Garmin Venu 4 Fitness Smartwatch Review

Garmin has no shortage of smartwatches, and the Venu 4 is another reminder of both the company’s strengths and its frustrating habit of over-segmenting its product range. On paper, this should be one of the easiest Garmin watches to recommend. It looks smarter than the bulkier sports models, it has a deep set of health and fitness features, and the battery life is far better than most mainstream smartwatches. But while the Venu 4 gets a lot right, it also feels like Garmin has held just enough back to stop it from being the obvious all-rounder it could have been. Here is my review.

It’s a real fitness watch

The Venu 4 comes loaded with Garmin’s latest suite of health and training tools, including HRV status, Body Battery, ECG support, Pulse Ox, skin temperature tracking, recovery time, training readiness and women’s health features. It also adds Health Status, which looks for changes in your usual metrics, and lifestyle logging, which lets you track habits such as caffeine or alcohol to see how they may affect sleep, stress and recovery.

Garmin Fitness Coach is one of the more useful additions, especially as it now covers more than 25 activities, including walking, rowing, HIIT and indoor cycling. That makes the watch feel less narrowly focused on runners and cyclists, which is a welcome step and should certainly make it attractive to those considering moving away from more “casual” solutions like the Apple Watch.

The Venu 4 feels much more complete

The best thing about the Venu 4 is how complete it feels. It has enough fitness depth to satisfy serious users, but it does not look overly sporty on the wrist. The metal design helps it feel more premium, and the 41mm and 45mm size options are welcome. My wife is sporting the 41mm and has been happy to wear it to formal events. She certainly wouldn’t have done that with her previous pink Forerunner 255s!

I have to highlight the two biggest standout features that have trickled down from Garmin’s flagships. First, there’s the GPS, which is dual-frequency GNSS/GPS, a real upgrade over the previous model and something my wife has been waiting for in this range. Second, the built-in flashlight. I’m surprised, but so very happy to see this included as it’s such an underrated feature on other watches. 

Beyond that, there’s the fantastic screen and battery life, as well as the excellent companion app. 

Some nitpicks

My biggest frustration with the Venu 4 is the lack of full maps. We almost had a good-looking watch with full maps, but Garmin opted to not include them. It’s a real bummer, especially with the price increase. 

Another frustration is the metal band, which, while good-looking out of the box, scratches very easily. Perhaps that’s just par for the course when using these materials, but I think potential buyers should at least be aware of this. If you’re taking it out on the trails, the Venu 4 might get some permanent scuffing.

Disclosure: Review unit purchased by reviewer.