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Like Body Battery, the stress score has also been overhauled to be more sensitive and insightful. You can easily see spikes in stress throughout the day, and this isn’t just limited to the physiological demands of moving about. The voice features here aren't groundbreaking in smartwatch terms, but they have been well integrated at least. The smart assistant control felt the most useful of those new features, but if you like the idea of handling calls like you can on an Apple Watch, Fitbit smartwatch or Wear OS smartwatch over Bluetooth, then you'll be happy here. It's not crammed with serious health features, but we found continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen, and stress features useful to have and largely reliable too. We’ve updated our intensity minutes feature to give you a better idea of when during the day you earned them and during what activity. You can even view them as a data field during timed activities. Find new ways to keep your body moving with more than 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, including walking, running, cycling, HIIT, swimming, golf
From durable Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 to the sleek stainless steel bezel and comfortable silicone band, this smartwatch is ready for anything. Use preloaded workouts that include cardio, yoga, strength, HIIT and Pilates, create your own in the Garmin Connect™ app on your compatible smartphone, or try Garmin Coach free adaptive training plans to help you prepare for your next running challengeThe Venu 2 now comes in two sizes: 45mm and 40mm – and it’s the larger device we’ve tested here. Unlike the Apple Watch, both sizes retail for the same . And if you’re looking for something much more focused on running performance and recovery then you’d need to look at the Garmin Forerunner 245, which has been updated with the new sleep, Body Battery, and Stress algorithms but also shows metrics such as VO2 Max, Training Effect, Training Load and recovery hours.
Silicone bands are the most affordable and practical choice for anyone who enjoys outdoor adventures or regular exercise. These straps are lightweight, water resistant and extremely durable, making them ideal for activities such as swimming, cycling and running. Silicone is perfect. Incredible products for the smartwatch Outside of that voice support though, the Venu 2 and the Venu 2 Plus are level-pegged. You're getting Garmin Pay, a music player with room for up to 650 songs and support for streaming services like Spotify, the ability to view notifications and respond to them when paired to Android phones, and finally, get access to Garmin's Connect IQ store. It supports 42,000 courses worldwide, but these need to be manually searched and sent to the watch from within Garmin Connect, which adds a little faff before you play. Overall, as a smartwatch, the Garmin offers a solid if clunky experience. As a smartwatch alone it’s not comparable to the Apple Watch in terms of usability (although it excels on battery life), but it’s as good as any Wear OS smartwatch, or the likes of the Amazfit GTS 2 and Huawei Watch GT2 – albeit twice the price. Battery Log your daily fluid intake as a reminder to stay hydrated. You can even have an auto goal for hydration that adjusts based on how much you sweat during activities.They're easy to follow and if you like the idea of turning to your watch for some Pilates and Yoga action, this is a good way to start. The round case houses an AMOLED display, with a 416x416 pixel resolution (45mm) and the Venu 2S has a 360x360. It’s crisp and easy to read, albeit there’s nothing in the OS that’s particularly visually arresting. The watch face selection is particularly dull, and the selection on Garmin Connect IQ isn’t much better. The watch constantly samples your heart rate2 and will alert you if it stays too high or too low while you’re at rest. It also helps gauge how hard you work during activities — even while swimming. From a sport, fitness and wellness point of view, everything you get on the Venu 2 Plus is on the Venu 2. The Garmin Venu 2 and 2S are some of the best Android smartwatches on the market. These smartwatches might be expensive, but they're full of features that deliver a well-rounded wearable experience. Now that the new Garmin Venu 2 Plus is available, you can take that experience to the next level with voice assistants and Bluetooth calling. Regardless of which watch you prefer, one part of the experience is finding a watch band that works for you.
This feature uses chronological age, your weekly vigorous activity, resting heart rate and BMI or body fat percentage4 to estimate if your body is younger or older than you are. And you can get tips to lower your fitness age. Of course, the app is still busy and it’s often hard to find what you’re looking for. The Challenges section isn’t particularly arresting, and you can compete for badges with any friends on Garmin Connect. And then the Calendar and News Feed seem to be placed to find particular workouts from the past – again, they’re barely used by us. Get a personal running coach on your wrist, for free, to help you train for your next 5K, 10K or half-marathon. With the Venu 2, you're looking at up to 11 days in smartwatch mode, but the same 8 hours of GPS battery life. However, we like the feature and the advice for reducing Fitness Age and we feel many people will find it motivating.
Fitness Watch with a High-quality Case and Advanced Smart Functions
The Venu 2 Plus pretty much mirrors the Venu 2 in our eyes. It excels in the same areas as a running watch and for something to turn to for swims, cycles, hikes, and some indoor workouts too. Venu straps are built to last a long time. It is made from a high quality silicone rubber that is resistant to wear and tear. This means that it will not deteriorate over time, even with regular use. Functionality On the wellness monitoring front, you've got Garmin's Body Battery energy monitor we think works as a useful guide to tell you how much you have in the tank (both on the watch and the app) to take on a physically demanding day. The experience of taking calls doesn't feel radically different from doing something similar with a Wear OS smartwatch or an Apple Watch, but it worked without any issues. Much like the Fitbit Sense, the Venu 2 plays its hand extremely well as a fitness watch. However, as a daily smartwatch, it doesn’t excel, and this is where the Apple Watch is still lightyears ahead.
That doesn't seem to change on the Plus as it tended to record around an hour extra of sleep time compared to a Fitbit Charge 5 and Oura Ring. Another new feature on Venu 2 – this is something perhaps aimed at more general users, rather than “prosumer” athletes. The Fitness Age takes your stats and fitness data from workouts and predicts a fitness age. However, it does take time to work out, and this is something that benefits from nearly a month of solid use. You've got access to Garmin Coach, to follow adaptable training plans for 5k, 10k, and half marathons and you'll see insights like VO2 Max and Fitness Age to give you a better, more reliable view of your current state of fitness.Stainless steel straps for your smartwatch also provide a sleek and modern look, making them ideal for those who prefer a modern and sporty look. Rubber straps for your smartwatch. Log a 2-minute session to record key stats, including heart rate2, heart rate variability, Pulse Ox3, respiration and stress. Then generate a report with those stats via the Garmin Connect™ app on your compatible smartphone to share. Despite the difference in case sizes, Garmin has managed to plant on the same 1.3-inch, 416 x 416 AMOLED touchscreen display, which in our testing time offers much the same in terms of responsiveness, brightness and overall quality. Both can be used in always-on modes too, which will see a drop in battery performance.
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