It’s been four years since Garmin released Vivoactive 4 at the IFA in Berlin back in 2019. The smartwatch became a popular choice among users. Due to the popularity of Vivoactive 4, it is safe to say that Vivoactive 5 is on the horizon.
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When Garmin released Vivoactive 4, it came in two models: a 45mm stainless steel one and a 40mm model for small wrists – called 4S.
So we can expect that Vivoactive 5 will also have the same form-factor. According to rumors, “A round device with a few size options should once again be on the cards,” reports Marko Maslakovic in Gadgets and Wearables.
As for the display, Garmin may not opt for AMOLED as doing that would hike the price and decrease battery life.
Increasing the resolution may be a good choice. And, if Garmin shrinks the thickness of the watch, there won’t be much changes in the design.
As for the users’ expectations, we’d like to see more health tracking features. Vivoactive 4’s SpO2 sensor was very popular. Users would like to see it in the latest model as well. SpO2 measures blood oxygen levels and respiration rate. These are useful, especially for sleep tracking.
Vivoactive 4 offered pretty much everything in sports and fitness tracking. However, metrics like Training load, Recovery Time, Training Effect would be nice additions.
As Garmin watches are known to be popular among athletes, they don’t offer ECG readings. But since Vivoactive is an all-purpose fitness and health watch, having ECG on the Vivoactive 5 would be a good choice.
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So, when could we see the Vivoactive 5 in the market? There was a two-year period between Vivoactive 3 and Vivoactive 4, which landed in 2019. Therefore, expecting Vivoactive 5 in 2021 is quite reasonable.
As for the price, we’d expect it to be around the same range as Vivoactive 4 and Vivoactive 4S, which were launched at US$338 and US$315 respectively.
