Garmin Venu Smartwatch
The Garmin Venu is the first Garmin watch with an AMOLED display. It also has a good range of fitness tracking and smartwatch features that make it a great all-arounder.
It has since been replaced by the Garmin Venu 2, which is an even better watch that was hard to find fault with in our tests. However, the original Venu is still a good choice, especially if the newer watch is out of your price range. Garmin is known for its sports watches, but its fitness trackers and running watches are getting closer and closer to being smartwatches. Take the Garmin Vivoactive 4. It was almost a full-fledged smartwatch because it had smart notifications, offline music, Garmin Pay, and app support. The Garmin Venu wants to finish this change by adding an AMOLED touchscreen that can’t be missed. Sharp and bright, Venu’s display puts it squarely in the smartwatch category. And, as you might expect, it has a good battery life and all the fitness features you could want.
But with a small number of apps and a touchscreen that can be hard to use at times, is the Venu really smart enough to compete with the Apple Watch?
Design
- Case measures 43.2 x 43.2 x 12.4 mm
- 5ATM water resistance
- Lightweight at 46.3g
The Garmin Venu is less of a standout timepiece and more of a simple tracker. A grooved stainless steel band goes around the bezel, but other than that, the circular polymer body is simple and almost plain, and it’s hard to tell it apart from the Vivoactive 4.
That’s not always a bad thing, as long as you want a sporty smartwatch that doesn’t draw attention to itself. It’s less of a fashion statement than the Apple Watch, but it’s also more subtle than the Suunto 7. You could wear the simple Venu from the gym to the office without drawing attention to yourself. Its 12.4mm depth makes it slim enough to fit under a sleeve, and the quick-release catch makes it easy to switch to 20mm straps for a different look.
The metal ring around the case is also a nice sign of high-quality construction. The Venu is made of polymer, so it is very light and weighs only 46.3g. If you wear it all day, your wrists probably won’t hurt.
The Venu only comes in one size, which is different from the Vivoactive 4. Some people will find that limiting, but the 43mm face offers a good balance between screen size and case size, and it won’t be too big for smaller wrists because the bezel around the 1.2-inch display is well-sized.
Screen, controls, and interface
- 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 390 x 390 pixels
- The watch faces, widget list, and home screen shortcut can all be changed.
- It can be hard to use a touch screen.
When it comes to the screen, the 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen on the Venu is a sight to see. Compared to the memory-in-pixel display technology used on other Garmin watches, this one is clear, bright, and full of color. The blacks are deep and the colors are bright, and the extra brightness makes the screen easy to read even when it’s bright outside.
The watch faces and widgets are also clear, thanks to a resolution of 390 x 390 pixels. This puts the Venu in the same league as the Fossil Gen 5, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3, and the Apple Watch Series 5. It has a display that fits a smartwatch, with a simple option for official faces to stay on all the time.
The software made by Garmin is pretty and easy to use. Widgets are set up in a vertical list, and you can access them by swiping up or down from the home screen. This can be changed on the watch or through the app, but to get to a widget in the middle of the list, you have to scroll more than you would with an icon-based interface. Even though there isn’t much time between swiping and moving on, the experience isn’t quite seamless. Also, to change the music while exercising, you have to swipe across and up, which is hard to do while moving. Still, the screens that show data during a workout are clear and easy to use. Even when it’s raining hard, the touchscreen works correctly and doesn’t make any mistakes. This makes it easy to switch between stat readouts using the two buttons on the right side of the watch.
Performance and tracking
- GPS and heart-rate tracking that works
- Almost every discipline has its own mode.
- A pulse oximeter measures blood oxygen levels
Even though it wants to be a smartwatch, the Venu is a very complete multi-sport tracker. As you might expect from a Garmin device, there are profiles for different sports that can be loaded onto the watch one at a time. In addition to running, cycling, swimming in a pool, and golf, you can choose from cardio, strength training, rowing, and a lot of other activities. Runners can get advice from Garmin’s Coach, a program that helps you reach your goals by giving you adaptive training suggestions. Gym-goers can use the Venu to count their reps, but this system isn’t foolproof unless you’re just doing dumbbell curls.
The Venu has a lot of sensors that work together to help with these tracking modes. GPS, GLONASS, and GALILEO are on board for outdoor activities. They offer accurate location tracking and good coverage. The Venu picks up signals quickly and follows routes reliably, even in places with a lot of trees. It has a built-in barometric altimeter and is good at recording terrain data over the course of an activity, so your efforts to climb will not go unnoticed.
The Venu measures how hard you work every day in a few different ways. A pulse oximeter can measure the amount of oxygen in your blood while you exercise, sleep, and go about your day. It can also show how your body reacts to intense workouts and times of stress. Even though regular use of the stress tracker can drain the watch’s battery, the data is still interesting to look at. You can also track your heart rate, of course. The Venu’s HRM is on par with the best wrist-based sensors. Its average and peak numbers during runs and gym workouts were almost the same as those from a chest strap. As with any wrist-based monitor, how the watch is worn is important, but when it was securely fastened, the results were very consistent. The optical sensor is less sensitive to quick changes in heart rate than a chest strap, so HIIT fans may want to use the Venu with an ANT+ or Bluetooth chest strap.
Things about health and fitness
- New features for breathing and breathing work
- Animated workouts to show you what to do
- There is a lot of information to look through.
What does the Venu do with this information about my heart rate? It can also be used with some of the watch’s wellness features in addition to keeping track of how hard you work out. The Venu can figure out how many breaths you take per minute by looking at your heart rate and how it changes. On the Health Stats widget, you can see your current breathing rate and tap to see a graph of your seven-day average.
You can also use that information to help you with breathing exercises. When you add the breathwork widget to the watch and choose a technique, like “relax and focus,” the Venu will guide you through inhaling and exhaling with simple instructions, visuals, and haptic feedback. It’s a well-done feature, especially when combined with the stress-tracking tool: if you’re stressed, the Venu will tell you how to do some deep breathing exercises that will help.
Along with its other health features, the Venu keeps track of your breathing, oxygen level in your blood, and heart rate while you sleep. It seems a little long sometimes, but it’s hard to criticize the accuracy of sleep stage monitoring without a controlled experiment. What the app doesn’t lack is data, as there are many graphs and charts to look at.
Hydration tracking keeps track of how much water you lose while working out and, if you enter it by hand, how much water you drink during the day. The results, along with information about your sleep and workouts, are fed into Garmin’s Body Battery, which gives you a full picture of your body’s energy levels. In theory, this will tell you if your body is ready for a workout or if it needs more rest. In reality, it’s a new way to track your training, but the drain/gain amounts don’t always feel like they match up with how your body is doing. More generally, the Venu has step goals, reminders to move, and real-time badges for accomplishments. It also has animated workouts that can guide people who have never worked out before through a variety of exercises with the help of vibrations, clear instructions, and timers. It can also track your menstrual cycle and warn you when your heart rate is too high. Even though the Apple Watch might be better than the Venu because it has an ECG and can pick up on irregular heartbeats, Garmin’s smartwatch doesn’t fall short when it comes to tracking. It has a lot of useful tools to check your health.
Battery life
- Up to five days when used as a smartwatch
- GPS and music can be used for up to six hours
- Short charging cable made by the company
Garmin devices have had a long battery life for a long time. Even though the Venu doesn’t last as long as a dedicated sports watch, it still beats a few of the best smartwatches on the market. Garmin says that a single charge will last for five days as a smartwatch or six hours with both GPS and music streaming on. In real life, the battery life depends a lot on how it is used, but you can easily get five days out of it by tracking your activities, wearing it every day, and logging your sleep.
Compared to the Apple Watch’s 18 hours and the Fossil Gen 5’s two to three days in “extended” mode, this is a very good deal.
If your workout plan calls for you to log your routes every day, the Venu will need to be plugged in more often. Pulse oxygen tracking 24 hours a day and an always-on display will both use more power, but the Venu should still last for several days of mixed use.
There is no built-in mode to save battery life, but you can get the most out of the cell by turning off certain connectivity features as needed. Even though there isn’t a time estimate like on the Polar Grit X, battery drain is pretty consistent throughout the day and during exercise, so you shouldn’t see any drops you weren’t expecting.
Only when you save music over Wi-Fi is the battery level likely to drop quickly, so it’s best to sync while the watch is connected to the strangely short proprietary charging cable. Depending on the wattage of your adapter, a full charge takes about an hour from empty to full.
Verdict
The Garmin Venu is a sports watch first and a smartwatch second. It doesn’t have a lot of apps, Garmin Pay isn’t available in the UK, and it doesn’t have a voice assistant. But the Venu is one of the best smart sports watches you can buy.
It takes the already powerful Vivoactive 4 and adds a beautiful AMOLED screen to it. It can still track all kinds of sports with its wide range of sensors. It does all of this without giving up the long battery life that Garmin devices are known for.
Yes, its design could be a little more unique, and swiping through the user interface could be a little smoother. And yes, the Vivoactive 4 has a lot of the same features, including the ability to play music offline. But the Venu is for you if you want a multifunctional sports watch with a beautiful AMOLED screen.
Buy it if…
You like a clear and bright screen.
AMOLED is the best way to get a bright, bold screen, and the Venu’s 1.2-inch, 390 x 390 touchscreen is a sight to behold. It makes every widget stand out and is sharp, bright, and vivid. It also makes text and stats easier to read.
You want a high-tech sports watch that can keep track of everything.
The Garmin Venu has dedicated profiles for running, cycling, swimming, and breathwork, among other sports. And because it has a full set of sensors, it can track all kinds of metrics, such as pulse oxygen and breathing.
You want to listen to music without your phone.
The Venu makes it easy to save playlists offline. It works with streaming services like Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music. If you use it with Bluetooth headphones, you can listen to music while you work out without having to keep your phone close by.
Don’t buy it if…
You want a smartwatch that can do everything.
The Venu is a smarter sports watch because it has offline music, smart notifications, and safety alerts. However, Garmin’s ConnectIQ catalog still doesn’t have many good apps that can improve functionality. And because Garmin Pay isn’t widely used in the UK, the contactless payments can’t add much.
You want the batteries to last for weeks.
The Garmin Venu has a battery life of up to five days, which is longer than most major smartwatches. With six hours of GPS and music streaming, it also beats the Apple Watch. Still, if you want a watch that can last for weeks, you’re better off with something like the Garmin Instinct Solar.
You like touchscreens that are smooth and quick.
The interface of the Garmin Venu is pretty easy to use, with a nice combination of two buttons and a touchscreen. But some people will find it hard to tap smaller icons on the screen, and the transitions between widgets could be smoother.
| Product | Expected Price |
| Garmin Venu | Rs 43,480 |
