Garmin Viviosmart: An activity tracker that tries to be a smartwatch
Smartwatches
[MUSIC]
Garmin is known for their GPS enabled devices.
But in the past year the company has made a push into the activity tracker market.
First there was the Vivofit activity tracker, and then the Forerunner 15, a GPS running watch that also included activity tracking.
And now there's this.
I'm Dan Graziano and I'm here with the Garmin Vivosmart.
This little device can track the steps you take, distance you travel, calories you burn, and your sleep at night.
But that's not it.
It can also display notifications from your smartphone.
There's Bluetooth so it can connect to your Android or iPhone.
It's even compatible with wireless heart rate monitors, and it's waterproof up to five atmeters, meaning you can wear it while swimming or in the shower.
The design is thin, flexible and lightweight, and most of the time, you actually forget you're wearing it.
This secondary security slider that Garmin calls a Vivokeeper helps the device stay on your wrist throughout the day.
As the name implies, the Vivosmart includes some smart features.
You can control your music and view notifications right on your wrist.
Unfortunately though, you can't interact with these notifications.
All of this information is displayed on an invisible OLED screen that appears after you double tap the front of the device.
The screen can be a little difficult in some environments and I found that the double tap action didn't always wake it up.
you can however set it to automatically wake up when you raise your hand to your face.
One of the more interesting smart features is a Find My Phone option.
As long as the Vivosmart is in range of your smartphone, and, of course, connected to it, the band will display a proximity bar that shows how far you are from your phone.
At the same time, your phone will also ring and vibrate, making it easier to locate.
With all of these features, you would expect battery life to take a major hit, but that's not the case.
The Vivo Smart gets about seven days of battery life which is pretty good considering everything it does.
the Garmin Vivo Smart is available now.
For more information be sure to check out my full review over at CNET.com.
I'm Dan [UNKNOWN] for CNET and that was a first look at the Garmin Vivo Smart.
