Garmin has announced the Vivofit 4, a fitness tracker that builds upon the solid heritage of the Vivofit brand.
Maintaining the industry leading 1+ year battery life, the Vivofit 4 is slimmer than it’s predecessor while also sporting a colour screen instead of the older generations’ monochrome.
“An activity tracker is only as effective as how often you wear it, and this is where the vívofit 4 really shines – you can set it and forget it,” said Adam Howarth, General Manager Garmin Australasia when announcing the Vivofit 4’s launch in Australia. “It’s the ideal device for customers who want something reliable that they don’t need to hassle with or take off to recharge.”
I’ve used the Vivofit 2 previously and a family member has been happily using the Vivofit 3 for over a year so we can vouch for the accuracy of Garmin’s 1+ year battery claim. It’s really nice to not have to worry about charging it.
Don’t worry about remembering to manually to start or stop timed activities. Thanks to Move IQ, the Vívofit 4 is able to detect changes in a user’s movement and automatically capture and classify activities such as walking, running, biking, swimming and using an elliptical.
If you like to swim or participate in fitness activities that cause a lot of sweating, you needn’t worry as the Vivofit 4 is designed to be worn 24/7, including showering and swimming.
Vivofit 4 can of course be paired with a smartphone and offers additional features such as tracking sleep, intensity minutes and more.
Garmin claims that the new colour screen on the Vivofit 4 is sunlight readable – we’ll see if that’s truly the case once review units are available. After all, Australian sunlight is amongst the harshest in the world.
If you only want one gadget on your wrist you can use the Vivofit 4 as your everyday watch, complete with a countdown timer, stopwatch and multiple alarms. A weather widget also gives a quick, illustrated look at the day’s weather.
Software settings customisability such as changing watch faces is made possible using the Garmin Connect app.
Absent-minded people like myself will also likely find the new “Find My Phone” feature handy.
For those who like to match their gadgets with
the rest of their outfit, you have the option to change bands. Interchangeable accessory bands are available in a Speckled Merlot and Speckled Navy combo pack (S/M) for AU$39. Accessory bands in Speckled Black (S/M), White (S/M) and Black (S/M and L) are available for individual purchase for a RRP of AU$29.
Retail options out of the box include White (S/M), Lime Green Speckled (S/M) and Black (S/M and L) .
The Garmin Vivofit 4 will be available for a recommended retail price of AUS $159. While retailers haven’t been announced yet, we’re guessing the usual options of Rebel Sport, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks etc will have stock as well as buying from Garmin Australia directly.
If you don’t mind waiting a while for delivery Amazon.com is selling the Vivofit 4 for appx AUS $110 including shipping.
Be good if there were some to purchase in Australia
Australia tax at work.