Garmin makes Venu SQ and its Music variant available for purchase
Garmin has made the Garmin Venu SQ and its Music variant available for purchase on its website.
The company describes Venu SQ as a “GPS smartwatch” that “combines daily style with health monitoring and fitness features that inspire you to keep moving”. The launch comes on the heels of the Forerunner 745 and the new Garmin HRM-Pro heart rate monitor which we reported on a few days ago.
Garmin Venu SQ
The Garmin Venu SQ has a square shape, something Garmin has stayed away from in recent years. To remind, the original Venu that was launched about a year ago is round.
The second generation actually reminds a bit of the old Pebble Time watches in terms of the overall look. The thing has a 1.3 inch (3.3cm) liquid crystal color display on top of a fiber-reinforced polymer body. This is slightly larger than the 1.2 inch display of its predecessor. Around the sides is a lightweight aluminium bezel.
You navigate the menus via the touch screen and 2-button interface. The whole thing measures 40.6 x 37.0 x 11.5 mm and weighs only 37.6 grams.
Unlike its predecessor, the company is aiming to keep this watch affordable. It has therefore opted for an LCD panel rather than a full OLED. Hence the not-too-impressive 240 x 240 pixel resolution, but you do have an optional always-on mode.
The display is protected with Gorilla Glass 3, which should keep it scratch free. There are various colors to choose from that can be matched up with 20mm silicone bands.
In addition to the regular, there is a slightly more expensive music variant. For an extra $50, this one comes with 4GB of memory which is enough to store around 500 songs. Playlists synced from compatible streaming services (Spotify, Amazon Music or Deezer) update when in range of Wi-Fi.
Both iterations have NFC for contactless payments. This is in addition to 5 ATM water-resistance rating.
Other than that, you get the usual Garmin goodies such as built-in GPS (GLONASS and Galileo), Bluetooth, and the typical fitness tracking sensors including SpO2 and latest generation optical heart rate monitor (Elevate V3). The watch will keep tabs on a plethora of health stats including stress, respiration, body battery, female health and more.
There is sports tracking (20 different sports), and the ability to create tailored workout plans for various activities directly on the watch. This includes biking, running, walking, swimming (indoor only), strength training (with rep counting), golf, yoga and Pilates.
As far as battery life, Venu SQ can keep going a perfectly reasonable 6 days in smartwatch mode. This falls to around 14 hours with GPS switched on. Switch music on, too, and this comes down to 6 hours.
Availability
Many were expecting Garmin to announce the watch alongside the 745 last week. However that did not happen. But it is available for purchase on the company’s website as of this morning.
The Garmin Venu SQ costs $199 (£179.99) while the Venu SQ Music Edition will set you back $249.99 (£224.99) on garmin.com (check price on Amazon). This sounds pretty reasonable particularly if we compare to the Apple Watch.
The Venu SQ is available in in orchid/metallic orchid, white/light gold, and shadow grey/slate . The Music Edition in light sand/rose gold, navy/light gold, moss/slate and black/slate colours.
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I personally think that the Garmin Venu SQ is a nice looking watch however from the picture it looks like the band will not be a quick release. This I think will be it’s downfall. I own the Fenix 5S and the bands are so much easier to change … if you have dexterity issues changes the band on the Venu will be a task and hope you dont lose the pin….
The quick-release pin is visible on the 4th picture panel down.
OLED and ECG are right now the major demands of the users. I see apple and now Fitbit Sense with ECG already in the market. Samsung will soon follow to enable the EGC function. It already has OLED which looks awesome. I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4s which looks dullest among the competitors of the same size class. I wanted to buy a Venu but was waiting for the new release hoping it will have OLED and ECG. But then SQ dropped. What a waste of my time. Should have gone for the Galaxy Active 2 way back.
ECG is not worth the time.
The ECG function on AppleWatch 5 has been very handy, and very reliable. Yes, it lacks the full detail of a 12-lead ECG, but can still pick up a-fib and PVC’s consistently.