Garmin - Venu

Very small wrists here... I had a venu for years and I loved it. However, I wanted a better battery and more data for running. I went with the forerunner 965 and have no regrets. I was worried it would be too large. It's not. I say go for the forerunner in white. It's the most feminine.

My partner and i have venu watches for health and fitness monitoring, we also had a stronger use case for health. Ours don't have the ekg function, but do provide the sleep tracking, hrv/stress scores as body battery, and the spo2. On that - the battery does drain easily if you have that on 24/7, at least on our watches! 

Absolutely in LOVE with my 265s. Although I prefer the look of Venu with the metal bezel, eventually went with 265s for the run stats. QI got the black/yellow 265s, which I feel is the most versatile for swapping for different color watch bands to soften the sporty look for everyday wear https://preview.redd.it/7xxfhw5jpa1e1.png?width=1891&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c07e0b0ac25789a46b475035072de284fad2bcb

Oh man, so many. Training readiness, training status, adaptive workouts, multi-sport tracking for triathalon training, etc. before 265s, I actually never used these features because I just used my watch to track time/distance.. But I was pleasantly surprised at how these stats are motivating me to do more and be more structured even when I’m not training for a race At the end of the day, for me it comes down to identity. I really loved the look of venu but after wearing it for a week it just didn't "feel" right; I feel more like a badass athlete with the 265s. And when i swap out the watch band with neutral colors i feel it’s not that out of place with my business casuals There is nothing wrong with the Venu for a casual runner esp if the look is important! Maybe chat with her first about why she wanted a garmin over an Apple Watch in the first place :)

Venu? No it doesn’t have pace pro

I wouldn’t be afraid of buying a Garmin watch for open water or pool swims. I have a first generation instinct since the summer of 2020. I’ve worn it everyday no matter what. If you don’t like the look of the instinct, I would look at either the Fenix, Enduro. The forerunner has a bezel but it’s not as raised I feel. Really any of their watches that includes the feature of a raised bezel I gravitate towards. For me, anyways, watches that don’t have that feature end up with a cracked screen like the venu and the vivoactive with the rounded edge of glass hasn’t lasted for me which is why I prefer that raised bezel. Garmin has always been good and replaced them for me in the past but once the warranty is done, there’s no more replacement. Hope this is helpful and keep going.

You can check with chatgpt, specify all your needs and maybe buy a used one on Ebay or Swappa, thats what I did, I got a Venu for $65, ive had it for 2 years now and so far very good, the gps is very good for running, i can track swimming among other things, I guess you can track padel too

Garmin venu for sure

Garmin venu, several versions and colors

None of the forerunners have a metal bezel. They’re all solid colours. The Venu just looks better period , imo

Venu is great warch. Inuse it for HR daily tracking and for running (including specific training and workouts).

Had Apple Watch 3 and it was terrible in the pool. Switched to the Garmin Venu and now on the forerunner 955. I’ve had no issues with the Garmin, you can select the screens/info you want and it even logs drill sets. Most people I swim with use Garmin. Just make sure that you check the specifics of the model you get as some have more swim features than others.

It is very overwhelming. Some are better for runners, hikers, swimmers, some have better music options, some are solar powered, some are smaller. There are quizzes online and Garmin has a comparison tool on their website. I have a Venu, chosen because I was quite disabled for years and didn't need a lot of fitness features and it is more feminine, but now that I'm up and running again, I'm saving for a forerunner. I tell you this because I would be disappointed in your current choice. There are only 5 families. You could simply choose a family based on your lifestyle, then it will be easy to narrow from there. Take a few days and watch some YouTube videos. These watches are amazing, but they're expensive!

I think a vivoactive or venu would be perfect for you! Make sure you get the S because it is smaller in profile. I’m petite and have small wrists and in comparison to other watches the profile of the S models fits me very well!

Yeah, I think they have too many models. I suspect they could make a more rational lineup starting with the Vivoactive and just putting them in a line. Maybe we don't need both a Venu and a middle Forerunner. Probably we don't need a cheaper forerunner, though who knows if there'll be one this cycle. Looks like DSW on the Venu is nerfed: heart rate only. Otherwise it looks fairly solid for running. It's not much cheaper than the 570 though. From DC Rainmaker, it sounds like they have separate groups doing Lifestyle, Running and Adventure watches. But they've all been converging over the last couple years - I think it made more sense 5-10 years ago.

Nah, you're right on that. I have an Epix, serious overkill, but it's a fun watch and I really wanted maps on it without 3rd parry apps screwing around. My previous watch was a Venu 1, who did the job good enough for me.

Pretty much all Garmins do. Vivoactive or Venu is a good place to start.

Paid subscription doesn’t give any value at all. Are you seriously subscribing to it? Do a poll and you will réalise most of us here aren’t. Don’t waste your money. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. However, if you are willing to make do with default watch face, another lot of cash saved. Strap might look fragile but quite durable. If you are willing to use till break, you might réalise it would not and you would have saved the third lot of cash. Use your laptop to charge your watch when you are working. No need extra power. In conclusion, it isn’t that ex to own Venu, if you are willing to make some compromises and be a bit more patience with it.

I love my Oura ring and Garmin Venu!

My advice is don't byut a watch for your current fitness needs but one that would serve you well if your needs expand. Fitness needs have a high rate of expanding upon the purchase of a watch. Anything from the FR265 upwards is ideal. I would say the Vivoactive and Venu range might leave you wanting later down the line as they are closer to lifestyle than fitness.

If all she wants for running is something that will tell her her pace and heart rate, venu is fine. If she wants a coach on her wrist, 265s is the way to go.

You can certainly use both. If you want all day health tracking though you'll want to stick with one platform. I prefer Garmin but it isn't a smart watch app platform. I use Garmin Connect, the Garmin heart strap, and the Garmin scale. If I take up cycling I would use the Garmin cycling products also. For me it's about my fitness training, not having an extension of my watch on my wrist. The Venu (which I have) does have some some nice capabilities to receive alerts, phone calls, as well as tracking an EKG. I also have a Garmin Forerunner 945 that I use for running. I have a high end Samsung watch (it was so cheap on sale I couldn't refuse) that I wear very occasionally when I want an app platform on my wrist. The battery life on the Garmins are just amazing and seal the deal.

I am legitimately trying to find a way to justify getting a "smart watch" over the garmin venu (hoping 4 will drop soon), but like that example you just posted is such a gimmick that I will maybe use once. tbf I have a S24 ultra so i can just take out the S pen and use it as a remote shutter, but if I hadn't I could've used a garmin too, without the live view ofc but it's such a small thing for the trade-off of the battery life. And yes, I get that's just one of many examples, but like what of any of those are at all necessary? Everything I could do on a apple or Samsung watch that I can't on my garmin is either way way easier/better to do straight on my phone, and the only reason I would rather use my watch instead of my phone for something is to check a notification if it's something urgent or not and maybe reply (which I also can on the garmin) so I don't need to take up my phone for just a random notification. So yeh, and I have for real been trying to justify for myself going for a smartwatch and just dealing with the worse battery life, but then logic kicks in and I'm like "but why?"

I've had a Venu since Sept 2020, so 4.3 years. Generally do hard-core swimming workouts, including a bunch of butterfly, 3x weekly. So about 700 swims. It's been flawless. But I'll also say, I see other swimmers with Apple watches, including my sister, and while they aren't doing butterfly, they haven't had any problems either. I suspect you just got unlucky.

I bought a pretty cheap Garmin, the Venu, when I first started running. It’s done me perfectly through many half marathons and one ultra. Don’t need anything fancier for my basic running, and it looks pretty good.

I have a Venu 3 and I find it extremely useful as both an everyday watch and for my strength training and cycling. The GPS boots quickly, battery life w/out gps is over a week/ 7 days with two gps events. There are more fitness activities loaded on it then I could ever find time for, and it has never failed on me (to start, track, boot...whatever). It connects to all of my power meters, my Wahool Kickr, HR monitors, cadence/speed sensors, bike lights and Varia radar. I have yet to swim with it, but I did have an original Venu that I snorkeled with in the Galapagos and that watch did not disappoint. I would guess that those with gripes are used to "smart" watches and not true fitness watches. My girlfriend has a Samsung watch that she has to charge everyday! I find that appalling!!

I have had the 3 since November '24 and not a scratch on it. My old original Venu was a little over 4 years old when I swapped it out and it has one minor scratch (across the face, but thin), and some other minor scratches. I've owned analog watches that suffered worse. My original Venu survived hikes in AZ, Maine, NM, and cycling trips all over the US. And I wore it every day of those 4 years.

I have a Garmin Venu which I think is okay fashionably, at least when a black watch fits my outfit. But I don't think it's super functional if you're not a runner, and if you don't care about functionality then stick to an analog watch

The battery life is measured in days, not hours. The Garmin Venu’s AMOLED display is beautiful, and the glass more resistant to scratches. The workout-tracking ability of the Garmin is superior. Tracking your energy as a “body battery” percentage is so much more intuitive, and the Garmin can detect when your sleep sucks or you drank too much. It will admonish you accordingly. The Apple is better as a general smartwatch, but the battery life is appaling.

Been wearing the same Garmin for 5 years now. Sometimes the splurge is worth it. If you can wait, there will probably be some deals for the upcoming holidays and Black Friday, but that is a bit away. Personally I do like an all in one smart watch for fitness tracking and phone syncing.

Garmin Venu series are comparable to an Apple Watch. Garmin’s GPS tracking for outdoor activity is a little bit better/accurate. That’s something to consider if you want to log hikes, bike rides, walking, running etc. I use an iPhone and just download the Garmin Connect app, that’s where all the data is stored. The Venu series are more fashionable. The first Venu model has the basic sleep tracking. I know the newer ones have some other updated features. I do find the sleep tracking, body battery, active/resting calories data to be pretty accurate based on how I feel.

I’m bias towards Garmin, been wearing a Venu since 2020! It’s taken a few beatings and still works perfectly well.

The venu has way fewer running related metrics. Body battery considers steps, HR, activites, stress the watch detects during the day, if you do not wear it - body battery becomes even less relvant as it is usually is. PS: some people wear their watches on their biceps when they cannot wear them on a wrist.

I had the same debate - bought the venu & ended up returning it for the forerunner & have been beyond happy with my decision. the extra battery life alone makes it so worth it for me, but I also really love the additional metrics & the daily suggested workouts

What I dislike the most about Garmin is that it's really hard to understand the product lineup Vivoactive vs Venu vs Forerunner is what I looked at. I got the Venu and was surprised by how my brother's cheaper Forerunner 165 can do multiple things my watch can't (like estimate 10K, 21K times and suggest a daily workout). My guess is that most Garmin watches are mostly the same and they use software to tier their products. I doubt there is any technical limitation to offer for example maps in a Forerunner 570 (or even in my Venu). All in all, I wish I listened to the YT channel and got the FR 165 Music. I have no idea what I got for paying extra for the Venu other than golfing (and I don't golf).

My OG Venu is still kicking as my daily driver!

100% agree here. Apple Watches and Oura have been tested and rank higher in terms accuracy in predicting your sleep and stages. The Apple Watch SE is much cheaper and probably a better option! Garmins don’t track sleep stages quite as accurately, but if you’re not going to be using it for the fitness features it’s probably not worth the money. My Garmin honestly doesn’t really get the times I fall asleep very accurately and it’s usually skewed by quite a bit. If you do want a Garmin go for the Vivoactive, Venu or very base model forerunner 55! I can highly recommend Garmin specifically for the amazing battery life.

I like the venu for running, I’ve got the venu sq 2

Garmin. Better privacy policy than most of the others. Some concerns, still, but if you want you could keep everything on your watch, not connect it to your phone, and just get your data off periodically via usb and then use an open source 3rd party desktop app for analysis. Also pretty reasonably priced, since they'll sell the older models new at a discount and these are more than good enough unless you really want serious tracking of lots of specialised activities. You can get the 's' versions of e.g. the Venu which is a smaller face and thinner strap.

Not a Venu if you are serious about running. There are running metrics the FRs have that the Venus don't But not wearing modern training watches 24/7 will not get you training related data, only single activity related data. So a 255 would be the most expensive I'd recommend.

Vivoactive and Venu (non X1, that thing should have had a name of its own) don't have the advanced running metrics. So it's Forerunner , then check whether the features you want are in Instinct, Fenix, Enduro or Epix if you like one of those better.

I’ve had every Venu ever made and this jump was underwhelming. I think I’ll be going the X1 route as I think having a real map during hiking and other activities would be a game changer for me personally. Nervous about the battery life but I’m hoping the trade off is with it in the feature that come with it.

Have a look at the other Garmin Watches as well. The Venu is more lifestyle oriented but should offer similar swimming performance. I use a Fenix7s as I also do open water swimming

Depending on how much you want to interact with your watch, the lack of buttons on a Venu might be frustrating. For that reason a Forerunner might be better as you can lock the touch screen during runs and use the buttons.

Having had the Garmin Swim 2 watch and switched to the Venu, I do miss my Swim 2 and regret swapping it. Not because the Venu was bad, I just liked the simplicity of it compared to the Venu which is a bit more Apple Watch style with touchscreen and lots of menus, and open water gps the Swim 2 had which worked well. The white watch was also nice to wear too on a daily basis and gave a nice sporty look. I’d be tempted to look on eBay near you to find one that’s hardly been worn as you can save a lot of money that way - if it’s purely going to be a swim watch it wouldn’t bother me anyway :-)

So unlucky I used an AW s2 for 6years swimming 2 or 3 times a week for about an hour each time and never had an issue… I’m fact I have it to someone and is still running… Back to your question I ve had a garmin venu as well and it was ok… it is more middle ground between sports and smartwatch

I had both the AW Series 8 & a Garmin Venu. I ended up selling the AW and Garmin replaced my Venu (screen burn) with the FR255. The 255 is far better than the other two when it comes to running. The MiP screen is ideal and I much prefer it to AMOLED. If you want to run, get a Garmin.

That's only if you need AOD and if you don't use the backlight a lot. Otherwise, the backlight on the MIP consumes way more battery than AMOLED display. I know that because my mother has a Fenix 7s Pro and at first we enabled her the wrist gesture, so that her screen lights up when she raises the hand (MIP is unreadable in low light conditions without the backlight, becuase her also has the Solar panel on it which makes it darker). The battery lasted for 2 (letters: TWO) days lol. So if you really need AOD, then yes, MIP is better, but you need to disable the wrist gesture and backlight on it. But if you don't use AOD on AMOLED, battery life is basically the same. My mother charges her Fenix as often as I'm charging my Venu, but was not using AOD till recently. And you're wrong, even with AOD and AMOLED, it's nowhere near the Apple Watch! My Venu can last more than 4 days with AOD. And if I have regular GPS activities, it lasts 2-3 days. AW can't last that much even with AOD off. I had a Samsung before and without AOD, it would last max 2 days (no activities). With AOD, it would last 10-12 HOURS.

I would personally always take a Forerunner over the Venu series, as I am pretty serious about my fitness. I don't really care much about smart watch features, just need a bare minimum. And the venu series seems to take tradeoffs with fitness features to accommodate the increase in smart features.

I don't know.about the samsung fit 3 (msntioned below) but most galaxy watch will have 1 to 2 days of battery life. I get 2.5 days with my Galaxy Ultra. My 70 years old dad is not a runner (walk) but I got him a basic and cheap Garmin forrunner 55 instead (he loves it) - 1.5 to 2 WEEKS battery life (my dad won't charge a watch every day) - always on display (reflective display, not amoled) - display phone notifications on the watch - basic vital, sleep tracking, HR, GPS etc - emergency call/fall detection over BT (needs phone nearby, not LTE, which he has with him all the time). - not touch screen, button only, but he prefers that too. Other Garmin (venu series) have amoled touch screen etc and still have a week of battery life. The forerunner was good.enough for my dad's need (long battery, notification,readable screen). https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/741137

If you want a watch that leans more towards the social side in appearance, go with one of the Venu series that fits your budget. If you want a watch that leans more towards the sporty side in appearance, go with one of the Forerunner series that fits your budget. Both will fit your requirements.

Most people coming from apple go vivo active or venue. Venue being closest to a smart watch. Personally, I'm a instinct guy. Although I'm wearing a Fenix today since I didn't charge my Instinct for 2 weeks and it died before bed. I've swam tens of thousands of meters (more like hundreds but..) in pool, open and salt water with my Garmins. Done free diving (only to about 40ft, I'm not very good) and press the buttons regularly sub surface. I've also done cliff jumping with every watch, and haven't lost a garmin to water intrusion. I would definitely select a 100m rated model for water sports. Any watch can fail but I've had 6 garmins and none have. I also had a bunch of Casio and Timex over the years and not one failure.

From what you have written, budget is not a constraint for you. I'd go for a watch. Tracking sleep is very useful. I am implementing small changes to improve sleep and the data from the watch is helpful. Eventhough it's not perfect. If i could afford it, I'd buy a Garmin Venue right now. Also, while a chest strap may be a tad bit more accurate for heart rate tracking, it is not something you want to wear for hours at a stretch every day. There a watch is useful.

Garmin - They have a lot of watches at different price points. There is built-in GPS and the battery lasts for several days, unlike a smart watch that you typically need to charge every night. The Garmin app easily syncs with other fitness apps, if that's important to you. If you have a smaller wrist, go for the "S" models that will look and fit better.