Garmin  Venu Sq

I got the Garmin “smart watch” for Christmas. I’ve now had it for a month and am beginning to understand how to use a few of its basic features. I’m an old white guy who is old-time techie (not so much into social media, tweets and the like). The watch itself rates 4 stars but the documentation drops it at least a star. If you cannot use it then it's not worth much. It is hard for me to understand how a company can put so much expense and effort into creating a consumer product and then do such a horrendous job explaining how to use it! After opening the box I read the Quick Start Manual, a small 2” by 5”, 7 page document. The instructions did not indicate whether or not the watch had to be charged first. Pressing the “action button A” to turn on the device did nothing so I plugged it in to charge as I assumed that was the problem. Immediately a triangle appeared. What did that mean? Who knows? Nothing in the document would indicate what any of the many icons mean. After a while I tried button A again and a watch face momentarily appeared. If you move your arm like you want to see the time the watch face comes alive. Scrolling up on the watch face with a finger shows “My Day” and four icons and numbers. The footsteps icon is obvious. The others, not so much. What does a clock icon followed by the number 109 have to do with my day? Another scroll up with a finger and four more icons and numbers appear. The heart icon I guessed is heartbeat. I downloaded the 28 page pdf file hoping that would have better instructions. Sorry, still no illustration or explanation of the icons on the 2 screens I mentioned previously. At this point I was going to return the frustration producing device but decided to give youtube a shot. Success, I found a fairly good tutorial but sadly some of the screens in the tutorial did not match what I saw when I gave the same action as the youtube user. I eventually learned how to track my vitals and route when hiking and biking. The data provided is amazing. The fact that it uses GPS technology means that more accurate data can be collected than via my old Fitbit. I like that it produces a track I can see on a Google map on my phone via the Garmin app I installed. I still don’t understand what some of the data or icons mean. For example, I have yet to figure out if my “Body Battery” is showing me a good or bad number. Or what does the icon that looks like fire indicate? At this point I figured out enough to decide to keep, and use, the Venu Sq. Garmin, if you are listening, please create a video tutorial with a table of contents that links to the listed topics so a customer can understand and see how to access and use the many features included in the Venu Sq. I think it has the potential to be a very good product by people other than those who designed it.

I got the Garmin “smart watch” for Christmas. I’ve now had it for a month and am beginning to understand how to use a few of its basic features. I’m an old white guy who is old-time techie (not so much into social media, tweets and the like). The watch itself rates 4 stars but the documentation drops it at least a star. If you cannot use it then it's not worth much. It is hard for me to understand how a company can put so much expense and effort into creating a consumer product and then do such a horrendous job explaining how to use it! After opening the box I read the Quick Start Manual, a small 2” by 5”, 7 page document. The instructions did not indicate whether or not the watch had to be charged first. Pressing the “action button A” to turn on the device did nothing so I plugged it in to charge as I assumed that was the problem. Immediately a triangle appeared. What did that mean? Who knows? Nothing in the document would indicate what any of the many icons mean. After a while I tried button A again and a watch face momentarily appeared. If you move your arm like you want to see the time the watch face comes alive. Scrolling up on the watch face with a finger shows “My Day” and four icons and numbers. The footsteps icon is obvious. The others, not so much. What does a clock icon followed by the number 109 have to do with my day? Another scroll up with a finger and four more icons and numbers appear. The heart icon I guessed is heartbeat. I downloaded the 28 page pdf file hoping that would have better instructions. Sorry, still no illustration or explanation of the icons on the 2 screens I mentioned previously. At this point I was going to return the frustration producing device but decided to give youtube a shot. Success, I found a fairly good tutorial but sadly some of the screens in the tutorial did not match what I saw when I gave the same action as the youtube user. I eventually learned how to track my vitals and route when hiking and biking. The data provided is amazing. The fact that it uses GPS technology means that more accurate data can be collected than via my old Fitbit. I like that it produces a track I can see on a Google map on my phone via the Garmin app I installed. I still don’t understand what some of the data or icons mean. For example, I have yet to figure out if my “Body Battery” is showing me a good or bad number. Or what does the icon that looks like fire indicate? At this point I figured out enough to decide to keep, and use, the Venu Sq. Garmin, if you are listening, please create a video tutorial with a table of contents that links to the listed topics so a customer can understand and see how to access and use the many features included in the Venu Sq. I think it has the potential to be a very good product by people other than those who designed it.