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After a couple of years of waiting, Garmin has finally launched the Venu 4, it’s latest fitness watch that aims to appeal to the masses. The Venu 3 was the first Garmin watch I had ever used, and while it remained my primary fitness watch for some time, there were definitely things that I would’ve changed about it.

I’ve spent about a month with the Venu 4, and fortunately, it looks like Garmin addressed many of my concerns with its latest model, taking cues from its predecessor as well as more recent Garmin watches in the Vivoactive and Forerunner series. A new design, an updated UI, and some welcome hardware upgrades ensure that this should be a solid all-arounder that the Venu series is meant to be.

launched on September 17, 2025, and went on sale starting September 22. The watch is available in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm, and each size comes in several different case and band color combinations:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

41mm

45mm

Silver

Periwinkle Silicone band

Silver

Silver Gray Silicone band

Lunar Gold

Bone Silicone band

Silver

Citron Silicone

Slate

Black Silicone

Slate

Black Silicone

Lunar Gold

Bone Silicone band + Light Sand Leather band

Slate

Black Silicone band + Brown Leather band

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Silver

Black Silicone

Pricing starts at $549 for both sizes and most color/band combinations. However, if you prefer a leather band, the price increases to $599.

The Venu 4 retail box comes with the watch, a Garmin USB-C data/charging cable, and various documentation.

Garmin’s recent launches with its new software implementation, which is a big improvement.

Like a smartphone, swiping down opens the notification panel, where you can respond to messages on your phone. The keyboard isn’t the best, but it gets the job done if you don’t have your phone nearby. You can also access your phone’s assistant (i.e., Gemini) to accomplish the same thing with your voice, which is nice.

Garmin Venu 4 notification panel

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

Swiping to the left allows you to quickly access your workouts, settings, and other features through a customizable menu. Of course, you can also assign press-and-hold functions to the Action and Back buttons on the side of the watch.

Swiping up reveals your Glances, which is Garmin’s version of a widget. For anyone adamant about keeping up with fitness and health metrics, these will definitely come in handy.

Garmin Venu 4 morning report suggested workout

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

Another feature borrowed from newer watches is the Morning and Evening Reports. The former provides a glimpse into how your day might unfold, complete with your sleep data, weather forecast, and even a daily suggested workout (which can also include scheduled workouts from training plans).

Meanwhile, the Evening Report summarizes your day with brief glances at your activities and metrics, such as your Body Battery, as well as any workout suggestions you may have for the next day.

Garmin Venu 4 phone assistant

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

In addition to your phone’s AI assistant, the Venu 4 features its own voice assistant, allowing you to quickly access on-device functions such as workouts, timers, weather, and more. It’s okay, but I find that it only understands me half the time and will sometimes pull up the wrong feature.

The Venu 4 can also read the watch face aloud, which is a useful accessibility feature that can come in handy when you can’t immediately look at your watch for whatever reason (like when you’re swimming, for example).

And while you can make calls or send texts using the built-in mic and speaker, the volume doesn’t get very loud. While you can listen to music on the Venu 4, it’s recommended to use Bluetooth earbuds if possible. The Venu 4 supports a few music apps like Spotify, but YouTube Music support appears to be missing for some reason.

Overall, Garmin’s software feels much more user-friendly, which is great for a watch like the Venu 4, as it’s designed to appeal to a broader audience, not just fitness enthusiasts.

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Garmin Venu 4 flashlight on(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)Garmin Venu 4 red flashlight(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

One of the newest hardware additions is the built-in flashlight, which puts the Venu 4 in line with other high-end watches, such as the Venu X1. You can set an easy shortcut to enable it, and it’s surprisingly bright, although you can adjust the brightness by several levels or switch to a red light. You can also turn on a strobe function, which could come in handy when on evening runs.

Forerunner 570, although unlike the latter, the Venu 4 supports ECG, which could be a deciding factor for some.

There are a handful of new health-focused features, including a more comprehensive sleep coach that provides a wealth of insights, such as your sleep alignment and sleep needs, as well as the factors that may be affecting your sleep. It will use this data to then provide a recommendation for how much sleep you should get each night to fully recover.

Garmin Venu 4 sleep readiness factors

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

There’s a new lifestyle logging feature that lets you manually enter various activities throughout the day, such as consuming caffeine, eating meals, or using your phone before bed. The idea is that Garmin will use this data to factor in how these activities may affect you throughout the day.

It sounds useful in theory, but I can never remember to log the data into the watch. The most you can do is set the Glance widget in the hopes that it will serve as a sufficient reminder to log activities, but I would prefer it if Garmin somehow sent me reminders throughout the day.

To put all of this together, Garmin has a new Health Status feature. It displays important metrics, such as heart rate, HRV, skin temperature, and Pulse Ox, all on one screen, and informs you if you’re within your optimal range for each.

A blood oxygen reading on the Garmin Venu 4 showing a 99% reading Now and a graph of past readings.

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

As for fitness, I’ve used the Venu 4 to track my workouts over several weeks, and you can refer to my Venu 4 fitness review for more details on how the watch performs. Long story short, it works as well as one would expect, albeit with a few odd heart rate readings here and there. Otherwise, it’s a reliable fitness tracker with numerous sports modes to choose from.

Garmin Venu 4 training readiness

(Image credit: Derrek Lee / Android Central)

Users will also be pleased with the dual-band GPS as well as the pre- and post-workout features like training status and training readiness, which gives you a look at how hard you’ve been working and how hard you should work.

COROS Apex 4 is probably one of the Venu 4’s closest competitors. The watch undercuts the Venu 4 by roughly $100 but is packed with impressive features like a 1.3-inch AMOLED touch display with sapphire glass, 41 hours of dual-band GPS, and a 24-day battery life overall. That said, you won’t get the same perks as those found on Garmin, such as a flashlight, daily workout suggestions, better music apps, contactless payments, and arguably a better display.

On the smartwatch side, consider the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2025. This is roughly the same as the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, just with additional storage. However, it features a more rugged design, offers excellent battery life, and comes with Wear OS for access to a wide range of apps and seamless connectivity to your smartphone. However, battery life still falls short compared to the Venu 4, and Garmin’s focus on fitness first over smarts may be what you’re looking for, especially if you can get it for $100 less than the Galaxy Watch.

Finally, the Forerunner 570 may be another Garmin watch you’re considering. These two watches are very similar in terms of feature set and price. The Forerunner is more focused on runners, complete with more buttons for easy navigation. Meanwhile, the Venu 4 is a more all-rounder for any fitness