Following in Google's footsteps from just two months ago, Garmin's now dropped a screen-free fitness tracker that's suitable for novices and serious athletes alike. And interestingly, you don't need a subscription for this one.
It's called Cirqa, and it looks a lot like most other products in this category. You can get it in two sizes and four different colorways, and there's also a bicep band available. The tracker is waterproof up to 50 m, so you can safely jump in a pool and record your swimming workouts.
As with its competition, this screenless tracker is designed to avoid becoming yet another digital fidget toy, and to allow you to get into your workouts at a moment's notice. A single button launches tracking for your most common activity, and it'll also track a small number of other ones automatically when you get moving.
The tracker covers all the vital stats you'd expect, including heart rate, skin temperature, sleep, stress, VO2 Max, training load, and more. It won't do ECG, though. Garmin says you can expect about 10 days of use with a single charge.
On the software side, you've got a fairly capable mobile app experience that offers most of the band's functionality at no extra charge. That includes automatic and manual workout tracking, as well as a customizable dashboard with your sleep score, body battery, training readiness, HRV status, and activity and completed workouts history.
You can set 10 different activities up for quick access within the app so you can start a workout quickly, and receive alerts via the band based on elapsed times and laps. If your phone is on you, the Cirqa will use its GPS to record your routes. Plus, the LiveTrack feature lets you share your location with loved ones when you're out on a run or hike.
The Connect+ subscription, which costs US$69 a year, adds just a few niceties like structured workouts, nutrition tracking, a live heart rate graph in the app, AI-summarized insights, and curated trails. You can get a lot out of the Cirqa without this subscription though.
Other brands' subscriptions range from $30/year (Amazfit) to over $100/year (Polar), and then there's Whoop's plans which range from $200-$359 a year. Garmin comes in around the middle of the more rationally priced bunch – but again, you can totally live without it.
The Cirqa is priced at $199, which is double what you'd pay for the Fitbit Air (which also offers a lot of tracking functionality for free, and has a premium plan for additional features). If you've tried a Garmin or are keen on the brand for its reputation for tracking accuracy, this is worth a look.
Find the Cirqa on Garmin's site, where it's available to order starting July 24.
Source: Garmin
