"The Garmin Venu is a solid fitness tracker, but its beautiful AMOLED display is the killer feature."
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AMOLED display
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Activity tracking
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Training animations
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Many sensors
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Lack of detailed fitness indicators
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Lack of space
The line between a smartwatch and a fitness watch continues to dissolve every day.
It used to be that if you are interested in fitness, you get a dedicated, nondescript fitness tracker with a super simple dot matrix display (I'm looking at you, Nike FuelBand). Then Apple came out with her watch and I remember how silly it sounded. I mean, I already had a smartphone – wasn't a smartwatch a little superfluous?
Oh, how times are changing, and there is no better example of watch development than the Venu from Garmin.
display
The Venu is basically the same as the Vivoactive 4 – a multisport smartwatch that still has all the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections required for Android and Apple notifications. However, the Venu has a significant difference in its display.
The AMOLED display of the Venu with 390 x 390 pixels blows the 260 x 260 MIP display of the Vivoactive out of the water. While their physical sizes are similar at 1.2 inches and 1.3 inches, respectively, the Venu's screen shows a much sharper picture with darker blacks and a range of colors that are surprisingly vivid.
The newly discovered vibrancy of the Venu is underlined by its active graphics and dials, which are far better than most Garmin wearables. The Venu heart rate chart alone is a rainbow of colors that made me do a workout just to make my metrics more fun.
Battery life
The only downside to the AMOLED display is its battery drain, and you will most likely be frustrated if you don't immediately change the dial setting to "always on".
I tried to live with the Venu in its default setting, which turns the display off automatically to see if the battery life information is correct. Garmin claims 5 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and 6 days in GPS mode, or up to 20 days when both modes are turned off.
Still, it only took me two days to get angry at shaking my wrist like a crazy person to make the display glow. As a result, I've set the display to stay on.
The penalty for switching is a longer drain on battery life, but I've still seen a little over 3 days of life with workouts a day, so this seemed like a worthwhile trade to keep my mental health.
design
The Venu doesn't want to weigh things down and has only 43 grams and a body of 43.2 x 43.2 x 12.4 mm. The size took a few days to get used to big clocks. This may be a deal breaker for some, but with the Venu's sharp display, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.
One of the best things about the Venu is that it has a touchscreen display. This makes for a more intuitive experience when scrolling through activities and daily statistics. With two physical buttons on the side, the Venu offers a satisfactory medium of universal usability and familiarity for existing Garmin users.
Venu's usability is enhanced by adding Garmin Pay for contactless payments and storing up to 500 songs. That number seems a bit low compared to Venu's competitors, but since you can stream Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer, that's not a big deal.
In addition to these features, the Venu has a calendar, weather, music controls for your smartphone and all the notifications you can ever request. While the usual "smart" features are covered, fitness tracking is where the Venu shines (and all of Garmin's previous experiences come into play).
Fitness tracking
Garmin loaded the Venu with sensors. On board are a GPS, a heart rate monitor, a barometric altimeter, a compass, a gyroscope, an accelerometer and a pulse oximeter. This is almost the same sensor array as the high-end Fenix 6 Pro, which also includes a thermometer.
All this sensitivity enables automated goals. The Venu learns your activity levels and begins setting daily goals based on your current activity. It can also record calories burned, climbed floors, minutes of intensity, VO2 max and estimates of energy and stress levels.
With all of these follow-ups, the Venu creates a fairly well-rounded view of your overall health and fitness. This is the metric ecosystem that die-hard Garmin fans have come to know and love over the years. With every firmware update they become more and more precise.
The core competencies of Venu are in the usual suspects when running, swimming and cycling. Running has pace and cadence tracking. While swimming, stroke, Swolf score, time and distance alarms are displayed. Cycling has triggers for distance, time, and calories burned, as well as the ability to connect to Garmin's Varia radar and lights.
I had no problems keeping track of runs or rides I did. However, when it came to connecting the Venu to my indoor cycling trainer, it made a connection, but never realized that I was pedaling. This wasn't necessary since the Venu still had my heart rate data and I was tracking the distance with Zwift. But there were some strange training logs that showed 0.00 miles.
Guided workouts
Venu is not just about tracking what you do. It can also guide you through training.
The most interesting are the animations available for yoga, pilates, strength and cardio. There are several training routines available, but you can also create your own workouts.
These animations are helpful because you are asked to try something different. It felt a bit awkward at first when I tried to keep an eye on the watch for the next yoga pose. Over time, however, I learned when to look at the watch and focus on my shape.
Once you have completed an activity, the Venu estimates your sweat loss based on the measurement data it has collected. I am a little doubtful of how accurate this value is, but after a little effort I thought about my hydration.
After a three kilometer walk, the Venu estimated that I had lost 201 ml. It's not much, but the memory that I could have a drink was a welcome piece of mindfulness.
Stat tracking
For the stat junkies, the Venu has the all-important VO2 maximum score. Your VO2 max is essentially a measure of how well your body uses oxygen and a relatively accurate way to measure your basic aerobic fitness.
Real VO2 max tests are done by putting maximum effort into it while monitoring your oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide emissions with lots of tubes and expensive looking medical devices. I am highly doubtful whether the Venu can keep up with the validity of a real VO2 max test, but most people will never do the utmost to do a real test, so the Venu estimate must be enough.
HR zones are what most people will look out for, but I've missed having more advanced metrics.
Unfortunately, the Venu lacks other key figures that will interest real fitness junkies. Are you interested in your current training or training status, whether you are doing basic or threshold training or monitoring your weekly training load? Then move on, because the Venu has none of it.
The Venu has heart rate zones to control effort during exercise. HR zones are what most people will look out for, but I've missed having more advanced metrics.
I also missed the route finding. Navigating the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is one of the most powerful features. The Venu, on the other hand, only keeps track of where you went and has no idea how to say where to go. The only exception is golf, as the Venu has access to 41,000 courses that can be downloaded via the Garmin Connect app.
While the lack of navigation is kind of a mess, the Venu continues its list of features with elements like a sleep monitor to track your REM and deep sleep, and event detection that automatically sends your location to certain contacts when it detects a crash during a bike ride.
guarantee
Standard 1 year product guarantee.
Our opinion
The Venu has a solid list of features that are suitable for the vast majority of people who are fitness aficionados but not fanatical. While you may miss out on some navigation and detailed training metrics, the Venu's streamlined design and beautiful touchscreen is worth the $ 350 price tag, and if you find it for sale, it's all the more worth it.
Is there a better alternative?
The obvious alternative is the Apple Watch Series 5 for $ 400. When the App Store is available, the Apple Watch is extremely hard to beat if you're already an iPhone user. However, Garmin's experience with fitness and Venu's touchscreen makes it a viable option for anyone who isn't yet fully immersed in the Apple ecosystem.
How long it will take?
Garmin is robust as nail products, but the Venu doesn't have a raised bezel, so scratches on the Gorilla Glass Screen are more likely than usual. That means the Venu should last for at least several years.
Should you buy it
Yes, if you use an Android phone. If you already have an iPhone, you can raise the extra money for the Apple Watch Series 5 as it is a better choice by integrating it into the iPhone.
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