Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition Review
Venu Sq Music Edition is Garmin's new smartwatch with all sensors suitable for monitor sport and with the added possibility of listen to your favorite songs without the need for a smartphone. Perfect especially for those who loves running and cycling, boasts the well-known Garmin precision and some complete smartwatch functions: notifications, colored touchscreen and some apps for music and podcasts. All at a very attractive price.
We've kept Garmin Venu Sq Music on our wrist for some time: working out, sleeping, watching notifications. In short, we have it fully tested to tell you what we think.
Smartwatch o “sportwatch”?
Opening the box of Garmin's Venu Sq Music we were surprised by the elegant lines of the smartwatch. The square case but with round edges is quite bulky, which is necessary on a smartwatch equipped with many sensors for fitness and with this battery. But the effect is that of an elegant watch, with a silicone strap that can easily pass for a more "noble" bracelet. The weight is also quite low: only 37,6 grams.
The display is from 1,3 inches, generous size for a fitness band but perhaps a bit small for a smartwatch. Hence the question arises: Garmin Venu Music Edition is a smartwatch or a fitness band?
The look is smartwatch, without a doubt. Despite this, both the supplied strap and the Venu Sq Music case have proven themselves resistant during workouts: sweat, dust and water did not affect it (indeed, it resists up to 5 atm under water). Sensors are many and great for sports and health: heartbeat, blood oxygenation, GPS. Virtually only the altimeter and gyroscope are missing. But also the connection Bluetooth it is excellent and there is the Wi-Fi to sync music.
Venu Sq could be in both worlds: the difference is the software. Starting your favorite workout is really immediate, there is even theautomatic startup for activities such as running or walking. Instead it is not possible to respond to WhatsApp notifications or calls and the app selection is limited compared to other smartwatches. So Venu Sq is a smartwatch but with a very sporty attitude: in its price range (199,99 euros for the normal version and 249,99 euros for the Music Edition) it could be the best smartwatch for those who love to run.
Discount
Garmin Venu Sq Music, GPS Sports Smartwatch with Player ...
- Color display always readable and always-on mode; up to 6g of charge in smartwatch use and up to 6h with GPS and ...
- Download your songs, including playlists from Spotify, Music or Deezer (requires premium subscription), connect your ...
- Monitor 24/7 your heart rate, the energy level of your Body Battery, breathing, stress and sleep ...
Garmin Venu Sq Music: everyday use
Lo Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition LCD screen it does not have the “wow” effect of other smartwatches with an AMOLED screen (including Garmin Venu itself). The colors aren't as bright as some rivals but they see each other very well, even under sunlight. The display turns on when you look at the watch, unless it is at the times set on the sleep app. The result is excellent, especially considering the price difference with AMOLED models, much more expensive.
La vibrate for notifications, which receives very quickly, is well calibrated and works well. Garmin has also entered an option to avoid sedentarism, who advised us to take a break several times during the day (writing online is not a job where you put a lot of physical effort into it). However, it is not annoying on days when you have to sit down and can give you incentives when you can move.
Navigating the menus is not immediately very intuitive. We have deliberately avoided consulting printed and online guides to test the "learning curve" of the smartwatch. The good thing is that it does almost everything by itself: detects aerobic sports activity and all health sensors automatically. Changing settings and managing tasks is though a little more cumbersome: it took several clicks of the side buttons to change the unit of measurement from miles to kilometers. You get used to it quickly but it could be a problem for someone who has never had a smartwatch before.
The system also supports Garmin Pay, allowing you to pay with NFC. Setting it up is pretty easy on the app, paying is even easier.
Garmin Venu Sq Music: designed for running
Venu SQ Music Edition shines from the point of view of the surveys for health and sport. The sensor Garmin Elevate to record the heartbeat is very accurate. The same goes for the blood oxygenation sensor, which is detected both while you are doing sports and during sleep, as well as being able to activate it on command.
In addition, there are tons of other health options: detection of stress, the tracking ofhydration (you have to manually enter each time you drink), tracking the period for women. It also gives many other interesting indices such as the “sporting” age, the VO2 Max, the "body battery" which indicates how much energy you can still use during the day. To be honest, there are more than we would have used other than for the purposes of this review. This department is truly complete.
even the sleep tracking it's accurate and Garmin Venu Sq doesn't bother while you sleep - just set sleep times to prevent the screen from turning on. Sensing blood oxygenation at night can be a great indicator for assessing sleep.
The flagship, however, is the tracking of sports activity. There are over 20 pre-saved templates of sporting activity. Unfortunately due to the limitations to the attendance of gyms and swimming pools (è waterproof up to 5 atm) we couldn't test them all. But we did our best.
Anaerobic activities such as weightlifting (we have remedied with elastic bands) detect the movement counting the repetitions. By pressing one of the two buttons you can start the pause timer, and then resume with the next series. On the other hand, activities that do not require repeated disclosure pulsations and oxygenation to evaluate how hard you are trying and report calories burned and all other training statistics.
La race however, it is the one that convinced us the most. After a minute of warm-up jogging Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition detects the start of the activity, having already recorded the start of your run. The tracking of pace and kilometers traveled is extremely accurate, even if the mapping (which you can see both on Venu Sq and on the app) can be imperfect in particular points: road crossings or level changes (it does not have an altimeter). However, it always seemed to us consistent and accurate: if you are preparing a marathon maybe you should spend more for a Garmin Fenix, for all the other Venu Sq it is more than enough. Indeed, it is excellent.
Battery and autonomy
Garmin ensures autonomy in smartwatch mode (without GPS and music) from 6 days, who come down to 6 hours when you use both GPS and listen to the Spotify playlist saved on Garmin Venu Sq Music. In our mixed use experience, with 1-2 hours a day of tracking with GPS, you can get there without too many worries four or even five days of autonomy, three if you use GPS often. Different speech for when you take a longer run or a bike ride. All in all we were satisfied with the battery of this device.
The experience with Garmin Connect
Another point in favor of the Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition is undoubtedly the app. Garmin Connect has a pleasant and intuitive graphical interface, easily summarizing the "your day”And allowing very quick navigation to access graphs and statistics. If Garmin could have done more for the smartwatch interface, that of the app is perfect.
even the pairing with the device is lightning fast and simple. You can set clock faces, upload music, download an app (we tried Spotify Premium and the Podcast app). The only flaw we were able to find is that despite having selected kilometers as the unit of measurement on the app, we had to change it manually also on the smartwatch. But it is a detail that should not distract fromgreat software job done by Garmin.
Download
QR-Code
Garmin Connect™
Developer:
Garmin
Price:
Free
Download
QR-Code
Garmin Connect™
Developer:
Garmin
Price:
Free
Garmin Venu Sq Music Edition: buy it or not?
The Music Edition version of Garmin Venu Sq costs 249,99 € on the official store (although you could find it for less during Black Friday). The range around 200 euros is full of excellent devices: it is a bridge between the more "casual" fitness trackers and the professional ones. In this price range, the most valid opponent is actually the basic version of Garmin Venu Sq, which costs 199,99 euros. The same sensors offer excellent tracking of activities, especially running. If you don't listen to music while running or you don't mind carrying your smartphone or iPod with you, you can save a few tens of euros.
Purchase is recommended: the only flaws are on the software side (especially the organization of the menus on the smartwatch) that Garmin could fix with a future update. If you want reliable detections in a smartwatch light and very resistant, it's a great buy.
Garmin Venu Sq Music
Pro 
- Perfect tracking
- Automatic activity start
- Good screen
Cons 
- Improved interface
- Unintuitive navigation
