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The fall line of Garmin products brings with it innovative tech, including hidden touchscreens, solar tech and crisp OLED screens—though, unfortunately, not all to the same device.
The two new smartwatches that really caught my eye were the vívomove Luxe and the Venu. The vívomove Luxe looks like an ordinary watch until you tap the screen. That’s when a hidden AMOLED display springs to life. The Venu is Garmin’s first always-on AMOLED device. Both deserve a much closer look.
Garmin vívomove Luxe
Garmin’s latest vívomove Luxe line is notable for a few reasons. One, it uses premium materials like Italian leather to create watches that are decidedly stylish (and, conversely, un-Garmin looking). Two, it also uses a crisp AMOLED screen to convey smartwatch, fitness and activity information better than nearly every other Garmin tracker. But what will make you stop and stare is the third reason—most of the time, you won’t see the screen at all.
Until you raise your wrist or double tap on the face, the screen of the latest vívomove is completely hidden. When it’s activated, you’re treated to a crystal clear color display with text and graphics that hover over the dial.
As you cycle through notifications and metrics, the real hands of the watch move out of the way for better visibility or move to indicate how close you are to meeting your goals. The vívomove tracks a staggering amount of wellness metrics including Pulse Ox (which was previously reserved only for Garmin’s more premium sport watches)—an excellent indicator of overall cardiovascular health.
In addition to the usual steps and stairs, the vívomove can monitor your sleep, track your menstrual cycle, keep an eye on your heart rate, record stress levels and help you keep tabs on your Body Battery (one of my favorite Garmin-specific metrics that measures rest and activity to determine overall energy).
Swiping through all the various screens can be a little tricky at times, but the tradeoff is worth it. Especially if you’re in an environment where smartwatches are frowned upon, the vívomove Luxe is a stylish and practical compromise, letting you keep tabs on your phone notifications and letting you pay wirelessly, all while maintaining a low-tech look.
Garmin Venu
I’ll talk about the capabilities of the all-new Venu in a second, but first we need to talk about that screen. The AMOLED display is as crisp in person as it is in press shots. It’s the first Garmin I’ve used that rivals the Apple Watch for screen clarity. Readable in full sunlight, gorgeous indoors, Garmin would be foolish not to adopt this screen technology across their entire product line immediately.
Garmin does some interesting things with that crisp new display. There are watch faces that animate when you turn the watch towards you. Workout animations (which are also on the new vivoactive 4s) are impressively executed and crisp. And like the new Apple Watch, you can set the display to be always on (though you’ll only see the time, unlike the Apple Watch that inverts colors and keeps your complications).
You can add up to three complications to the dial, and they’re what you’d expect from Garmin, focusing on your health activities. And the Venu gets some interesting new health features that I’m hoping we’ll see elsewhere in the Garmin universe soon.
The Breathwork activity is like Apple’s Breathe reminders, but taken to the next level. Think of it as a meditation workout, taking you through multiple steps to achieve “mindful breathing.” The Venu is working behind the scenes to keep track of your respiration rate as well, adding yet another metric to your workouts to obsess over (always welcome).
Speaking of new metrics, there’s also an estimated sweat loss metric, but it’s only visible after you’ve uploaded your workout to Garmin Connect. Still, it’s nice to see (and also interesting to keep track of as this endless summer continues).
Ultimately, the Venu works as you’d expect a Garmin to work. While some elements, like the heart rate graph, take advantage of the capabilities of the new screen, others are simply just crisper versions of the same UI we see on the transflective screens of nearly every other Garmin device.
Verdict
While both the vívomove Luxe and the Venu occupy a similar niche in Garmin’s fall lineup price-wise, they serve vastly different audiences.
The vívomove Luxe is meant to be a stylish, light activity and wellness tracker. The Venu, on the other wrist, is meant to be a full fitness watch with sport tracking and on-wrist coaching. I could see situations where you’d switch these two watches out on a regular basis depending on whether you were going to the gym or going out on the town.
This one ends in a tie. Both are equally excellent but different enough that they don’t undercut each other.
