Garmin - Venu X1

As someone who has been following reviews and sub-reddits pretty closely while making a decision on whether or not to go with the Venu X1 or Fenix 8, I thought I'd put some of my initial impressions out there, having purchased the X1 and currently "test driving" it. TL;DR - When making the decision, the question I keep asking myself is... ...what matters most to you...A beautiful "traditional" looking watch that always has the watch face "on" (Fenix 8)... ...or a big, easy to read display and comfortable fit. Are you ok with it not being always on, and charging it every 4-5 days while you shower and get ready (Venu X1). \- I've owned over a half-dozen smart watches ranging from the first Nike Fuelband, to Samsung, Fitbit, and Garmin. I'm not an "athlete", just a casual fitness enthusiast. My favorite was the [Fitbit Ionic](https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/2/16392612/fitbit-ionic-smartwatch-fitness-tracker-review) due to it's slim form factor and comfort. The problem with it is that it would die almost as soon as it was out of warranty (I bought two before giving up)...otherwise I might still be wearing it. This lead me to be very interested when the Venu X1 was announced, as it had a similar form factor. I'm currently coming from a Forerunner 965 . It's my first Garmin, and I love the fitness ecosystem over traditional smart watches like Samsung and Fitbit....though it does require more work to get it dialed in. I have primarily used it for weight lifting, biking, and I intend to ramp up my running. I have found that other than the Ionic, I can't wear a fitness watch on my left hand to sleep, but I like to get a sleep score so I switch it to my right wrist at night. Even on the right hand, I found myself waking up to loosen the band, but after a year and a half I've gotten used to it for the most part. I had been considering moving to the Fenix 8 because of the gorgeous bezel and improved HRM sensor over the Forerunner 965, but was hesitant because it was even bigger than the Forerunner... ...then the Venu X1 was announced. I was very interested, and started researching. Here are a few of the key points that I saw from places like DC Rainmaker, Chase the Summit, and these Reddit subs that I can now comment on. \- * **Display -** This the best feature on this watch. As reviewers have noted, the square form factor lends to more useable space, but it's also significantly brighter and more detailed than the Forerunner 965. If you are hoping to use your Garmin as more of a smart watch...for example; you want to read a lengthy text message, rather than just get the alert...the X1 let's you do this far better than a circular display. Maps are easier to read, and you can pack more data fields on to the watch face. * **Comfort -** This is the most comfortable watch I have ever worn, hands down. I even switched out the band for a stiff [canvas & buckle style](https://www.amazon.com/Torbollo-Release-Military-Breathable-Replacement/dp/B088T1MGZ4/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=19BHATNNM2QHY&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.j2p19sxf-0lkl_mYW9QqoiaOGph9aBfKvxxMbQD_Pxiz8P3ohhlFeNkI2BcryNUk3XqqJhrC27MRZpt130sbbRIEMWhmat50zmceWfJf2HRm69Un3WBYC61LvwjEJQsewW8G1dwRcX7U06iFBv37r1YAVZ-TYgndTjmZpX-5N9q5FH-y9FJvwrcwpE-jyALkazELF7jWnAvfV3TM_nfzfgMHksV79HmfvBl7XWIylH0JiSAz71O1xDQkFJ4yJbQ2oxS-lcXaLmUlZ8QcpdvzomFG3cnks_T-2PA_Ll6BiSI.LJwCFvLuz0OmfOB0ySPPG9WI9c5ARWNcJGPjUlGHpa8&dib_tag=se&keywords=24mm%2Bwatch%2Bstraps%2Bcanvas&qid=1755716178&sprefix=24mm%2Bwatch%2Bstraps%2Bcanvas%2Caps%2C73&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&th=1&psc=1), and it's still great. I think this is primarily due to the weight, but also the curve of the backplate. For reference, my wrist circumference is about 6.5 inches. * **Style & Build Quality -** I think this is going to be a personal preference decision. If you don't like a square face watch, this isn't going to change your opinion. As mentioned above, I don't have huge wrists, but I think the size of the watch is fine (I would wear a Fenix 8 47). Some have said they feel like the casing looks cheap, but I think in person it looks good...that said, it is a polymer, and not to the standard of an Apple Watch Ultra (which seems to be the direct cross-brand comparison). That said, I find it hard to justify the $800 MSRP cost. If Garmin is going to charge the same price as the AWU2, the build quality should match. * **Watch Face -** This isn't something that has been brought up much in reviews, but I think could be a strong deciding factor (at least it was for me). I personally want a data-rich watch face, and therefore I like the default X1 watch face. I do not like the look of a round watch face on a square watch, as I think there is wasted real estate on the display...even when they put data fields in the corners, like the "Situation Indicator" watch face that is pre-loaded...though that is my favorite of the circular watch faces. [Here's a link to someone who went through the pre-loaded faces.](https://youtu.be/dRTyraCRhZU?si=JS9F64PBsQ_jU5z-) Also of note, with my Forerunner I found that non-pre-loaded watch faces drain the battery faster than the pre-loaded ones. \- If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer in the comments.

As of the first week, it has been fine for me. I charged to 100% out of the box and went about 5 days without charging...it was still at 30%. That included three workouts (so the screen was always on) that lasted over an hour. That said, it was not using the GPS. I'm currently testing out the always on display to see how long I get, though I don't really feel a need to. It's wake response is great, whereas the Forerunner 965 I would have to give an extra shake to wake it up from time to time.

I think a lot of it would be based on activities, preferences and habits, meaning; Wanting the AOD active... ...and... Not wanting to have to charge your watch every other day. For me, that's what it comes down to. I do like the look of the AOD, and now having tested it for longevity, I think I would build in a routine of placing it on the charger while I'm getting ready for the day. I could also see charging it while I'm sitting at my desk. ...but... If I felt that was cumbersome, I would switch off the AOD and I would get 5-7 days of battery life between charges. ...and also... If I was an endurance athlete, where I was keeping the watch active in a workout and using it for GPS for multiple hours at a time...even with AOD off you would have to charge it every few days, and AOD on would require daily recharging. - I think that last paragraph is where Matt LeGrande and DC Rainmaker would consider the battery life a deal-breaker. I can't speak to that, as I am more casual in my fitness. I think that's why the Venu X1 appealed to me over my Forerunner 965. The slim profile and screen brightness are more important than battery life...but I still want the health metrics, so it's a trade-off I'm willing to make.

all the current garmins have pretty much the same level of wellness. Though would say from a style and health perspective maybe the venerable venu 3 or the newer venu x1 (but may be overkill) is your best option. They have some additional features not all the other models have including ecg and baseline temp monitoring (there are others that offer the same but have way more fitness features)- but if that isn't required the virtually any current model.

If you want a mic and speaker your cheapest option is the venu 3, whith likely best option the forerunner 570 (there is also the more expensive and fully featured FR970 and the top end fenix 8 or the multi-use venu x1 if you want rectangular). If you can live without mic and speaker your cheapest option is the FR165 Music, however I personally think you get way more by going for the Vivoactive 5 or 6 as it offers more in terms of other recreational leisure activities, or if you want more training metrics and fitness features around running, cycling and swimming then the FR265

Apple watch ultra 2 is your only real option for longer battery life and esim and the rest of the features you want. You do know that if you have a spotify premium sub you don't have to have an e-sim to listen to music, as you can download playlists and save them onto the device, unfortunately offline spotify is only available on wear os watches (not an option for iPHone as locked to android), apple watches and garmin. Garmin may be a good option as can do offline spotify playlists, and has built in route options or can pull them from strava, syncs data with strava way better than apple does; and the models that offer music all offer at least up to 10 days battery life, and they can offer way more than garmin does in terms of built in training metric and analytics and features. Note offline music + gps on watch is a heavy battery drain - so 1hr or gps activity + offline music and you are looking to recharge every 4-6 days (maybe longer) depending on the model, compared to multiple charge per day on AW (assuming you sleep with it) or daily charge on AWU2 If you want a mic and speaker look at venu 3, FR570, FR970, Venu x1 and Fenix 8 series. Otherwise you could go with vivoactive 5 or 6; FR265, FR965, FR955 and prior fenix 7 (and its variants like Epix 2 etc).

I have recently (2 weeks ago) received my Venu X1. I also own Fenix 8, Venu 3, Apple Watch 10, AND Apple Ultra 2 (I like smart sports watches). I do not wear my Fenix 8 much due to low, nearly unreadable screen under indoor ambient conditions when using always on. However I love the Venu X1. I wear my watches in always on mode and find that Venu X1 has excellent screen readability even in the “passive” mode meaning when screen is not awake. But do know that under these conditions you need to charge every 2 - 2 1/2 days. Another excellent digital watch face is Epix DTR - digital tactix R. It supports FULL always on mode. It is a pay watch face but worth it for me.

Sleep scores and body battery are gimmicks, junk science. Strength training is an afterthought for Garmin and you will need a chest strap to get accurate heart rates for your training, Garmin gets cadence lock and is not great at intervals - it lags, for strength training the sensor is not great either. The software and Ui are outdated and laggy, there are bugs on the VenuX1 as the software is essentially beta on all new releases, I personally would wait at lest 4-6 months from the release date before buying any new Garmin. You can get all the insights you need just by gaining knowledge and looking at the raw data in apple health, if that doesn't work for you Hevy and another app like PeakWatch, Athlytic, FitIV etc will give you all the relevant training data and insights you are looking for.

Why do you think Apple is any better at this stuff that Garmin who has been doing it for decades? Cardio and running are less than afterthoughts to Apple. I have the X1 and after one initial hiccup it has exceeded my expectations. I’m a 35 year runner and run 4-5 times a week with strength training The size is a huge benefit. I hardly know it’s there

I was waiting for this release (had the venu 2) but went with the venu X1. I am sure, the venu 4 ist great, but i am loving the X1, especially for its formfactor.

u/HuxleyanWorld \- I swam with the X1 and was impressed that it was still able to do splits, drill modes and the normal Garmin Swim stuff even with the lack of buttons. I was a bit surprised at how well it handled swimming actually as I feel like I need those features when doing a masters swim workout. For swimming, overall, I still prefer having buttons.

Nice review. I got it also and I have also had a lot of other watches. I love it! Yes, the battery is not the usual Garmin, but without AOD, and let's face it - why do you need a watch on when you're not looking at it? Without AOD, I easily get 6 days with daily 30 minutes GPS, activities, stop watch, sleep, stress monitoring all day, messages, flashlight use, music control, green light at night, etc.  The UI, lens, build, and form factor are brilliant! I've always found irritation with some Garmin UI like the Forerunner 570 that I tried, but this is great. Also, it is less than half the weight of the Apple watch Ultra - less than half! This is the lightest watch I've probably ever owned which includes plastic Timex quartz watches for many years. Certainly the thinnest. Thinner than my Swiss quartz.  Sooo comfortable and useful. It may not be the super adventure watch if you go ultra marathoning and the like for days, but I don't. I may do a 10k though or a long hike and it excells at that (see DC rainmaker, or Chase the summit reviews).  I could never wear a Forerunner 970, or a Fenix 8. They are just too big.  Great watch. 

No. Skip the Enduro and Fenix 8 if you are looking for comfortable, light and durable then the Venu X1 and the Forerunner 970 will do the job perfectly. Very similar to the Fenix 8 without the weight or bulkiness. Here is a great video comparing them..https://youtu.be/_YeH0nwcoPM?si=GArvzvdq4R9KZc9C

Venu X1, it's the best.

Interestingly enough I ended up getting a venu x1 and love it. I wasn't even tempted to get the F8 Pro.

Look for sales on the venu 3, as the 4 is about to come out. Or dip your toes in with a refurbished vivoactive 5, I bet those are really cheap. For what it’s worth, I started with a vivoactive 5 to see how I’d like it and after a year I wanted more smart watch features (like being able to read a text from my wife while on a run). I couldn’t leave garmin, battery life and the connect app are just too good. I landed on a venu x1, but there are a lot of great options to choose from.

Venu X1 all the metrics you need, latest updates and UI. Biggest display & slim & light.

I don't think it's a coincidence that any high-level athlete or ultra marathon runner (if you've met any) use strictly garmin. Not coros and definitely not suunto. Completely agree that the interface is and has always been terrible, specifically the garmin connect app. But no one should be buying a garmin for the smooth watch interface and amazing app. People who buy garmins, specifically fenix, forerunners and now the x1 (a ultra slim alternative, that loses its battery life because that's what happens when the watch isn't uncomfortably thick to sleep with at night) are buying them because they want accurate data about their health metrics. And in that field, you have no idea what you're talking about if you think any brand comes close to producing accurate data about your health. And if it helps with credibility, I work at a sports retail store where I get to test drive all the different high-end fitness watches. The fenix 8 and fr 970 are the pinnacle of sport smartwatches but are unfortunately ridiculously uncomfortable to sleep with. Which is very silly considering half the health metrics and data that helps you train optimally is dependent on your sleep metrics. which is why the x1 is a amazing alternative that doesn't need to be charged every single night, like it's counterpart.

I bought one off amazon for the 30 day return window. I did not get the advertised battery life of the X1, I got close to 3 days. I have other comments talking about it as well but one thing I didn’t expect was that because the watch is so large and thin, along with the titanium plate, it actually dug in more on my wrist against my bone. I think this is dependent upon your wrist so give it a shot and see. Even if the watch was perfect I couldn’t settle on something that looked like an Apple Watch and went with the Fenix 8.

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

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.

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.

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 ecosystem is chocked full of goodness. Since I run and cycle, it’s great for multi sport. A lot of folks who only run seem to love Coros watches and their environment. I think either of those (with Strava integration) would be an improvement over your Apple Watch.