Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness tech related to running and health, in his quest to get faster and more fit.
I’ve only worn the Garmin Venu X1 for a few days. It took me a month to judge the Forerunner 970 experience in the context of past models. But the Venu X1 is such a bizarre unicorn of a smartwatch that there’s no need for careful consideration or in-depth analysis. Let’s talk about the most polarizing, oddball watch that Garmin has ever made!
I’ve seen the Reddit threads responding to early Venu X1 buyers, calling it “ugly AF” or like a “bad Apple Watch Ultra.” I think the reaction would be less visceral if the Venu X1 didn’t cost $799, with no Venu 4 in sight. But it’s still evoking the Apple design language, for a community that’s spurned Apple Watches for years.
As a Garmin megafan, I can’t help but laugh at the indignation, if only because Garmin watches…aren’t good-looking, y’all. You’re accustomed to the rugged design, but they’re still bulky, thick, and lack the luxury style of a “normal” watch. The Venu X1 is merely a more artificial tang of the same bitter medicine we all take to get great fitness insights.
What more justifiably rubs Garmin hard-liners the wrong way is that this uber-skinny smartwatch has an eight-day battery life that falls to two days with always-on display (AOD), or just 14 all-systems GNSS hours, so you burn at least 7% battery per hour of tracking. Garmin watches usually last longer the more you pay; the Venu X1 inverts that expectation.
And outside the fitness sphere, the Apple fans Garmin is targeting will love the look but be bewildered by everything else.
I’ve never worn a smartwatch like the Garmin Venu X1; no one has
The Venu X1’s positives are primed to fall on deaf ears because of how it shakes up Garmin’s status quo. And it’s a shame, because my goodness, the X1 is comfortable to wear.
It takes up more wrist space than I’m used to, but once that’s normalized, I barely notice it. Going from my 71g Apple Watch Ultra 2 or 75g Fenix 8 47mm, my 39g Venu X1 is heavenly, while showing me more data than I’m used to seeing. Most Garmin watches weigh about 50–55g, but without all that screen space.
And from the side, it’s just so dang skinny! People might initially think the Venu X1 looks “unnatural” in top-down photos, but from the side in person, it looks proportional and unassuming on my wrist, where a normal smartwatch protrudes awkwardly.
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People who buy fitness bands like the 31g Fitbit Charge 6 can get double the screen real estate of a fitness band for about a quarter-ounce of extra weight. They’ll appreciate that the Venu X1 puts much less pressure on your wrist for sleep tracking than most smartwatches, too.
My fiancee, a regular Apple Watch wearer, loves the look and how thin it is, and doesn’t mind that it’s proportionally a bit large for her wrist in exchange for the size and brightness. And she scoffed at the idea that a week of battery life wasn’t enough.
That’s why the premise of a large, skinny watch wouldn’t be so outlandish…if the Venu X1 didn’t suffer from Garmin’s post-tariff price inflation and target Garmin’s traditionalist power users with an $800 price tag.
The most obvious use case for a 2-inch, 448 x 486 display is maps, and Garmin’s strict feature tier list means it won’t put offline maps on a cheaper watch. It’s frustrating, but consistent with Garmin’s strategy. So rather than follow up on the Venu Sq 2 or Venu 3, Garmin made this new Ultra alternative with a full suite of tools that only hardcore users need.
I can’t wait to take the Venu X1 out on hikes and follow trails, or to plan out my golf shots on my local courses. And if you subscribe to Outdoor Maps+, you can’t get a better view unless you buy a GPS handheld.
Turn-by-turn navigation works on a circular watch because the focus is solely on the arrow, but this 2-inch squircle cuts off the limiters and lets you see more context around you, without needing to zoom out. The same goes for showing more buttons around the map edge without blocking content or making menus larger and more readable.
Like my Forerunner 970 and Fenix 8, the Venu X1 can be laggy when using maps, a consequence of Garmin’s battery efficiency. Anyone used to an Apple Watch will probably care less about the extra topographic detail and wish it were as speedy as Apple Maps.
The Garmin Venu X1 is caught between two audiences
Here’s the main problem with the Garmin Venu X1: It can only be this skinny by lacking the CPU and RAM of traditional smartwatches or the long battery life of fitness watches.
Garmin’s target audience (Apple converts) will miss their apps, messaging, and Siri. And the UI is liable to overwhelm them with information and premium fitness features that may not be relevant to their lives. The affordable, limited Garmin Vivoactive 6 is a better gateway for first-timers.
As for Garmin power users, the Venu X1 has nearly all the premium features of the Forerunner 970 in a more comfortable package. But these people are accustomed to perks like multi-week battery life and Up/Down buttons during training.
Other fitness watch fans would happily trade battery life for comfort…but they’re not the ones who would spend $800. They’d rather spend $200 on a Fitbit.
That’s why I think the Venu X1 will end up a niche device, too advanced and expensive for fitness casuals but too hamstrung by its skinny design for hardcore fans. But for those who hit that niche sweet spot, they’ll absolutely love it: The Venu X1 is cozier and lighter than any other watch this size, the display is fantastic for displaying a ton of data, and it has nearly every feature the Fenix 8 does for $200–300 less.
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