Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Features Music, Body Energy Monitoring, Animated Workouts, Pulse Ox Sensors and More, Black with Slate Hardware

Good features:Screen - the standout feature and the main reason to go for this watch rather than any other Garmin offeringsBattery life - surprisingly good (4-5 days continuous use without always on display) and in any case it charges up really quicklyGPS tracking - rock solid and finds signal very quickly. It probably gives you at least 10 hours without music.Appearance - looks very goodMobile app - excellent for data vultures like meConnectivity - no problem staying connected to my smartphoneWeight - very light and comfortable to wearActivity tracking - all aspects work well, including plausible step and floor countingPulse Ox tracking - not sure what the point is but it is a lot of funNot so good featuresSleep tracking - doesn't do a good job, as it thinks you are sleeping all the time you are in bed. However, this is common to all Garmin devices. The Fitbit does a much better job here. This means that the body battery reading which is based partly on sleep data is highly suspect tooNotifications - OK but doesn't display icons consistently and there's not much possibility of interaction. The Fitbit does a better job hereNo microphone or speaker - Personally I don't care but it might be an issue for someScreen bezel a tad on the large side though not noticeable if watch face with dark background selectedPrice - high but you are getting a very good watch for your moneyI've owned many smart and not so smart watches, including Garmin, Pebble, Huawei, Samsung, TicWatch and Fitbit offerings. This is the best one I've owned. In my opinion, for what it's worth, the good massively outweighs the not so good and therefore 5 stars is justified.Possible (cheaper) alternatives:Fitbit Versa 2 - also very good display and sleep tracking is excellent. Notification handling much better. Steps tracking is appalling though and it only has "connected GPS". There are also many connectivity problems.Huawei GT Watch 2 - phenomenal battery life and good display but notifications handling is even worse than Garmin, sleep tracking is also suspect and, although workout tracking with GPS is excellent, it cannot be shared with Strava.Garmin Vivoactive 4 - almost the same as the Venu but with transflective (i.e. always on) display and it's a bit cheaper.

I've previously owned the Vivoactive 3. When the Vivoactive 4 came along I had no doubt whatsoever that I was going to get it.Then I discovered the Venu which was marketed as a Vivoactive 4 with a better screen.The one (tiny) gripe I always had with my V3 was that the screen colours were not very good and quite flat (even though it's very good in bright light).The Venu changed all that. Very deep colours on a 390 x 390 AMOLED display (vs the 240 x 240 on the V3).The watch has a great number of features and options, but most of them will be familiar to Garmin users. The Body Battery is a neat feature, as is the Pulse Ox, even though I haven't had the chance to test this thoroughly yet.I find the device quite responsive and the battery life (so far) seems very decent.The Venu is very light but looks and feels like a premium product.One difference with the V3 (in the V3's favour) is that the Venu is doesn't have an 'always on' feature, i.e. you have to double tap the screen or press the top button to view. Not an issue though and I can see why they've done that as it would be a huge drain on the battery.All in all I'm very happy with my purchase. There have already been several software updates and I'm sure there will be more going forward to dial in this new product.If functionality comes first and display quality is less of a consideration, go for the Vivoactive 4. If you want the functionality and also enjoy a great display, go for the Venu.

I got this for my father and it is most definitely overkill for someone older without much a knack for technology. However he has used the Garmin golf watches for years and this is one of their only smarter watches which also has the golf gps tracking ( as far as I can figure it out anyway), so he has had minimal issues with that aspect of this watch. You need to learn to buddy it up with your phone eg you download the courses you want using the garmin app on your phone and then the watch picks them up from there. Once you get used to that kind of interaction you're set.The watch itself has two buttons - intuitively a sort of forward and backward - and also allows you to swipe the screen. So it's easy to interact with and get the feel for compared to say the Garmin Instinct which is a total confusing nightmare.The watch screen is a beautiful bright OLED so it's great for sunny days outside. Alternatively if you have bad eyesight it makes all the icons nice and extra brightly coloured. However, the bezel is not raised and it does scratch way too easily... grrrr garmin... This effectively means yet again Garmin find a way to limit the life of their products... previously it was the non separable straps failing.Nevertheless it has steps, heart rate function, stress monitor, sleep monitor, the weather, a facility to hold one of the buttons to send you an emergency notification - useful for an older person - and most importantly my father loves it. So it looks like if you are a golf fanatic than this is worth considering!

I upgraded from a Vivosport and am not disappointed. The screen is lovely and clear (for my aging eyes), the widgets are useful and provide more info than I was getting on the Vivosport. I love that I can add more apps, widgets, music and watch faces. With the watch faces there is so much choice allowing me to choose from data overload to more simplistic designs. I have no issue with the battery life with the always on display as I do tend to charge my watch everyday whilst I am in the shower. I also find it charges relatively quickly in this time going from 40% to upper 90's by the time I go to put it back on again.