Gadgets

Garmin’s Vivoactive 3 Music is getting an LTE upgrade in 2019

The Vívoactive 3 Music will have LTE serviced by Verizon.

by
Joe Rice-Jones
January 7, 2019

garmin vivoactive 3 music smartwatch on grey background

Image: Garmin

Giveaway: Enter to win a BLUETTI Charger 1 ($399 value): Enter Here

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Garmin’s smartwatches are some of the best on the market, with rugged designs, accurate GPS, and good app support. One thing that was missing is onboard cellular connectivity, so users could leave their smartphone at home when out on their daily runs or at the gym. Now, that missing piece has arrived, courtesy of a partnership with Verizon.

That means that you’ll still be able to download music (but not stream), SMS your friends, and track your workouts, without having to carry around your bulky smartphone while you’re in your exercise gear. With Garmin stating a five-day battery life in smartwatch mode, the updated Vivoactive 3 Music looks appealing.

With music playing, LTE enabled and GPS tracking on, you’ll only get about four hours of use out of the watch, however, so plan accordingly.

Check it out:

More about the features

Garmin’s also added some new safety features to the Vivoactive. There’s a built-in incident detection that can automatically contact pre-set emergency contacts if it detects a fall or an impact. Users can also contact their emergency contacts by holding the smartwatch’s side button for five seconds if they feel unsafe at any time. There’s also Garmin LiveTrack, which shares your location details with a pre-set number of your contacts.

I have to wonder at the release timing of this. The original Vivoactive 3 Music was only released at the end of last year, so releasing an LTE-enabled version might make early adopters feel slighted.

While the non-LTE version is around $299.99, there’s no pricing available yet for the new version, just that it will be available in 5 to 8 weeks. Oh, and you’ll need a Verizon plan to use the LTE because of course you do. Pricing for that isn’t mentioned either, just vaguely hinted at with a “low-cost subscription to Verizon’s reliable network.”

We all know nothing on Verizon is low-cost, so expect a hefty subscription cost.

What do you think? Is this something that interests you? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.