Garmin unveils the Vivosmart activity tracker & smartwatch

With IFA 2014 churning out more smartwatches than we know what to do with, it goes to show that the competition in the market has really heated up. Almost all offer the same features, which in fairness is what the majority of people want to see, but none of them seem to separate themselves from the crowd.

However Garmin have just announced the Vivosmart band, a new wrist wearable that balances nicely between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker. The Vivosmart offers all the fitness and smartphone functionalities you would hope for including being able to show calls, texts, emails, music player controls as well as monitoring steps taken, calories burnt, heart rate, distance covered and sleeping patterns.

Additional features include the watch being able to take a plunge in up to 50m of water, having alarm alerts via vibrations to help monitor the right sleeping pattern for users and a cool electronic moving bar that appears on the face of the device which users have to get active for it to disappear, this is being highlighted as a incentive tool to get users moving.

The Vivosmart is currently available to pre-order and shipments are expected to start near the end of September. The Vivosmart is currently retailing at $200.