Garmin vivoactive 6 Smartwatch – Your New Health and Fitness Accountability Partner?
What gets tracked, gets mastered. The Garmin vivoactive 6 isn’t just a watch—it’s a system for progress. And for only $299 with AMOLED display, it's a steal. But is it the right Garmin for you? Let's find out.
Garmin Releases vivoactive 6 on April 1, 2025 — But This Fitness Watch Is Not Fooling!
Here’s what it comes down to: The new vivoactive 6 fitness smartwatch is a personal dashboard for a life lived with purpose.
Garmin has once again raised the bar in the affordable-to-midrange-sport watch category with the vivoactive 6. With some refinements to health/fitness features and user experience, as well as additional support (like around 50 more sports apps!), this Garmin watch shows how Garmin’s ecosystem excels at marrying personal data and history with recommendations and accountability.
New tools and refreshed features include:
- Smart wake alarm
- More than 80 preloaded sports apps
- Running Dynamics & Running Power support
- New Daily Suggested Walking Workouts
- Mobility activity
- Workout animations
- Revamped user interface
- Increased data fields per page (from 4 to 8)
Read on to learn more about the upgrades and find out how this Garmin watch can enhance your workouts, improve sleep quality, and help you stay connected throughout the day. It’s a savvy fitness watch for everyone—but especially those who are ready to own their time, energy, and progress!
Start the Day Off Right with Garmin vivoactive 6
A well-rested body is key to peak performance, and the vivoactive 6 ensures you wake up feeling refreshed with its smart wake alarm. This feature gently rouses you from sleep at the optimal moment during a pre-selected window, using a light vibration instead of a jarring alarm.
Once awake, the morning report delivers a comprehensive summary of your sleep quality, recovery insights, Body Battery levels, and even your daily schedule. With heart rate variability (HRV) status included, you can gauge your overall wellness and readiness for the day ahead. The morning report is also customizable, allowing users to adjust themes, select key data, and add inspirational messages for a personalized start to the day.
Never Miss a Beat: Comprehensive Health & Wellness Tracking
The Garmin vivoactive 6 fitness watch is packed with powerful tools to monitor and improve your overall well-being:
- Body Battery: Track energy levels throughout the day and receive insights on how sleep, stress, and activity impact overall energy.
- Sleep Coach: Get a detailed sleep score along with personalized recommendations for improving rest, including tracking of sleep stages, naps, HRV, and blood oxygen saturation (Pulse Ox).
- HRV Status: Monitor heart rate variability during sleep for a deeper understanding of health and recovery.
- Stress Tracking: Analyze how different moments throughout the day affect stress levels and receive guidance on relaxation techniques.
- Mindfulness & Meditation: Reduce anxiety and stress through guided meditation and breathwork activities.
- Pulse Ox: Keep an eye on blood oxygen saturation while awake or asleep to assess overall wellness.
- Women's Health Tracking: Monitor menstrual cycles or pregnancy and receive exercise and nutrition tips tailored to each stage.
Garmin vivoactive 6 for Elevating Your Sweat Sessions
Fitness enthusiasts will love the extensive sports and workout features packed into the vivoactive 6. With over 80 preloaded sports apps—that’s 50 more than the vivoactive 5—users can track walking, running, cycling, swimming, and much more. The watch even introduces new daily suggested walking workouts for those looking to stay active without intense training.
For structured fitness, users can download workouts for strength training, HIIT, yoga, Pilates, and mobility from Garmin Connect. Additionally, Garmin Coach provides adaptable running and strength training plans that adjust based on performance and recovery metrics.
Runners will particularly appreciate features like:
- Running Dynamics: Track key metrics like cadence, stride length, and ground contact time.
- Running Power: Monitor power output for better energy management during runs.
- PacePro™: Receive pacing guidance based on course elevation and personal goals.
- Recovery Insights: Post-workout analysis provides feedback on training benefits and estimated recovery time.
- Wheelchair Mode: Tracks daily pushes, provides weight shift alerts, and includes handcycle workouts for wheelchair users.
Connected Features for Life On the Go
Beyond fitness, the vivoactive 6 keeps you effortlessly connected:
- Smart Notifications: Receive text messages, emails, and alerts when paired with a compatible smartphone. Android users can even respond to messages using an on-watch keyboard.
- Safety & Tracking: If an incident occurs or you feel unsafe, your location can be sent to emergency contacts.
- Garmin Pay™: Make contactless payments on the go.
- Music Storage: Download songs and playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer for phone-free listening.
- Garmin Connect & IQ Store: Access detailed fitness tracking, personalized stats, and downloadable apps and watch faces.
Garmin vivoactive’s Sleek Design & Pricing
With a lightweight aluminum bezel and comfortable silicone band, this Garmin fitness watch offers both durability and style. Available in Black/Slate, Bone/Lunar Gold, Jasper Green, and Pink Dawn, this sleek smartwatch is designed to complement any look.
The Garmin vivoactive 6 is available to order on TrackBetter.com starting April 1 for a suggested retail price of $299.99.
The vivoactive 6 vs Similar Garmin Watches
The vivoactive 6 is the same price as the Forerunner 165 Music and the Lily 2 Active. And it comes in $150 less than the Venu 3 and the Forerunner 265. So, what sets these watches apart?
First of all, all but the Lily 2 Active feature AMOLED displays (the Lily 2 Active has a liquid crystal display).
They all offer similar battery life with the Forerunner 265 & Venu 3 having the edge with 13-14 days, and the Lily with the least, offering 9 days.
The Forerunner 265 in this category excels as a running watch, distinguishing itself with features like multi-band GPS, Training Readiness, Training Status, a triathlon sport app, Virtual Partner, Race an Activity, Grade-Adjusted Pace, Performance Condition, and Vertical Speed.
The Forerunner 165 Music comes in a close second for runners—at $150 less. It alone shares features like Course Guidance, Race Glance/Widget, Rest Timer, VO2 Max (Trail Run), Finish Time, Stride Length, and Course- and Weather-Specific Race Predictor.
But the vivoactive 6 comes in a strong third for runners with Running Coach, Recovery Time, HR Broadcast, Training Effect, Running Dynamics, Running Power, PacePro, Race Predictor, Run Workouts, and foot pod capability.
Only the Venu 3, FR165, and FR265 include a barometric altimeter for floors climbed.
The vivoactive 6 and Venu 3 offer wheelchair workouts, on-screen animation, and on-screen muscle maps—all beautifully displayed in AMOLED.
The Venu 3 and vivoactive 6 alone offer a rich suite of golfing features (not included on the FR165 or 265), along with the Lily 2 Active that offers a handful of golf features.
And, of course, the standout feature of the Venu 3 among these Garmin watches is that it alone has a speaker and mic for taking and making calls from the wrist (when paired with your compatible smartphone).
The Garmin Lily Active 2 is its own beast—or shall we say beauty. This is the sophisticated and sporty smartwatch for active types with a flair for style. It offers built-in GPS for tracking a surprising number of activities as well as health monitoring. But it does not offer quite the fitness feedback as the others in this category. Read more about the Lily Active 2 here.
None of the watches in this section offer any navigation beyond a Back to Start feature (not on Lily 2 Active) and bread crumb trail navigation—only available on the FR165 and 265. So, no on-watch mapping capability.
When it comes to things like navigation, unbeatable battery life, and all-in training … you will want to look at the Garmin multisport watches in the next section.
Garmin vivoactive 6 vs fenix 8, Forerunner 965, & Enduro 3
If you’re serious about training and the most reliable mapping and GPS-tracking, or if you need to push your watch to the limits with super-long battery life, you’ll need a next-level Garmin.
The three greatest differences between the vivoactive 6 and these upper-echelon Garmin GPS watches are:
- Built-in full color mapping
- Multi-band GPS for more accurate positioning and tracking
- Battery life
The Enduro 3 and the fenix 8 watches simply do and offer things that no other Garmin (or competitors’) watches can do. If you want the best of EVERYTHING, we recommend you check out our comparison article written by a professional running journalist.
The moderately priced Forerunner 965 is lighter on the wrist than the fenix 8 and Enduro 3, but is still super robust when it comes to performance, recovery, and analysis features. Check out our article on it here.
The other major differentiator here is price. Take a look:
Garmin vivoactive 6: $299.99
Garmin Forerunner 965: $599.99
Garmin Enduro 3 51mm (Solar): $899.99
Garmin fenix 8 AMOLED 43mm: $999.99
Garmin fenix 8 AMOLED 47mm: $1099.99
Garmin fenix 8 AMOLED 51mm: $1199.99
Garmin fenix 8 Solar 47mm: $1099.99
Garmin fenix 8 Solar 51mm: $1199.99
For a more economical version of the Garmin fenix 8, look into the Garmin fenix E, which is $799.99. It’s basically an “Essential” fenix 8, without the added bells and whistles like speaker/mic, scuba diving features, flashlight, preloaded maps (you can download). Read our article for more about the fenix 8 multisport.
Final Thoughts
The vivoactive 6 is more than just a smartwatch—it’s a personal health and fitness coach, a daily planner, and a connectivity hub all in one. Whether you’re an athlete, a busy professional, or someone simply looking to improve overall well-being, this watch offers the tools you need to stay informed, motivated, and on track. Get ready to upgrade your lifestyle with the vivoactive 6!