Vivosmart 5 is Garmin’s next wearable, FCC posts pics & user manual

Look out for the imminent launch of the Garmin Vivosmart 5. The FCC confidentiality clause on the wearable has run out and the accompanying paperwork is viewable to all on the regulator’s website.

Some had speculated the FCC filing mentioning a Garmin “Smart Band” was referring to a Whoop-type competitor. The document goes under the regulatory moniker FCC ID IPH-04352.

Click the above link and check out the external photographs and user manual. This shows a wearable that looks slightly different than Vivosmart 4. Additionally, German site WinFuture has published leaked images of the wearable, showing it in all its glory. Here are a couple (images hosted on the Winfuture website).

As can be seen, the grayscale, touchscreen OLED is larger on Vivosmart 5 – it certainly looks wider. In fact, WinFuture says it is 66% larger. As before, the display switches off when not in use – a turn of the wrist or tap on the single physical button wakes it up.

Some Vivosmart 5 watch faces display a data field – and you can tap the watch face to scroll through steps, heart rate, battery level, date, weather, calories burned and intensity minutes. The last data field you selected stays in the background by default. Next time you wake up the display it will show.

There’s no built-in GPS, if that’s what you were hoping for, but the wearable does have Connected GPS. Activities that are listed in the user manual include walking, running, cardio activity, strength training, bike activity, elliptical trainer activity and breath work activity. There’s also Sleep Score.

Essential reading: Fitbit Charge 4 vs Garmin Vivosmart 4 – activity band face-off

Incident Detection is part of the feature-set along with Assistance. Both need your smartphone in close vicinity in order to function. The same is the case with LiveTrack which allows you friends and family to follow your training activities in real-time. Performance metrics include Vo2 max and Fitness Age.

No mention of Garmin Pay or smartphone music control, in case you were wondering. Perhaps when Vivosmart 6 comes around. Battery life is around 7 days on a single charge.

We actually expected Vivosmart 5 to launch in 2021 before the holiday shopping period. However, Garmin released only a few products last year – probably due to the chip shortages, energy crisis in certain Asian countries and pandemic. 2021 was not a great year for wearable tech. This year has already seen a slew of new Garmin products and it is looking like the run will continue in the months ahead.

Article updated 6/4/2022

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