I swapped my Apple Watch 11 for the Garmin Venu 4 — here’s my honest verdict

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I’ve been testing Garmin’s newest smartwatch

a photo of the Garmin Venu 4 and Apple Watch 11
(Image credit: Future)

There’s no doubt about it — I’ve been blown away by the Garmin Venu 4. It’s a stunning-looking smart watch, with all of the premium health and fitness features of some of the best Garmin watches on the market. I’ve swapped my brand new Apple Watch 11 for the Garmin Venu 4 this past week, and read on to find out why I’m not sure I’ll be going back.

If you’re new to the Garmin Venu line, it’s Garmin’s most popular smartwatch. The Venu 4 has had a design upgrade compared with the Garmin Venu 3 — it has lost a button on the side, moving to a touchscreen design, has a brighter screen, and features an all-metal bezel. If you’re trying to decide between the Garmin Venu 4 and the latest Apple Watch 11, here are all the specs compared.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Venu 4
Row 0 - Cell 0

Apple Watch 11

Garmin Venu 4

Price

starting at $399

starting at $549

Size

46mm: 46 x 39 x 9.7mm / 42mm: 42 x 36 x 9.7mm

45mm: 45 x 45 x 12.5 mm / 41mm: 41 x 41 x 12 mm

Case colours

Aluminum: Rose Gold, Silver, Space Gray, Jet Black / Titanium: Gold, Natural, Slate

Lunar gold, Slate, Silver

Display

46mm: 416 x 496 pixels / 44mm: 374 x 446 pixels

45mm: 454 x 454 pixels / 41mm: 390 x 390 pixels

Battery life

24 hours

Up to 10 days

Weight

46mm: 37.8 g / 44mm: 30.3 g

45mm: 38 g / 41mm: 33g

Water resistance

50 meters

50 meters

Health sensors

HRM, ECG, SpO2, Skin Temperature

HRM, ECG, SpO2, Skin Temperature

Liked: The Venu 4’s advanced health tracking

The Venu 4 is pretty much the same as the Garmin Forerunner 570 behind the screen. It features all of Garmin’s newest health tracking capabilities, plus one brand-new feature: lifestyle logging. Lifestyle logging will be rolled out to all of Garmin’s newest watches, and it’s effectively the same as Whoop’s logging system, allowing you to log behaviors like caffeine intake or alcohol intake to see how they impact your sleep and recovery.

In fact, the Garmin Venu 4 has one key upgrade compared to the Garmin Forerunner 570, and that’s the ability to take ECG readings from your wrist. The Forerunner 570 does have additional buttons, which makes using it on the run that little bit easier, but it’s a tough decision to make when choosing between the two.

Compared to Apple, I really appreciate Garmin’s recovery recommendations and tools like Body Battery, which allow me to see how the stress of the day is draining me. Garmin’s morning and evening reports are also far more useful than Apple’s, which says "good morning" and not much else.

the Garmin Venu 4 on the wrist

(Image credit: Future)

Liked: The battery life

The Garmin Venu 4 has up to 10 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, and after a week of testing, I found this pretty accurate. I’ve worn the watch 24/7, without the always-on display enabled, and completed at least one workout per day, and haven’t had to charge my watch.

Sure, the Apple Watch 11 has a slightly longer battery life than the Apple Watch 10, but with Garmin, we’re talking about days between charges, not hours. As a busy working mom of a toddler, I appreciate not having to remember to charge my watch every day.

Liked: How neat and comfortable the watch looked on my wrist

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I love the look of the Garmin Venu 4. I’ve been testing the 41mm version in lunar gold, and it looks beautiful on my wrist. I much prefer the round screen to the square Apple Watch 11, and although I do miss the extra physical buttons when I’m running, I’m adapting to the touchscreen design of the Venu 4, and appreciate that it’s still easier to pause a run than it is on the Apple Watch 11.

Both of these smartwatches are designed to be worn 24/7, but as someone with petite wrists, I found the Venu 4 far more comfortable to wear when sleeping.

Apple Watch Series 11

(Image credit: Future)

Missed: Being able to reply to messages from my wrist

The Garmin Venu 4 has a speaker and microphone, but if it’s paired with an iPhone, you can still only read messages from your wrist. In fact, I soon turned the smart notifications off, as I found it annoying seeing my messages flash up without the ability to reply to them.

Garmin lags slightly behind Apple in terms of apps and smartwatch features, and while I adapted after a few days, it is a consideration worth making if you’re switching from Apple to Garmin.

Missed: Closing my rings

I really wish I didn’t care about closing my Apple Watch rings, but I still do. Again, it’s something I adapted to, but I did miss those pesky rings, reminding me to stand up and keep moving throughout the day.

Garmin’s move alerts are still useful, and again, I’m sure if I’d never started closing my rings, I probably would reach for the Venu 4 over the Apple Watch 11 for the reasons mentioned above.

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Jane McGuire
Jane McGuire
Fitness editor

Jane McGuire is Tom's Guide's Fitness editor, which means she looks after everything fitness related - from running gear to yoga mats. An avid runner, Jane has tested and reviewed fitness products for the past five years, so knows what to look for when finding a good running watch or a pair of shorts with pockets big enough for your smartphone. When she's not pounding the pavements, you'll find Jane striding round the Surrey Hills, taking far too many photos of her puppy. 

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