Most enthusiasts of Garmin and Apple may disregard the Venu X1, but it will resonate perfectly with a specific segment of smartwatch aficionados.
In this weekly feature, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks discusses the realm of wearables, applications, and fitness technology tied to running and health, in his journey to enhance speed and fitness.
I’ve only had the Garmin Venu X1 on my wrist for a mere few days. It took a month for me to evaluate the Forerunner 970 experience against previous models. However, the Venu X1 is such an extraordinary and unusual smartwatch that there’s no necessity for meticulous analysis or careful thought. Let’s delve into the most divisive and quirky timepiece that Garmin has ever produced!
I’ve encountered Reddit discussions reacting to early Venu X1 purchasers, describing it as “ugly AF” or resembling a “poor imitation of the Apple Watch Ultra.” I believe the backlash would be less intense if the Venu X1 wasn’t priced at $799, without a Venu 4 in sight. Yet, it continues to evoke the Apple design vocabulary, aimed at a community that has turned its back on Apple Watches for years.
As a die-hard Garmin enthusiast, I can’t help but chuckle at the outrage, mainly because Garmin watches…aren’t particularly attractive, folks. You’re used to the rugged aesthetics, yet they remain bulky, thick, and lack the elegant style of a “typical” watch. The Venu X1 is simply a different, more synthetic flavor of the same bitter pill we all swallow for exceptional fitness insights.
What genuinely annoys Garmin purists is that this ultra-slim smartwatch boasts an eight-day battery life that shrinks to two days with always-on display (AOD), or just 14 hours of full GNSS, which means you lose at least 7% battery per hour of tracking. Generally, Garmin watches have longer battery life as the price increases; the Venu X1 flips that expectation on its head.
And outside the fitness domain, the Apple enthusiasts Garmin aims to attract will admire the design but feel perplexed by the rest.
I’ve never experienced a smartwatch quite like the Garmin Venu X1; no one has.
The advantages of the Venu X1 may fall on deaf ears due to its disruption of Garmin’s traditional norms. It’s unfortunate, because honestly, the X1 is a delight to wear.
It occupies more wrist space than I’m accustomed to, but once that becomes familiar, I hardly recognize its presence. Transitioning from my 71g Apple Watch Ultra 2 or 75g Fenix 8 47mm, my 39g Venu X1 feels like a dream, while providing more information than I’m typically exposed to. The majority of Garmin watches weigh approximately 50–55g, but without all that display area.
And from the side, it’s strikingly slender! Many might first perceive the Venu X1 as “unnatural” in top-down views, but in person, seen from the side, it appears balanced and discreet on my wrist, where a conventional smartwatch can jut out awkwardly.
Individuals who opt for fitness bands like the 31g Fitbit Charge 6 can acquire double the screen area of a fitness band for just a slight weight increase. They’ll appreciate that the Venu X1 exerts significantly less pressure on the wrist during sleep tracking than most smartwatches, too.
My fiancée, a typical Apple Watch user, adores the design and its slimness, and is unbothered by its oversized appearance on her wrist in favor of the size and brightness. She dismissed the notion that a week of battery life was insufficient.
Thus, the idea of a large, slim watch wouldn’t seem so outrageous…if the Venu X1 weren’t plagued by Garmin’s post-tariff price hikes and aimed at Garmin’s traditional power users with an $800 sticker price.
The clearest application for a 2-inch, 448 x 486 display is navigation, and Garmin’s rigid feature hierarchy means it won’t offer offline mapping on a less expensive watch. It’s frustrating but aligns with Garmin’s approach. So rather than advance the Venu Sq 2 or Venu 3, Garmin introduced this new Ultra variant packed with tools that only serious enthusiasts require.
I’m eager to take the Venu X1 on outdoor adventures and navigate trails, or to strategize my golf shots on my local golf courses. And if you subscribe to Outdoor Maps+, you won’t find a clearer view unless you invest in a handheld GPS.
Turn-by-turn navigation operates effectively on a round watch because the focus centers solely on the arrow, but this 2-inch squircle eliminates boundaries and allows you to observe more context around you, without the need to zoom out. The same principle applies to displaying more buttons along the map edge without obstructing content or enlarging menus beyond readability.
Like my Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8,
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