Garmin goes after Apple and Fitbit with the wallet-friendly Venu Sq

When you think of Garmin, you probably think of round fitness watches worn by the kind of people who treat Parkrun like it’s the London Marathon. But its new Venu Sq (£180) is very much a lifestyle smartwatch that wants to compete with the Apple Watch and Fitbit Versas of this world. Keeping track of your daily life like a stat-obsessed Sims character, its Body Battery metric estimates how much gas you’ve got left in the tank, based on numerous measurements. These include the usual suspects such as calories burnt and and steps walked, in addition to blood oxygen monitoring – one of the flagship features of the considerably more expensive Apple Watch Series 6. All this data is viewable on a 1.3in colour display crafted from scratch-proof Corning Gorilla Glass. For an extra £45 the Music Edition comes with in-built storage for those metal-fuelled gym sessions, sans phone. Garmin reckons you can squeeze out six days on a single charge, and up to 14 hours in GPS mode for Ironmen in training. If you’re with one of the few supported banks, like Santander or Revolut, you can also make use of Garmin Pay for contactless payments – handy for Lockdown 2.0. Sound good? Then feel free to head over to Garmin and spec yours out now.

Alpay Dedezade Stuff contributor