Garmin provides a brand new tier to its smartwatch lineup—this time going after the ‘Extremely’ customers.
Garmin has unveiled the Venu X1, an all-new $799/£679 square-cased smartwatch that straight challenges the Extremely choices from Apple and Samsung.
Obtainable from 18 June, the launch marks probably the most vital replace to its smartwatch lineup because the Venu 3 was launched in 2023. Nonetheless, it seems to be concentrating on a special viewers this time round—it’s the primary Garmin smartwatch to be priced straight in opposition to the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra.
Sometimes, the Garmin various to these high-priced watches has been the Fenix vary, which was refreshed final 12 months with the introduction of the Fenix 8 series.
Nonetheless, the Venu X1 is a really completely different proposition; it boasts an ultra-thin 8mm, 40g titanium case and a 2-inch AMOLED show. It’s additionally not out there in as many variations. Solely two colours—black and moss—are provided at launch, and the dimensions is proscribed to a single case, measuring 41 x 46 x 7.9mm, which suggests it’s not essentially an amazing choice for these with smaller wrists.
Design apart, although, it nonetheless options all of the premium capabilities Garmin has been introducing during the last 12 months or two. That features a built-in speaker and microphone for making and receiving calls on the wrist, an built-in LED flashlight for low-light conditions, and a variety of superior well being and wellness monitoring instruments.
In typical Garmin style, it additionally seems to be fairly long-lasting, a minimum of when in comparison with the ~2-3 day battery lifetime of these aforementioned Extremely gadgets. The corporate claims the X1 is able to eight days of battery life in its smartwatch mode. Though it hasn’t but shared estimates for what to anticipate with the always-on show enabled, we estimate this can be round 3-4 days.
Wareable’s view: Preliminary evaluation
It was solely a matter of time till Garmin expanded its smartwatch vary, which beforehand included solely the entry-level Vivoactive 6 and mid-range Venu 3, by including a high-end choice.
Nonetheless, whereas it actually is smart by way of placement in Garmin’s wider household, the design has barely shocked us. No less than from what we will inform from press pictures and renders, it seems to be extra much like the Huawei Watch Match 4 Professional than to Apple or Samsung’s flagship watches.
That’s no dangerous factor, nevertheless it’s actually not a conventional Garmin look—solely its awkwardly positioned Venu 2 Sq has boasted this square-faced fashion.
As ever, the actual proof of whether or not the idea works can be within the real-world testing, and we’ll have this one strapped to our wrists after we’re completed with the Foreunner 970 and Forerunner 570, each introduced final month.
