---
title: 'Finally! New Garmin Circa - $199 & No Subscription'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zn4B6_4USTY'
video_id: 'Zn4B6_4USTY'
date: 2026-08-06
duration_sec: 654
---

# Finally! New Garmin Circa - $199 & No Subscription

> Source: [Finally! New Garmin Circa - $199 & No Subscription](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zn4B6_4USTY)

## Summary

The video is a first impressions review of the Garmin Circa, a new faceless fitness tracker priced at $199 with no required subscription. The reviewer highlights its design, comfort, battery life, and key features, comparing it to competitors like Whoop and Fitbit Air.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Garmin Circa** [00:02] — Garmin Circa is a faceless fitness tracker designed to compete with Whoop and Fitbit Air, but without a monthly subscription. It costs $199 and has no required subscription.
- **Design and Sizes** [00:28] — The Circa comes in two sizes and offers both wristband and bicep band options. The wristband is flexible and comfortable, with a button on the side for controls.
- **Hardware and Sensors** [01:06] — It features a Gen 4 heart rate sensor for tracking heart rate, blood oxygen, and other metrics. It also includes skin temperature sensing.
- **Battery and Water Resistance** [02:25] — The device has a 10-day battery life and is rated for 5 ATM water resistance, making it suitable for swimming.
- **Setup and Connectivity** [03:04] — Setup uses the Garmin Connect app. It can connect to your phone for GPS and can broadcast heart rate to other equipment like Peloton.
- **Smart Wake Alarm** [04:38] — The Circa has a smart wake alarm that uses sleep tracking to wake you at an ideal time within a 30-minute window before your set alarm.
- **Workout Tracking** [05:08] — The button allows quick start/stop of workouts without needing to pull out your phone. It also has auto-detection for workouts.
- **Health Metrics** [06:01] — It tracks blood oxygen, heart rate, VO2 max, steps, body battery, fitness age, female cycle tracking, and more.
- **Comparison with Competitors** [07:09] — The Garmin app is comparable to Whoop's, and in some ways better. Fitbit feels more beginner-oriented, while Polar and Amazfit also offer solid apps.
- **Optional Subscription** [07:22] — Garmin Connect Plus is an optional subscription that offers extra features like 3D maps and workout guides, but all core data is free.
- **Comfort and Fit** [08:04] — The band is extremely light and comfortable, ideal for sleeping. The app recommends wearing it with the button facing your hands for strength training.
- **Recording Activities** [09:07] — You can start a run from the app, which shows time, heart rate, distance, and pace. It also syncs with Strava.
- **First Impressions** [10:11] — Overall, the reviewer is very positive. At $199, it's double the price of Amazfit and Fitbit Air, but has no subscription, unlike Whoop's $360/year.

### Conclusion

The Garmin Circa offers a compelling package with no subscription, solid features, and comfort, making it a strong contender in the fitness tracker market.

## Transcript

Circa, a faceless fitness tracker that's meant to take on the likes of Whoop and the Fitbit Air, but it doesn't have a monthly subscription. So, a lot of people have been very excited about this since the Fitbit Air came out a month
ago, went absolutely viral, and now Garmin has entered the space. So, here colors. This one, of course, is the bluish color. There's also a French There's a black color. This comes in two different sizes, and Garmin not only has
the wristband as this this one has, but also a bicep band, which a Fitbit does not have. This costs $199, and like I said, has absolutely no required subscription. There is an optional one, and I'll talk about that later, but it
doesn't withhold any information from you. It's just like extra workouts and packaging is really simple. You just have the little manual right there. You've got the charging cable, which is the same as pretty much every other
Garmin device out there. You can see the simple little four-pin connector, which devices. And looking at the device, you can see on the back, that is where you plug it in, again, just like all the other chargers. We have the Gen 4 heart
rate sensor. This is going to be good for tracking heart rate, blood oxygen, a number of other things. This is meant to automatically detect your workouts, but I was excited to see how this looked and felt, is this button on the right side.
So, you can see they added a button there, and I'll talk more about what cool that none of the other ones have a button at all. Like, you can tap the Whoop, and it tells you the battery level, and same thing with Fitbit, but
this does some really cool things. As far as how it connects, if you look at size first before looking at how it connects. So, looking at it side by side next to the Whoop, it looks like the device itself is a little bit bigger.
It might be very slightly I don't think it is actually thicker, because the the the clasp on the Whoop is a little bit larger. The band it And keep in mind, pretty much all of these are about the same size. You've
you've got the Whoop. The only one that's a lot smaller is actually the Fitbit, which I've been wearing since it came out, testing it for the past month. fits. Like I said, there are two different sizes. This is the large extra
large. I'll put my wrist dimensions on screen so you guys can can see. But, kind of a flexible band. Wow, extremely comfortable. I I'm going to put the button on the inside so I can put press it with my thumb, but that looks and
feels very very comfortable. This has a 10-day battery life. It's also rated for five atmospheres of water resistance, so you can swim with this, of course. It connected GPS, so if your phone is nearby, if you're running with your
phone, it'll use your phone's GPS and the heart rate and the data from this. way it connects is actually really similar to the way the Amazfit connects. you have these little pins, you can pull them out, and you can swap it between,
So, if you want to go to the bicep band, want to get some third-party ones on Amazon, you just pull these little pins, this comes off, and you're able to swap out the actual unit itself on any other band. Now, let's plug this in and
Garmin Connect app, the same app you've used with any other Garmin device you the top right. I'm going to add a device. It found it right away. I'll say only connect to your phone, but it can also broadcast heart rate. So, if you're
riding like a I don't know, a Peloton, or using other fitness equipment, it can from this device directly. And of course, you can choose if you're wearing right. So, I'm going to say my right wrist. Although, technically, a lot of
accurate on your bicep. So, I will be getting a bicep band and testing that in the future. And this does have auto detection for tracking workouts. Now, future, but at least right now, it should be tracking some basic things
of our favorite activities, so I'll say walking, running, strength training. All right, so I've got 10 selected. And we can sync with our device. couple things I want to share. This has an alleged 10-day battery life. I will,
of course, test this, and if you guys want to see my updated data analysis and couple weeks, be sure to get subscribed. I will be making a comparison video as testing it for a while. But, like I said, 10-day battery life. This has the
Gen 4 heart rate sensor, so that is not the latest one. A lot of the more modern they did add skin temperature sensing on here, and honestly, the Gen 4 heart rate really the only thing you'll be missing would be like ECG and some of those
extra health features that you see on the more modern Garmin Fenix watches. motor on the inside, so this is not going to be used for notifications from to be used as an alarm. So, this has what they call a smart wake alarm, so
in the morning." But, because this tracks your sleep, and it does it fairly stage you are, and it'll wake you up at an ideal time up to 30 minutes before. So, anytime between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. if you say your alarm is at 6:00, it'll
you a gentle vibration, and then you can push the button to snooze it or to So, that's one of the use cases of the button, but while it's updating, I might The main one is going to be starting a workout. So, you can have a pre-saved
biggest problem I've had with something like the Fitbit Air or the Whoop or so many other devices is if you want to track a workout, you can either just track, but sometimes it misses the beginning minute or two of your workout,
or you can go in the app, use your phone, and start the workout that way. out in order to do that. This is kind of nice. If you just go out for a walk, and right now," but I, you know, you don't really want to go through the hassle of
button, it'll start tracking, and you can push it again to end the tracking. And the haptic motor is also used, I believe, once every hour. It'll just workouts, not when you're not working out. And the idea is here to remind you
that like hey, it's still tracking. So if you feel a buzz and you're like can you can, you know, stop that workout. So what does the Garmin Sarka blood oxygen levels. They're going to be used for tracking sleep, for tracking
throughout the day, minimum maximum heart rate, VO2 max, your step count. throughout the day if you take a nap. It has what Garmin calls body battery, it kind of just tracks your general energy throughout the day and that can
down with a cold or how you're handling jet lag or anything like that to give yourself and when you should focus on recovering. You also have fitness age which kind of gamifies all of your workouts and shows you how old Garmin
thinks you are. This has female cycle tracking. You've got lap tracking. So if you're running, you can auto or manually set laps on there. So like every mile with swimming. This has training load, training effect. There's a ton of things
main advantages of this is that it is a comparison with these other four devices. So kind of comparing this to those, the app on Whoop is really good. Garmin goes toe-to-toe in my opinion and
in some ways Garmin even does better. The Fitbit has a lot of AI and it feels kind of beginner to me which is really, you know, it's a good it's a good like the advanced analytics you get in the Garmin app for example. Polar, I
then Amazfit, again, also kind of goes toe-to-toe. So between the Whoop, really solid apps. So I mentioned there was an optional subscription. It's called Garmin Connect Plus. I don't think most people need it. It's there if
additional data. All the data you get from the watch is yours. No subscription required. But the subscription gives you some things like some Garmin trails, 3D maps. You get a couple extra like workout guides and like nutrition
related to data from the watch. So the device is all set up. As far as fit and comfort goes, this thing is incredibly light, extremely comfortable. I really like this band. It feels like once it gets wet, it might take a little while
other ones, but this one's absolutely perfect for sleeping. Like there's Velcro, there's a little bit of stretch to it. You can slide it up. Of course, your wrist bone, ideally a little bit above that. And in the app, it actually
tells you that you want the button facing towards your hands for the most training if you're doing a lot of strength training with this. Overall, comfort, fit, I think this is absolutely excellent on the wrist. I'm excited to
I want to show you the smart wake alarm. So, if I tap on the device here, and then I tap into Circa Band, this shows me the settings for the band. If I go to alarms, we have a couple settings. So,
right now I have one smart alarm between 5:30 and 6:00. If I edit that alarm, we can tap into it, and you're able to do smart wake, which is as I mentioned before then when it's the ideal time. You have quiet start, which means it
vibrates more quietly and builds up in in strength to kind of wake you up. And of course, you can choose if it repeats, you know, daily, weekly, one time, or work schedule, for example. I think that's a big advantage, so it's not just
every day and waking you up on the weekends when maybe you want to sleep in that's the Garmin Plus one where they have like the kind of custom workouts you can follow. You don't need that, in my opinion. So, now if I want to record
for a run. I can open the app, I can press plus, I can say record activity, I can say running, and then I can say start recording. Now, this shows me the time, the heart rate, my distance, my average pace. There's not a ton of
information right here, but it is good enough for, you know, I'm not going to we can check out cycling because that could be something I might do. I might have this on my handlebars, um but when I stop it, of course, all of your data
if you want to discard it or save it. I really appreciate that Many other devices don't allow you to discard at the end, uh in case, you know, it was a you had to restart. It's nice that it does this. Of course, this does also
sync with Strava. So, if it auto detects workouts or if you start them, uh and if automatically port that over to Strava. But, let's go and check out other example, and see what it shows there. Looks like the same data is going to be
showing up here. You've got timer, average speed, distance, and heart rate. It would be nice to have a little bit more. This feels a little bit bare bones fundamentals. It also shows you the battery level of your band, uh so you
can know if your if your battery is likely to die during your workout. So, first impressions of this band, very, very positive. $199 is double the price of the likes of the Amazfit band and the Fitbit Air, but this has no
subscription on the Whoop MG, it's like $360, $350 a year. It's very, very advanced things on the Whoop, like uh ECG, for example, I'm pretty excited to test this out a lot more and see how Garmin actually handles it. But, only
these devices. And in case you didn't notice, I'm also wearing the Oura Ring video soon. So, if you want to see that video, be sure to subscribe to the me know what questions you have about the Garmin Circa. Thanks for watching,
the Garmin Circa. Thanks for watching, guys. I'll see you in the next video.