Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to 6 Days of Battery Life, Light Gold and White

Top positive review

Garmin vs. Apple vs. Fitbit

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2021

While this isn’t a fancy Apple Watch, it does everything I needed it to without the jaw dropping cost. You also don’t have to pay a monthly membership to use features like O2 saturation the way you have to with FitBit watches. It also looks really nice. It tracks my heart rate, oxygen levels, sleep, steps, and much more. the watch does continuous heart rate monitoring, unlike the Apple which doesn’t. I can also alert my emergency contacts and send them my location if I need to. I purchased it more for medical reasons and I am very happy with this watch. Great price and better function for my needs.

694 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

Rob Nelson

Missing very important features.

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2021

The watch does what it says it will do. However, it leaves out some very important features that are covered by the Forerunner and Fenix lines. If you are training and want insight for recovery and progress, this unit provides neither. No recovery time, no performance indicators or insight. Seems odd to leave that out, and those are important metrics for anyone into fitness. Actually, those are the MOST important metrics. (How hard did you push, are you progressing, how hard or easy to take the next workout, etc)

198 people found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

Filtered by

2 starClear filter

204 global ratings | 97 global reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

Brandon Bigam

Buggy with erratic battery life

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2021

Color: Silver Bezel with Granite Blue Case and BandStyle: Venu 2Pattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

I really thought and hoped that this would finally be the right premium fitness/smartwatch I'd been looking for. It's not. It does have a lot of great fitness and health features and a beautiful screen. But it has a lot of problems, far more than a watch at this price should get away with.

Problems:
-Sync issues: it syncs slowly, even just a minute after the previous sync if you close and open the app. And it has trouble syncing sleep info; it can take an hour or more to show up in the app, even with repeated syncs. This is noted on the Garmin forums too, with no solution.
-Several random crashes/reboots. In fairness, the latest public beta firmware seems to fix this; but it's still a beta a couple of weeks later.
-Erratic battery life and battery drain. Sleep tracking overnight (without pulse ox) can drain 3% or 30% for no apparent reason. This is noted on the forums too. This kind of inconsistency makes the watch unreliable. The suggested solution seems to be to uninstall third-party apps, watchfaces, and data fields. So what's the point of having an app store?

Poor design:
-No airplane mode option at all.
-No quick option to turn off the always-on display (AOD) on the fly. You have to dig through multiple menus.
-Convoluted interface that sometimes requires buttons, sometimes touchscreen, without rhyme or reason. Also some settings are only in the app, some only on the watch, again for no apparent reason.
-Poor selection of analog watchfaces that have a minimal AOD for power saving.
-"Let's get moving" alerts seem to trigger and clear completely at random. For example, maybe only a few minutes after sitting down from an activity, or while driving. Then hours later it will suddenly notify me that the move alert cleared. Not helpful.
-A thick watch case combined with a textured bezel that feels like a nail file makes for a watch that's difficult a slide a long sleeve over. Maybe okay for a pure fitness watch, but not for one also marketed for "lifestyle/smartwatch" type features.

Quite disappointed with this, and returning it as defective. Samsung was equally disappointing. Going back to Amazfit which is less fully featured but works smoothly with great battery life.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

S. Clark

They Charge for Sleep Monitoring... No Mention Prior to Buying

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2021

Color: Slate Bezel with Black Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2Pattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

They Charge for Sleep Monitoring??...No Mention When I Bought It.

I Bought it because of a review... That you don't have to pay for all the extras this one has it.... Why Don't They Say That Up Front... And Give The Prices of ALL THE FEATURES You Have To Pay For....NOT AFTER YOU BOUGHT IT!!!

My Doctor says I Need A Way to Measure Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor (SpO2) and Pulse Rate While Sleeping.

Need to Show the Cardiologists an Accurate Reading as One of them Wants Me to Give Me a Pacemaker the other Suggests to Just Change My Medications

NOTE: I Do Like The Setting Features a lot More Control over The Watch... They do have a lot more to offer in that area....

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Katrah

Inaccurate distance. Filled up memory with menstrual tracking... I'm a dude.

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2022

Color: Slate BandStyle: Venu SqPattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

-Just tried to update it and it said memory storage was full. I Checked and 128kb of the 1500 were of Menstrual Cycle Tracking... 1) I don't have that turned on. 2) I am registered as a male. Why is it tracking and recording that in the background when I haven't given it access to do so.
-I got this in the first place for tracking ROWING. Found no other watch that could compare to it. Strokes per minute at a glance of the watch is amazing! Seeing afterwards the maximum spm and average spm in a graph with Heart Rate and all is perfect!
-Sleep Tracking is mediocre at best. If I pee 3 times during the night it might show me as awake once or twice..
-Distance is off. And Garmin is WELL KNOWN for their distance being off. You will have to run farther using a Garmin than other watches.
-Calories are short. There's no way I do 120+ HR core work for 30 minutes and burn 25 calories... Yes I have age and weight updated regularly.
-Sometimes Heart Rate Sensor doesn't work when doing stationary biking. Usually at higher heart rate and almost always when shifting to standing then back to sitting. If I use a chest HR monitor that connects to the Garmin THEN it will accurately record HR during a workout. Its a shame because chest straps are restrictive and tend to slide down when running for me at least.
-FOR THE PRICE, its great. SO much better than the FitBit charge 3 that I was using. But only 1 year of memory has filled it up and there is NO WAY to easily erase it all. I've had to request Garmin to erase all memory of me to fix that. But for all I know it will just fill up again secretly recording my menstrual cycles... as a dude.... lol!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Doru C

Rewarding but annoying at the same time

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2022

Color: Slate Bezel with Graphite Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2sPattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

Has tons of features and many of them are actually useful.
The Garmin ecosystem is very nicely integrated, featured and polished.
This watch has a lot to like - comprehensive sleep analyzer (including SPO2, REM, stress, etc), continuous HR, gesture-triggered display-on, a lot of customization options for the screen, GPS & tracking, decent battery life (~5 days with my settings), small size (most smart watches are bigger than what I'm comfortable with).
Now for the negatives:
- Freezes when logging hikes - very often, every ~1 out of 3 hikes. Takes a long time and a fuzzy procedure to restart.
- Freezes when recharging - sometimes. Always comes back up but whenever it wants, not when I want it, stays frozen for minutes even when I long press buttons to reset.
- Uncontrollable in the water - the touchscreen is completely confused in the water.
- The auto-display-freeze is useful - after 1 minute it freezes display so I don't change things by accidentally touching screen. But its implementation is amateurish and plain stupid: when I touch the screen just shows me a screen of a lock for 2 seconds ... Gosh, I just want to see the info on the screen, not some random picture of a lock ... just show me the screen even when the screen is locked! Could use some other way to indicate that the screen is locked, like flashing screen or drawing an outline at the edge of the screen, etc
- HR seems accurate when resting but useless at high HR and during any kind of exercise. Cannot - I repeat - cannot be used to monitor HR during exercises, regardless of the kind of exercise: running, gym, biking. I have a chest strap for that purpose. I only use the HR from this watch to check HR at night and when relaxed. Quite a dissapointment.
All in all it works for me - not perfect but then very few things are.
[Edit, 2022-02-21] Freezing beyond acceptable. While hiking, whether I'm logging or not, it freezes very often - if the hike is more than 2 hours then it will probably freeze. Absolutely not acceptable. Downgrading to 2 stars. Not recommended anymore.
Also, another negative - why doesn't it connect to my bike's power meter? It does have Bluetooth ... if it logged biking power then i wouldn't have needed an expensive bike computer ...

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

M. Forisha

Generally underwhelming for the price.

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2021

Color: Silver Bezel with Granite Blue Case and BandStyle: Venu 2Pattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

I bought this to replace the Vivoactive 3 music. The customizable AMOLED display and the improved Garmin pay functionality were about the only notable upgrades. The swim tracking capability that drew me to Garmin watches in the first place STILL only records laps when I use my arms. No legs-only laps get recorded. I STILL 'reach my steps goal' because Garmin watches can't tell the difference between walking and petting the dog. The sleep tracking is hit-or-miss at best. I've gotten "fair" scores after great nights of sleep. I regularly use the hydration tracker, Garmin Pay (which didn't work with any of my 3 banks at the time of purchase. I had to open a Chase account to even leverage Garmin Pay), and the breathwork app. So, to justify the cost of an okay multi-function swim watch, I've decided to leverage some of the functions I mentioned above that I, frankly, wouldn't miss if I lost the watch today.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Julio Nieves

Scratches extremely easy, very disappointing.

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2021

Color: Slate Bezel with Black Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2Pattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

This is pretty disappointing, 3 days of use and I go to check the time and it’s scratched up. I mean I have had the Phoenix 3 since it came out (5-6) years and not a single scratch. I only took it off to charge it that’s it, not a single scratch on the glass. I have used the venu 2 for exactly 2 1/2 days (delivered in the afternoon of May 10th, and just noticed this scratch that’s just ridiculous, I haven’t even been able to test it’s “outdoors and sports features” due to work. FYI I work in a office. Stay away from it, if you actually intend to use it outdoors.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Eric

DISAPPOINTED

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2022

Color: Slate with Black BandStyle: Venu 2 PlusPattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

Used for 11 days and the problems just keep popping up.

1. The brightness adjustment doesn't work, at all. It seems like the watch just decides on its own to get brighter and get more dim occasionally. And no, auto brightness is not on.

2. HR sensor works really well until my wrist gets sweaty. Then it's consistently 70-80 bpm off despite my heart rate being closer to 160.

3. A heart rate app that I downloaded and used for a few days is suddenly missing from the watch. I used it just yesterday and now it's gone.

4. The screen doesn't wake when I look at the screen any longer and there's no setting that I can find that allows that. Then when I tap on the screen to wake it up, it occasionally takes several taps to wake up - laggy. It's frustrating.

As much as I do like this watch, these bugs all need to be fixed. I'll be returning this watch and looking for something different.

Edit 01/28/22 - I thought about giving this watch a couple more days to see if I can get past these problems. Terrible idea. Problems continue. Now my Venu 2 Plus has seized up with nothing on the screen, the buttons don't operate, and when I double tap on the screen I only volume up/down. I can't exit that screen and the volume up/down do nothing.

Btw the seller did accept my return and the original shipping was faster than the quoted expected time. This review isn't a knock on the seller at all - just the Venu 2 Plus.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

lmzrsk

Liked it but Returned It: Open Firmware Issue

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2022

Color: Slate Bezel with Black Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2Pattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

I have had a Venu (1) for years and liked it. And decided to upgrade to the new Venu 2. When I first got it, i was impressed by the new snapshots and the screen. I set it up as normal, and then a few days later an issue popped up. I also like to use the Connect IQ apps to fill in the gaps in the Garmin Apps that come with the unit. I downloaded the Hiking, Running and Cycling Professional App (just like on my Venu 1. Got them all set up and then decided to move them to my favorites and rearrange the apps to match what I currently have. I used the Connect phone app to do that. Image my surprise when I opened my watch and all the apps were gone. The downloaded apps were erased (including the music apps) and I had to reinstall the Garmin apps. So, i did this a few more times with the same result.

I then went on the Garmin Forum and found a listing in which they admit it is a issue with all Venu 2’s. They are aware of it and the Engineers are working on it. With no time line provided. Since, at least to me, this is not a trivial purchase i noted my complaint on the forum and, after talking with Amazon support (who are very good), decided to return the watch. I dropped that onto the Garmin Forum and they again told me they are working on it and don’t use the Connect IQ apps until they have a fix. Thank you, but no thank you.

I decided to return the watch and went back to my Venu 1, which works just fine. Garmin… troubleshoot your firmware better!

Helpful

Laura

App is not user friendly, inaccurate pulse ox readings

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022

Color: Slate Bezel with Graphite Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2sPattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

It's a pretty watch but I will be returning it since I cannot justify spending $400 on a device that doesn't have the features it advertises. The Apple watch can get you an accurate ECG reading for $300, but this watch can't give me an accurate pulse ox reading, it also claims it calculates your breaths per minute but it's way off (13 BRM when I'm awake apparently). I understand pulse ox readings aren't very important in a fitness watch but I'm starting to suspect I may have sleep apnea and I've been looking to upgrade from my Fitbit for tracking exercise, I guess not.

The app is just not good, it's ugly and messy, not to mention I couldn't get the IQ app to sync with my phone. Garmin Connect and the IQ store should absolutely be consolidated, not sure why they're not. I called customer service to try to figure it out but they weren't much help. I'm not going to wait for a ticket to be opened and the issue to be resolved with engineers for again, a $400 dollar watch.
Every runner recommends Garmin but I've been sorely disappointed, I also had to return the first Venu because of a software issue. I'm sure it does a great job tracking your runs but anything else, not so much.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Alan H.

Neat, but honestly just not useful.

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2022

Color: Slate Bezel with Graphite Case and Silicone BandStyle: Venu 2sPattern Name: SmartwatchVerified Purchase

Maybe I didn’t spend enough time getting to know it but it provided me with no value for $350. I’m not a runner either but I do crossfit and I wanted it to track sleep and HR and O levels during a workout and it didn’t do any of that with much accuracy- and if it did the data wasn’t that useful. It’s like “oh okay I didn’t sleep that great. I already felt that but it’s confirmed. Great.” The touch screen is basically worthless because you use the buttons more anyways and the screen is just too small.

The technology is certainly neat but yeah this thing isn’t going to revolutionize your life, sleep, or exercise in any way that you can’t do yourself by creating habits and having some discipline. If you’re going for the style of a smartwatch just get a cheap knockoff.

Helpful

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to...

5 star		73%
4 star		14%
3 star		6%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to...

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to 6 Days of Battery Life, Light Gold and White

Top positive review

Top critical review

Filtered by

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to... › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to 6 Days of Battery Life, Light Gold and White

Top positive review

Top critical review

Filtered by

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

Questions? Get fast answers from reviewers

Garmin Venu Sq, GPS Smartwatch with Bright Touchscreen Display, Up to...

›

Customer reviews