IFA 2019: Garmin introduces £299 Venu GPS smartwatch
Garmin has announced Venu, a new GPS smartwatch with an AMOLED screen and battery life of up to 6 days. One of many new wearables launched by Garmin at IFA in Berlin, the Venu boasts a wide range of 24/7 health monitoring features.
These including advanced sleep with pulse ox, new respiration tracking, abnormal heart-rate alerts, menstrual cycle tracking, stress tracking with relax reminders, new hydration tracking, new breathwork activities and more. Innovative Body Battery energy monitoring lets users check energy levels at any given moment, which can help with scheduling workouts, rest times and sleep.
When it’s time to wind down, advanced sleep monitoring estimates light, deep and REM stages of sleep. New respiration tracking measures the number of breaths per minute, and Pulse Ox gauges blood oxygen saturation levels. Together, this data can demonstrate sleep quality, claims Garmin. Upon awakening, users can review their sleep stats in Garmin Connect to see whether they are getting the quality sleep they need to feel rested and recharged the next day.
Furthermore, the Venu features over 20 built-in indoor and outdoor sports apps including Pilates, yoga, running, pool swimming, golf and more. Available in black with gold hardware, light sand with rose gold hardware, granite blue with silver hardware, and black with slate hardware, the watch boasts a 1.2 inch screen. Suggested RRP in the UK and Ireland is between £299 and £329.99 (€349.99 and €379.99) depending on the model.
Says Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales:
“We’re thrilled to announce Garmin’s first smartwatch with an AMOLED display. “Venu breathes life and colour into live watch faces and animated workouts. In keeping with Garmin standards, all of this is achieved without sacrificing battery life.”
Key features
- Notifications: Receive smart notifications for incoming calls, text messages, social media updates, calendar reminders and more. Android users can reply to text messages from the device.
- Music: Download songs or playlists, including those from third-party music services like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer, right to the wrist.
- Safety and tracking: Incident detection (during select activities) and assistance. You can send real-time location to emergency contacts.
- Garmin Pay with Transit: Contactless payment solution lets users leave their cash and cards at home. Garmin Pay can now be used at major transit systems around the world. Users simply tap and pay-per-ride with their watch – no transit card, phone or wallet needed.
- Personalization: Choose from a variety of live watch faces, apps and widgets from the Garmin Connect IQ store app. Users can even upload their own photos and turn them into watch faces.
- Compatibility: Use Venu with almost any smartphone (compatible with Android and Apple devices).
