Professionals
- Week-long battery life in smartwatch mode
- Polished round design
- Superior health and restoration metrics
Cons
- $100 greater than earlier technology
- Software program can really feel sluggish
- UI will not be as intuitive as different sensible watches
Till the Garmin Venu 4 landed on my wrist, I principally shied away from utilizing devoted sports activities watches from manufacturers like Garmin or Polar as my each day driver. A part of that was imposter syndrome; I am a health fanatic, not a full-blown athlete (but). However principally, I wasn’t prepared to just accept the trade-offs that got here with them: clunky software program, restricted sensible options and designs that felt extra like fitness center gear than one thing I would need to put on all day.
The Venu 4 is not the one handsome sports activities watch available on the market, nevertheless it’s the primary one which’s come near convincing me to go all-in. It is well-rounded (actually and figuratively) and full of health options that do not really feel condescending to an athlete wannabe like me.
The road between sports activities watches and conventional smartwatches appears to get blurrier annually. Each Apple and Samsung now have rugged Ultra smartwatch traces, and sports activities watches are beginning to look (and act) extra like conventional smartwatches.
The Venu 4 appears like Garmin’s strongest try but to bridge these two worlds. It goes all out on health options with superior insights like coaching readiness and urged exercises usually reserved for the top-tier Fēnix fashions, however has a design and a worth which can be approachable for individuals who dwell someplace between informal health fanatic and aspiring athlete.
The $550 worth (for each 41mm and 45mm fashions) is $100 greater than its predecessor, and upgrading from the Venu 3 is smart provided that you intend to make use of the information it gives. When you’re somebody who principally simply needs the occasional exercise monitoring, then the Venu 4 might be overkill.
I might not be a full convert (but), however after weeks of residing with it day and evening with the Venu 4, I get the Garmin obsession, and I can see how a sports activities watch may assist me degree up my health journey after I’m prepared.
Venu 4 health: Garmin’s core power
The Venu 4 helps what appears like each exercise conceivable, from working and biking to rowing, HIIT, and even golf course mapping. It helps multi-band GPS, which I discovered supplied extra correct location monitoring, even on path runs with out my telephone. Coronary heart fee monitoring stayed impressively near my Polar chest strap after the preliminary leap from resting to higher-intensity dash.
Garmin’s power is not simply the sheer quantity of knowledge it collects, however the way it helps you perceive how these metrics impression your coaching. On the Venu 4, you get coronary heart fee, respiration fee, blood oxygen, stress, ECG, pores and skin temperature adjustments, HRV, and superior sleep and menstrual cycle monitoring.
On their very own, these metrics can really feel overwhelming and even meaningless. What Garmin does particularly nicely is join the dots by means of options like Physique Battery, Coaching Readiness, Load and different restoration insights that translate uncooked knowledge right into a clearer image of how ready your physique is for exercise. And since you’re not consistently taking it off to cost, Garmin can construct a extra full image of your well being and restoration that turns into extra correct over time.
The Morning temporary lets you know the way prepared you’re for coaching that day based mostly on sleep and vitals.
I discovered waking as much as a low Physique Battery rating after I felt off was each miserable and validating: no, I most likely cannot simply “shake this one off,” and sure, I ought to most likely take a relaxation day (or two) earlier than getting again to that New Yr’s decision.
The watch additionally highlights once you’re theoretically at your finest to work out, even when actual life would not all the time cooperate. There is not any higher irony than seeing I am in “peak” coaching readiness whereas rocking my toddler to sleep, or hustling to get a narrative in on time. That is finally my greatest barrier to completely crossing over into the Garmin ecosystem. I am not all the time ready to observe the recommendation that makes these metrics most beneficial.
Garmin Join Plus subscribers ($7 per thirty days) get entry to personalised teaching plans and each day urged exercises that adapt based mostly on their sleep, restoration and exercise historical past. I attempted a working plan to prep for a 10K, however by day three, I would gone rogue and settled again into my drained, however life like, exercise routine. Studying new routines takes time, and at this stage of life, 20-minute exercises squeezed between every part else should suffice.
Venu 4 battery life: Superb for a smartwatch, however meh for a Garmin
The Venu 4’s shiny new upgrades (brighter show and improved GPS monitoring over the Venu 3) come at a slight price to battery life: You get 12 days on the Venu 4 versus 14 on the Venu 3. However I believe it is nicely value it once you consider every part else it has.
I averaged about 10 days of battery life per cost for the smaller 41mm Venu 4 that I examined. However that is in smartwatch mode, which disables the always-on show. If, like me, you favor the always-on show, battery life drops. I received roughly 4 days on a cost (barely much less on lengthy mountaineering days when the GPS was working). It is not fairly multiweek endurance like Garmin’s Enduro or Intuition traces. However even on the decrease finish, the Venu 4 continues to be much better than most Apple and Samsung watches.
The again of the Venu 4 is made from polymer which might trigger pores and skin irritation if worn for extended intervals.
I’ve by no means worn a smartwatch this lengthy with out taking it off for a cost, which seems might be each an excellent and a foul factor. On the plus facet, it made sleep monitoring extra constant, which is essential to unlocking Garmin’s finest options like Physique Battery, HRV (coronary heart fee variability) and restoration insights. Sporting the watch for thus lengthy can be essential for figuring out long-term well being traits and detecting early indicators of sickness.
The flip facet of sporting it nonstop was pores and skin irritation. After about 5 straight days, the pores and skin straight underneath the watch grew to become crimson and itchy. I attempted to energy by means of it, which solely made issues worse. An ideal storm of winter climate, a suppressed immune system, and the polymer backing on the underside of the watch probably did not assist issues. After taking every week off, cleansing it extra repeatedly, and giving my pores and skin the occasional break, the difficulty hasn’t returned. And when you’ve got delicate pores and skin like me, it is most likely value constructing in a little bit respiration room.
Venu 4 design: Not your common sports activities watch
The Venu 4 is palms down one of many best-looking watches I’ve examined (Observe: I did not say sports activities watches). It even earned its fair proportion of compliments from pals who did not comprehend it was a sports activities watch. The Venu 4 is available in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm, each with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display screen and a stainless-steel case in lunar gold, slate, or silver finishes. It is lined in Gorilla Glass 3 and has a fiber-reinforced polymer again.
The bezels are bigger than these on an Apple Watch Sequence 11, and the usable display screen space feels smaller than anticipated. The Venu 4’s show is shiny and legible even in direct daylight. You may not discover it as responsive to the touch if you happen to’re coming from an LTPO OLED or Tremendous AMOLED show with a better refresh fee, like these on Apple or Samsung watches. Which is why the bodily button navigation is so essential.
The Venu 4 solely has two bodily buttons in contrast with the three on the earlier technology.
Garmin slimmed the design down to 2 bodily buttons (the Venu 3 had 3). One button brings up navigation, whereas the opposite handles fast settings. Lengthy-pressing the underside button prompts different actions, just like the flashlight, however till muscle reminiscence kicks in, it is easy to neglect which one does what.
The built-in LED flashlight is a standout characteristic. It is an precise gentle embedded within the facet of the watch, not a screen-based workaround like discovered on different smartwatches. It is surprisingly highly effective and extremely helpful, whether or not you are doing an ultramarathon or, in my case, checking on a sleeping child with out turning on any lights.
Venu 4 watch fundamentals: Purposeful, however not seamless
On paper, the Venu 4 checks a lot of the smartwatch containers. It has notifications, cell funds through Garmin Pay, music storage, voice assistant entry (through your telephone) and helps calls out of your wrist. Android phone homeowners get the added perk of responding to texts from the watch; iPhone homeowners are out of luck.
In my testing, that is the place Garmin nonetheless lags behind true smartwatches. Every little thing works, nevertheless it’s not seamless; easy actions typically take extra steps than they need to, and Garmin’s app ecosystem stays restricted. Even altering your watch face requires a further telephone app (Garmin IQ). The upside is cross-platform compatibility, and apart from the power to reply to texts, the expertise is constant throughout iOS and Android.
Navigation on the Venu 4 can really feel sluggish and fewer intuitive than different sensible watches.
Venu 4 accessibility options
Garmin has additionally added extra accessibility choices within the Venu 4. There are spoken watch faces that learn out time and well being knowledge, hourly audio alerts, and a number of coloration filters for folks with coloration blindness.
Venu 4: Ultimate ideas
I am nonetheless a sensible generalist within the throes of working motherhood, however the Garmin Venu 4 is the closest I have been to going full sports activities watch. If I have been able to make health a real precedence, the Venu 4 could be my gateway Garmin watch.
It is a stable choose for anybody trying to cross over into the sports activities watch world for the primary time, and it is certainly one of Garmin’s most well-rounded choices. The Venu 4 has sufficient battery to get you thru the week, coaching insights that really feel genuinely useful quite than overwhelming, and a design that is polished sufficient to go for date-night-ready.
