Garmin Vivofit 4

At the dawn of its formation, the functions of fitness trackers were reduced to counting the number of steps taken, calories burned and tracking the quality of the user's sleep. Garmin's most affordable tracker has not far gone in terms of functionality from the first-born of the wearable gadgets squad, but all this is served in a model with a different sauce.

Activity auto-detection

The main trump card in the sleeve of the bracelet is the ability to automatically determine the type of activity, whether it be walking, running, cycling, exercising on a simulator or swimming. In the latter case, the outer “wrapper” of the case serves as a kind of bathyscaphe for the electronic “hardware” of the model, thanks to which, together with a fitness tracker on the wrist, you can safely dive under water to a depth of 50 m. At least this figure is proudly claimed by the manufacturer and weighty there is no reason not to trust him.

Link to smartphone

Detailed training statistics are maintained in the Garmin Connect app, where the wearable gadget transfers data when paired with a smartphone. Unfortunately, the bracelet lacks support for duplicating notifications from the phone, but it can be used to search for a lost "mobile phone" through a special function. Also, Garmin Vivofit 4 is quite capable of working without being tied to a mobile device, accumulating activity data in the internal storage (its volume is enough for about a month).

Record battery life

The key emphasis in the model is placed on a transflective 8-colour display with a resolution of 88x88 pixels. It serves to display time, number of steps, distance covered, calories burned, weather forecast and other related information. The strength of the screen lies in the economical consumption of batteries, which are assigned to the role of two batteries type SR43. On average, they will ask for a replacement after a year of continuous operation of a fitness tracker with an always-on display.

Advanced Alternative

Many people would like to see a heart rate monitor on board the bracelet, but the prerogative of monitoring the number of contractions of the heart muscle is left to the older representatives of the Swiss brand's lineup. In particular, one of the most advanced solutions on the market is the Garmin Vivosport tracker, which has both an optical heart rate monitor and a GPS module to get the most accurate results about the user's outdoor activities.