Newsletter 
Garmin has announced the Vivoactive 3 with contactless Garmin Pay, its own mobile payment solution that it will use to enter the market alongside other options like Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay, which are arguably the three biggest mobile payment services out there. The Vivoactive 3 is Garmin’s latest in the Vivoactive series and it is a smartwatch, more so than the Vivomove HR that it announced today as well, which is listed as more of a hybrid smartwatch. The Vivoactive 3 is loaded with features, but as this is a Garmin watch one of the bigger functions will be its ability to track your GPS location.
In addition to GPS, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 will also have a heart rate sensor that will continuously track your heart rate, and Garmin is boasting a highly visible display regardless of the lighting, so presumably this will be a display that you will have little to no trouble seeing even in direct sunlight. Garmin is making this possible with what it’s calling its Garmin Chroma display, which is high-resolution and it uses always-on technology which means you won’t always have to wake the screen to see the details you want, which is going to be a huge boon for battery life so you won’t have to charge this thing as much.
When it comes to the battery life, the Garmin Vivoactive 3 should be able to last you up to a full week when in smartwatch mode. If you transition the watch into GPS mode, that battery life drops drastically to just 13 hours, so you’ll definitely want to make sure that you’re using this mode only when needed lest you find yourself with a dead battery right when you need the watch the most.
Garmin has preloaded the watch with more than 15 applications which are related to GPS and sports, so it should have quite a few different features for users right from the beginning. It’s also customizable with “thousands” of watch faces that Garmin says are available to download completely free, all which can be found in the ConnectIQ store which is where you’ll also get additional applications if you need or want them. Since this is a smartwatch it’s also capable of tracking your various activities, like steps, calories burned, distance, and more, and it can also relay notifications from your connected device. The watch will be available in three different color options, which includes the Black with stainless steel bezel and the White with stainless steel bezel both for $299.99 each, as well as the Black with Slate bezel which is a bit more at $329.99. These will be available exclusively at Best Buy it looks like, though you will be able to pick them up in store in addition to the online website. That said, these are only available in pre-order status at the moment.
