The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is a sleek and stylish $299 GPS smartwatch boasting some of Garmin's best fitness and wellness tools and a handful of useful smart features. However, unlike the Forerunner and Fenix series, it's not built for hardcore athletes and runners, but for everyday users.
But is the Vivoactive 6 worth the cost? I'm still waiting to get my hands on the new model for testing, but based on everything we know about the Vivoactive 6, I can think of five major reasons to consider buying it and three reasons why you should definitely skip it.
Buy: You appreciate top-notch fitness tools
The Vivoactive 6 doesn't have all of Garmin's fitness tracking modes, but it does support a whopping 80. It also includes the vast majority of popular workout types, from runs and hikes to motorcycle rides and snowmobiling.
In addition, the Vivoactive 6 boasts many of the brand's best training tools for runners, despite not being marketed as a running watch. These include options to help you keep pace, race time predictions and insights into your form.
To help you prep for your day and stay on top of fitness goals, the Vivoactive 6 provides a daily Body Battery metric, from 1 to 100, which reflects your approximate energy levels.
However, to keep the cost down, Garmin opted to use an older health sensor array without an onboard ECG or skin temperature sensor. That said, health data from the Vivoactive 6 should be accurate. It tracks real-time heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen saturation, women's health and stress.
Buy: You're looking to improve your sleep
Garmin's sleep-tracking is impressive. Each morning, users are greeted with a report with details on how long they slept, how much time was spent in each sleep stage as well as REM, the overall quality of their sleep and more. You also get a daily Sleep Score out of 100.
Better yet, The Vivoactive 6 is Garmin's first smartwatch with the brand's new Smart Alarm feature. This nifty tool aims to wake you up during your lighter sleep stages via increasing vibrations on the wrist. Users preselect a wakeup window and the Vivoactive 6 does the rest.
Lightweight and likely easy-wearing (based on the Vivoactive 5), the Vivoactive 6 also shouldn't be burdensome to wear to sleep, unlike, say, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 or Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. Plus, battery life is good for up to 11 days per charge, which means you won't need to worry about topping off the battery nightly (like the best Apple Watch models).
Buy: If onboard music storage is a must
Garmin doubled the amount of onboard storage for music in the Vivoactive 6 from 4GB to 8GB which should be enough for 1,000 songs or more. The watch also plays nicely with many popular streaming services, including Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer.
Of course, the advantage of saving your favorite tunes to your smartwatch is that you can jam out while working out or on the go, without the need to carry a bulky smartphone.
Buy: The convience of tap-to-pay appeals
Onboard NFC means that you can tap-to-pay for items using the Vivoactive 6 via the Garmin Pay app. It works pretty much anywhere contactless payments are accepted, and setting up a credit card should be a painless endeavor.
Buy: You want an easy wearing, stylish device
The Vivioactive 6 is one of the more fashionable (boring) smartwatch designs.
I'm not going to lie to you and say that smartwatches in 2025 are cool or stylish looking. Most resemble a glass circle or square affixed to a strap, i.e. they look more like tech than say, a vintage mechanical watch.
Still, the Vivioactive 6 is one of the more fashionable (boring) smartwatch designs, particularly in the Jasper Green colorway. It also shouldn't look out of place on narrower wrists thanks to a manageable footprint. It measures 42mm in diameter with a thickness of 10.9mm and a weight of 23 g.
Skip: You own the Vivoactive 5
If you already own the Vivoactive 5, there's likely not enough newness in the Vivoactive 6 to warrant the upgrade. In fact, outside of some very slight design tweaks, the two devices look nearly identical.
They also offer essentially the same onboard tech, though the newer Vivoactive 6 should be a bit more accurate in the location- and movement-tracking departments.
Sure, the Vivoactive 6 has some higher-end training tools, double the storage and Garmin's new Smart Alarm function. But the basic functionality and specs are essentially a match.
Skip: Having the best smart features is a top priority
Smartwatch features on the Vivoactive 6 are limited. Outside of music storage and tap-to-pay, users can receive mirrored smartphone notifications (but can't respond to messages) and not much else. For the best smartwatch features, go with one of the best wallet-friendly smartwatch models like the Apple Watch SE (2022) or Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 instead.
Skip: You want to track elevation gain/loss while working out
The Vivoactive 6 frustratingly doesn't have an onboard altimeter for accurate elevation tracking, which means if you're someone like me who loves hiking, biking and skiing in the mountains, than this Garmin model is likely not the best choice for you.
Instead, consider the Garmin Forerunner 55, which is even kinder on the wallet ($199) than the Vivoactive 6.
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