Apple Watch Ultra 2 vs Garmin Venu X1: How does Garmin's latest superpower smartwatch compare with Apple's best?

When Garmin announced the Garmin Venu X1, it was hard not to think it was being squared up against the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

While Garmin had already launched watches like the Fenix E (a cheaper version of the Garmin Fenix 8) that sat in and around the price of Apple’s most feature-rich smartwatch, the Venu X1 is more clearly being positioned as an Ultra rival due to its shape and feature set. It's one of the best Garmin watches to date.

So, which one is the better square smartwatch? I’ve been living with both for two weeks, to tell you if you should go for the Apple Watch Ultra 2 or the Garmin Venu X1.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Price and availability

To get either watch on your wrist, you’re going to have to part with a sizable amount of money. In return for that financial outlay, you’ll get square smartwatches that offer a strong mix of features and performance.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was first launched in 2023, and then Apple released a new Titanium Black version in 2024. At most retailers, it has remained at the same ​​$799 / £799 / AU$1,399 throughout its life so far.

It comes in two finishes and one model option, giving you Bluetooth and cellular connectivity if you want to use it without a huge reliance on your phone being nearby. There is no Bluetooth-only Ultra 2 model: you have to buy the cellular-capable model even if you don’t want to add it to a data plan.

The Garmin Venu X1 officially launched in June 2025, so unsurprisingly still sits at $799.99 / £679 / AU$1,499. Like the Ultra 2, there’s just one model option, and that does not come with that cellular connectivity, which means you’ll need it paired to your phone to make the most of its onboard smartwatch features.

That pricing means these two watches cost roughly the same in the US, with the Venu X1 coming in cheaper in the UK. In Australia, the Ultra 2 costs less than the Venu X1.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Design and display

These are two square smartwatches that take different approaches to delivering those more angular smartwatch looks.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the thicker of the two (14.4mm versus 7.9mm – almost double!) while the Venu X1 is also lighter by roughly 20g.

Both feature titanium in the case designs, with the Watch Ultra 2 offering more of that tough yet lighter-than-stainless-steel metal. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a larger 49mm case compared to the Venu X1’s 46mm one, though the Venu X1 still manages to look pretty big on my skinny wrist. Like the Watch Ultra 2, you get used to it, but the Venu X1 is lighter and slimmer, which helps with the transition.

Apple offers a nicely bright, 1.92-inch liquid retina OLED always-on display, while Garmin has a larger 2-inch AMOLED that, like Apple’s, can be set to stay on at all times. Both displays are top notch, offering vivid colors and good viewing angles. Size difference aside, there’s not a lot to separate them in terms of quality.

When you’re not swiping those screens, Apple offers three physical buttons to Garmin’s two, and I’d say having more buttons on the Ultra 2 makes for a nicer experience interacting with the watch.

While the Garmin has fewer buttons, it does have its own built-in LED flashlight, which sits at the top of the watch case. Apple has its own display-based torch mode, but the Venu X1’s one offers a much stronger source of additional light that does come in handy getting around in the dark if you don’t have your phone to hand.

When you want to take them for a swim, the Watch Ultra 2 has a stronger level of protection against moisture. It’s suitable to be submerged in water up to 100 meters depth and is suitable for recreational diving up to 40 meters depth. The Venu X1 is theoretically good for swimming activities in waters up to 50 meters depth, but isn’t one you’ll want to take with you on a diving expedition.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Features

The Apple Watch is a smartwatch first before anything else which means if you want something to display phone notifications on, handle calls, control and stream music, download third-party apps and simply have you grabbing your smartphone less, it has you well catered for.

While the X1 is undeniably Garmin’s true smartwatch and also boasts plenty of communication features, the Watch Ultra 2 has a few more tricks up its sleeve if you’ve got an iPhone to pair it with. It comes with LTE, which Garmin lacks and makes features like streaming music, taking and making calls easier to do once added to a data plan. Apple also offers more storage than the Venu X1 (64GB vs 32GB), so that’s more room for apps, storing offline music and watch faces.

The Venu X1 is no smartwatch slouch and like other Garmins, does give you the best experience currently on offer from a sports watch brand. Unlike the Ultra, it works with both iPhones and Android phones and serves up largely the same features across both.

That includes displaying notifications with richer support, including pulling through images for Android users. You can sync music from streaming services including Spotify, use it for contactless payments and offers the ability to handle voice calls when paired to your phone over Bluetooth.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Performance

Here we’re going to focus mainly on sports tracking performance, as this is an area where both smartwatches offer a lot.

These rugged smartwatches are built for the outdoors and if you like exploring, then you'll likely find the ability to view maps and have either watch guide you to your destination appealing. Both watches offer full-color maps and they’re free to use. On the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the native mapping support is primarily built around hiking. There are plenty of great apps in the App Store you can download to offer mapping for other activities like runs and rides, such as Komoot, Footpath and AllTrails.

The Venu X1’s native mapping covers far more activities and a much richer array of features centered around navigation. Features like Up Ahead and Garmin’s Climbpro are just two features at your disposal. If you want the richest mapping and navigation support out of the box, Garmin’s watch will give you that.

If you’re turning to them for tracking workouts, whether that’s in the gym or outside, you’re well catered for across both watches. Notable highlights for the Watch Ultra 2 include the inclusion of dual-band GPS, which the Venu X1 lacks. That GPS performed better for us in comparative testing, as we strapped both watches on for the Saucony London 10k, a running race that takes place in central London where there are plenty of tall buildings to wreak havoc on GPS. The Venu X1 is a solid performer in general on this front, but the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a slight advantage for those who value super-accurate GPS.

If you care about heart rate tracking, whether it’s day-to-day, during exercise or on-the-spot readings, both are well-equipped to do that. They deliver reliable daily heart rate tracking and for most exercise, though both struggle at higher intensities. Thankfully, it’s easy to pair one of the best heart rate monitors to both. The Apple has the upper hand for serious heart health tracking, as it also packs in an ECG sensor the Venu X1 somewhat surprisingly lacks, despite packing Garmin’s latest heart rate sensor technology that does unlock it on other watches.

Apple is playing catch up with offering its own sleep tracking, but does give you arguably one of the most motivating approaches to keeping you active during the day in the form of closing your rings.

Garmin has its own array of motivating features on that front, including adaptive step goals, inactivity alerts and animations that lets you know when you’re climbing lots of stairs. While its sleep tracking can be hit-and-miss at times from an accuracy point of view, it offers richer metrics, analysis and factors into recommended recovery time as well as many of its training insights on offer.

When it comes to battery life, the numbers stated by Apple and Garmin tell you that the Garmin will last longer. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 can muster up 36 hours in normal use or 72 hours when you enable its low power mode. The Venu X1 in contrast lasts up to 8 days in smartwatch mode, which drops to 2 days when the screen is kept on. There’s also a battery saver mode that keeps things going for up to 11 days.

While the Watch Ultra 2 does its best to eek out as much battery as possible, the Venu X1 can go longer. Especially if you don’t mind using the raise-to-wake display mode. When putting them to the race test in the best available GPS accuracy modes, the Watch Ultra 2 lost more battery than the Venu X1 with the Garmin in most GPS modes set to get you more tracking time between charges.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Apps

Garmin’s Connect IQ Store offers access to watch faces, apps, data fields and widgets. There’s plenty on offer, some of which is free and some paid-for. You just have to work a bit harder to find the good stuff.

The Apple App Store in contrast has a much stronger emphasis on apps and there’s a rich array of fitness, health, training ones that do a good job of enhancing the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s capabilities. If you’re buying these watches for apps, it’s the Apple you want.

Garmin Venu X1 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Verdict

Inside and outside of the tracking, I’ve enjoyed having both the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Garmin Venu X1 on my wrist.

These are two square smartwatches with contrasting looks and strong color displays..The Apple Watch Ultra 2 can truly compete with sports watches on many fronts including performance, features and insights. The Garmin Venu X1 gives you most of the good stuff that Garmin has to offer in sports tracking and arguably gives you more than Apple in terms of analysis, metrics and insights out of the box.

Apple can fill in some of those gaps through its richer, slicker app store front, which is simply far more polished than Garmin’s storefront. Apple also gives you a far more complete smartwatch experience, whether that’s its watchOS operating system, giving you the option of LTE, or richer notification support. Garmin’s Venu X1 will give you a lot of the same smarts and crucially, unlike the Watch Ultra 2 will do that for both iPhone and Android users.

The way I see it is if you’re an Android user looking for the most Apple Watch Ultra 2-like smartwatch, the Venu X1 is absolutely the closest to it. If you own an iPhone, want the best smartwatch features and can live with less battery life, the Watch Ultra 2 is the one you want. However, if you can live without LTE, a brimming app store and will take more native training, mapping and performance analysis plus notably more battery with or without the display on 24/7, the Venu X1 is well worth taking a look at.