6/16/2023 0 Comments Google mytracks with vivosmart![]() Given that the Vivosmart 5 can’t store music, there’s a good chance you’ll use your phone for soundtrack duty. Pairing is generally swift and seamless, with routes recorded relatively accurately compared to the built-in GPS of a Polar Vantage V2. With none on-board, you’ll need to connect the Vivosmart 5 to your phone to log location data. You get optical heart rate and blood oxygen monitors, together with an ambient light sensor and accelerometer. There’s nothing groundbreaking about the Garmin’s sensor setup. Garmin Vivosmart 5: tracking & performance It’s a neat feature which adds a dash of value – plus an equal measure of frustration, because it’s surprisingly difficult to dismiss when you don’t want to read it. This compact summary covers calendar events and weather, as well as a handful of health metrics. The Garmin Vivosmart 5 will also present you with a daily morning report based on your wake time. And while the level of feedback on offer might be more than most Vivosmart 5 users need, the app is also intuitive, attractive and accessible. You get the full-fat experience for free, complete with comprehensive, in-depth insights into your activity. Unlike Fitbit, Garmin doesn’t hide any features or data behind a subscription paywall. There’s limited scope to customise the widgets themselves, but they can be added, removed and rearranged through Garmin Connect – a partner app which puts a shine on the Vivosmart 5 experience. At most, they’re good for glancing, rather than deep-dive updates. These are welcome additions to an otherwise fitness-focused tracker, but their usefulness is realistically limited by the tiny size of the display. There’s a calendar display which lists your upcoming appointments and a weather readout which provides a brief forecast. Swipe through the widgets and you will find a few useful screens which sync data from your smartphone. There’s no Garmin Pay for contactless transactions, no third-party apps available through Connect IQ and no built-in storage for offline listening – although you do get connected music controls, assuming your digits are deft enough to land on the right icon. Smartphone notifications aren’t the limit of the Vivosmart 5’s smarts – but you don’t get too much more to play with. Garmin Vivosmart 5: features & connectivity ![]() Before long, you’ll be hammering your way back to the home screen, happy to have something that responds with a reassuringly tactile click. ![]() There is a little learning curve when it comes to activity commands – you have to press and hold to pause a recording – but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. This can be used to wake the Garmin Vivosmart 5 and open its menu, but otherwise it functions as a back button. What helps here is the button which lives on the front of the Vivosmart 5: gone is the capacitive touch surface of before, in favour of a physical input. Swiping between widget screens is easy and swift, but you’ll need to get your taps on target – which can be tricky when you’re halfway through a sweaty session. The touchscreen itself is also fiddly for bigger fingers. Widgets are fine for quick glances, but smartphone notifications can feel cramped, with some squinting required to read them. Garmin’s designers have done admirably to create an interface which squeezes a lot of data onto the dinky display, often helped by the use of scrolling text. There’s no always-on display option, either – so you’ll need to flick your wrist or hit the button (below) to wake it. That’s sharper than the Vivosmart 4, but compared to the vibrant AMOLED panel found on the Fitbit Charge 5, the Vivosmart 5 feels like something from a different era. It’s also a monochrome number, with an 88×154 resolution.
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