The vivoactive 6 is catching as much as the Garmin Venu collection

I’ve been testing Garmin’s Vivoactive and Venu collection for generations, and up to now, every line clearly catered to distinct consumer wants. The Vivoactive line was my go-to advice for budget-conscious athletes. The Venu stood as Garmin’s best choice for a rounded smartwatch expertise. With the discharge of the Garmin Vivoactive 6, nevertheless, the road between the 2 collection feels blurrier than ever, and for the primary time, I’m struggling to tell apart between them clearly.

Midway by means of testing the Vivoactive 6, I spotted that the variations between it and the Venu 3 are far much less clear than I anticipated. The 2 watches every boast an AMOLED show and make the most of predictably comparable design language. Each characteristic modern, light-weight polymer builds, snug, quick-release silicone straps, and 5ATM water resistance. I put on both one with out a second thought of sturdiness or consolation. The Vivoactive 6 is smaller and lighter, with an aluminum bezel as a substitute of a chrome steel one, however I nonetheless discover it a comparatively elegant accent, similar to the Venu 3.

Below the hood, each watches ship over per week of battery life, so I’m by no means left stranded with a useless machine, together with music storage, NFC assist, and entry to Garmin’s Join IQ app retailer. On prime of that, they share almost an identical core well being and health monitoring options. The Venu 3 does embrace a more moderen coronary heart charge sensor and a barometric altimeter, however in my testing, each units proved remarkably correct in comparison with my chest strap.

On each units, customers will discover superior sleep monitoring, SpO2 monitoring, sturdy health monitoring toolkits, and extremely dependable built-in GPS. Every additionally provides Garmin’s full suite of security and monitoring options, Discover My Cellphone and Watch, sleep coach and nap detection, and Garmin-specific favorites like Physique Battery and Morning Report. Briefly, each cowl all of the bases.

This overlap raises issues about product line differentiation and, for me, serves as a knock towards the Venu line. The Vivoactive 6 is priced a lot decrease at $299 however consists of a wide range of options that had been as soon as unique to the Venu collection. The Venu 3, in the meantime, asks consumers to drop $499. That’s a tough promote when the Vivoactive 6 supplies a comparable expertise at a extra accessible value level. The cheaper machine additionally packs in just a few training-specific instruments not discovered on the Venu, like additional sport modes, route and course monitoring, Good Wake, and every day steered strolling exercises.

In fact, that isn’t to say the Vivoactive 6 has every thing consumers could like concerning the Venu. I used to be most dissatisfied to see the ECG app continues to be lacking from the Vivoactive 6 (as a result of older coronary heart charge sensor). There’s additionally the additional button, metallic detailing, and microphone/speaker bundle for voice help and Bluetooth cellphone name assist. But absolutely these variations don’t equate to a $200 markup, do they?

The optimistic spin is that the Vivoactive 6’s characteristic set and proximity to the Venu 3’s choices may spark evolution for the Venu collection. To keep up the road’s premium standing, Garmin must reposition the lineup as a real smartwatch. I, for one, would like to see LTE assist and expanded third-party app integrations. This could make the Venu collection extra aggressive with units just like the Pixel Watch 3 or Apple Watch.

All in all, the Garmin Vivoactive 6 and Venu 3 are each nice watches, however the line between them is getting blurry. Because the Vivoactive retains leveling up, the Venu has to evolve too, not simply in value, however in goal. Garmin doesn’t must scrap both lineup. The corporate simply wants to provide consumers clearer causes to decide on one over the opposite.