What it is advisable to know
- The Garmin Venu X1 is a $799 premium smartwatch with related premium instruments to the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970.
- It has an 8mm-thick titanium design, built-in mic & speaker, LED flashlight, and offline maps.
- The two-inch square-shaped AMOLED show has sapphire glass safety and enhanced brightness.
With so many Garmin watches going AMOLED, it wasn’t clear how the Venu sequence that began this development would stand out. Now we’ve our reply: the Garmin Venu X1, a premium squircle health watch with a 2-inch AMOLED and an insanely skinny design: Simply 8mm, 6.4mm thinner than the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Garmin clearly designed the Venu X1 with Apple‘s flagship as a foil, with a barely larger show, the identical $799 launch worth, and an eight-day battery life. It hits 448 x 486 decision, in comparison with Apple’s 502 x 410 decision, with a barely extra noticeable border alongside the highest and backside.
Similarities apart, the Garmin Venu X1 and Apple Watch Extremely are very completely different gadgets, as Garmin cannot supply the identical apps, computing energy, telephone integration, or full titanium casing.
Regardless, Garmin evidently hopes to steal away Apple prospects who fell in love with the titanium design however care extra about premium health and luxury than top-tier efficiency.
The Venu X1 will get virtually every part held again from the Venu 3
The Garmin Venu X1 presents a superior health expertise to the Garmin Venu 3, which is extra of an all-rounder that lacks key coaching instruments like Coaching Readiness.
For runners, the Garmin Venu X1 provides Coaching Standing / Load / Impact, Lactate Threshold, Efficiency Situation, Each day Steered Exercises, a Race Look widget, real-time stamina, warmth acclimation, multisport actions, Strava Dwell Segments, Hill / Endurance scores, and dozens of latest sports activities modes.
And for hikers, the Venu X1 will get predownloaded topo maps that ought to look incredible on a 2-inch show and make consumers of the Garmin Instinct 3 insanely jealous. You additionally get 43,000 golf programs and a handful of related instruments just like the Digital Caddie.
On the smarts entrance, the Garmin Venu X1 brings again the identical mic & speaker, however they now transcend passthrough voice instructions to assist Voice Memos and on-device voice instructions. It isn’t on the stage of Apple’s Siri or Google Assistant, but it surely’s not unhealthy for a health watch.
If you need a full feature-by-feature comparability to the Venu 3, examine this Garmin Compare link and click on “Present Solely Variations.”
The closest equal in options and worth is the Garmin Forerunner 970, which prices $50 much less and has the identical premium perks like a built-in LED flashlight, mic & speaker for Bluetooth calling and offline voice instructions, sapphire crystal safety, and top-tier Elevate v5 sensor for ECGs and pores and skin temperature.
Except for Operating Tolerance and a pair different premium working instruments, the primary Forerunner 970 upside is that it lasts 15 days per cost with 21 hours of dual-band GPS monitoring. The Venu X1 solely lasts eight days or 14 all-systems GNSS, with no multi-band choice.
However many runners would possibly favor the Venu X1, just because it weighs 16g much less with the nylon band (40g vs. 56g) and measures 4.9mm thinner. Garmin prioritized skinniness and luxury whereas nonetheless providing every week of battery life, and its second-tier GPS accuracy continues to be nearly as good as some rivals’ finest.
Most significantly, the Garmin Venu X1 provides athletes a bigger area for extra glanceable data and extra issues on the watch face.
The Garmin Venu X1 design will thrill some and switch off others
Many Garmin watch followers will favor a round design, significantly the Fenix 8 with uncompromised battery life and a completely titanium case — whereas the Venu X1 mixes lighter polymer with a titanium caseback.
Mainly, there is no means for the Venu X1 to mix in as a “regular” watch.
However those that favored the thin Apple Watch X will salivate over this design. And because the Venu X1 weighs about 50g lower than the 47mm Fenix 8, it will really feel comparatively weightless for exercises.
We hope Garmin nonetheless intends to launch a Garmin Venu 4 later this yr on the two-year anniversary mark of the Venu 3. At $450, the Third-gen mannequin is a way more accessible choice that has topped our best fitness watch record since 2023 — regardless of its software program limitations.
The Garmin Venu X1 prices $799, ships in Black and Moss finishes, and can be out there to order on Garmin’s site beginning on June 18.
