My Favorite Fitness Watch Is Getting Walking Workouts and a Smart Alarm

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Garmin announced a new fitness watch today, the Vivoactive 6. Its predecessor, the Vivoactive 5, is my pick for the best smartwatch to replace a Fitbit (beating out the Pixel Watch 3), and, if you ask me, it's the most underrated device in the Garmin lineup. The Vivoactive 6 is poised to be even better, adding a few new features, including a "smart wake" alarm and on-watch coaching for walking and strength training. 

The Vivoactive 6 will be available for preorder on April 4, with a suggested retail price of $299.99, the same initial price as the Vivoactive 5. (If you’re looking to save money by going with the older model, the Vivoactive 5 is currently on sale for around $219—an excellent deal on what is still a great fitness watch.)

What kind of watch is the Vivoactive 6?

The Vivoactive 6, like the 5 before it, is best described as a fitness watch. It’s not as sport-specific as something like a Forerunner, which is made specifically for runners, or an Instinct, which is made for people who are out hiking in the woods all the time. 

The Vivoactive 6 is more of a modern, everyday watch, with an AMOLED (smartphone-like) touchscreen and a lightweight plastic body that strikes a middle ground between sporty and fashionable. It measures 42 millimeters diagonally, which is on the smaller side for smartwatches. It’s roughly the same size as the Venu 3S and the Forerunner 265S, which are the smaller versions of their respective lines.

In addition to the touchscreen, the Vivoactive 6 still has two buttons, so you’re not dependent on the touchscreen during activities. (This is a major plus for any fitness or sports watch.) It’s definitely more fitness-focused than a true smartwatch (like an Apple Watch), with its built-in fitness features available just a swipe or button press away from the home screen.

What’s new on the Vivoactive 6? 

The size, shape, and general specs of the Vivoactive 6 are very similar to the Vivoactive 5. Colors have been slightly updated: there are still black and white models, but lavender and navy are out and peach and olive green are in. The new Vivoactive 6 has 8 GB of storage, double what the Vivoactive 5 had. It also has a gyroscope, the better to detect movement.

Beyond those changes, there are a few really excellent features that are entirely new to the Vivoactive 6. Here’s a tour. 

Smart wake alarm

Instead of just setting a time you’d like to wake up, the new smart wake alarm feature will let you set a window of time, and the watch will look for “lighter sleep stages” during that window to wake you with a vibration. (The manual for the Vivoactive 6 is not online yet, but that’s how it was described in a press release.)

Daily suggested workouts for walking

Garmin’s running watches have long offered “daily suggested workouts” (DSW, we Garmin-heads call them) for running and cycling. The Vivoactive 5 didn’t have any DSW, and the Vivoactive 6 still doesn’t have them for running or cycling—but it does have DSW for walking. 

Coached running and strength programs

The Vivoactive 6, unlike the 5, gives you access to Garmin Run Coach and Garmin Strength Coach. The running coach is similar to the DSW for running, but they’re viewable on your phone. (I have thoughts on Garmin’s run coaching.) From my experience with the Forerunner watches, you cannot use both a run coach and a strength coach at the same time. 

The Vivoactive 5 only had run coaching through the “expert” plans (where you choose Coach Amy, Coach Greg, or Coach Jeff). The Vivoactive 6 still has those too.

Improved navigation

The Vivoactive 6 can navigate with Beidou and QZSS networks, in addition to the usual GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO.

Red shift mode

If you need to use your watch in low-light environments, you can shift the display to a dim red-on-black mode to give your eyes a rest. 

More activity modes

The new activity modes include (this is not a full list) mobility, track run, trail run, obstacle running, horseback riding, golf, mountaineering, disc golf, archery, gravel biking, cyclocross, kayaking, surfing, snorkeling, motorcycling, ATVing, snowmobiling, ice skating, and inline skating.