Garmin Venu 4

The Venu 4 is Garmin's lifestyle-first smartwatch, and this generation looks more premium. A stainless steel case and bezel replace the Venu 3's plastic. With AMOLED touchscreens in 41mm and 45mm sizes, it is clearly meant to work as an everyday watch as well as a fitness tracker.

It suits people who want serious health tracking in something that looks good away from the gym. New tools such as Health Status and Lifestyle Logging point to a focus on wellbeing rather than hardcore training. A built-in flashlight is also a practical addition for anyone who walks, runs or commutes in the dark.

It is not aimed at navigation-heavy outdoor users or those who prioritise maximum battery life. Garmin's more performance-focused watches remain the better fit there.

On paper, the Venu 4 is a solid step up in materials and features. The trade-offs are real, though, and some of the supplied information is too limited to support a fully confident verdict.

• Design and build: Moving to stainless steel is a welcome upgrade that should make the watch feel more premium. Offering two sizes, both with AMOLED displays, should suit a wider range of wrists.
• Health and training: Health Status and Lifestyle Logging extend Garmin's wellness tracking. One review also reports that it adds multi-band GPS, Training Readiness and Training Status. If accurate, that makes it noticeably more credible for runners, but this comes from a single source.
• Navigation: There are only breadcrumb trails, with no full-colour maps. That is a clear limitation for trail and hiking use.
• Battery: Battery life is reportedly a step back from the Venu 3 and trails Garmin's premium sports watches. Reported GPS battery figures also vary between sources, so real-world endurance is hard to pin down.
• Controls and connectivity: The two-button layout leans partly on the touchscreen, which may be less convenient mid-workout than the five-button Forerunner models. One review also reports no LTE option.
• Value: It costs more than the Venu 3, but we have no confirmed price. That makes it impossible to judge value with confidence.

Overall, the Venu 4 looks like a well-built, feature-rich lifestyle smartwatch with useful additions. Weaker battery life, basic navigation and a higher cost keep it from a higher score until pricing and real-world endurance are clearer.