What are the main differences between the Garmin Venu and the Vivoactive 4 or 4S? Pricing and features are very similar at first glance, but there are some differences that might be a deciding factor for you. This article helps to answer the question which watch you should buy.
If you are a runner, someone who does yoga or are just an active person looking for a watch you can wear every day and use to track your workouts, any one of these watches will be right for you.
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Running features
They are equipped with Body Battery that uses your heart rate, stress levels and activities to estimate your energy reserves throughout the day. It can help you plan your workouts and restdays more efficiently.
The Garmin Coach feature provides an adaptive training plan in your Garmin Connect app. You decide the goal, Garmin gives you the workouts to perform.
The watches give you an estimated Vo2Max reading, but more advanced features as training effect, training status, training load, etc. are not available. If you want more advanced running features, you should have a look at this comparision between the Garmin Forerunner 245 and 645.
Available activities: Running, Indoor Track Running, Treadmill Running.
Fitness and health features
- High quality activity tracking for over 20 activities
- Custom made workouts
- Body Battery Energy Monitor
- Pulse Ox sensor
- Sleep monitoring
Animated on-screen workouts
Design
The design of the watches is very similar. Both the Venu and the Vivoactive 4/4S have a stainless steel bezel and Gorilla glass. The watches come in different color combinations, which can be found here for the Venu and here for the Vivoactive 4/4S.
The main selling point of the Garmin Venu is the AMOLED screen which gives you a very good looking display that is sharper and brighter as any of the other Garmin watches currently available. This is one of the features that is mentioned the most in the Garmin Venu user reviews
Both watches have a touchscreen and this can be a good or bad thing, depending on your personal preferences. Reveiws mention it can be harder to use the watch in the rain or with sweaty fingers, but it appears the screen is less sensitive as it was on Garmin’s first touchscreen watch, the Vivoactive 3, where accidental button presses were very common. Check the reviews on the Vivoactive 4
Garmin Venu
Physical size: 43.2 x 43.2 x 12.4 mm
Display size: 1.2″ (30.4mm) diameter
Weight: 46.3 g
Garmin Vivoactive 4
Physical size: 45.1 x 45.1 x 12.8 mm
Display size: 1.3″ (33.0 mm) diameter
Weight: 50.5 g
Garmin Vivoactive 4S
Physical size: 40.0 x 40.0 x 12.7 mm
Display size: 1.1″ (27.9 mm) diameter
Weight: 40.0 g
Battery life
Due to the AMOLED screen of the Garmin Venu and the different sizes of the Vivoactive 4 and 4S, there are significant differences in the battery life of each watch. While the Garmin Venu has the shortest battery life in smartwatch mode it actually has the longest battery life in GPS mode.
Garmin Venu
Smartwatch mode: Up to 5 days
GPS mode with music: Up to 6 hours
GPS mode without music: Up to 20 hours
Garmin Vivoactive 4
Smartwatch mode: Up to 8 days
GPS mode with music: Up to 6 hours
GPS mode without music: Up to 18 hours
Garmin Vivoactive 4S
Smartwatch mode: Up to 7 days
GPS mode with music: Up to 5 hours
GPS mode without music: Up to 15 hours
Smartphone features
There is no difference in the smartphone features of the Garmin Venu and the Vivoactive 4/4S. They both have Garmin Pay, music storage, Lifetracking, incident detection and they will show notifications from your phone. If you have an Android phone you’ll also be able to reply with preset responses.
Conclusion
Which watch you should buy depends on what you find important. All three watches are good quality watches and will give you a good Garmin experience.
The Garmin Venu has a better display, but this will cost you battery life in smartphone mode. The Garmin Vivoactive 4S is smaller and will fit a smaller wrist better, but this costs battery life as well. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 has a lesser display as the Venu, but better battery life.
Which of these is more important to you will determine which watch is best for you.
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