What you might want to know
- Placeholder details about the Garmin Vivosmart 6 has appeared on two regional Garmin web sites.
- An unknown Garmin “Health Product” has additionally appeared in a Korea regulatory submitting.
- The Vivosmart 6 will allegedly function built-in GPS, whereas the 2022 Vivosmart 5 relied in your telephone’s GPS.
- Garmin ceaselessly launches new units at CES, making CES 2026 a possible launch window.
Garmin will allegedly reenter the price range health tracker market after an almost four-year wait, because the Garmin Vivosmart 6 appears more likely to get a Las Vegas reveal in lower than a month.
Devices & Wearables has compiled an inventory of proof, together with an obvious Google Search preview for a Garmin Indonesia web page, claiming the Vivosmart 6 could have “built-in GPS and greater than 30 sports activities purposes.”
That may be a step up from the Vivosmart 5, which used linked GPS and solely had 13 sports activities modes in whole. The 2022 tracker used a 0.41″ x 0.73″ OLED touchscreen and included HR, blood oxygen, and accelerometer information, with a seven-day battery life packed right into a petite 24–26g design.
Garmin’s Korea regulatory itemizing for “mannequin quantity A04986” is classed as a “Health Product,” which G&W notes is completely different from most Garmin merchandise listed as a “Good Watch.” It additionally says they noticed a “placeholder webpage” on Garmin Sweden for the Vivosmart 6.
With Garmin asserting the Lily 2 at CES 2024, then the Intuition 3 and HRM 200 at CES 2025, it is a truthful assumption that the Vivosmart 6 will launch at CES 2026, which begins January 6.
The health tracker market has shrunk lately, with customers pivoting to low cost, full-sized smartwatches, whereas manufacturers like Xiaomi promote low cost trackers that would make the Vivosmart 6 really feel costly to informal athletes.
Garmin’s important North American rival is Fitbit, which is anticipated to launch new {hardware} in 2026, possible an Encourage 4 or Cost 7. Garmin could have a head begin with an early 2026 launch and lack of obligatory subscription.
What we might count on (and wish) from the Garmin Vivosmart 6
Proper now, you should purchase a Xiaomi Mi Band 10 and get a 1.7-inch, 1,500-nit AMOLED show, three weeks of battery life, a gyroscope, and 150 sports activities modes for $50 (although no GPS). With a Fitbit Cost 6, you’ve a 1-inch show, an extended listing of well being sensors — pores and skin temp, ECG, and EDA — and some Google apps, and it is often on sale for $100.
Garmin has been growing its watch costs over the past couple of years, so whether or not the Vivosmart 6 sticks to the outdated $149 worth or climbs to $199, Garmin might want to discover methods to justify that prime worth for a product class that is trending towards low cost worth.
Constructed-in GPS is a superb begin; giving the Vivosmart 6 a full-color show that is bigger, whereas nonetheless conserving the system light-weight and providing at the very least every week of battery life, is the subsequent step. And if Garmin can pull some instruments from the Vivoactive 6 just like the Good Wake alarm and day by day strolling recommendations, that might make the subsequent Vivosmart really feel extra fashionable.
I might additionally count on some well being options from the previous couple of years to look: Coronary heart Charge Variability (HRV), sleep teaching, nap detection, respiratory variations, and (most significantly) the brand new Well being Standing instrument recognizing outliers in folks’s well being.
I am not anticipating Garmin’s extra in-depth coaching insights on this petite system, akin to coaching load/ impact or built-in indoor exercises. However post-workout restoration information will surely be a welcome addition!
