Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1: All-around quality or expensive, niche perks?

Render of the black 45mm Garmin Venu 4, the display showing Lifestyle logging menu with options like Late Caffeine and Alcohol.

The mainline champ returns

Garmin unshackled the Venu 4 to add better personalized coaching, training load data, and GPS accuracy, while still designing it to be more accessible, stylish, and health-focused than your typical Garmin watch. It’s heavier and more expensive than past Venus, and doesn’t have every Venu X1 perk, but it still arguably has the best value of any Garmin watch.

Pros

Better dual-band GPS and SatIQ
2–4 more days of battery life
ECG readings
Better accessibility tools
New multisport Fitness Coach

Cons

No built-in maps or Fenix-level training tools
A bit heavier despite smaller display
No Sapphire crystal
Pricier than the Venu 3

Render of the Black Garmin Venu X1 smartwatch

Thin frame, powerful guts

The Garmin Venu X1 isn’t nearly as well-rounded as the Venu 4, prioritizing a large, bright display and ultra-thin design at the expense of battery life — and costing significantly more. It’s also the most comfortable Garmin watch we’ve ever worn, but you need more justification to buy it; double-check that you need specific, exclusive perks like offline maps before you pay extra.

Pros

More comfortable to wear
Larger, better-protected display
More advanced running, cycling, and golf tools
Full map suite instead of breadcrumb navigation

Cons

Costs significantly more
No dual-band GPS or ECG readings
Shorter battery life
No multisport Fitness Coach (yet)

The Garmin Venu 4 costs $250 less than the Garmin Venu X1 but still has several hardware upgrades and software exclusives. Features like Health Status and Sleep Alignment should come to the Venu X1 within a couple of months, but the Venu 4 will still have the edge for GPS accuracy and battery life.

The Venu X1 has its own advantages, however! You get similar software perks to the pricier Fenix 8, most notably offline maps for hiking and golf, where the Venu 4 falls short. The Venu 4 is also slightly less comfortable to wear, and while you can offset the weight gap with a nylon strap or the smaller 41mm model, you’re still getting a much smaller display in exchange for a lower price and a more traditional watch look.

We’ve already broken down the Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu 3 generational gap; now, let’s compare the Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1 to help you decide which exclusive features you’ll truly care about.

Category

Garmin Venu 4

Garmin Venu X1

Case colors

Slate, Silver, Lunar Gold (41mm only)

Black with Slate Titanium, Moss with Titanium

Materials

Stainless steel and fiber-reinforced polymer case, steel bezel

Fiber-reinforced polymer with titanium caseback, no bezel

Strap

22mm or 18mm silicone Quick Release strap

24mm Nylon ComfortFit Quick Release strap

Protection

5ATM, Gorilla Glass 3

5 ATM, sapphire crystal

Dimensions

45 x 45 x 12.5mm, 56g w/ strap

41 x 41 x 12mm, 46g w/ strap

41 x 46 x 7.9mm, 40g with nylon strap

Buttons

Display

1.2-inch (390×390) or 1.4-inch (454×454) AMOLED touchscreen, 2,000 nits

2-inch (448 x 486) AMOLED touchscreen, 2,000 nits

Tracking

GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, SatIQ, All-Systems GNSS + Multi-Band

GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BeiDou, QZSS, All-Systems GNSS

Sensors

Elevate v5 HRM, SpO2, accelerometer, altimeter, compass, ECG, gyroscope, skin temperature

Elevate v5 HRM, SpO2, accelerometer, altimeter, compass, gyroscope, skin temperature

Connectivity

Bluetooth, ANT+, Wi-Fi, NFC

Storage

✔️ 8GB (Music)

✔️ 32GB (Maps, music)

Mic & speaker

✔️ (Calling, Phone commands, Watch commands)

Flashlight

✔️

Battery life

45mm: 12 days (4 w/ AOD), 20 GPS hours, 19 All-Systems GNSS hours, 18 multi-band GPS hours, 9 hours All-Systems GNSS w/ music

41mm: 10 days (3 w/ AOD), 15 GPS hours, 13 All-Systems GNSS hours, 12 multi-band GPS hours, 6 hours All-Systems GNSS w/ music

8 days; 2 w/ AOD, 16 GPS hours, 14 All-systems GNSS hours, 7 hours All-Systems GNSS w/ music

Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1: What’s the same?

(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

Both the Garmin Venu 4 and Venu X1 have two buttons — unlike the Venu 3‘s three buttons — making them more touch-dependent than the five-button Garmin Fenixes, Forerunners, or Instincts.

They both utilize the fifth-generation Elevate sensor suite, which has remained unchanged since 2023. The Garmin Venu X1 performed very well in our accuracy tests, and the Venu 4 should follow suit. They also share most of the same sensors for navigation (compass), elevation tracking (altimeter), wrist movement (gyroscope), and health (skin temp), plus the same connectivity standards for Bluetooth/ANT+ accessories.

The Garmin Venu X1 sitting on an armrest, pointed toward the camera with the flashlight on.

(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

Garmin gave the Venu X1 and Venu 4 a mic and speaker for voice commands and Bluetooth calling, built-in white and red LEDs with four intensity levels and strobe effects, and the same modern Garmin OS UI found on its 2025 watches.

While their two displays couldn’t look more different, they do both hit 2,000 nits of brightness, twice as bright as most Garmin AMOLED displays before 2025. Their pixels per inch are also comparable: 324 on the Venu 4 and 330 on the Venu X1.

The Venu 4 software suite is quite similar to the Forerunner 570‘s, while the Venu X1 is comparable to the Forerunner 970. We’ll focus more on the software differences below, but the Venu 4 and X1 share most of the same sport profiles and hundreds of core Garmin features across running, hiking, cycling, swimming, indoor workouts, training load, and sleep/recovery tracking — far too many to list here.

Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1: Design & display

(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

The Garmin Venu 4 comes in two sizes to accommodate different wrist sizes, but one of the main Venu X1 upsides is that it’s so light (40g) and skinny (7.9mm) that it’ll work on any wrist without compromise; it’s supremely comfortable, especially for hours-long activities.

The 1.2-inch Venu 4 41mm is only a little heavier than the X1, but with obvious display shrinkage. The 45mm model is closer, and you can buy a nylon strap to try to close the weight gap a bit.

(Image credit: Garmin)

One thing that makes the Venu 4 heavier is the stainless steel built into both the bezel and the case, giving it a classy look. The Venu 4 45mm is slightly thicker than its predecessor at 12.5mm, and looks bulky compared to the Venu X1, but it’s skinnier than most other Garmin watches. It’s all relative, in other words.

The Venu X1 has a titanium caseback and buttons that add some shine, but the body itself is mostly made of polymer, keeping it light. Its skinniness and textured lines around its edge make the Venu X1 look less “cheap” and sportier than thicker, polymer-case Garmin watches, however.

(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

It’s the 2-inch display that’s the real Venu X1 standout. It may not have the Venu 4’s accessibility features, but the display leaves room to expand widgets and increase text size, so it’s cumulatively much more readable. Maps, in particular, look fantastic on the X1, making it fun to use while on the golf course and hiking.

The other X1 advantage is that it uses sapphire glass for the best scratch protection, while the Venu 4 sticks to Gorilla Glass 3. It’s a telltale example of Garmin preventing its “mid-range” watches from getting the best features, even though almost any other $500+ watch has sapphire glass or its equivalent.

Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1: Hardware, sensors, & battery life

(Image credit: Garmin)

Garmin doesn’t advertise processors, but the Venu 4 and X1 have comparable speed in our testing. Likewise, the mic, speakers, flashlight, connectivity standards, and sensors are mostly the same, along with the same five global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).

The first difference is that the Venu 4 offers the same dual-band (L1 + L5 signal) GPS as other top Garmin watches, as well as SatIQ mode, which defaults to GPS-only to save battery but switches to better system(s) if the signal is disrupted. The Venu X1 may be the only Garmin watch this expensive to stick to All-Systems GNSS, likely due to limited space and battery life; it still does quite well for accuracy, but the Venu 4 is a better fit if you often work out in urban canyons or mountain forest regions.

The Garmin Venu X1 on the author's wrist, showing the current battery percentage (49%) and time left (1 day) in AOD mode, along with glances for Weather and Sunset below.

(Image credit: Michael Hicks / Android Central)

Next, the Venu 4 offers ECGs to detect atrial fibrillation issues, while the Venu X1 does not. Again, this has to do with the X1’s unique design, as Garmin’s ECG solution relies on a metal ring and a button design that it was too thin (and square) to accommodate. Keep in mind that no Garmin watches have passive irregular heart rhythm detection; you have to actively check.

The third key difference, of course, is battery life. Depending on whether you choose the Venu 4 41mm or 45mm, it’ll last 2 or 4 days longer than the Venu X1, or 1 or 2 days more with AOD. In terms of workouts, the 45mm Venu 4 is rated to last four hours longer in All-Systems mode, while the 41mm Venu is rated for one hour less.

The gap isn’t as wide as it might have been, as the Venu 3 lasts longer than the Venu 4; the 2,000-nit display boost cuts into its capacity. Still, even if the Venu 4 isn’t as long-lived as the Instinct 3 or Fenix 8, it’s closer to the Garmin standard you’re used to.

Garmin Venu 4 vs. Venu X1: Software and features