Garmin’s first inexpensive multisport watch in years is a triumph: the Venu Sq has 95% of what the original Venu had going for it. But functionally, the Venu Sq can compete with Garmin’s other multisport watches: the Garmin Venu Sq takes everything we liked about the Garmin Venu, replaces the circular OLED screen with a rectangular LCD, removes some sensors and cut the price in half. This is exactly what Garmin should have done with the Venu series all along. Read our Garmin Venu Sq review to find out why.
The Garmin Venu Sq has a 1.3-inch rectangular LCD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The Garmin Venu is covered with the same Gorilla Glass, but has a more sophisticated 1.2-inch circular AMOLED display with a 1.2-inch circular AMOLED display. Despite the Venu Sq technically having a larger display, it feels noticeably smaller than the Venu’s display. The menu feels cramped and frequently misplaces items. You will definitely notice the technical differences between the displays. Blacks are not as deep as on the Venu’s AMOLED panel. Viewing angles are good, but the screen looks white.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]Garmin has done a pretty good job of bringing smartwatch functionality to the smaller Venu; it works on Android phones and iPhones, and we tried it on both and didn’t encounter any major issues. You can also see notifications and respond to them when you are using your Android phone. The screen for doing this is small and cramped compared to the round Venu, but it can be done with minimal controls.
There is also the ability to control your music, and if you opt for the Music Edition, you get ample space for 500 songs. You can listen to songs from your own collection or from offline playlists via Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music. To do this, you need to subscribe to these services.Garmin Pay is also included, but the banks supported in the UK, US and Australia differ. There is definitely better support in the US than in the UK for using useful features.
The Venu Sq is aimed at fitness and health tracking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it misses out on smartwatch features. Like most other watches, Venu Sq displays notifications from your mobile phone and will ping you to locate your phone if you lose it within Bluetooth range. Incoming call notifications are displayed no matter which mobile phone it is paired with, but only Android users can reject incoming calls or reply to text messages with a pre-written reply. There is no speaker or microphone on board, so voice text replies are not possible.