Garmin Vivosmart 3 UK price and features

The Vivosmart 3 is something that many people I know have been waiting for.

Over the past few months, Garmin seems to have been focusing on their upper-tier smartwatches. However, they have now found the time to show some love to their Vivo fitness bands.

Garmin Vivosmart 3 features

As you would imagine, the Vivosmart 3 gets some features that have previously only been available on more expensive trackers.

For instance, this is the first Vivo to feature VO2 max estimations. This will help you keep an eye on your cardiovascular fitness. The band will translate your VO2 max score into a fitness level, ranging from poor to superior.

Basically, the higher your VO2 max score, the better your cardiovascular fitness. VO2 max is also used to help determine a fitness age, which simply displays a user’s fitness level in terms of an age.

Another new feature is the Strength Training activity. This counts reps, sets, and even rest times during free weight exercises.

Notifications

Garmin has always been good with notification support and the Vivosmart 3 is no different.

Of course you get the expected calls, texts, and calendar alerts, but then the Vivosmart 3 lets you receive pretty much any notification you’d like. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram notifications are all supported. You can even control music that’s playing on your phone from the sporty wearable.

Relax

The new ‘Wellness Monitoring’ feature should help you stay relaxed. This tracks your heart rate variability, which helps calculate stress levels.

If the device senses your stress level is too high, you’ll can follow the on-device breathing exercises. These should help encourage relaxation.

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With wrist-based Elevate heart rate technology on deck, plus a barometric altimeter and accelerometer, the Vivosmart 3 will show basic info and notifications from compatible smartphones on a “hidden” OLED display that only comes into sight when it’s activated by gestures or alerts.

Hidden screen

As well as being thinner and lighter than previous Vivos, the 3 has a Chroma display “hidden” behind the band.

The band basically extends over the display. This gives the entire device a universal texture.

The display still responds to taps and swipes for navigation, and it will automatically turn on when it senses your wrist turns upward to check the time.

The bands are not interchangeable though. So choose your colour and size carefully.

There’s no GPS on board either, for that matter.

Garmin Vivosmart 3 price and availability

Garmin has the Vivosmart 3 large at £130. Both the Small/Medium and Large options are marked for availability in Q2 2017.

The Small/Medium seem to be available in both black or purple and the Large only black.

More information is available at: https://explore.garmin.com/en-GB/vivo-fitness/