Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Black with Slate Hardware : One fatal flaw.
Good features:screen – the standout feature and the main reason to go for this watch rather than any other garmin offeringsbattery life – surprisingly good (4-5 days continuous use without always on display) and in any case it charges up really quicklygps tracking – rock solid and finds signal very quickly. It probably gives you at least 10 hours without music. Appearance – looks very goodmobile app – excellent for data vultures like meconnectivity – no problem staying connected to my smartphoneweight – very light and comfortable to wearactivity tracking – all aspects work well, including plausible step and floor countingpulse ox tracking – not sure what the point is but it is a lot of funnot so good featuressleep tracking – doesn’t do a good job, as it thinks you are sleeping all the time you are in bed. However, this is common to all garmin devices. The fitbit does a much better job here. This means that the body battery reading which is based partly on sleep data is highly suspect toonotifications – ok but doesn’t display icons consistently and there’s not much possibility of interaction. The fitbit does a better job hereno microphone or speaker – personally i don’t care but it might be an issue for somescreen bezel a tad on the large side though not noticeable if watch face with dark background selectedprice – high but you are getting a very good watch for your moneyi’ve owned many smart and not so smart watches, including garmin, pebble, huawei, samsung, ticwatch and fitbit offerings. This is the best one i’ve owned. In my opinion, for what it’s worth, the good massively outweighs the not so good and therefore 5 stars is justified. Possible (cheaper) alternatives:fitbit versa 2 – also very good display and sleep tracking is excellent.
I’ll keep in short and sharp and just base it on pro’s & con’s. To let you know i’m big into my gadgets and have had 3 previous garmin watches before. Ultimately there seems to have been very little progress made from garmins vivoactive back in 2015pro’s(1) nice screen which is bright and 390 x 390 resolution (amoled)(2) always on feature(3) pretty decent battery life (though not fully tested with music on)(4) good heart rate accuracy(5) lightweightcon’s(1) very cheap material, big disappointment, this watch probably cost about £2 to manufacture (not value for money)(2) pairing headphones. Constant issues with them not connecting – resorted to wired mp3 player(3) too many pointless fads, not based on accurate information (i. E sleep, stress levels etc) pointless(4) when pausing the watch, after a small period it keeps finishing the activity so i have to create a new one mid-run/cycle(5) don’t like the 3mm blackboarder – why can’t they do a edge to edge screen?(6) gpa accuracy and average pace is a bit all over the place. I’ll be sending this back and continue to use my old one until something more innovative comes available.
Garmin venu (posh version review)this is a great watch with a couple of problems. The display is a big improvement on the always on but pretty dull vivoactive hr, the way it gets round the extra power draw of the oled is by activating it when you turn it to your face or if there is a notification. There is a pronounced delay when it does this making it impossible to just glance at it like you would with a normal watch. The buttons aren’t that well thought out. I’ve triggered the activity stop button mid workout when the edge of my glove pushes up my wrist. You can mitigate this by loosening it and pushing it up your arm a bit before you get going. However, the functionality is very good. Much better sensors, it can track breathing and blood oxygen. It communicates much better over bluetooth than the vivioactive hr. The gps seems more accurate and i get much better altitude change precision with it.
Generally a good all round product. Only discovering half of what this watch can actually do. Everything apart from the sleep cycle is reasonably accurate. And works incredibly well under waterhowever my biggest gripe is the materials used to make the watch. Both the screen and watch surround are showing more scratches and general wear after several months than my old apple watch series 1 did after several years, which is unacceptable for a premium product.
Overviewi have long been a loyal user of running watches produced by garmin and my most recent (and previously much loved) watch is this garmin vivo active 3. I have also road tested the polar vantage m, the polar ignite recently and now this new garmin venu. I typically run 50km to 60km per week (combination of trails and on road) and also use the watches for multi-sports such as weight training, spinning etc. My review below contains the detail but in summary i absolutely love this watch, its functionality and its high quality screen are exactly what was needed in this now quite crowded sports/activity tracking watch area. When combined with the garmin app you really do have a 5* product which will help with monitoring health and performance. Set up:- you can set up the watch with or without the garmin app. It is recommended to use the app and therefore i did (i also love analyising my fitness data so a watch which isn’t syncing with an app is no fun for me). – the watch was easy to set up and both the watch and app were intuitive to use. Charging- the watch arrived with 52% battery power. It comes with a usb charger (note: no mains plug, you will either need to charge via a laptop or a mains to usb charger).
I’ve previously owned the vivoactive 3. When the vivoactive 4 came along i had no doubt whatsoever that i was going to get it. Then i discovered the venu which was marketed as a vivoactive 4 with a better screen. The one (tiny) gripe i always had with my v3 was that the screen colours were not very good and quite flat (even though it’s very good in bright light). Very deep colours on a 390 x 390 amoled display (vs the 240 x 240 on the v3). The watch has a great number of features and options, but most of them will be familiar to garmin users. The body battery is a neat feature, as is the pulse ox, even though i haven’t had the chance to test this thoroughly yet. I find the device quite responsive and the battery life (so far) seems very decent. The venu is very light but looks and feels like a premium product. One difference with the v3 (in the v3’s favour) is that the venu is doesn’t have an ‘always on’ feature, i. You have to double tap the screen or press the top button to view. Not an issue though and i can see why they’ve done that as it would be a huge drain on the battery. All in all i’m very happy with my purchase.
Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Black with Slate Hardware
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by entering your model number. - Beautiful bright AMOLED display and up to five-day battery life in smartwatch mode up to six hours in GPS and music mode
- The broadest range of all-day health monitoring features keeps track of your energy levels respiration menstrual cycle stress sleep estimated heart rate and more
- Easily download songs to your watch (may require premium subscription) including playlists from Spotify or Deezer and connect with wireless headphones (sold separately) for phone-free listening
- Record all the ways to move with more than 20 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps including yoga running pool swimming and more
- Get easy-to-follow animated cardio strength yoga and Pilates workouts right on your watch screen
The post Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Black with Slate Hardware :
One fatal flaw.
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