The Apple Watch is a fantastic smartwatch and fitness tracker — it’s one that I wear almost daily, and use to test against other wearables. But it’s a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. If you are looking for something similar, but with more of a focus on fitness tracking, the Garmin Vivoactive is one of the best Apple Watch alternatives.
The Vivoactive 5 has many of Garmin’s signature fitness and health tracking features, but is slimmer and sleeker than models like the Garmin Venu 3 and Garmin Forerunner 165. It still has plenty of my favorite Garmin features: sleep coaching, Garmin coach training, workout benefit summaries, workout recovery times and over 30 supported exercise modes.
It’s not all fitness — the Vivoactive tracks your basic health metrics, sleep, naps and notifications, and can be used for tap-to-pay. Plus, it has wellness features like meditation modes and guided breathing exercises.
It’s also important to note that it gets up to 11 days of battery life. That’s long enough that I almost forget I need to charge at all — a far cry from the daily charging of my Apple Watch.
The Vivoactive 5 works with iPhone and Android devices and comes in four colors — the black and ivory colors have the steepest discount right now.
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I’m a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on smartwatches, running shoes, cameras and more. For this piece, I checked Garmin Vivoactive 5 prices across multiple retailers to find the best deal.
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