Garmin just dropped Garmin Venu 4, the latest iteration of his lifestyle focused, Apple Watch-Riving Fitness Watch-and considering that Apple Watch 11 has also just been released that leaves you with a decision on what you can buy.
Packing a speaker, microphone and voice assistant along with the usual AMOLED screen, package of fitness tracking software and extensive Garmin Connect app, the Venu models are designed to be communications-enabled ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ Smartwatches as much as they are hardcore fitness tracking buddies.
When its predecessor, Garmin Venu 3, was the top of our best Garmin Watch -purchase guide, we expect great things out of Venu 4. It costs $ 549.99 in the US, £ 469.99 in England and AU $ 949, for both 41 mm and 45 mm models.
That’s a serious increase compared to Venu 3 that retailed to US $ 450 / £ 399 / AU $ 749 when it arrived two years ago, and more expensive than Standard Apple Watch series 11, starting at $ 399 / £ 369 / AU $ 679 for the 40mm GPS-Kun version.
However, there are some things it can do that Apple Watch Series 11 can’t, so for the right person it may be worth paying over the odds of Garmin Venu 4.
Check out my list below for a quintet of cool features that you won’t find on the best Apple Watches – and make sure you also read our full Apple Watch 11 review.
1
Apple Watch has a kind of flashlight, but all it does is turn on the screen that drains its already lean battery further. Garmin Venu 4 joins many of Garmin’s other watches this year, such as Garmin Instinct 3, to get a dedicated LED luman lamp.
Able to shine at four intensities and with an extra red lighting state it is useful to attract attention in the desert, switch to red to help you run or go safely at night and to find your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
2. Battery life
While the Apple Watch Series 11 recently had its battery life extended by six hours to a total of 24 hours, the Garmin Venu 4 has actually lost two days value of the battery life compared to its predecessor, Garmin Venu 3.
However, the Garmin Venu 4 is still bells in a huge 12 days in Smartwatch mode, according to Garmin’s press materials. Expect to see that fall significantly with the always-on-display that is activated, but you still get a lot of days out of it.
3. New Holistic Health Functions
Garmin Venu 4 is one of the first watches to receive Garmin’s new lifestyle logging feature along with the Garmin Instinct Crossover Amoled. We haven’t tested this yet, but it seems to match Whoop and Oura’s features that allow you to apply context to your heart rate graphs using digital journal items or tags.
Logging of naps, caffeine, alcohol consumption and more via the lifestyle logging function can provide additional clarity for bounding data. For example, if you drank lots of caffeine late in the day, you will be able to log this and better understand the resulting drop in your sleep result.
A health status widget will also quickly notify you whether your statistics differ away from the norm, which may be a sign of stress or illness.
4th. Deputy rhythmic detection
Yes, Apple adds a sleep score to its watches, but Garmin has gone a step further and claims, with Venu 4, to estimate circadian rhythms and how adjusted your schedule is with your body’s natural sleep cycle. Using this information, you may allegedly be able to better adjust your bedtime to reach optimal sleep.
Garmin also adds sleep consistency and gives a look at your average bedtime over the past week.
5. Fitness Coach
Garmins is fitness watches first and foremost, and its Garmin Connect app and on-watch training skills have always been first-class. It is especially useful for runners, cyclists, hikers and swimmers who offer the reversal of route route in the original training app along with gold standard metrics. Apple’s training app is solid – especially its Watcho’s 26 Redesign – but can’t offer the kind of guidance that Garmin can.
What’s more, it expands these features with fitness coach, an extension to its algorithmically driven personalized training, offering daily proposed training -based on a measure of 25 different training profiles. These include walking and running, but also indoor cycling and HIIT.
We review Garmin Venu 4 very soon, so don’t be surprised if you see it on our list of the best smartwatches in a long time.
