00:00As someone who's reviewed lots of Garmin watches over the years, I was really excited to get my
00:04hands on the Garmin Circa. The Garmin Circa is a simple design. A fabric band with four color
00:09options wrapped around a plastic puck with Garmin's Elevate V4 heart rate sensor. The puck is slightly
00:15curved to mimic the wrist's shape and true to form for Garmin. It includes a tactile button on the
00:20side to start and stop workouts. It's very comfortable to wear, weighing only 21 grams.
00:25And I'll be honest, I often forgot I was wearing it during the week. The Garmin Circa Fitness Tracker
00:30costs $200 in the US and £180 in the UK. There's no subscription fee, at least no mandatory one.
00:36But certain features like Garmin Coach are locked behind the Garmin Clinic paywall in the app,
00:39which costs an extra $7 or pounds per month. You can get along just fine without the subscription,
00:44though. The Garmin Circa Tracker collects information such as sleep stages, heart rate variability,
00:49pulse ox, and provides Garmin's training readiness and body battery scores. Garmin's Sleep Coach
00:55feature can recommend bedtimes and sleep length, letting you know if you're in a sleep deficit.
00:59And smart wake alarm, using the device's haptic sensors, buzzes on your wrist in a light sleep
01:04stage to wake you within a pre-prescribed window. Automatic activity detection means the Circa
01:09quietly records activities lasting longer than 15 minutes, even walks, which become more accurate
01:14if you amend the detected activities in the Garmin Clinic now, including extending or trimming their
01:20duration. Alternatively, you can simply press the button to start a timed activity,
01:24and again, amend it in the app. While you won't get advanced running features like many Garmin
01:28watches, such as cadence, stride length, and so on, you still get more generic training
01:33information like heart rate, VO2 max, and training load, which can tell you if you're under or over
01:38training. If you're working out three or four times a week and enabling auto detection for walks,
01:43runs, and other activities, it lasts around a solid week between charges. I topped mine up on day seven
01:49of testing. It recorded my sleep well and correctly identified wake-up times in the middle of the
01:54night and in the early hours of the morning. If I slept well or went to bed early, the Circa
01:58correctly identified this and the numbers matched my energy levels and perceived sleep quality. I'd say,
02:04like other Garmin devices using the Elevate V4, the Circa is generally accurate enough for anybody who
02:09doesn't need 80 level metrics using Garmin to Elevate V5. But even record breaker Sebastian
02:14Sarway was spotted using a 455, which still uses a V4. I can't overstate how nice it is to wear,
02:21though. I actually found the fabric more comfortable than the whoops band. The tactile button gave me a
02:25sense of certainty in my workout recording, and I didn't have to open the app manually to start a
02:29workout like the Fitbit Air if I wanted to make sure it's accurate. There is a value issue here. For
02:34what it is,
02:35it's not cheap, and I do lament that coaching features are locked behind a paywall on top of
02:40the upfront cost. However, it's definitely better value than the whoop. I much prefer the Garmin
02:44Connect app to the Google Health one. It's really comfortable and easy to wear day-to-day, despite
02:49being higher profile and heavier than the Fitbit Air. So, what do you think? Is this a whoop killer in
02:55the discreet fitness tracker market? Let me know in the comments down below, and make sure to subscribe.
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