Garmin today announced vívosmart HR, a $150 touchscreen health and fitness tracker with wrist-based 24/7 heart rate monitoring and smart notifications. The water-resistant, lightweight band offers up to five days battery life with a 5 ATM water rating, and a large sunlight readable display that’s always on. In addition, the vívosmart HR counts floors climbed and measures activity intensity. When paired with a compatible smartphone, users can receive text, calls, email, calendar and social media alerts, control music, and more.
Garmin’s vívosmart HR gives users credit for the extra effort thanks to an integrated barometric altimeter. The vívosmart HR also measures activity intensity through Intensity Minutes so users can monitor their progress against weekly aerobic activity goals recommended by leading health organizations, including the American Heart Association, World Health Organization, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Like its predecessors, the vívosmart HR reminds users when they’ve been sitting too long, learns their current activity level and creates a customized daily step goal, motivating them to develop healthy habits and stay active throughout the day. Users can also manually set floors climbed and activity intensity goals.
Built for today’s connected world, the vívosmart HR lets users stay connected with vibration alerts for smart notifications including incoming calls, texts, social media, calendar alerts, and more. Users can also control the music on their smartphone from the vívosmart HR, send a signal to help locate their smartphone when they’ve misplaced it, and remote control a Garmin VIRB camera (sold separately).
The vívosmart HR automatically syncs with the recently updated Garmin Connect Mobile app for iPhone or Android so users can check in throughout the day to view reports on activity progress, track their sleep hours, join step challenges and more. Garmin Connect Mobile’s easy-to-use interface provides daily information and trends over time and can be linked to a MyFitnessPal account to automatically sync calorie and nutritional information, allowing users to view their activity versus consumed calories, and remaining calories (based on goals set in MyFitnessPal) for the day.
Price and Availability
Available in three colors – black, imperial purple and midnight blue – the vívosmart HR has a suggested retail price of $149.99 USD. It will be available for pre-orders today, and at Best Buy stores and at BestBuy.com on November 1, 2015. Best Buy Canada and BestBuy.ca will also carry the vívosmart HR in November. Additional online and store availability will begin in January 2016.
