Comparing the Garmin Venu 4 and Venu 3 reveals a significant evolution in Garmin’s popular smartwatch line. While the Venu 3 was a strong contender in the health and wellness space, the Venu 4, launched in late 2025, builds on that foundation with a number of key upgrades that push it closer to Garmin’s higher-end sports watch offerings.
Detailed Specifications Comparison
Design and Build Quality
The most noticeable difference between the two models is the change in materials. The Venu 4 features a more premium, all-metal design, a departure from the Venu 3’s fiber-reinforced polymer case with a stainless steel bezel. This new construction gives the Venu 4 a more substantial and luxurious feel, though it does add a bit of weight.
Interestingly, Garmin has reduced the number of physical buttons from three on the Venu 3 to two on the Venu 4, a design change that prioritizes a sleeker aesthetic. Both models retain the same vibrant AMOLED touchscreen displays and are available in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm.
Health and Wellness Tracking
The Venu series has always been a leader in health tracking, and the Venu 4 introduces several new features to maintain that reputation.
- Lifestyle Logging: A major addition, this feature allows users to manually log behaviors like caffeine or alcohol consumption and see how they impact metrics like sleep, stress, and HRV (Heart Rate Variability) in the Garmin Connect app.
- Health Status: The Venu 4 includes a beta feature that monitors key metrics while you sleep (heart rate, HRV, respiration, skin temperature, and Pulse Ox) and alerts you if they deviate from your personal baseline, potentially indicating illness or overtraining.
- Enhanced Sleep Tools: The new watch introduces “Sleep Alignment” for syncing with your body’s circadian rhythm and “Sleep Consistency” to track your average bedtime.
Performance and Sports Features
The Venu 4 closes the gap with Garmin’s dedicated running and multisport watches by incorporating several advanced features.
- Multi-band GNSS: A significant GPS upgrade, the Venu 4 now supports multi-band/dual-frequency GNSS. While this may slightly reduce battery life in certain modes, it offers superior positional accuracy in challenging environments. The Venu 3 only supported multi-GNSS.
- New Sport Profiles: The Venu 4 adds a host of new activities, including triathlon, duathlon, trail running, and various cycling disciplines like road and gravel biking.
- Advanced Training Metrics: It gains several metrics previously reserved for more athletic-focused watches, such as Training Load, Load Ratio, and Heat & Altitude Acclimation.
Battery Life and Other Features
The Venu 4 comes with a trade-off in battery life compared to its predecessor. The larger Venu 4 offers up to 12 days in smartwatch mode, a slight decrease from the Venu 3’s 14 days. This is likely due to the new features and the more power-intensive multi-band GPS.
A notable and practical hardware addition to the Venu 4 is a built-in LED flashlight, a feature that has been trickling down from Garmin’s high-end Fenix and Forerunner models. The Venu 3 only had a “screen flashlight” that lit up the display. The Venu 4 also includes new accessibility features like spoken watch faces and health data, as well as color filter options for color blindness.
Price and Verdict
At launch, the Garmin Venu 4 is priced at a premium of around $550, a significant increase from the Venu 3’s initial price of $450.
The Garmin Venu 4 represents a substantial upgrade, especially for those who want a stylish smartwatch that also offers advanced training features. The addition of multi-band GPS, advanced training metrics, and the practical LED flashlight makes it a much more capable device for serious athletes, while the new health and wellness features appeal to its core audience. For new buyers who value these enhanced capabilities, the Venu 4 is a compelling choice. However, if you already own a Venu 3 and are satisfied with its performance, the upgrade may not be essential, especially given the higher price point and a slight reduction in battery life.
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