It looks like a standard fitness tracker on the outside, but inside it packs many of the same features from garmins more expensive smartwatches lets check it out. Music ive been wearing the vivosmart 5 for a week and i think its a really good tracker, but at 150 it is a little bit on the high side, especially considering some of the features you dont get im going to dive into all of the main features And functionality of this particular tracker, you can skip straight ahead with chapters linked in the description down there as well. I also have latest pricing and availability and a link to my full review, so lets get started, theres really not that much to talk about when it comes to the design of the vivosmart 5. It really just does look like your standard run of the mill fitness tracker instead of interchangeable straps, the actual body of the tracker itself, just pops straight out from the band like so and you can buy different ones of these to change up the look of the Band, i quite like it its simple, its no fuss and no frills. That simplicity also extends to the monochrome screen. Now i was honestly a little bit surprised to see a black and white screen on a fitness tracker in 2022, especially one that does cost 150. Considering most of its other competitors do have color screens such as say the fitbit charge 5. in practice, it really wasnt as much of a downside.
As i initially thought. The screen is bright, easy to see in broad daylight. It does have an automatic brightness sensor and, for the most part i could make out all of my stats and work out metrics really really easily. The one thing i would say, though, is that notifications might sometimes be a little bit more tricky to see on this. If you struggle reading smaller screens, then you might have a little bit of difficulty. Reading notifications that come through from either your ios or android device on the screen of the vivosmart 5, just because it is so small. Unfortunately, there is no way to change the text or font size on the clock face itself. That said, some of the main stats and metrics that you might only be interested in seeing like your steps and your heart rates do surface as really big on the screen. So that was nice to see, even if notifications are a little bit small. Unfortunately, there is no always on display like there is on competitors such as the fitbit charge. Five with this watch youll either need to tap the screen to turn it on press the button on the screen itself or you can use a raise to wake gesture to activate the watch face. So you can see the time and your workout stats. Navigation is really simple. You swipe up and down from the main screen to see things like your step count as well as the body battery which well talk about in a little bit and things like your sleep score.
You can also hit that main button on the screen itself, just underneath it and that will pull up your main menu, which gets you to your activity tracking, as well as your settings, and things like being able to change the watch face. The vivosmart 5. Does everything youd expect for health and fitness tracking and a little bit extra? It does things like track your steps track your sleep as well as having one of 14 different activity, types that you can track all of your different workouts under including things like, of course, walking running and cycling. You also get things like yoga breath work and hit workouts too. The vivosmart 5 does have 10 slots on the tracker itself to store your different workout profiles and if you do want to swap them out to your favorites say you want to remove. Like i dont know running, and you want to swap in yoga, you can do that from the garmin connect app. Unfortunately, this tracker does not have built in gps like some of its competitors. So if you do want to track distance and route information for your outdoor workouts, you will need to take your phone with you. Of course, the vivosmart 5 does track your heart rate, 24 7, and i do test the accuracy of the heart rate sensor against a chest strap. Now i found that resting heart rate was very close to the chest. Strap it matched up within three beats per minute and there wasnt really much lag at all when it came to a cardio based workout and a run, the vivosmart 5 once it caught up to the chest, strap it was spot on, but it did take several minutes To kind of get there, as you can see on this chart so again, hopefully a software update, can kind of lessen that latency a little bit and get it spot on from at the moment.
You start your workout. The vivosmart 5 has high and low heart rate alerts on board, but it does not have an ecg or electrocardiogram app like its competitor, the fitbit charge 5., its, not all fitness stuff. Of course, the vivosmart 5 also tracks your sleep and overall recovery. You can wear this 24 7 if you want, because the battery does last a fair amount of time that well talk about in a little bit, sleep tracking is good, although it does present you with a sleep score which sometimes doesnt always correlate with how i felt After i, you know got up from my sleep in the morning, which is not unique to the vivosmart 5. I often have this issue with other wearables that do present me with a sleep score, but the data is pretty comprehensive. You get to see things like your sleep stages, including rem and deep sleep, as well as your respiration rate, and, of course you can track blood oxygen overnight or spo2 levels, although that does eat into your battery life. Another element that this tracker has from garmins more expensive devices is the body battery. Now this takes into account things like your heart rate: variability your stress levels as well as your overall activity and gives you an idea of whether or not you should push yourself a little harder and maybe do that more intense workout or if you can give yourself A bit more of a chill rest day, i really like the battery battery score and i think its easy to read and interpret especially if you dont really know too much about recovery.
Music. All of your data is surfaced in the garmin connect app, which is a really comprehensive look at all of your health and fitness data that this little tracker can deliver. But i would say it is kind of overwhelming, especially if youre a first time user, so dont feel bad about seeing all of this information and kind of feeling like you have no idea what to do with it do take some time to go through the interface And really customize it to only see the pieces of information that actually really matter to you. One more thing to note about the vivosmart 5 is that it does not have an altimeter, so it will be tracking elevation data using calculations from your phone. Okay, lets get into the smart features, notifications and, of course, the battery life, which is super important. Now, as i mentioned, ios and android compatibility for the vivosmart 5, you can see calls and text notifications, as well as app notifications coming through from your phone, but you can only send quick canned responses from android. The vivosmart 5 also has music controls and these work with pretty much any streaming service or music app thats on your phone. There is no music storage on board, however, which is not a surprise given its size and price. Like all the garmin devices, the vivosmart 5 does support live track. This sends a live location to selected friends or family members during your outdoor workouts.
However, you do need to take your phone with you for this to work now. Lets get into battery life. The vivosmart 5 does perform pretty well on this front, its rated to get to seven days of battery life between charges. However, that is, of course, going to depend on your usage patterns. For me, i do have a probably a little bit more of heavy use than say that standard that garmin was measuring, that against um ive so far, gotten about five full days out of the vivosmart five before needing to charge thats, taking into account things like doing A 30 to 60 minute gps workout every day, as well as having automatic screen brightness on, and i did sp02 or blood oxygen tracking one night during sleep tracking, but every other night ive had it turned off to do my sleep tracking just without sp02. So not too bad, but not necessarily best in class Music. So there you have it. The vivosmart 5 is a do it all tracker, almost with a couple of emissions such as a color screen and no built in gps just connected gps. I think there are some trade offs here for the price, but if you are someone who is looking for their very first fitness tracker or maybe youre someone whos already in the garmin ecosystem, with a higher end watch and just wanting something a little bit more simple To wear on a day to day basis, this could be a really good buy but of course, stay tuned for lots, more comparisons and reviews here on cnet, you can also read my entire full review on the vivosmart5 thats linked for you in the description below.PEhtGv0czsI
