Garmin dominates the sports and fitness niche with its solid GPS navigation capabilities, powerful sensors, and cutting-edge ‘First Beat Analytics’ algorithm. However, the company was slow to adapt to lifestyle features, and it doesn’t come as a surprise that you won’t find Music storage and streaming capabilities on all Garmin watches. The result, Garmin watch owners would probably have to haul a giant smartphone when out for a run.
For long, the fans have berated the company for its lack of music players and storage. Garmin responded by releasing a Music version for many of its flagship devices. You might have come across the names like Garmin Venu SQ Music, Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music, and Garmin Forerunner 245 Music. Thankfully, the latest wearables by the company have music storage build-in, and if it wants to stay relevant in the sports and fitness niche, this feature is an absolute must.
Whether you own a Garmin watch and planning to upgrade to the one with Music support or this is your first Garmin watch to be, this post is going to be a great help. I promise. No more you would have to carry around that smartphone with you, as the Garmin watches in this roundup offer the ability to play music straight from the wrist. You can upload songs from your pc or laptop and can even download playlists from popular streaming apps like Spotify, Deezer & Amazon Music.
So without further ado, let’ start off with our first Watch in this comprehensive roundup of the best Garmin smartwatches with music support.
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Table of Contents
Top 5 Garmin Watches with Music in 2022
Garmin Venu 2/2S: AMOLED Display
Key Features:
- 2,000 songs, Plus Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio
- 8 hours of music with GPS
- Offline playback supported
- Multiple Sizes and Colors
- Light-Weight, Durable Smartwatch
- AMOLED Display
- Garmin Pay
- Pulse Oximeter, New 4th Gen Elevate Sensor
- On board GPS with GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems
- Week-Long Battery Life
Two Minute Review:
Released in 2021, Garmin Venu 2 is a worthy successor of the original Venu. Like its predecessor, it is a full AMOLED display watch with Music Storage & Garmin Pay. While these smarts aren’t new by any means in smartwatches (Apple and Samsung have included similar features years ago in their wearables), for Garmin this is new territory. The company has for long been overlooked them in favor of practical sports features like an accurate GPS, Heart Rate, and Sports tracking.
In the music department, both variants (Garmin Venu 2/2S) have enough storage for up to 2000 songs. The company has also included offline syncing support for popular music streaming platforms. You can sync your playlists from Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. The watch has no speaker whatsoever, but it allows you to connect to earbuds via Bluetooth. Come hell or high water, you would always have access to your favorite songs.
In addition to this, the watch allows you to make contactless payments although the support for Garmin Pay is limited when compared to Apple Pay & Google pay. If you live in North America or Europe, there is nothing to worry about.
Sports and fitness tracking is Garmin’s key strength, and none of its watches would disappoint in this department. You would get a comprehensive list of tracked sports on Venu 2 with HIIT being the most advanced (the metrics are detailed with data presented in an intuitive format). The user interface is refined to give it a refreshing look, and there are onboard animations for several workouts (helpful for beginners).
Garmin watches usually last for 3 days or more, but in Venu 2, the company has pushed the extremes. You get about 2 weeks of battery backup on standard more. But if you turn on the battery hogs like GPS and music playback, the watch is going to make it to 8 hours.
Pros:
- Crisp AMOLED Display
- Long Battery Life
- Music Storage, Garmin Pay
- Two Sizes, multiple finishes
Cons:
- Hefty Price Tag
Garmin Forerunner 245 Music:
Key Features:
- 500 songs
- Spotify support and offline syncing (Premium required) (Plus, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio)
- 6+ hours of GPS with music
- Offline playback supported
- Garmin Pay
Two Minute Review:
The Forerunner series is Garmin’s most popular lineup for athletes(especially runners), and the majority of the Forerunner models come with built-in music support. Most of the watches have a base model, and the one with music support usually costs $50 extra.
Forerunner 245 Music doesn’t just allow you to control your music on the smartphone but has 3.5 storage onboard to support offline playback. You can install playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music, and other music streaming platform, or can stream them right on your wrist if the watch is connected to a Wi-fi connection.
Unlike Venu 2, FR245 Music has a limited 3.5GB capacity that is enough for roughly 400-500 songs and podcasts. You can connect the watch to your PC for fast transfer of music, or you can sync music from your smartphone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
As the watch doesn’t support a touch screen, all the navigation is handled through physical buttons. The bottom button on the side of the watch gives you quick access to music controls. You can skip through tracks and change playlists.
Apart from music, the watch is a great health and fitness tracker. There are tons of built-in workouts, and you can always download third-party apps from Connect IQ store.
Some of the major sports and health features include:
- Advanced Sleep Tracking
- Menstural Tracking
- Training Effect, Training Load, and recovery time
- HRV and VO2 Max data
- PacePro feature
- Body battery feature
- Running Dynamics
- Pulse Ox Sensor (Blood Saturation data)
Apart from that, the GPS tracking on the Forerunner 245 is top-notch. It locks the GPS signals quite effortlessly and does accurate tracking.
Overall, the watch strikes the right balance of health, sports and music capabilities. Though it is pretty large for a small wrist, the lightweight design makes up for it.
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Key Features and Specs:
- 500 songs
- Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio
- 5 hours of music with GPS
- Offline playback supported
- CONTROLS SMARTPHONE MUSIC
- Weighs only 39g
Two Minute Review:
Vivoactive 3 combines music, notifications, and Garmin Pay with a diverse range of sports monitoring features as well as many specialized modes – however, entry-level feedback is all you get.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music is the finest mid-range smartwatch for music lovers. It, too, has 3.5 GB of storage to keep your favorite songs on. For phone-free listening on this smartwatch, you can store up to 500 songs on the watch.
The Garmin Vivoactive 3 can be synced with your computer using Garmin Express, which makes the music transfer process simple and quick. Alternatively, you can sync music over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
It can last up to seven days if it is not connected to a phone and has the battery set to smartwatch mode. The battery lasts five hours if the GPS and Bluetooth are both turned on.
The GPS precision is comparable to that of any other Garmin watch, and the Vivoactive 3 typically finds GPS signals in less than 10 seconds. However, the accuracy can be a little off when compared to the high-end Fenix Series.
Apart from music and GPS accuracy, the watch has many exciting features to offer:
- Touchscreen interface
- VO2 Max, Heart rate variability (HRV)
- 15 Preload workouts
- Stress and sleep tracking
- Women’s health tracking
- Incident detection
- Auto activity tracking
- Training Record, Intensity Minutes and much more
- Garmin Connect Support
Many functions, such as automatic activity tracking, can be toggled on and off. The Watch does include a heart rate monitor, but if you need high accuracy, you can pair third-party straps with the watch.
You need not worry about the durability, as it offers 5 ATM water resistance and rugged construction. This is at the top of a week-long battery makes it a good choice for entry-level athletes.
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Key Features and Specs:
- 500 songs
- Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio
- 4-6 hours of music with GPS
- Offline playback supported
- Controls Smartphone Music
- Square design
- Suitable For small wrists
Two Minute Review:
Venu SQ Music is Garmin’s top affordable smartwatch with music support. It apes the Apple watch in design with its square casing. With Venu SQ, Garmin packed all the popular features of the original Venu into a budget-friendly watch. Of course, there are trade-offs. the watch lacks an AMOLED display and Garmin Pay support.
It is a water-resistant watch with Gorilla Glass 3 and an aluminum bezel. You can keep track of your underwater activities thanks to its 5 ATM waterproofing.
Like the other two Garmin watches, Venu SQ does not require a smartphone to listen to songs. It comes with the same 3.5 GB of music storage which is enough to store over 500 tracks.
There is no mic or speaker to attend calls (considering it is competing with the likes of Apple and Fitbit). Also, there is no NFC support to make contactless payments. So the smart features are limited to notification alerts and just that.
On the other hand, Garmin has equipped it with the same health features as its premium chunky watches. There is heart rate tracking; sleep and stress monitoring; and Hydration and Respiration Tracking too.
There are about 20 preloaded GPS workouts that are a decent mix of indoor and outdoor sports. GPS accuracy is what you expect of a company that was founded on its prowess in satellite navigation. The signals lock pretty fast and overall tracking is in line with that of Garmin Venu and Fenix Series.
The Venu Sq smartwatch gives you up to 6 days of battery life when in the smartwatch mode, and 14 hours when in GPS mode. That is enough time to track your activities without charging your watch every day.
Garmin Fenix 6 Pro:
Key Features and Specs:
- 3000 songs
- Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, iHeartRadio
- 10 hours of GPS with music, 36 hours without music
- Offline playback supported
- Advanced sports tracking
- Week long battery life
- Rugged Smartwatch
Two Minute Review:
Fenix 6 series is the high-end watch series by Garmin, aimed both at men and women with its multiple sizes (Fenix 6S and 6S pro are for small wrists) The watch is defined by its prowess in sports and health tracking and a rugged exterior for durability. The watch is military-grade tested for shock and thermal resistance and is rated 10 ATM (approx 100m underwater) for protection against water ingression.
The Fenix 6 boasts a variety of music functions, including 3,000 song storage (32 GB of solid built-in memory) and full support for Spotify and other music apps. However, if you want to use Spotify or another streaming service like it (in the U.S., at least), make sure you get the Pro or Sapphire versions (the latter is more expensive).
Garmin has purposefully not included the touchscreen display or the fancy AMOLED screen on the watch. As far sports is concerned these features are mere bells and whistles as all the navigation is done through buttons and transflective LCD display is more visible in direct sunlight.
This is by far the best outdoor and sports watch you can find in the market. Whether you are a pro athlete or not, this watch has something for everyone with a wide range of modes, metrics, and settings to meet all kinds of sports tracking requirements.
It records everything from trail running to skydiving, and it’s compatible with a wide range of external sensors. However, the degree of data you get for running impresses us the most, with VO2 Max recovery figures, training data, and even insights into your running form.
Another important feature to consider is the marathon battery life, probably the reason the watch is so expensive. Roughly speaking, the watch can last more than 10 hours with music and GPS tracking running in the background and about 36 hours without the playback.
- Animated workout
- Wrist-Based heart rate, blood oxygen
- Body Battery energy monitor
- Advanced sleep monitoring
- Performance metrics
- PacePro
- Golf tracking features
- ABC sensor
- Respiration tracking
- TOPO maps
- Safety tracking and much more.
The Garmin Fenix 6 pro is a pricey smartwatch, and if you can fork out the extra dollars, I would highly suggest you purchase it. This is an ideal smartwatch for any sportsman, expert, adventurer, hiker, or runner.