Smart features and long battery life

Review: Garmin Vivoactive 6 - A smartwatch just the way I want it

Garmin makes it seem easy to combine smartwatch features with long battery life.

Published 13 June 2025 - 15:07

On Garmin's website, I count 26 different models of smartwatches and it's certainly no easy task to figure out what sets them apart. Garmin thinks in terms of target groups and they have watches for runners, golfers, adventurers, and those who just want a smartwatch. Most of the watches have the same system at their core and often differ subtly in how much detail you get in the information for different types of training, as well as how many buttons they have for control.

Garmin Vivoactive 6 leans more towards the smartwatch side, meaning it has two buttons instead of five and you can actually control it entirely by just swiping and tapping on the touchscreen.

The screen itself is a bright OLED display that is easy to see in daylight. By making the user interface in dark tones, they hide how thick the black edges around the screen are and perhaps also save battery life. They have also made the user interface simple in a way that makes the watch feel quick in response even though it hardly offers flashy animations like the Apple Watch.

Robust

Garmin Vivoactive 6 hardly feels luxurious. Admittedly, the screen glass has rounded edges and is surrounded by a metal frame, but then the rest of the watch is plastic. On the other hand, this makes it feel robust and light on the wrist. The strap is of a standard type so you can buy a new one from a regular watchmaker.

Smartwatches are best for health and fitness, and Garmin excels at highlighting the health data collected by the watch. Besides the interchangeable watch face, you can swipe up to get a list of widgets that provide health information at a glance, 2-3 widgets fit on the screen at the same time, and you can tap on them for more information. Not all widgets are about health; they can include weather and calendar, and apps you install on the watch can have their own widgets, which you can edit yourself.

Yes, you can install apps on the watch, so in that sense, it is truly a smartwatch. The selection in Garmin's app store Connect IQ is not huge, but you can find, for example, Spotify and YouTube Music if you want to listen to music with the watch without bringing your phone, map apps, and checklists.

The lower button functions as a back button in the interface and can be programmed as a shortcut for a specific app or function. The upper select button leads to the watch's main menu but is otherwise a quick shortcut to workout logging.

Logs well

Training is, of course, Garmin's home turf, and there are a wide range of workout types to choose from. You can edit which ones are displayed first so that you have the ones you use most readily available. If you run, you won't get as detailed information about stride length and other metrics as you would if you, for example, buy a Garmin Forerunner 970, but for the casual exerciser, it's more than enough, and you get more detailed information than in many other smartwatches. The watch announces my lap time at every kilometre, which means it has a speaker, but not a microphone, so you can't use it as a headset to take phone calls without taking out your phone.

The watch can also function as a training coach. Through the Garmin Connect app on your mobile, you can choose between different challenges to get in shape, or you can simply specify the level you want to be at, and the watch will suggest a suitable form of exercise for the day.

The morning briefing is another nice feature. When I wake up in the morning, I get a number of screens showing the weather forecast for the day, how well I slept, and my energy level and recovery according to Garmin's Body Battery measure, and finally an assessment of whether this is a day for performance or rest. The watch, of course, measures the usual health metrics, such as the number of steps, calories burned, heart rate, and more.

Other features expected from a smartwatch include the ability to tap payments, reminders to move, and notifications. Starting with payments, Garmin's wallet has quite broad support for Swedish banks. You need to enter a pin on a rather small numeric keypad to activate the card, but only the first time since you last put on the watch.

The movement reminders have been significantly improved compared to a few years ago when I last tested them. When you have been sedentary for an hour, the watch suggests that you get up and move, and you can choose between three simple movement exercises to do for 30 seconds, which vary from occasion to occasion. The watch provides visual instructions on how to perform them.

Respond to messages

You can choose which notifications to receive on the watch, as it can become overwhelming if all apps are allowed to forward their notifications to your wrist. If it's messaging apps and your phone is an Android, you can reply to the message, either with one of several pre-set messages that you can edit yourself, or with a small keyboard similar to those on feature phones, but then it's probably better to bring out the phone instead. I miss being able to choose an emoji as a response, but you can add it as one of the pre-set options.

The best thing about the watch is the battery life. Garmin states up to 11 days, or 5 days with always-on display. I actually get more than that and need to charge every 13th or 14th day, but I have the pulse oximeter turned off so it only measures blood oxygen levels when I ask it to. I get this battery life, compared to one day for Apple Watch or 2-3 days for Galaxy Watch, without missing any function or anything in the user experience.

It feels like I've only scratched the surface in my review of the watch, and that might be partly because it actually requires some digging to find all the features. It's set up for quick access to the most important things, but other features can be hard to find and activate. This applies, for example, to automatic detection of walks and runs. But that's a minor issue, Garmin Vivoactive 6 is truly a smartwatch as I want it.