It’s not just smartphones and tablets that are given the chance to shine at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona. Wearables have been taking center stage the past couple of years and this year is no exemption. One, or rather two, of those being unveiled are Garmin’s two new wearables, the vivofit3 activity tracker and the vivoactive HR GPS smartwatch, both of which come with the Move IQ feature that will continually monitor periods of sustained activity.
The vivofit3 monitors most of your activities like walking, running, biking, swimming, elliptical training with the help of the Move IQ feature. And if you partner that with Garmin Connect where the tracker syncs your data, you will be able to analyze and see all your activities in a convenient Timeline view. Tracking also includes sleeping patterns and trends in your activities. The device itself is water resistant up to 50 meters, can be worn 24/7, and has one year battery life, so you hardly need to take it off. For the fashion conscious, you get a lot of options for the interchangeable bands.
Meanwhile, the vivoactive HR GPS smartwatch also keeps track of your activities but is geared towards those who do more intense workouts. It has GPS-enabled sports apps for such activities like walking, running, biking, swimming, golfing, paddle boarding, rowing, skiing and snowboarding. It also has 24/7 wrist-based heart rate monitoring so you’ll be able to keep track of calories burned and even the intensity of your activities. It has 8 hours of battery life when in your watch/activity tracking mode and up to 13 hours if using GPS. You also get to receive notifications for messages, email, calendar, social media alerts from your paired smartphone through the Garmin Connect Mobile app.
The vivofit3 will be available in Q2 and will be sold for $99.99 bundled with a regular or extra large sized black band or a regular sized white band, also for $99.99. If bundled with a camo band, it will be at $109.99 while the Gabrielle bundle includes a small sized black quilted band and white waves band for $119.99. Accessory bands will sell at $29.99 for a pair. The vivoactive HR will also ship by Q2 and has an SRP of $249.99 and will come with regular and extra large fit black bands. If you want accessory bands in black, white, force yellow and lava red, you can get them for an additional $29.99 each.
