Garmin's new smartwatch features on-device storage for up to 500 songs

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: For many, music is a huge motivating factor during a workout and with Bluetooth headphones in wide circulation, we're seeing people listen to tunes in public more than ever. The ability to do so without having to bring along your smartphone only adds to the appeal of a wearable.

Garmin on Wednesday added a bit more versatility to its Vivoactive 3 smartwatch with the introduction of the Vivoactive 3 Music, a new model that adds local music storage to the mix.

The Vivoactive 3 features the same fitness, wellness and connectivity features as the original Vivoactive 3 introduced last summer. That means the GPS smartwatch can be used to monitor workouts, display phone notifications, carry out contactless payments and more.

It’s safe for swimming and showering, Garmin says, and features a battery life of up to seven days in smartwatch mode or five hours in GPS with music mode.

Speaking of music, Garmin’s latest offers on-device storage for up to 500 songs. Offline playlists can be downloaded from select music streaming services such as iHeartRadio (support for Deezer is coming soon, we’re told, although more popular services from the likes of Spotify, Apple and Google aren’t supported). You can also transfer music directly from your computer to the watch. From there, simply pair the wearable with a set of compatible Bluetooth headphones and you’re off to the races.

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music is available from today priced at $299.99, a $50 premium over the original Vivoactive 3. It comes paired with a black silicone 20mm quick release band and is compatible with various accessory bands that’ll set you back $29.99 each.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75074-garmin-new-smartwatch-features-device-storage-up-500.html

 

[ShagnWagn]

Let me guess. This requires you to make a cloud account so they can track every second of what you use on the watch and private information? I am getting rid of the brand new watch I bought from them. You basically can't do anything with their watches without giving them personal information and upload your information to the internet. Screw 'em

 

[TheBigT42]

Hmm 500 songs....Is that wav, Flacc, Mp3, OGG and what bit rate?? Number of songs is too subjective....Just put in the article how much damn storage is has!

 

[regiq]

Let me guess. This requires you to make a cloud account so they can track every second of what you use on the watch and private information? I am getting rid of the brand new watch I bought from them. You basically can't do anything with their watches without giving them personal information and upload your information to the internet. Screw 'em

I had similar feelings about the fenix, but actually many functions work without pairing with a smartphone and going online.
You can access the memory through USB and import recorded tracks (FIT files) to some open source program like GoldenCheetah http://www.goldencheetah.org/ or convert to GPX with GPSBabel https://www.gpsbabel.org/ and use with Open Street Map for example... https://www.openstreetmap.org

I'm pretty sure you can also upload tracks to the device without using garmin's tools, though I haven't figured that out yet.

 

[ShagnWagn]

I had similar feelings about the fenix, but actually many functions work without pairing with a smartphone and going online.
You can access the memory through USB and import recorded tracks (FIT files) to some open source program like GoldenCheetah http://www.goldencheetah.org/ or convert to GPX with GPSBabel https://www.gpsbabel.org/ and use with Open Street Map for example... https://www.openstreetmap.org

I'm pretty sure you can also upload tracks to the device without using garmin's tools, though I haven't figured that out yet.

Yep I have the fenix 5x. I'm probably going to list it for sale very soon. I didn't want to use a smartphone - only my pc. I mainly wanted it for the fitness options, which are missing unless you upload all of it to their servers.