Garmin Venu Sq Review: Great Health Tracking, Simple Styling
"This is an excellent health and fitness watch at an affordable price."
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Reliable and accurate activity tracking
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Incoming data collection and analysis
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Simple and lightweight design
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Support for dozens of workout types
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Almost a week of battery life
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$ 50 for music features
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Touchscreen can be fussy during exercise
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Limited "intelligent" functions and notifications
You will have a hard time finding someone who doesn't know Garmin, and most of the time you will know the company's extensive range of fitness smartwatches. It has a well-earned reputation for making the highest quality, most accurate watches for runners, bikers, triathletes and every other possible outdoor sport.
But Garmin doesn't just want to play in the "pro" room. There's reason to believe that the Garmin name could lead to affordable sales that rival entry-level smartwatches and high-end fitness bands. This is where the Garmin Venu Sq comes into play.
Hardware and functions
You can't see it any other way. The Venu Sq looks like an Apple Watch. I know there are only so many ways to make a smartwatch with rounded rectangles, but it's hard to miss. Just a few days after getting the Venu Sq, I was in soccer practice and a teammate asked how I liked my Apple Watch.
However, that's not a bad thing. Unlike any other Garmin fitness watch, this isn't a polarizing design. It's simple, straightforward, and decidedly not looking robust. You can wear something other than workout clothes and keep wearing the Venu Sq without explicitly shouting to everyone around you, "You're damn right, I'm running!" Not everyone wants this recognition.
The plastic body is effective, albeit lightweight and cheap (remember, it's only $ 200). The brushed aluminum piece that surrounds the curved glass display cover, however, is a nice contrast and on the back, where the sensor array is located, neither thick nor bulky.
The display is just 1.3 inches diagonal and 240 x 240 resolution, but it definitely gets the job done. It has an ambient brightness setting and was easily visible in sunlight while it also got much darker at night. There is a large bezel on the screen that doesn't look too good, but honestly it doesn't affect how well you can use the watch considering how simple the software is.
This is a fitness-first smartwatch, not a generic "little phone on the wrist," so its smart functionality is fundamental. You can customize watch faces with some basic designs and data layouts, but it's nowhere near as extensive as Apple's. Notifications come to your wrist and you can act on them when paired with an Android phone. Otherwise, there is not much you can do outside of health and fitness. There are no news, apps, or advanced features here. And the vibration motor is very loud.
Even with a color touchscreen, the Venu Sq offers excellent battery life according to general smartwatch standards. Even with a constant Bluetooth connection that brought in notifications from my phone, overnight sleep tracking, and 4-5 hours of GPS workout tracking, I was able to get 5 days of battery life without any problems. This is without the "always on" display which would certainly put a few days off, but I found that a long delay in the display timeout is a good compromise.
Health, activity and training tracking
For a $ 200 fitness watch, the Venu Sq delivers where it matters. Sensors and tracking functions. You get the same core tracking and analysis as a $ 600 Garmin Fenix 6 running the same great Garmin Connect app on your phone. Here you will find constant, precise heart rate monitoring as well as the usual number of steps and the active minute value. Garmin's reputation for having accurate GPS tracking for running and cycling has also proven itself in my tests and perfectly tracked my activities.
Garmin uses the idea of a "body battery" to measure your overall physical condition, which can be fun to track every day. But you also get a display for physical stress, calorie consumption, sleep analysis, training load analysis and training suggestions – again identical to much more expensive Garmin watches.
Every popular activity has a pre-built mode that you can jump into with a few taps and start tracking, from running and biking to stand up paddle boarding, cross country skiing, rowing, stretching, yoga, elliptical training, golf and More. The list is long.
The Venu Sq, like many of its other watches, also offers SpO2 tracking (aka Pulse Ox), something you otherwise only get on the latest Apple Watch Series 6. You shouldn't be putting a lot of weight into an SpO2 reading from a consumer smartwatch, but if it's something you focus on as part of your overall health picture, then it is here.
The only thing you are missing out on is a barometer so you won't get any altitude related tracking. No daily tracking of climbing stairs and, above all, no altitude information for hiking or running / cycling on paths. This isn't that important to most people, but anyone who takes their running or biking seriously will really miss getting accurate elevation data and an altitude-adjusted speed analysis.
While the touchscreen is good for everyday use and navigation, it is not the best interface for using the watch while exercising. Touchscreens work poorly with sweaty fingers and are accidentally triggered by sleeves and rain. After accidentally ending a run once, I turned on the screen lock, which unfortunately also disabled the side buttons – an annoying compromise, but a general improvement. It may seem gaudy to have a watch with 5 physical buttons like the other models from Garmin, but it really is the option to interface with a watch while exercising or while wearing gloves.
Like most of its watches, Garmin has an upsell fee to add music features to the Venu Sq. You pay an additional $ 50 for local storage on the watch, which can be used to sync music to Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer and play it right on your headphones. This isn't a big deal for me running or biking as it doesn't support YouTube Music (come on!) And I always have my phone with me, but I know a lot of people want to go off the phone and still have their Spotify playlists. For all-purpose smartwatches with integrated music functionality, a price premium of 25% for the Venu Sq is difficult.
Our opinion
The Venu Sq is well positioned to stand out from basic fitness bands like the Fitbit Inspire 3. It has a watch shape and a large screen, but without the big price hike when switching to a fully featured smartwatch from Apple or a high-end fitness watch from Polar or Garmin.
You get accurate tracking of activity, health, and training backed by the summary and analysis of Garmin's smartphone app, which gives you the same features you would expect from a much more expensive watch. It doesn't look like a hardcore fitness watch, however, which is likely a bonus for people who are only looking to spend $ 200 on this type of wearable.
There are definite shortcomings here if you take your fitness very seriously and need more accurate tracking, more sensors or hardware buttons. But think of the price here too. The Venu Sq is a great fitness-focused smartwatch that divides the difference between casual and professional users while also looking more like an all-purpose smartwatch.
Is there a better alternative?
Garmin's biggest competitor is hands down the Apple Watch Series 3, which is relatively old but still fully supported and is being sold brand new by Apple for $ 199. The Watch Series 3 is clearly unable to track workouts and provide detailed fitness data. However, if you own an iPhone, it offers a more holistic lifestyle smartwatch experience with better apps, notifications, and a better user interface. And the draw for services like Apple Fitness + shouldn't be underestimated.
If you want to specifically focus on tracking your runs, bike rides, and serious workouts, a more specialized fitness smartwatch like the Garmin Forerunner 245 makes more sense. It's more expensive at $ 275, but it has more buttons, a touchless screen, and a clear, always-on, low-reflectivity display in daylight.
How long it will take?
As an inexpensive fitness watch, the Venu Sq is not designed to last a decade. But it's well designed and built to be knocked around, and that's a good sign of its longevity. You may need to replace a belt a few years later, but it's an inexpensive proposition. Garmin also supports the Connect app and platform well. As far as data retention and analysis is concerned, you will continue to be able to use these functions for years to come.
Should you buy it?
The Garmin Venu Sq is a good fitness-focused smartwatch that is north of a fitness band's budget. Some people really don't want to spend more than $ 200 on a fitness tracker but want to get something that looks like a watch – the Venu Sq fits that market. Garmin's activity tracking and app are great, and that brings exceptional value here. Don't expect too much from the other “smart” functions outside of healthcare.
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