Garmin have just announced the Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Verizon.

Better known as the snappily entitled “Vivoactive 3 MV”.

The modified Vivoactive 3 Music is essentially the same as the one released 6 months ago but with a few new features. The big one is the LTE connectivity.

LTE Connectivity means that your Vivoactive 3MV can connect to the internet by a cellular/mobile connection. As you’ve guessed by now, this will only work if you have an appropriate contract with Verizon in the USA. No doubt this will be rolled out to other providers in other countries over the year.

Garmin is not the first company to do this. There are already Apple, LG (WearOS) and other watches that do a similar (better) job on their own respective platforms.

Here are some links to refresh your memories after which I will tell you about the other new features.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 Review – Detailed | Apple Watch Competitor

▷ Best Running Watch with Music 2018 | Top 10 Guide | Review

STREAMING: First up this is not really a fully streaming device. It works in the same way as Garmin’s WiFi connections and you can download over the cellular connection and then playback from the watch. I suppose that is OK in itself but s you can’t make calls on this watch then you will still be carrying your smartphone so why not just download your music via the smartphone? #Strange

SUPPORTED SERVICES: All Garmin’s current MUSIC providers will be supported eg Deezer & Spotify. Although the latter is given the ‘coming soon’ caveat.

ASSISTANCE & INCIDENT DETECTION: An alert is sent to pre-loaded emergency contacts also giving them your current GPS location. I’m assuming if you are out of cellular range then this won’t work.

• Assistance: Just press and hold the VA3MV’s single button for a few seconds until the watch vibrates.
• Incident: If you fall/crash then the alert is also triggered

PHONE FREE TEXTING: Yep. It can do that. DCR says emails are supported too, at least to some degree.

SPECS: The same as the VA3M, except battery life is reduced from 7 days to 5 days and there is 4 hours of LTE usage on the battery.

WHAT’S MISSING?: Voice Control…”OK Garmin, Play XXXX“, social media apps (whatsap et al), and SO much more that could be enabled over-the-air. Maybe it will come later? You can’t make calls on it either not even with a paired BLE headset. Also note that I have read it is SIM not eSIM.

Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music Verizon Review to follow?: A: No. I have some paint to watch dry somewhere.

PRICING and AVAILABILITY: Soon Q1.2019. Probably about $350-$380

THOUGHTS? – Just one: HALF-BAKED