Garmin Vívosport blurs the line between smartwatch and fitness band

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Depending on your point of view, you can call Garmin's new $200 Vívosport a high-end activity tracker or an entry-level sports smartwatch.

Along with a built-in heart-rate monitor, GPS tracking, an always-on color touchscreen display, it's equipped with 15 built-in sports apps for everything from strength training to cycling and cardio.

"We realize that many customers prefer to work out with a slim fitness band but don't want to compromise on the fitness and connectivity features typically found on smartwatches," said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. "With Vívosport, you get the best of a smart activity tracker and a sports watch in an ultra-slim, ultra-sleek design."

The Vívosport has a similar feature set to the lower-priced Vívosmart 3 we recently reviewed, but adds GPS and LiveTrack4, a feature that tracks your activity and location in real time and sends alerts to designated friends and family members, telling them where you are on a web-based map. Garmin says the Vívosport is the only fitness band to include this LiveTrack feature.

Like Garmin's other smartwatches and activity trackers, this model is fully waterproof and can be used while swimming. Battery life is rated at up to 7 days in smartwatch mode and 8 hours in GPS mode.

We'll post a full review as soon as we get our hands on a unit. In the meantime, check out the Vívosport key specs:

• Always-on color touchscreen display
  
• Up to 7 days of battery life (8 hours in GPS mode)
  
• Can be worn while swimming or showering (waterproof)
  
• 24/7 heart-rate monitoring
  
• High-end fitness monitoring tools such as VO2 max and fitness age and wellness monitoring with all-day stress tracking
  
• Automatically tracks activity, including steps, floors climbed, calories burned, intensity minutes, sleep and more
  
• New Strength Training activity keeps track of reps, sets and even rest times during your free weight and bodyweight exercises
  
• Includes LiveTrack5, a feature that alerts designated family members and friends where you are during your workouts in real time using the built-in GPS
  
• Move IQ automatically recognizes activities like walking, running, biking, swimming and elliptical training and records the activity
  
• Once synced with Garmin Connect, these recorded activities are viewable as part of a detailed timeline
  
• Automatically syncs with the Garmin Connect mobile app throughout the day to save stats
  
• Available in black/slate (small/medium and large), black/fuchsia (small/medium only) and black/limelight (large only)
  
• You can control music on your phone from the Vívosport, send an alert to locate a misplaced smartphone and remote control a Garmin VIRB camera (sold separately)
  
• Price: $200