Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Vivomove Style

When it comes to smartwatches and fitness trackers, Garmin is among the best brands you can buy. And two of its newest devices, the Garmin Vivomove Sport and Vivomove Style, boast some compelling features. Both will appeal to you if you want a smartwatch on your wrist that can display notifications and track health and wellness stats but still looks like a standard timepiece. However, there are some minor differences between the two that might sway you towards one versus the other.  

Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Style: Which look is right for you?

Both the Garmin Vivomove Sport and Garmin Vivomove Style feature an elegant analog design with classic watch hands that move to dictate the time based on the classic ticking hand design. But beneath both is a hidden touchscreen — or dual touchscreens in the case of the Vivomove Style — that activates when you tap. This will transform the screen to display the important stats only when you want to see them. It also displays incoming texts, phone calls, calendar reminders, and more. 

The Garmin Vivomove Sport is lightweight and comes in cool mint/silver, black/slate, cocoa/peach gold, or ivory/peach gold. It has metallic color accents and comes with easily swappable silicone quick-release bands. The display itself is just 0.34-by-0.73 inches and the OLED screen has a 72x154 resolution.

In her review of the Garmin Vivomove Sport, Android Central's Courtney Lynch did find that the touchscreen was sometimes difficult to operate and particularly challenging to view in direct sunlight. If you exercise a lot outdoors, that might be a dealbreaker.

Meanwhile, the Garmin Vivomove Style comes in more feminine color options like light blush with a blush pink woven band, rose gold aluminum with a white silicone band, or graphite aluminum with a black pepper woven band. It also has a nicer satin finish and domed Corning Gorilla Glass face that's extra durable. Each band is quick release and can be easily swapped out.

Also with an analog watch design, the Vivomove Style has a secret dual AMOLED color display that lights up when you activate the touchscreen while the hands dynamically move in coordination with the graphics. You can also simply raise your wrist to automatically read incoming text messages without having to tap the touchscreen. The watch itself is slightly larger than the Sport, so you also get a larger display. You also get a higher 240x240 resolution. If you don't have the greatest eyesight or simply want a larger touchscreen face, the Style will be the better option for you.

Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Vivomove Style: Let's break things down

Before getting further into how these two smartwatches operate and compare, let's see how they compare on a basic spec level.

There are a lot of similarities between these two new smartwatches, which makes it even more difficult to make a choice. So, let's delve deeper to see if you can help you decide.

Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Vivomove Style: Using them as an exercise companion

Both these smartwatches would make a great fitness companion, disguising their true use while looking stylish and elegant on your wrist.

Both watches track the typical stats, including daily steps with specific apps for exercises like yoga, walking, cardio, and even mindful breathing for reducing stress. There is a pre-loaded sports app, and you can sync this data across multiple Garmin watches, ideal if you're training for a marathon, for example, and have a second Garmin running watch. You can save up to 10 timed activities in the watch's memory and up to 14 days of activity tracking data before syncing with the app.

Sync it with the Garmin Connect app to see all your health and fitness information at a glance, all in one spot. As you exercise, you can track and review details like steps, calories burned, or intensity minutes, including how and when you earned them. You can tap the screen at any time to view your daily stats, queue up a workout, set a timer or stopwatch, and more. 

You also get Body Battery energy monitoring which will, over time, determine the best time for you to work out and for your body to rest to maximize your results. You can also see your heart rate 24/7 and receive alerts if it is too high or low when you're at rest while measuring how hard you are working when you are exercising. There's also a pulse OX sensor to measure your oxygen saturation. Fitness age, meanwhile, uses your actual age, activity levels, resting heart rate, body mass index (BMI), or body fat percentage to estimate if your body is younger or older than your actual age, then provides tips to help you improve.

Both watches are swimproof with a 5ATM rating so you can wear them while swimming or taking a shower. Both also have connected GPS so you can track your walking, running, hiking, or cycling route but you need to bring your phone with you.

The biggest difference between these two smartwatches? The Style adds floor climbs, which is good for those who go hiking or want to know how many floors they have climbed in a day. You'll also get notifications for abnormal heart rates as well as relaxation reminders and Pulse OX monitoring. It also has a chronograph timer and stopwatch. The Vivomove Style will also generate Vo2 Max, which indicates your cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. But keep in mind that you're going to pay significantly more for those upgrades.

Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Vivomove Style: Beyond exercise

Even in the non-wellness areas, the watches are similar. Both let you see incoming text messages, phone calls, calendar reminders, and more from a connected smartphone. They also both offer a rated 5-day battery life. The Vivomove Sport gives you an extra day when you use it on analog-only mode and you can quick-charge it for 15 minutes to get an extra day in smart mode. The Vivomove Style, however, will give you an entire extra week of use in just standard watch mode.

With both, you can also respond to incoming texts right from your wrist when connected to a compatible Android phone. A neat feature lets you send your live location to contacts, either manually or during select outdoor activities, which is great for safety. The built-in Incident Detection can also determine if there's a fall or accident and reach out to contacts. 

The Vivomove Sport has a dedicated calendar screen while the Vivomove Style lets you raise your wrist to read incoming texts without having to tap the screen. Both have stress reminders that recommend short breathing exercises, women's health tracking for keeping on top of menstrual cycles, hydration tracking, and respiration tracking. Sleep tracking is an important aspect of health and wellness and both offer advanced sleep monitoring, including details on light, deep, and REM sleep along with respiration and oxygen saturation.

The Vivomove Style adds Garmin Pay so you can pay for items at compatible stores right from your wrist. That's a small but added convenience that might matter to some who want to grab a smoothie at the gym without going back to the locker to grab their phone or wallet.

Garmin Vivomove Sport vs Vivomove Style: Which should you get?

It's a tough choice between the Garmin Vivomove Sport vs. Vivomove Style, especially since the two smartwatches are so similar. There are very minor differences that might sway you to one or the other. 

The Garmin Vivomove Style is far sleeker in design with a larger hidden touchscreen that's also higher resolution and presumably easier to read in sunlight, which is critical if you exercise a lot outdoors or play a lot of outdoor sports. But it also comes in at a premium price. With that said, if you're really serious about getting a fitness smartwatch, it's worth investing the extra bucks to get something that will meet your needs. Features like floor climbs, raising your wrist to read texts, and Garmin Pay could make the difference for gym rats. 

With that said, you can save some dough with the Garmin Vivomove Sport, which still offers all the same health and fitness tracking along with connected GPS, smart notifications, and more. The concern of the screen being tough to read in direct sunlight won't matter if you don't need to or plan to read it outdoors often. But you'll have to keep in mind that if you go for the odd walk or run, it might be challenging to manipulate the screen on a sunny day, especially with sunglasses on. 

The colors and look of the Garmin Vivomove Style also make it more, well, stylish, so if you prefer the more functional, less delicate look, the Garmin Vivomove Sport is true to its name in that it's the sportier-looking version. The decision, then, might come down to style. 

Speaking of which, if you find neither of these new Garmin smartwatches fit the bill, check out more options as we have ranked the best Garmin smartwatches you can buy.