IFA 2018: Garmin Vivosmart 4 tracks blood oxygen and energy levels
Garmin has announced, today, the next iteration in its Vivosmart series. In additional to all the usual fitness tracking smarts, the fourth generation device comes with a blood oxygen sensor and will keep tabs on your body’s energy reserves.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Pulse oximeters have become a popular personal purchase in recent years. They are used to measure how well oxygen is sent to parts of the body furthest from your heart – such as arms and legs.
Garmin has debuted this type of technology on its Fenix 5 Plus line. Now the wrist-based pulse ox2 sensor is making its way to the Vivosmart 4.
The fitness tracker will gauge your oxygen saturation levels at night, allowing you to better understand your sleep quality. This can potentially be used to identify sleep conditions such as apnea, although Garmin will not diagnose these. You can also check your oxygen levels on demand during the day.
“Sleep quality plays a critical role in your overall physical health,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales.
“Poor sleep quality may contribute to the development of significant chronic conditions. With its slim design, the vívosmart 4 is comfortable to wear at night and pulse ox provides customers with information they can use to improve their health.”
The other novel feature is what Garmin calls Body Battery energy monitoring. This uses a combination of stress, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep and activity data to let you know when to push hard, when to rest. In essence this is similar to the Work Load metric which can be found on some of Garmin’s high-end sports watches.
The other features are fairly standard include the usual step, distance, calories, floors, heart rate and advanced sleep tracking. Like other Garmin wearables Vivosmart 4 will also keep tabs on your stress, VO2 Max, reps and sets in the gym. No built-in GPS, though.
You’ll get alerts for notifications, including calls and text messages. You can also check the weather, control your music, find your phone and access social media notifications on the display.
The tracker comes in a ultra-slim design and choice of colours. It has a water-resistant body and will track your swim sessions, too. Battery life is up to 7 days on a single charge.
Vivosmart 4 is selling now on Amazon. You can also pick it up on Garmin’s website.
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