Garmin venu 4 counts almost double the steps compared to Apple watch
I recently bought a Garmin venu 4 and I have been testing it together with my apple watch.
In general, I really like the venu 4, especially the battery life and Garmin health features. But I noticed one issue that makes me question the step count accuracy.
Over a few days, I tested both watches in different conditions. I wore them on different wrists, then switched them between wrists on another day to make the comparison more balanced. I also made sure my personal information is correct, and every time I changed wrists, I updated the wrist setting on the watches.The problem is that the venu 4 almost always shows much higher step counts than the apple watch.
A few examples:
- After midnight, while sitting on the sofa, I only walked to another room. apple watch showed around 30–40 steps, while the venu 4 showed around 400 steps.
- On a normal workday with not much movement, apple watch showed around 6,000 steps, which was close to what I expected. The venu 4 showed around 13,000 steps.
- I also noticed that some hand movements while sitting can add steps on the venu 4.
I understand that no wrist-based watch is perfect, and some false steps can happen. But almost double the step count feels too much for a watch in this price range. Is there any venu 4 setting I might have missed that could cause this kind of overcounting? Or does this sound more like a defective unit / normal garmin behavior? I would appreciate any advice from other venu 4 users before I decide whether to keep or return it.