Garmin Vívoactive 5 GPS Fitness Smartwatch: A Full Review

I used to charge my watch every single night, which completely defeated the purpose of buying a device to track my sleep. Switching to the Garmin Vívoactive 5 fixed that immediately. With the always-on display turned off, I easily get a week of battery life, and the AMOLED screen is bright enough to actually read my running stats in direct sunlight. If you are looking for the best smart watch strictly for health tracking, this usually hits the sweet spot between basic fitness bands and overpriced mini-smartphones.

Garmin's Body Battery feature is the main reason I keep this on my wrist. Instead of just dumping raw heart rate and step counter data on you, it tells you how much energy you actually have left in the tank based on your sleep score, stress levels, and workouts. It is surprisingly accurate—if the wearable says I need to rest, I usually feel like garbage anyway.

It is not a perfect device for power users. You cannot take phone calls on it, and the app ecosystem is incredibly limited compared to Apple or Wear OS devices. But at under $200, it is a focused tracker that nails the basics. The addition of a wheelchair mode that tracks pushes instead of steps is a smart, inclusive touch that I rarely see in this category. It does exactly what a fitness tracker should do without bombarding you with distracting notifications.