If there’s one thing smart wearables want to be today, it’s an on-wrist fitness guide. Garmin has perhaps championed this approach for longer than most, and recently launched the Venu 4 smartwatch to continue its wearable exercise companion philosophy.
Without drastically changing the design of the Venu 3 — which added wheelchair exercise tracking — the Garmin Venu 4 upgrades a lot of the smartwatch’s software features. One of the big additions is the ability to track multiple workout types in a single session.
Instead of stopping one activity type on the watch, which is then saved as a standalone workout, the Venu 4 lets you combine multiple activities in a single workout. For example, if your gym session consists of a treadmill warm-up, followed by some weights, and then a bike cooldown, stopping one activity on the watch doesn’t stop the workout tracking altogether.
It sounds like a good addition, one that makes it easier to review a workout in its entirety. I think it’s much better than sifting through multiple sets of data recorded separately, which is how most smartwatches have historically worked.
Looking at the watch unit, the Venu 4 retains the stainless steel bezel design of the previous model. It comes in 41mm and 45mm size options, with an AMOLED display as the centrepiece. Based on the specs between the Venu 3 and Venu 4, the increased smarts look to tax the battery a bit more; Garmin quotes up to 14 days of battery life for the Venu 3, and up to 12 days for the new Venu 4.
Those smarts also include Training Readiness, a daily score assigned based on your sleep and recovery metrics, and ongoing health trends via the Health Status feature.
The Garmin Venu 4 is out now in Australia, priced at $949 for both the 41mm and 45mm sizes.
