that? And does it have the same accuracy as the usual accelerometer/altimeter-based approach?
It has 3D Speed, 3D Distance, Outside Temp (which is typically part of a baro altimeter), Running Power, downhill skiing Auto Run, and more…
It just doesn’t have the elevation data field, though, does track ascent/descent in certain sport modes (e.g. downhill skiing). Kinda silly.
However, the piece that makes me think it doesn’t have one, is when I stopped running to take some photos mid-run, the Fenix 8 and Venu 3, both showed very slight elevation wobble (under 1m), consistent with me putting hands up/down. Whereas VA6 was precisely the same value till I started running again.
On your photos and the ones on Garmin’s website I can’t see any barometer holes, and it’s that sensor is also missing on the (often incorrect) official spec sheet.
Maybe they found a way to guess elevation accurately enough from GPS and accelerometer data combined?
Are the running power graphs of Fenix 8 and VA 6 similar?
It doesn’t count floors, right? Isn’t a baro a prerequisite for counting floors? Ofc nothing prevents Garmin from “artificially” excluding the ability to count floors even if a baro were present, but I don’t think they’ve done this before.
Once the Connect IQ SDK docs are updated, we could try to check the supported devices for the “ambientPressure” field in the activity info data returned by the API.
link to developer.garmin.com
Note that ambientPressure is supported by Forerunner 165, despite the fact that it has a baro with less software support than other models (e.g. no ABC glance, no storm alerts, no elevation data field, etc.)
And note that ambientPressure isn’t supported by any device which is known to lack a baro (e.g. FR245, Venu Sq, Vivoactive 5)
If ambientPressure isn’t available for Vivoactive 6 according to these docs, once the docs are updated [*], then that wouldn’t prove anything, but it would be additional anecdotal evidence that VA6 doesn’t have a baro. Otoh, if ambientPressure is available for Vivoactive 6 according to the docs, then it would suggest that VA6 does have a baro.
[*] we’ll know once other parts of the docs start mentioning VA6
The docs have now been updated [**], and Activity.Info.ambientPressure does not list Vivoactive 6 as a supported device.
[**] This can be seen, for example, by the fact that Activity.Info.averageDistance (average swim distance) does list Vivoactive 6 as a supported device.
The docs for Sensor.History.getPressureHistory, getTemperatureHistory, and getElevationHistory also omit Vivoactive 6 (as well as Vivoactive 5, and other devices which don’t have a baro.)
Again, none of this *proves* anything, but it does suggest that VA6 probably doesn’t have a baro. Either that or the baro-related software features are *severely* limited (even compared to limitations seen in past devices, like FR165).
My understanding is the Vivoactive 5 does not track uphill/downhill like the old Vivoactive 4 does. It just continues to add distance and elevation to your alpine ski. It sounds like Garmin will not support this via GPS. Can you confirm?
My Vivoactive 4 just died today ironically but I was looking to replace with something that tracks ski runs. I’m not sure what to get now.
I’m curious to know if internal components are the same
Even for “only” 299$, this watch looks very cheap in comparison to many other brands or even the 165. And I guess the gorilla glass is domed and therefore prone to be scratched easily? I don’t know, in my opinion another Meh-release. And I guess the smart alarm will not be available to everyone not owning an F8….
It looks even worse when you look at the Amazfit Active 2 with a stainless steel chassis and a sapphire slass screen and all that for $99. Then you realize how much Garmin is scr*wing us over.
Hi Ray,
do you know whether the new Smart Wake feature will come to other watches like fenix 8?
No dance fitness in this model Ray?
Thank you so much for this information.
Unfotunately my vivoactive 4s just died. After troubleshooting with Garmin, they confirmed its pooched.
I’m now debating between the 5 and 6.
Any major reason to not get the 5 (it’s $120CAD less than the 6)
I purchased a Venu 3 about six months ago as a replacement for my Vivoactive 4 to get some of the updated features since the Vivoactive 5 seemed to be lacking. What does the Vivoactive 6 offer that I cannot get with the Venu? The most obvious is route tracking.
TBH I don’t understand why Garmin continues to have both of these watches and cannot combine them into a single model for around $349-379.
At the moment, the core differences between VA6 and Venu 3 are:
– Venu 3 has Gen5 optical HR sensor
– Venu 3 has ECG/Afib detection
– Venu 3 has speaker/mic/voice bits
Meanwhile, the Vivoactive 6 has the following items the Venu 3 doesn’t:
– Smart Wake alarms
– Daily Suggsted Workouts (Walk)
– A newer UI (not really better, just different)
– The new Mobility sport profile
I think those are the main things.
Urgh…
That has confused me now. I was looking at some lightly used Venu3 for around £250 – £300 and then this comes out for much the same price.
Do I want the extra buttons and ecg? or go for the new release?
Do you have Afib? If not, you don’t need ECG. If so, you should have a medical device and not rely on a sports watch. 😁
No afib. Was leaning towards this, but…gadgets :-)
For the most part this could just have been a firmware update to the VA5.
Heart rate needed to be upgraded to V4 to get some of the new functionality I would guess.
VA5 already had that HR sensor.
They release a crazy amount of nearly identical generic AMOLED watches just to sell as much as they can and put new features behind paywall. At the same time they release buggy software to their existing watches. Garmin is clearly going in the wrong direction and I’m writing this as someone who used to love this brand :/
Enshitification. Connect+ is a nail in the coffin, moving forward I think I’m done with them.
You’re not a real sport watch until you have Cow Tipping. Great call.
Garmin is doubling down on not only charging money for a software update (now called “a new watch”) but now for all “premium” app features (read, any new app features from now on). Garmin has gone completely crazy, on principle alone I will no longer support it and buy anything new from Garmin. Time to move on.
Any indication from Garmin if some of these will make to the vivoactive 5?
Yet another Garmin watch, and yet another without LTE.
Giving up on Garmin until we see a watch with some sort of connectivity outside of WIFI and BT. Don’t understand why they just don’t come up with a watch that has an esim like the current Samsung Galaxy watches. That way you can just choose your own provider and be done with it.
But that leads to another issue Garmin has to tackle, allowing both their apps like weather and the ConnectIQ apps to access and use that connection. I guess they need to start with WIFI since only thing you can do with it currently is sync, update and add music.
There is a lot I like about Garmin watches, but my Apple Watch Ultra is just more practical and nearly as useful as a training device with 3rd party apps.
Don’t really see how it directly competes with the Apple Watch SE (even without LTE), when you can’t even get updated weather info unless you are within bluetooth range of your phone (which with Garmin devices isn’t very far).
From a connectivity standpoint, no Garmin device competes with an Apple Watch.
No barometer? No thanks. I’ll stick with my Vivoactive 4S a while longer. It may be time to move to Apple for the first time later this year.
Will the Cow Tipping activity profile support VO2 Max calculations and structured workouts? 🐄
Ray pretending not to know when the Venu 4 will be released… probably due to NDA ;)
I don’t really like how the new top button looks like, but how’s the button feel? The VA4 buttons were nice and clicky, the VA5 buttons felt more difficult to press and a bit mushy / lacking some feedback.
The top button looks a lot like the ones they has on the FRx45 series. Imo it’s ugly and I hope they don’t bring that to new Forerunners. The x55 / x265 styles are better looking.
Some of the added features are why I decided to keep my 165 and sell my VA5. The VA6 blurs the lines even more. Too many models… which they’d consolidate.
Garmin’s lineup keeps getting more and more confusing with every watch release.
Maybe they should stop for a second and rethink the product lines and what separates one line from another (as well as what separates the products within a single line)?
I noticed on your video review that there’s an MTB activity profile, but on their website they don’t include it. Any reason for the discrepancy?
There’s a long-held saying… “You mean, the Garmin.com specs are incomplete?” :)
In my case, I literally just go through the watch and manually type them all up (as I did here). Just re-confirmed I didn’t imagine it, and indeed, is on my watch.
Interesting. Would have liked if my 165 had the MTB activity. Garmin has such a strange way of picking and segmenting features.
Elevate 4? Why? To save 300 bucks or how much in two years of the lifespan of the device? Is there really anybody that unsmart to buy it?
consumers should give them a clear signal of not accepting this and simply not buy subpar devices.
I thought I read somewhere that Garmin was backtracking on their Connect+ subscription plans. Any word on this?
Someone posted that as an April fools joke.
Nap detection is not new for Garmin: FR 965 had it since November 2023: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-965/352967/forerunner-965-software-version-17-26—live
I believe you might have misread that section…
Fiddlesticks! You’re right. I saw a list of changes but forgot to check the text, which mentions it’s from 4 to 5, while this is 6.
VA5 (and VA6) are not upgrades on a VA4/VA4s. They are completely different watches that correct Venu 3’s error of having too many features and thus a high price for basically an added bluetooth handsfree on your wrist.
VA4(s) owners like my wife still hold out on theirs – as they will probably never see a MIP alternative in the fitness category again.
ah yes. and she really likes the stairs climbed target, too. Stairs and Steps are the daily motivation for non-super-athletes.
Nap detection is bogus on my FR265. Lately I have been dowsing in late afternoon and not once that was detected as a nap (or sleep).