It has been two years for the reason that Venu 3 was launched, and the Venu 4 is following up with a brand new look and a few new options. Nevertheless, Garmin saved the Elevate sensor principally the identical, which is not essentially a foul factor. As we have seen with the Venu X1, this sensor manages to be fairly correct.
I have been utilizing the Garmin Venu 4 for a few weeks as my essential exercise wearable. I’ve in contrast it to the Garmin Venu 3 to see how issues have modified (if in any respect), and towards the Pixel Watch 3 to see the way it stacks up towards my favourite smartwatch.
Health options I really like
In contrast to the Forerunner collection, the Garmin Venu 4 is extra of an all-rounder, which means there’s an total give attention to health, not simply working. Subsequently, Garmin has stuffed a bunch of health options into the watch, constructing on prime of earlier fashions whereas making it supreme for anybody to strap one on and simply go.
There are many helpful and new coaching options that can assist you get essentially the most out of your exercises, however the one I pay most consideration to is Coaching Readiness. This takes under consideration varied elements, together with sleep, restoration time, and acute load, to find out how exhausting it is best to push your self in upcoming exercises. In principle, this can be a good solution to keep away from overexerting your self, which might negatively have an effect on your efficiency.
The Venu 4 additionally helps extra teaching, which has allowed me to expertise a greater mixture of exercises to vary up my regular routine. This feels far more tailor-made and different, and followers of the Venu collection ought to discover this convenient. Weightlifters equivalent to myself will even benefit from the watch’s skill to rely reps and units extra precisely than even the Venu 3, which interprets to extra correct train and muscle categorization in post-workout stats.
You may additionally obtain extra different advised exercises if you do not have a training plan enabled, which is a pleasant evolution of the Morning Report on the Vivoactive 6.
After every exercise, the Venu 4 gives a abstract of the exercise, which incorporates metrics like coaching load, which gauges the depth of your exercise. You may additionally see a quantity that signifies your restoration time, which instantly impacts your coaching readiness. That is mainly your downtime between strenuous actions, together with sleep. It is Garmin’s manner of telling you to relax.
Coronary heart charge
As coronary heart charge sensors, smartwatches are pretty dependable, however in the end, they’re imperfect. How nicely the watch detects your coronary heart charge can rely upon a lot of issues, together with the match, placement, cleanliness, and even the kind of band. And whereas Garmin’s Elevate V5 coronary heart charge monitor on the Venu 4 has confirmed itself over time, it is not infallible.
Typically, the Venu 4 gave the impression to be in keeping with expectations throughout my exercises. I have been understanding with smartwatches lengthy sufficient to know roughly what the readings ought to be. Nevertheless, there are occasions once I’ll discover that the watch will take a second to really get there, as you’ll be able to see within the charts beneath:
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As you’ll be able to see within the first chart, the Venu 4 stayed nicely beneath the Pixel Watch 3 throughout my run. I seen this in real-time, and could not decide why the readings had been so off, as each watches had been match snugly on my wrists. Fortuitously, the watch appeared to appropriate itself as soon as my tempo quickened, however it undoubtedly threw me off throughout my run.
Subsequent runs didn’t seem to have any main discrepancies, and each watches had been principally in keeping with one another. Nevertheless, issues obtained a little bit bizarre when testing the Venu 4 towards the Venu 3 throughout my HIIT exercises.
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HIIT exercises are typically extra different than runs, so my coronary heart charge was in all places. Nevertheless, the Venu 4 skilled a number of brief but important dips throughout a few of my exercises, which the Venu 3 didn’t. What makes it extra fascinating is that the 2 smartwatches use the identical Elevate sensor, so I am undecided the place these dips got here from, however fortuitously, the Venu 4 was in a position to appropriate itself a lot of the time.
For essentially the most half, the Venu 4 coronary heart charge sensor can be on the mark, with a number of anticipated minor blips right here and there.
Step counter
I took the Garmin Venu 4 on two abridged variations of my traditional strolling take a look at, strolling for a complete of two,000 steps on every event. I in contrast the step counts with the Google Pixel Watch 4, Venu 3, and the Oura Ring 4 whereas utilizing a handbook step counter on my telephone to trace my steps. The outcomes had been pleasantly shocking, notably for the Venu fashions.
Step take a look at | Take a look at 1 | Take a look at 2 |
|---|---|---|
Garmin Venu 4 | 2,000 | 2,016 |
Garmin Venu 3 | — | 2,000 |
Google Pixel Watch 3 | 1,998 | — |
Oura Ring 4 | 1,935 | 1,944 |
As you’ll be able to see, on each events, the Venu 4 or Venu 3 hit precisely 2,000 steps, which is sort of spectacular. The Venu 4 was an enormous hit on the second take a look at, however not by a substantial quantity. In the meantime, the Pixel Watch 3 got here shut throughout its take a look at, because it was off by simply two. The Oura Ring 4, in the meantime, was off by an analogous quantity on every event, counting 65 and 56 steps fewer than anticipated.
Whereas I have never had a chance to place the Venu 4 via its paces to essentially take a look at the brand new dual-frequency GPS, the step take a look at reveals that even throughout a brief stroll, the Venu 4 (blue) seems typically extra steady than the Venu 3 (orange), as seen within the map above.
Vertict
Regardless of some hiccups, the Venu 4 appears like a well-rounded health companion, due to acquainted options and {hardware} in addition to newer options and insights. Whereas it might’ve been good to see an upgraded Elevate sensor, the Venu 4 proves that it nonetheless has some life in it but. And with new coaching options, customers ought to be capable of get extra out of their exercises to optimize their efficiency.