I just got my hands on the new Garmin Vivoactive 6 GPS smartwatch and it could be my new favorite wearable from Garmin.
Priced at $299, it offers many of the brand's most useful holistic monitoring and fitness training tools along with some handy smart and safety features.
Add in excellent battery life and a super-comfy, lightweight and (dare I say) attractive design, and you've got one heck of an appealing smartwatch. Read on for my first impressions of the Vivoactive 6 including thoughts on its design, build quality, specs and more.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: Price and release
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is available in one size, 42mm, and four colors including off-white, black, coral and my fave, "Jasper Green." Officially available as of publishing, the $299 Vivoactive 6 can be picked up through Garmin directly or via major retailers, including Amazonand REI.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: Design and comfort
One of the aspects of the Vivoactive 6 I appreciate most is the device's minimal footprint. The case has a diameter of 42mm, a thickness of 10.9mm and a weight of just 23 g, which means that it should wear nicely on even the most slender wrists.
On my 6.5-inch wrist, the Vivoactive 6 feels comfier and less burdensome than the majority of smartwatches I've tested in recent memory. My go-to, the Apple Watch SE (2022) in 40mm, by comparison, is roughly the same thickness but is a full 10 g heavier.
A "fiber-reinforced polymer" (aka, plastic) case design is not only what keeps the Vivoactive 6 light but also wallet-friendly. Despite the lack of metal in the design, it feels well-constructed and looks premium.
That said, I wish Garmin included a bezel of some sort around the display to protect it from bumps and abrasions. The AMOLED screen is touch-sensitive and respectably sized at 1.2-inches. Well-saturated and reasonably bright, I was able to view it in direct sunlight without issue.
In addition to the touchscreen, two buttons grace the right side of the case. Garmin changed the design of these buttons, which on the older Garmin Vivoactive 5, look and feel identical. The top button is now round and pops out a bit more than the lower pill-shaped one. Still, like its predecessor, these buttons are a tad stiff to press.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: Setup
Setting up the Garmin Vivoactive 6 out-of-the-box was a breeze and took roughly 15 minutes. I had to update the (free) companion Garmin Connect app on my phone, a roughly 30-second affair, before pairing the device.
Users are presented with some basic questions when the first activate the device, including their wrist preference, basic fitness goals and height/weight/gender.
Once setup, the Vivoactive 6 immediately required a firmware update and restart — something that seems to be par for the course with any new wearable in 2025 — before it was ready roll.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: Health features
Having only spent an afternoon with the Vivoactive 6, I've yet to dive into all its health and fitness-based features, though you can read a full summary of them in my Vivoactive 6 launch story.
That said, the one I'm most excited to try out is Garmin's new Smart Alarm setting that attempts to wake you up via wrist vibrations only during your lighter sleep cycles. Users pre-select a wake-up window before hitting the sack and the device's sleep tracking determines when to start the vibrations.
Another aspect of the Vivoactive 6 I was delighted to discover while setting it up is support for many of my favorite activities, including snowboarding, kayaking and snorkeling. In all, the watch supports 80 workout types. This isn't quite Garmin's full suite of trackable activities, but the majority of popular ones are there.
It also has all of my favorite Garmin holistic tools like in-depth daily sleep reports with numeric scores for sleep and energy levels (called "Body Battery").
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: smart and safety features
I'm a big fan of leaving my phone behind when leaving the house for a workout, something that's totally possible with the Vivoactive 6.
Onboard GPS means you get location tracking data, no need to piggyback off of your smartphone's signal. The device also has NFC and supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments; who doesn't love to celebrate a workout with a nice sweet treat from the local bakery?
Better yet, 8GB of onboard storage is plenty to download all my favorite pump-up jams to the Vivoactive via Spotify for offline listening. I'll report back on exactly how many tunes 8GB translates to, though.
When it comes to safety, Garmin watches don't skimp. The Vivoactive 6 offers Incident Detection, which like Apple's Crash/Fall Detection, can be set to automatically contact loved ones or authorities if a hard fall or impact of some sort is registered. Users can also manually trigger the safety feature.
Additionally, the Vivoactive 6 has Garmin's LiveTrack function that lets you share a real-time location map via a link with trusted loved ones. This feature does require a paired smartphone with a cellular connection, though.
Like most modern Garmins, the Vivoactive 6 plays nicely with Android and iOS devices with mirrored notifications (something I tend to switch off).
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: Battery life first impressions
For a smartwatch that weighs significantly less than even the lightest Apple Watch models, I'm amazed that the Garmin Vivoactive 6 boasts an 11-day battery life rating (most Apple Watches can barely make it for 24 hours).
In standard watch mode, with the always-on display switched on, Garmin says you can expect closer to five days of battery.
Of course, when using GPS tracking, battery life is a more modest 21 hours, which is still more than enough for even the most epic daytime adventures. The Vivoactive 6 arrived at my door mostly charged but I topped it off to 100% anyway. Several hours later, despite lots of poking around in the settings and exploring the interface, it still has 99% battery remaining.
Like all major smartwatches, I plan to test the Vivoactive 6 against some of its top-performing competitors — likely one of the models from our best smartwatch list — in the coming weeks. This will help me verify its overall tracking accuracy and get a better sense of real-world GPS battery life, too.
Garmin Vivoactive 6 hands-on: To be continued...
With the Vivoactive 6 fully set up and affixed comfortably to my wrist, there's nothing left to do now but put it through its paces. While my initial impressions are mostly positive, I do have a few hesitations about the watch, namely, its lack of onboard altimeter for elevation data. Will that ultimately be a dealbreaker? I hope to find out soon.
I'm also curious to see whether or not the exposed screen and plastic case will survive my admittedly rough-and-tumble lifestyle of gardening, car washing, dog wrangling and biking. For now, here are the five biggest reasons to buy the Vivoactive 6, along with three reasons to skip it.
What do you think of the Garmin Vivoactive 6? Is it on your radar? Let me know in the comments below.
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