Latest news with #GarminVenuX1
Stuff.tv
a day ago
- Stuff.tv
Garmin Venu X1 is an Apple Watch Ultra for your Android phone
If you've always liked the look of an Apple Watch Ultra smartwatch but don't own an iPhone to pair it with, the Garmin Venu X1 could just be the next best thing. Compatible with both iOS and Android, the Garmin Venu X1 has a 2in scratch-resistant display (Garmin's biggest) and is housed in an 8mm titanium case (Garmin's thinnest) that's waterproof down to about 50m. The screen's 448×486 resolution should be ideal for showing its full-colour maps, whether you're navigating your way to the top of a mountain or just to the closest Lidl. It'll also show you things like your real-time heart rate, SPO2, and Body Battery, which is Garmin's way of working out how much energy you have, so you'll know whether you're ready to embark on one of the 100+ activities that it's capable of tracking. It'll also show notifications from your phone, so you'll have no excuse for missing that text reminding you to pick up some knock-off Monster Munch, and with support for Garmin Pay onboard you can tap it at the checkout too. The watch has a built-in speaker and microphone so you can use it for calls if you've got your hands full with shopping, plus there's also support for voice control. And if it's dark by the time you get home, there's even a built-in torch to help you navigate your way safely to the front door. How long the battery will last depends on which features you have turned on, but it'll do eight days in smartwatch mode, although that drops significantly to two days if you have the display in always-on mode. Use the GPS for any length of time and it'll fall to as little as seven hours if you also have music playing. Not all of its features are available when using the Venu X1 with iOS; you can't reply to texts from your wrist or view photo messages on the watch's screen, but that's still much more than an Apple Watch will do with an Android phone. The Garmin Venu X1 is available in two colours – black or moss with matching nylon straps – and it'll set you back £680/$800.
Tom's Guide
2 days ago
- Tom's Guide
Whoop rivals are coming — Polar launches subscription-free band as Garmin hints at new sleep tracker on Instagram
For years the best smartwatches have focused on providing bigger and brighter screens, but right now the trend seems to be ditching the display entirely. Whoop has long set the pace for screen-free fitness trackers and launched its latest Whoop 5.0 device in May, and now Polar has announced its first screenless wrist wearable will come out on 3 September. Meanwhile, rumors of a Garmin Whoop rival have circulated for months and the brand added fuel to that fire with an Instagram story on 17 June that suggested a new sleep tracker is set to launch soon. Polar hasn't given many details about its new wearable device, but it did confirm that it will be a subscription-free alternative to other trackers. That sounds like a reference to Whoop and its subscription-based model, but until Polar announces the pricing of its new band it's impossible to say whether it offers better value for money. The band is designed to be worn at all times, tracking activity and workouts alongside your sleep, and Polar suggests it will be lighter and less intrusive than having a watch on your wrist. 'Our users have been asking for a new kind of wearable,' Sander Werring, CEO at Polar. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. 'One that puts them in control of their health and fitness right out of the box, without the distractions of screens or the pressure of constant notifications.' Other details are thin on the ground, but Polar did launch the Polar 360 screenless band last year. It's designed for business-use only, but could give an idea as to what the new consumer tracker could look like, with a simple black band and an optical heart rate sensor. Rumors suggesting a screen-free Garmin device is coming have gathered pace in recent weeks, and Garmin poured fuel on that fire with an Instagram story on its main account yesterday. This showed a woman in bed with the caption 'how did you sleep? Find out soon'. No further info on the tracker has been released yet, but it would be somewhat ironic for a screenless tracker to arrive hot on the heels of the Garmin Venu X1 watch, which features Garmin's biggest AMOLED display yet. The focus on sleep in Garmin's story suggests that the new tracker could be designed to be used alongside a Garmin watch, which you'd wear in the day and could sync the sleep tracking over to. Fitness tech blog the5krunner has reported on unreleased Garmin devices in the past and claims the new band will launch in July or August. The appeal of a screenless product is simplicity and style. If you don't want another distracting screen in your life but do want to track your activity and sleep stats, a screen-free band is a great alternative to the best fitness trackers, and you can wear it alongside more traditional jewelry and watches. However, for screenless products to be a success, the partner app has to be exceptionally good, which they are for Whoop and indeed the best smart rings like the Oura Ring 4. These apps provide clear info in an engaging way. I've been testing Polar and Garmin watches for years and while I'm a fan of both as a keen runner, I'd say their apps will need some work to deliver the same experience as Whoop or Oura. Garmin Connect and Polar Flow are both very heavy on data, which is good, but that data is not always clearly presented, especially for the more casual fitness audience that might use a Whoop-style product over a traditional sports watch. Whether the new products can unseat Whoop as the top screenless band will depend on getting the presentation of data right, though price will be the key factor. The cheapest tier for using Whoop costs $199 a year, so Garmin and Polar may look to rival that figure with the price of a subscription-free band.
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Tom's Guide
My job is testing Garmins – here's why the new Venu X1 shocked me
I've been testing and reviewing Garmin watches for almost a decade and usually have a pretty good idea of what's coming up from the brand, just based on the rhythm and routine of previous launches. However, when the Garmin Venu X1 came out it took me completely by surprise, both in terms of its design and where it sits within Garmin's line-up, not to mention its $799.99 price. I've just started testing out the watch and have done a couple of runs and other workouts with it — here's why the Garmin Venu X1 is unlike any other Garmin I've tested to date. The Garmin Venu X1 has a 2-inch 448 x 486 pixel AMOLED display, measures 41 x 46 x 7.9 mm, and weighs 34 grams. It has a sapphire crystal lens, titanium back, and is water resistant to 5 ATM. It includes a flashlight, offline maps, music, Garmin Pay, and has a speaker and microphone to make and receive calls. In smartwatch model, it should last up to 2 days on a charge with the always-on display. Garmin has other square watches in its range, and plenty of AMOLED options, but nothing that comes close to the monster display on the Venu X1. The 2-inch 448 x 486 pixel screen is larger than that of the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and ferociously bright — I turned down the brightness both during and outside of workouts, something I've never done before with a Garmin. There are only two buttons on the Venu X1 but even these feel borderline superfluous outside of workouts. You do all your navigating of the watch using the vast touchscreen, unlike most Garmins, where I still defer to using buttons naturally. I knew the Garmin Venu X1 was thin from its spec sheet, but on-paper stats don't do it justice. The 7.9mm thick case is much thinner than other watches, including the Garmin Forerunner 970 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, and means it sits comfortably on the wrist despite the big screen. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Despite the thinness of the Venu X1 it doesn't feel as flimsy as I feared, mostly because of the titanium case back, and the sapphire crystal screen gives some peace of mind that you're not going to scratch the large display every time you head outside. Unlike past Venu watches, the Venu X1 has offline maps on-board, a feature Garmin has previously reserved for its flagship sports watches like the Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8. I used these maps on my first run with the watch, following a route around my local forest, and the big screen is fantastic for showing the detail on the maps along with other stats mid-run. I've used maps on all kinds of different Garmins throughout the years, but on the large square screen the experience of the Venu X1 was much more like when using the app WorkOutDoors on the Apple Watch. One reason I've never been a big user of Garmin's Venu and Vivoactive watches is that they tend to be less sports-focused than the Forerunner and Fenix line-ups. That's not the case with the Venu X1, which has a lot more training analysis than past Venu watches, including Garmin's training readiness stat, training status, plus hill score and endurance score. However, it doesn't have some of the new running features from the Forerunner 970, including running tolerance, and doesn't offer dual-band GPS — the most accurate mode that is available on cheaper watches like the Garmin Forerunner 570. The all-systems GPS mode on the Venu X1 is still highly accurate in my experience, but given the high price of the Venu X1 and the way Garmin has thrown in lots of other features, it's a shame there are still some missing. The big, bright screen comes at the cost of battery life, which is listed at just two days if you have the screen always-on, with only 14 hours of all-systems GPS tracking. I've been testing the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 watches lately and found their four to five day battery life short, but this is taken even further with the Venu X1. You can increase the battery life by using the screen in raise-to-wake mode, but if you're a long-term Garmin user, the regular charging required will take some getting used to. Clearly, the Garmin Venu X1 is aimed at a different market to Garmin's usual fans, and the most obvious target of the launch is the Apple Watch Ultra 2's audience. The Venu X1 design can rival the Apple's, and it is a better sports watch with more useful navigation tools. There are also useful smart features on it like music storage and NFC payments. However, to really cut into the ranks of the best smartwatches, I think Garmin needs to have cellular connectivity on the watch, and the huge App store the Apple Watch can call on is also a big advantage. I'm still testing the watch out, so stay tuned for my full review.
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Forbes
Garmin Venu X1 Takes Smartwatches In An Unexpected Direction
Garmin Venu X1 The Garmin Venu X1 is the latest watch in Garmin's most smartwatch-like family, and it is the most expensive Venu yet by some margin. Garmin Venu watches typically introduce us to new smartwatch features lines the Forerunner and Fenix don't even have yet, like voice assistant support. But the Garmin Venu X1 starts to bring in features of those more athlete-driven series. It's the screen you may notice first, though. The Garmin Venu X1 screen is a rounded rectangle, and the largest seen in a Garmin watch like this to date. It has resolution of 448 by 486 pixels, is an AMOLED display, and measures two inches across. Screen bezels appear to be far smaller than in other Garmin watches too, leading to fairly petite — for the screen size — dimensions of 41mm by 46mm. At first glance it looks comparable to something like a Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro, a series that was often compared to the Apple Watch in its earlier generations. A Garmin Venu X1 is more expensive than the base model of either, though. It costs $799, and comes in either Moss green or black colors. What can possible justify such a high cost for what isn't exactly the last word in smartwatch style? It does have core features to match other Garmin watches in the same cost ballpark. On-watch maps is the most obvious high-end addition. You will be able to store many countries' worth of map data on the 32GB storage, complete with roads and points of interest to let you navigate when offline. And those maps may well look better here than they do on any other Garmin watch. After all, the original Garmin watch made famous for its maps, the Garmin Epix from 2015, had a rectangular screen. Garmin Venu X1 rear The Garmin Venu X1 also has a high-grade build, of a style that many confuse some shoppers. This is a part titanium watch, but the metal parts are hidden. The back of the cashing is titanium, but the rest is Garmin's 'fiber-reinforced polymer' plastic. This stuff is great, and tough as anything, but does mean the most expensive-looking and expensive-feeling parts are not up front. It does keep weight low, though. The Garmin Venu X1 weighs just 34g, or 40g with the nylon strap. Comfort is likely to be exceptional among Garmin wearables. What else is there to note? The Garmin Venu X1 has an ultra-hard Sapphire Crystal display surface, just moderate 5ATM water resistance, and is just 7.9mm thick — very thin. Despite that thickness, the Venu X1 still has an LED flashlight built into its top. Garmin Venu X1 LED flashlight As in the Venu 3, a microphone and speaker are baked-in, allowing for handsfree calls, voice commands to control the watch's features and interactions with your phone's own digital assistant. This is the first Venu-series watch that could be a direct alternative to a Forerunner 970 or Fenix 8 for true fitness enthusiasts. But there is one catch. The Garmin Venu X1 only claims to have eight days of battery life. And that drops to two days if you use the always-on mode. Garmin battery life typically halves in 'always-on' rather than dropping to a quarter, suggesting the watch's screen is exceptionally bright, much like the Forerunner 970's. There are a few important feature omissions to note, too. The Garmin Venu X1 does not have the company's top HR sensor hardware, meaning you will not be able to take ECG readings. It also lacks dual-band GPS, suggesting that while Garmin has made the Venu X1 for serious exercisers, it's not really made for adventuring but for the suburbs. Dual-band GPS improves location tracking in areas with poor signal. The Garmin Venu X1 costs $799 and will be available to order from June 18.
Tom's Guide
12-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Garmin takes on Apple Watch Ultra — here's the first look at the Garmin Venu X1
Garmin has launched the Venu X1, an all-new smartwatch that has the largest AMOLED display in the brand's range and a square design. It looks like a direct rival to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and is priced accordingly — it will set you back $799.99 in the U.S. and £679.99 in the U.K., and will be available to order on 18 June. As ever with the best Garmin watches, you can expect a first-class sports tracking experience, and it's clear that Garmin is keen to cut into the smartwatch market from the design of the Venu X1, which has a slim and lightweight case to go along with the vast 2-inch display. The Garmin Venu X1 comes in two colors — black and moss green – and has a nylon strap as standard, which I usually find more comfortable than silicone straps for all-day wear. It has a titanium case back and a sapphire crystal screen to ensure it's durable enough for your outdoor activities, and also has a built-in flashlight, a feature I find very useful on watches like the Garmin Fenix 8. Though it doesn't offer cellular connectivity like an Apple Watch, it has smarts like music storage, NFC payments, and a mic and speaker, which you can use for voice commands. One area where Garmin watches have always excelled compared with smartwatches is battery life, but the large screen on the Garmin Venu X1 means it will only last two days on a charge if you have the display set to always-on. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. You can extend the battery life to eight days in watch mode if you have the screen set to raise to wake, and the Venu X1 offers 16 hours of GPS tracking. The decision to opt for the brighter, larger screen over battery life is another indication that Garmin is gunning for smartwatches with the Venu X1, rather than its traditional sports watch audience.
