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Future of Vivoactive line

gordonwd
over 2 years ago

I'm a long time user of the Forerunner watches and have had a FR645 for a number of years. Since I'm no longer running, I'd like to get more of a regular smartwatch but haven't paid much attention to the Vivomove/Vivoactive lines. I did buy a Venu 2 recently but returned it due to the tradeoff between having the screen always on and reasonable battery life. I like having both as on my 645!

So it looks like the Vivoactive 4 has similar functionality to the Venu, but with the same type of screen that I'm used to on my FR645. Is this correct? The only issue then is the size of the watch. The Venu 2 at 45mm seemed just a bit too large for my wrist and the 2S too small at 40mm; my 645 is just right at 42.5mm and I did notice the difference. The current Vivoactive 4 comes in the same two sizes as the Venu 2, which is not ideal. However, the new Venu 2 Plus is 43mm and would probably work for me.

So you think there is any possibility that Garmin might make a Vivoactive 4 Plus in that same size and with the same calling feature, or might the Vivoactive line be coming to an end, replaced completely by the Venu series?

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Looking at (a) the amount of attention that Garmin is giving the Venu line (2 upgrades plus the square one since the VA4 & original Venu came out), (b) the fact that they seem to be fixing more of the bugs in the Venu line (e.g. the oft-mentioned lock screen issue), and (c) that the VA4 is on the lifestyle line, my strong feeling is that the VA line is being phased out in favour of the Venu.  I think that specialist runners are being pushed in the direction of that line of watches, and multi-sports folks will need to look at the Fenix line if they want the MIP display.  So I am suspecting that the VA4 will be the last of its line.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to 3400046

    Thanks for the well-considered response. I was also coming to that conclusion. I saw on a dcrainmaker video recently where someone asked how many watches Garmin made and it was really a LOT! So I'm sure it will pay off for them to eliminate as many redundancies as possible, especially as they gather more data about which lines are selling the best and as they discover new applications for the technology. Having Venu and Vivoactive lines that differ only in screen technology probably makes no sense since it makes little difference in total sales volume. After all, if I don't see a new Vivoactive soon I'll go ahead with a Venu and just learn to live with the display/battery issues.

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    I'm in a similar position as you.

    I want a Venu 2 with the transflective display. In another words, a vivoactive 5. But I also think the vivoactive line is dead.

    Now I'm testing both Venu 2 and the Fenix 7s.

    Venu 2 needs the gesture to wake the screen and it sometimes doesn't turn on when I need it. The F7 is too heavy and expensive for my need.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to gordonwd

    to me the future of VA line looks grim, considering that we didn't see any devices so far but there are two Venu versions were released and the new Fenix 7 has touchscreen there are not enough selling points for Vivoactvie to exist, I'd like to be wrong and I love it but I guess it's dead. That's why I bought Venu 2s for my wife and invested into Fenix 6 for myself.
    Fenix is good of course, but surprisingly display on VA4 is way crisper and certain stuff are faster done using touchscren, there are other minor drawbacks in Fenix which make it feels inferior in some regards to VA4(yeah, I'm surprised myself).

    So right now I'd look into Venu 2 if you don't need any advanced metrics, if you're not tight on the budget why not look into Fenix 7 when they have a sale?