What you need to know
- The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is expected to arrive soon, based on information from Gadgets & Wearables and Fitness Tracker Test.
- Like the Vivoactive 5, it should have an aluminum bezel, two buttons, 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, all-systems GNSS, and music storage.
- It’ll allegedly sport the same Elevate v4 sensor as most last-gen Garmin watches, precluding any ECG support.
- It’s expected to ship in four colors — black, white, green, and pink — and cost about $300 like its predecessor.
Anyone eagerly awaiting the Garmin Vivoactive 6 shouldn’t have to wait much longer. After a four-year gap between the 2019 Vivoactive 4 and 2023 Vivoactive 5, Garmin will leap ahead next month with a 6th-gen model that’s pretty similar to the last version, based on leaked renders and specs from retailers.
Gadgets & Wearables first posted renders of the Garmin Vivoactive 6 on Saturday, before Fitness Tracker Test followed up with detailed specs and a list of new features coming to Garmin’s popular all-arounder — as well as a prediction that it’ll arrive before the end of April.
According to both sites’ information, the Garmin Vivoactive 6 is likely to ship in one 42mm case size with a 1.2-inch AMOLED touch display, like the Vivoactive 5. Also like its predecessor, it’ll have an aluminum bezel on top of Garmin’s typical fiber-reinforced polymer case materials.
Reportedly, it’ll ship in Black, Bone, Jasper Green, and Pink Dawn, as shown in the renders above. Compared to the Slate, Cream Gold, Metallic Navy, and Metallic Orchid of last generation, the Vivoactive 6 has its own personality. You can also see a more elevated top-right button in these renders, which could make it easier to press.
According to FTT’s Florian, the Vivoactive 6 will be slightly skinnier than the Vivoactive 5 (10.9mm vs. 11.1mm) but weigh the same 26g without the strap; it also has the “same battery life,” which would mean 11 days per charge or 5 with AOD active.
What’s more disappointing is that both sites suggest that the Vivoactive 6 won’t have ECG support, meaning it has the same Elevate v4 sensor as most Garmin watches from the past few years, besides the Venu 3, Fenix 8, and other expensive models like the Enduro 3.
Garmin didn’t give the Instinct 3 new health sensors, either, which we took as a warning sign at the time. The Vivoactive 6 will likely cost much less, and perhaps Garmin sees the Elevate v5 sensor as too “premium” for this lineup; but it’s a shame, as ECG and skin temp readings would absolutely fit this “mainstream” lineup and match better against other fitness watches.
Nor (allegedly) will the Vivoactive 6 have a barometric altimeter, one of our biggest complaints with the last model. Both sites suggest the Vivoactive 6 will add a greater running focus with running power, running dynamics, and PacePro, plus two new satellite systems — BeiDou and QZSS — for better all-systems GNSS tracking. But this just makes the lack of elevation tracking more noticeable.
In happier news, the Vivoactive 6 should get workout animations, something that fits well with the lineup’s target audience of indoor athletes. Of course, this would pair well with the new Garmin Connect+ subscription that’s generating controversy, thanks to its Live Workouts.
FTT says the Vivoactive 6 will get doubled music storage to 8GB for your Spotify or YouTube Music playlists, as well as a mysterious “smart alarm” that we haven’t seen on any Garmin watches yet. In theory, this would be similar to Fitbit’s smart alarm, checking for a light sleep stage before triggering an alarm within a certain window.
Overall, this feels like a fairly iterative update for the Vivoactive watch, assuming that these leaked specs are correct. At the same time, we do like the Vivoactive 5, and the Vivoactive 6 should take its role as the entry-level Garmin watch that we recommend to anyone new to the platform, if and when it arrives in April.
