Garmin Vivoactive 4 vs. Garmin Venu: Which is better?

By Linus T.
Updated April 2023

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 and Garmin Venu are both great GPS smartwatches featuring some of the best features you can get for health & fitness monitoring from Garmin Singapore. Edge to edge, they look almost identical, only to differ in their display - but that's where all the difference is.

If you're still undecided whether to buy the Garmin Vivoactive 4 vs. Garmin Venu, we'll let you know that it all boils down to aesthetics. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 houses a sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display while the Garmin Venu stands out with its AMOLED display.

That said, which watch should you buy?

On our list

#1 How Are They Similar?

#2 What's The Difference?

#3 Which Should You Choose?

Garmin Vivoactive 4

Everything you need

Offering great value for health and fitness smart features.

Buy on Amazon

Garmin Venu

Crystal-clear display

An upgrade with AMOLED display for vibrant colours & deep blacks.

Buy on Amazon

How Are They Similar?

Garmin Venu vs Garmin Vivoactive 4

Health Tracking

Before diving into the differences, let's first quickly take a look at the main features of the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu. Firstly, both the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu are packed with various health trackers to help you monitor your sleep, stress, activity, heart rate and overall well-being.

One essential feature is the Pulse Ox sensor that helps monitor blood oxygen saturation levels. Together with respiration tracking, which helps monitor how you’re breathing throughout the day and night, you will be able to glean deeper insights into your sleep data. Hydration tracking is also available to allow you to log your daily fluid intake.

Another key feature is the Body Battery™ Energy monitoring that helps you see your energy levels throughout the day by gathering data from all the other sensors in the smartwatch. This will then give you detailed insights in finding the best times for activity and rest based on your energy levels.

Garmin Vivoactive 4

Fitness Features

When it comes to fitness, both the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu are equipped with more than 20 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps — including walking, running, cycling, pool swimming, golf, yoga, and more.

On top of that, one of the new features in both smartwatches are the on-screen, animated workouts which allows you to follow an animated figure as it demonstrates the proper form and technique for workouts covering cardio, strength training, yoga and Pilates. You will also be able to download more workouts on the Garmin Connect app.

Besides the preloaded sports apps and workouts, you can also choose from personalised training plans using Garmin Coach or simply create your own customisable workouts. With all these fitness features, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu has got you covered for all the ways to move.

Garmin Vivoactive 4

General Functions

Lastly, both the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu also come with Garmin Pay, music storage, smart notifications, and safety and tracking features. You also have access to the Connect IQ store to download apps and widgets into your smartwatch.

Now, let's compare these to smartwatches edge to edge.

What's The Difference?

Garmin Vivoactive 4 and Garmin Vivoactive 4s

You'll find a lot more similarities than differences between the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu.

In fact, the only true difference between these two smartwatches lies in the display and size. The Garmin Vivoactive 4 offers a basic transflective display and comes in a size of 45mm. On the other hand, the Garmin Venu offers a gorgeous AMOLED display and has a size of 43mm. One last difference to note that may be the deciding factor for some is the colour choices.

Garmin Venu and Garmin Vivoactive 4

The Garmin Vivoactive 4 comes in two colours - Black/Slate or Grey/Silver, whereas the Garmin Venu carries more options, allowing you to choose from a range of 4 colours - Light Sand/Rose Gold, or Black/Slate, or Blue Granite/Silver, or Black/Gold.

Putting these difference aside, the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu may as well be the same watch.

Which Should You Choose?

Garmin Venu and Garmin Vivoactive 4

At the end of the day, there's really not much to decide on as the Garmin Vivoactive 4 and the Garmin Venu mainly differ in their display and size, unless you have a certain preference for colour.

Though the display may be an important feature for some when getting a smartwatch, most of you will probably be more interested in the health and fitness features they both offer.

As mentioned, this includes the over 20 built-in sports apps, on-screen animated workouts, heart-rate monitoring, Pulse Ox, and many more. With the additional features like built-in GPS, Garmin Pay, music storage, smart notifications and many more, these are two very solid smartwatches from Garmin.

In our opinion, we believe the Garmin Vivoactive 4 is the better of both options due to it's more affordable pricing, even though the AMOLED display on the Garmin Venu is extremely enticing.

That said, if you're willing to invest more for a display with deep blacks and vibrant colours, you'll definitely be attracted to get the Garmin Venu instead.

Regardless of your preferences, one thing's for sure - you'll never go wrong choosing either the Garmin Vivoactive 4 or the Garmin Venu.

If you like to read more on Garmin smartwatches, check out our other relevant guides here:

Garmin Vivosmart 5 vs Garmin Vivosmart 4

Best Garmin Smartwatches in Singapore

Garmin Venu 2 vs Garmin Venu Sq

Garmin Venu 2 vs Garmin Vivoactive 4

Garmin Venu vs Garmin Venu Sq

Garmin Fenix 6 vs Garmin Fenix 7

Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Fenix 7

Garmin Forerunner 955 vs Garmin Epix 2

Explore the full collection for Garmin on Amazon.com or visit the Official Garmin Singapore Store.