Customer Ratings & Reviews

If you enjoy doing (almost any kind of) physical activities and looking for a GPS+music smartwatch so you can track your activities without paying for different apps and without charging your watch every day, Garmin Venu is made for you. It also tracks your sleep stages, measures your heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen 24/7; and calculates your VO2 Max and fitness age.

I had an Apple Watch 4 before this, and I loved my Apple Watch but I wanted more health/fitness tracking abilities. I’m not an athlete, but I’m kind of a data nerd. So far I really like the Garmin Venu. I feel like it’s a little more accurate than my AW as far as step count goes. I like the body battery, and pulse ox tracking overnight, not to mention the (way better) battery life. I don’t miss a lot of the AW features. I didn’t need to access my email on my wrist for example, but I liked being able to control audio from my watch. Other than that I can’t think of anything else I wish I had on the Garmin. I do however struggle with connectivity. My iPhone XS and Garmin software are both up-to-date but the watch consistently disconnects from my phone, even inside my house (my house is not too big by any means). I don’t get all of the text notifications either. (But I do get all other push notifications). It’s not a huuuge deal, but it is annoying.

I'm a fairly active person a d wanted a watch that gave me phone notifications as well as activity tracking with NFC /GPS / music. This one ticked all the boxes with the extra bonus of not having to charge it every day. I can go about 3-4 days between charges. Screen is great and I have no problems seeing the display in sunlight. Small downsides are that there aren't a lot of apps on Garmin's store.

This is a great watch. Keeps track of just about everything...heart rate, pulse ox, sleep quality, as well as stats for a whole host of activities. Also, if you should happen to get hurt while out, you can set it so that it notifies three of your contacts and gives the location. Holds a charge for several days depending on how much you use the GPS.

I've always liked Garmin for GPS watches. SOOO much better than my TomTom! It can be hard to figure out with all the features they have available on it, which is why it's bumped to a 4. I also have the app for it, and it's a really nice app!

Only complaint is once you start an activity, you cannot touch the buttons (to turn on music, etc.) without interrupting your workout. Otherwise love the watch and features. Battery is 3 to 4 days for me. Others complain about Garmin software but I like it for basic tracking. HR us pretty accurate compared to my Wahoo Tickr...it is slower to respond, but does get there. GPS seems ok. A bit off against my handheld GPS Map 60cs...but close enough for avg. person. New bands dress it up nicely. Also, have banged it on a few things and scraped the concrete a few times while working, but no damage whatsoever yet. I also have the Instinct, and love it for other reasons.

Review two years in - Really solid watch. Scratches a little too easily and takes way too long to connect to GPS sometimes. Bluetooth connection can be spotty,but I believe that is my headphones. Overall good running watch for the value.

I bought this to replace my applewatch that I was not using to its full capability. I wanted something good for running and I knew Garmin was a reputable brand. I still wanted to have some smartwatch capabilities so I went with the Venu. In the "smartwatch" department it was a downgrade and I was ok with that. Here are some pros: -Reliable (I've never lost any data) -Great exercise data and I sync mine with strava for running, walking and golf. Automatically syncs as soon as I get near my phone. -I decided to get spotify premium so I could listen to music while I run without my phone. I haven't had any issues with sound quality. Cons: -takes a bit to get used to its controls -touch screen doesn't compare with the applewatch -smartwatch capabilities aren't anything comparable to applewatch. -controls take some time to get used to.

My Apple Watch was just over two years old and the glass cracked. Had terrible battery life and overall I wasn’t happy with it. Had a Fitbit before and wanted to try something different, so switched to the Garmin. It’s awesome! Battery lasts about 6 days which is nice. Easy to use and good features. The app is great too.

This is my first Garmin smartwatch (my previous Garmin device was a smartband) and I switched from a Polar Ignite. The design is solid and doesn't feel cheap. The HR sensor does seem to be much better than my previous smartwatch. I used to use a chest HR monitor for workouts and decided to try just the watch alone and it kept up much better than expected on my weight room workouts. I do wish there were better watchfaces to take advantage of the great screen. Customization of the workout screens is very good. I would like to be able to disable some screens in profiles since I can put the most valuable information on a single one and not have it constantly rotate. I have not tried to use the onboard music streaming but I almost always have my phone with me anyway. Last thing is that the 20mm standard band is great so that you can quickly customize your watch band to your activity.

Works well. Love the activity tracker and connect app. GPS may take sometime to acquire for outside activities. Love the notification. If you are looking for activity tracker with some smart features, this watch is great.

I love everything about this watch, it provides so much data to you about your body and health. I use it to track my sleep, my water intake, my walking and steps. I use the compass, I use the apps, custom watch faces. Love this watch!

I have now used this for a full weekend and the positive things I have taken away from it are great battery life, nice screen, and the workout metrics are great. The negatives are the price, sleep tracking, and it’s a sub-par smartwatch. It asks you what your typical sleep hours are and just assumes that you wake up when you tell it. So if you wake up at 5:30 am during the week notifications start going off then even if it is the weekend and you sleep in. Personally I think it is about $100 - $150 overpriced. If you are on the Apple platform I would get an Apple Watch and for Android a Galaxy Watch Active 2.

I switched to the venu from an Apple Watch. I love the display and the round look vs the square look. It’s great for workouts but horrible with the iPhone for use as a smart watch. You can’t leave your phone in one room of the house and walk to the next without it disconnecting, it has issues syncing constantly and will make it impossible to see the time on your watch because an error screen pops up and won’t go away. You can’t text back or even use the text app on the watch it just has a general notification area that’s hard to get to. The garmin iq app for the watch pretty much needs to be running on your phone at all times to sync data and be functional. Not a great smart watch if that’s what you’re looking for.

I have been a Fitbit user for over 6 years. I liked the way it monitored my sleep pattern. However, now that i have a Garmin Venu I will never go back to Fitbit. The Garmin is the most comfortable watch ever worn. It also keeps the charge longer than the Fitbit, my charge will last for almost a week. I love the way it syncs with my Garmin 530 GPS for my Bike, as well as my chest strap heart monitor. I can't find anything about this watch that I don't like. I recommend it to the athlete that likes to work out, walk, jog or cycle.

I really appreciate the Venu's accuracy in measuring my heartrate, and the precision of the built in GPS when it tracks my waling workouts. The accompanying phone app makes it easy to understand the info that the Venu gathers.

This is my 3rd smart watch. I ordered two Fit bits thinking they were going to do what I needed them to do and that is not the case. I first want to start out by saying I love this watch! It does all the things I need it to do for the most part. My biggest and only complaint is I needed a device that could check my oxygen levels at any time. This watch will do that however it is a lot slower than what I need. At rest my oxygen increases. I need to check it frequently with activity throughout the day. The longer this watch takes to register the more my body has time to rest and regain my levels.

I have had the Venu for a few months now and here's my thoughts Pros's: - Good Screen - Good Battery Life - SMS quick replies (Android only) Con's: - Poor bluetooth range (not more than 10 feet) - Limited Venu specific watch faces - Connect App is terrible - User interface software on watch is not great I like the Venu in some regards. Unfortunately, the Connect app is poor and not easy to use. Limited Venu specific watch faces do not utilize to the great color OLED screen. Battery life is very good, on par with my Fitbit Versa 2. The Versa 2 is a much better experience, except for the notifications issues with android which ia what sent me to the Venu.

The only reason I don't give this a full five stars is not being sure of the accuracy of this watches features, but I figured it is close enough. I chose this because of the many features it has. I was originally going to purchase the smaller rectangular shaped Venu, but Best Buy did not have it in stock and the time which left this one which has all of the same features. I chose over FitBit because I learn from other reviews that FitBit charges subscriptions for some of it's features. However, I love the many features of this thing from heart rate to stress level, and respiration to the pulse and oxygen percentage. I also love the sleep tracker. This is also my first fitness tracker with GPS which I feel is fairly accurate. I'm sure not 100% but works for me.

Have used two different versions of Apple watch as well as Fitbit versa. Having picked up an Android phone recently, needed to find a current alternative to Apple watch. My exercise is pool swimming about 5x a week. I don't have huge wrists and current Apple watch is a 40mm though have also used 44mm. This is bigger but not too big. Display is gorgeous. Sync is flawless work Pixel 4a. Love the amount of data that is available. Only downside is the sleep tracking doesn't seem as good as Fitbit. But even the new versa 3 is lacking in too many other ways. This is my first Garmin, won't be my last.