Garmin Venu 4 is here – 12-day battery and fitness tools ready to take on Apple Watch 11

Garmin lifts the curtain on the Venu 4

Garmin has officially introduced the Venu 4, the latest upgrade to its popular smartwatch line. This new model packs improved sleep tracking, a built-in LED flashlight, and fresh coaching tools, including daily workout suggestions across a wide range of activities.

However, all these extras come at a higher cost. The Venu 4 is priced above both the Venu 3 and Apple’s Watch Series 11, starting at $549.99 when it hits shelves on September 22.

The Venu 4 comes in two sizes with different price tags:

​​Interestingly, the bigger model is actually the cheaper one. The 45mm Venu 4 comes in:

Meanwhile, the 41mm Venu 4 is offered in:

Both sizes feature a sleek metal build, a built-in speaker and mic, plus a bright LED flashlight for better visibility in the dark.

 
Battery life is another strong point – up to 12 days in smartwatch mode – so you don’t have to charge it nightly. That means you can track health data around the clock, including sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), Body Battery energy monitoring, and more.

When it comes to health and wellness, the Venu 4 packs in plenty of upgrades:

• Health status: Tracks whether key metrics like heart rate, HRV, respiration, skin temperature, and Pulse Ox during sleep are moving away from your normal range. Shifts here could signal added stress, illness, or the effects of recent activity. This feature is currently in beta on both the watch and Garmin Connect.
• Lifestyle logging: Lets you log preset or custom habits – like caffeine or alcohol intake – and then shows how those choices impact stress, sleep, and HRV in the Garmin Connect app.
• Advanced sleep metrics: Brings more personalized guidance with features like sleep alignment, which checks how well your rest matches your circadian rhythm, and sleep consistency, which tracks your average bedtime over the past week.

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Fitness also gets a boost with the new Garmin Fitness Coach, offering personalized workouts across 25+ activities, including walking, indoor cycling, rowing, HIIT, and more. These heart rate and duration-based sessions adjust daily based on your sleep, recovery, and activity history.

You can set up a full plan in Garmin Connect for tailored training, or just stick with the daily suggested workouts. Plus, the new mixed session profile lets you track multiple activities in one go without having to save them separately.

Overall, the Venu 4 is stacked with tools to support any health or fitness goal. It includes Garmin’s full suite of features – HRV status, Body Battery, women’s health tracking (now with skin temperature for past ovulation estimates and better period predictions), the Garmin ECG App, workout benefit and recovery time, training readiness, wrist-based running dynamics, smart notifications, onboard music, Garmin Pay, safety features, and more.

It’s also 5ATM water-resistant, so swimming is no problem, and the Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display helps it withstand everyday wear and tear.

Venu 4 enters a competitive smartwatch scene

Garmin didn’t launch the Venu 4 in a vacuum. It comes just days after the Apple Watch Series 11, which undercuts it on price and covers a lot of the same ground – though Apple can’t touch Garmin’s promised 12 days of battery. Apple’s watch is still capped at around 24 hours on paper.

That said, Garmin isn’t the only one chasing big battery gains. Huawei’s upcoming Watch GT 6 might stretch up to 21 days on a single charge, so competition in this space is heating up fast.

Garmin’s edge

Still, I think Garmin’s main strength is flexibility. Unlike Apple’s wearable, it plays nicely with both iOS and Android, making it a more universal option for people who don’t want to be locked into one ecosystem. That broad compatibility, paired with its deep health-tracking tools, keeps Garmin’s reputation strong in the smartwatch world.

At first glance, the Venu 4 looks like a solid upgrade that cements its place as Garmin’s all-arounder for fitness and everyday wear and a perfect alternative to the Apple Watch Series 11 or the Galaxy Watch 8. But whether its higher price will turn buyers away is something we’ll have to see play out.