From CNET: As the new Apple Watch 9 and Garmin's own Venu 3 smartwatches launch with $450-and-up pricetags, Garmin's new Vivoactive 5 is a more affordable alternative. It offers wearable fitness necessities and iOS and Android compatibility for $150 less than the competition.
At $300, the Vivoactive 5 even takes a $50 price cut from its predecessor, but that's not the only improvement over 2019's Vivoactive 4. Garmin's new midtier watch has a more slender design with thinner bezels, looking more like a Pixel Watch than the clunky fitness watches of yesteryear. It has more intuitive sensors, detecting fitness metrics when the wearer is moving in wheelchairs or napping.
Garmin's kept the Vivoactive 5 at its median smartwatch price by leaving off a few of the bells and whistles. To take phone calls and send voice-transcripted text messages as well as get a handful of other premium features, you'll need to pay up for Garmin's more premium Venu 3 watch.
Still, the Vivoactive 5 offers a 1.2-inch OLED display and features like pulse oxygen tracking, heart-rate variance tracking, menstrual cycle tracking, accident detection and assistance, contactless payments through Garmin Pay and up to 11 hours of battery life when in smartwatch mode (or up to 21 hours in GPS-only mode). The smartwatch inherits its predecessor's workout tracking, fitness advice and sleep coaching.
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