Garmin Venu

The attractive Venu is Garmin’s overall fitness and health tracker, with such competitive features as music storage, sleep tracking, and Garmin Pay. It’s also Garmin’s first smart watch with an OLED screen, which means sharper, more beautiful graphics. With up to 5 days of battery life, the Venu is hampered by minor issues, but the high-resolution screen is its selling point.

Quick Take

Available in four distinct color combinations, the Venu courts fitness junkies who want something they can wear when they’re not training. Garmin opted for a two-button format on the Venu, and it is intuitive to use, though more functionality would be welcome instead of the Venu relying on the touchscreen. The Venu is small and lightweight, coming in at just 46.3 grams, which makes it easy to wear even while sleeping.

Design

The Venu’s minimalistic design is eye-catching, especially with its stainless-steel bezel that is handsomely textured and available in black, silver, or gold. The polymer case is the reason why the Venu is so lightweight. A touch of gold on some models is a welcome surprise, especially when matched with a color-coordinated buckle and the vivid 1.2-inch AMOLED screen, topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for durability. The screen can wash out when viewed outdoors, but it can also adapt to lighting conditions automatically and brings forth vivid colors across its interface.

Tracking

For such a small watch, the Venu is packed with features. It relies on three different onboard location tracking systems, including GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS. It is upgraded from previous devices like the Vivioactive 3, though still lagging behind some devices like the ForeRunner 245. Garmin Elevate optical heart rate tracking is standard, which also monitors stress levels with breathing exercises as ways to relax. Body Battery Energy Monitoring suggests when to get some rest based on your vital signs. There is also menstrual cycle tracking, hydration tracking that allows you to log your daily water intake, and sleep monitoring that tells you how long your REM cycles last.

Garmin has pushed its Pulse OX blood oxygen sensor across its entire lineup, and the Venu is no different. The Venu is the first time that this sensor can record data all day, for a comprehensive look at your own blood oxygen saturation levels and therefore your health needs.

Features

Pulse Ox sensor: Gauges your blood oxygen saturation to see how your body takes in oxygen during the day.

Advanced Sleep Monitoring: Breaks down your night to track your light, deep, and REM sleep modes.

Menstrual Cycle Tracking: Lets the user log physical and emotional symptoms and other information in the Garmin Connect app during phases of their cycle.

Stress Tracking: Prompts mindful breathwork in cases of elevated heart rates.

Music storage: Up to 500 songs or 3.5 gigabytes, with access to popular apps like Spotify or Amazon Music.

Garmin Pay: Syncs with your credit card for easy payment.

Garmin Coach: Training plans include distance running for 5Ks up to full marathons.

In addition to all of these training features, the Venu also features incident detection: based on accelerometers and recorded motions, the Venu can detect accidents and emergencies like falls and send your location and message to a specified emergency contact. This can also be manually activated via Garmin Assistance.

The Venu includes Bluetooth and WiFi, but no LTE, which may be a detriment for users. Garmin has just one watch equipped with cellular service, the Vivioactive Music 3, which works with Verizon and may make its way to other models.

Verdict

Sleek and stylish, with a knockout screen, the Venu can be worn from the gym to the office with ease. It’s priced like that too: at $399 it’s not cheap, but it is packed with features for the average fitness trainer. The touchscreen has room for improvement, but don’t be surprised to see that happen down the line.