Garmin Venu 2 review: sports and style

Within the nice pantheon of devices we connect to our wrists, two classes have jumped to the entrance: smartwatches and sports activities watches. Smartwatches are glossy and extra for the day-to-day, however they sometimes endure horrible battery life. Sports activities watches are harder, longer-lasting, and, properly, sportier, however they are usually massive, cumbersome, and ugly. The Garmin Venu 2 is an try to shut the hole between the 2 product classes — and whereas it isn’t excellent, it’s the closest anybody has come but.

Let’s begin with the physique. There are two sizes to select from. The usual Venu 2 is available in at 45mm (1.77 inches), and the Venu 2S is 40mm (1.58 inches). Each watches price the identical $400 and are successfully similar, however the 2S has a barely smaller display (1.1 inches versus 1.3 inches) and a nominally shorter battery life. I assumed the common Venu 2 regarded good on me, however smaller-wristed folks ought to go for the S. Proper up entrance, the watches have a vibrant and colourful OLED touchscreen. It’s sharp and clear, and I used to be in a position to clearly learn it even in vibrant, direct daylight whereas working.

There are solely two bodily buttons, each on the precise facet of the watch. The highest button is the exercise begin / cease button, and long-pressing will get you proper to you a circle of shortcuts for settings and apps. The underside button is the again button, but it surely additionally doubles as a handbook lap / set set off, and long-pressing will get you into your settings.

The remainder of the UI is navigated by contact, and it truly doesn’t suck! That will sound like a low bar to clear, however the overwhelming majority of smartwatch person interfaces are objectively terrible. In distinction, Garmin’s is easy and intuitive. It borrows closely from its sports activities watches just like the Fenix 6 and the Enduro — together with its wonderful widgets that present simply sufficient information — you simply navigate it with a touchscreen now.

The watch itself is unassuming and engaging. It’s low-profile sufficient that it doesn’t catch on sleeves, and you possibly can even get away with carrying it for formal events. Altering straps is fast and straightforward; there are many elegant leather-based kind choices along with the everyday workout-focused straps.

Happily, it’s outdoorsier than it appears to be like. Along with being waterproof to five atmospheres (about 164 ft), it has mainly each sensor you possibly can need, together with: GPS and GLONASS for satellite tv for pc positioning, a barometric altimeter for elevation, a compass for positioning, a gyroscope and accelerometer for movement monitoring, a thermometer, ambient gentle sensor, a coronary heart price monitor, and pulse oximeter. All of these work very properly. The center price monitor and pulse oximeter symbolize the primary use of Garmin’s new Elevate V4 sensor suite, which has upgraded infrared sensors (in addition to extra sensors) for higher accuracy. It tracked my runs and hikes precisely, and the center price monitor was virtually as correct because the chest strap I wore (the Wahoo Tickr, which additionally has been wonderful in my testing).

On the smartwatch facet, the Venu 2 checks a lot of the packing containers, although there’s nothing significantly revolutionary about it. It shows notifications out of your smartphone, be it Android or iOS. Should you’re utilizing Android (I used to be testing with my trusty Google Pixel 5), you possibly can quick-reply to textual content messages and different notifications (you possibly can program your personal quick-replies through the app), which is helpful when a Sure / No / ”Name you again in a bit” will do. This works positive with texts, however after I tried this with Gmail messages, the replies by no means truly went via, regardless of it saying it had been despatched on the watch display. For what it’s price, Apple would like you purchase the Apple Watch, so it doesn’t help you reply to textual content messages through any third-party watch, which is annoying.

The Venu 2 has an NFC radio and Garmin Pay, which lets you retailer bank card information on the watch and faucet to pay if you’re with out your telephone / pockets. It may well additionally retailer music (there’s sufficient storage for as much as 650 songs) and pair instantly with Bluetooth earbuds. Getting the watch arrange with Spotify was a little bit of a ache, however as soon as that was completed, I used to be in a position to rapidly obtain an entire playlist and head out sans telephone.

Whereas most smartwatches prime out round a day of battery life (possibly two in the event you’re conservative), the Venu 2 boasts 11 days of battery life in smartwatch mode (10 days for the Venu 2S), which is great. Clearly, utilizing the GPS for exercise monitoring will take a very good chew out of that, and I all the time did a mixture of each, however even with logging all of my GPS exercises, the battery by no means lasted lower than eight days between costs. That finally ends up being an enormous deal in your 24 / 7 well being monitoring metrics. The Venu 2 has very detailed sleep monitoring, in addition to coronary heart price, respiration price, and extra, and it’s very nice to get a week-plus of uninterrupted measurements with out having to fret about taking it off to cost.

It’s price noting that there are some smartwatch options the Venu 2 doesn’t have, which might be inventory on one thing like Apple Watches or Google’s Put on OS. It doesn’t have any type of voice assistant in-built. In reality, it doesn’t also have a mic or a speaker, so there aren’t any voice calls or voice instructions. There are a whole lot of customizable watchfaces to select from, and it will probably show your upcoming calendar occasions, however you possibly can’t add or edit occasions from the watch. Mainly, it’s smart-ish, however there are sacrifices.

On the sports activities watch facet, there are about 30 actions you possibly can select from, together with working, strolling, climbing, pool swim, energy coaching, snowboarding, snowboarding, and others, but it surely doesn’t come wherever near the choices from most devoted sports activities watches, together with the Garmin Enduro or Fenix 6. For instance, there isn’t any choice for path working, open water swimming, or browsing (that are a few of my most typical exercises), and there isn’t actually a very good cause why. The Venu 2 has all the required sensors, and it has loads of storage for these tiny apps.

The Venu 2 additionally lacks not solely maps however even a easy track-back function for runs and hikes that can assist you discover your method again to your start line, one thing I sorely missed after I acquired misplaced on a run and ended up straining my knee whereas discovering my method again. It does have a “Again to Begin” function, however that simply tells you your distance again to your beginning place and has an arrow to level you within the (allegedly) proper route. In follow, it’s primarily ineffective. As a result of it doesn’t show the trail you took, the arrow would regularly lead me down dead-end streets. Typically, it pointed within the precise wrong way of the place I began, though the space was constant. This leads you to play colder / hotter as you’re looking for your method again. It’s simply unhealthy.

These are some massive omissions in my ebook, and it looks like Garmin solely made these decisions as a result of it doesn’t need to cannibalize its gross sales of its higher-end sports activities watches, which is extraordinarily disappointing. This watch might appeal to way more folks if it simply included extra apps. For me, the shortage of my favourite exercises could be a deal-breaker, however that begs the query: who is that this watch actually supposed for? It contains issues like treadmill, indoor rowing, yoga, Pilates, stair stepper, and indoor climbing, however not kayaking or mountain biking. The watch additionally has downloadable HIIT and energy coaching exercises with a muscle map to point out you what you’re going to work, intelligent animations to information you, and automated rep counting, however there isn’t any try at out of doors route-finding or navigation.

It looks like this watch is extra aimed for metropolis folks slightly than those that need to get out within the filth. Garmin successfully confirmed that to me, saying the Venu 2 was designed for extra of an “energetic way of life” versus an journey / out of doors buyer in thoughts.

Should you have a look at the checklist of actions and also you see that all your favorites are coated, then this watch is liable to be a superb exercise companion for you. The good options are good, the battery life is unbelievable, and the exercise monitoring is very correct.

However in the event you, like me, choose to get your train out in nature, then it’s price shelling out the additional cash for a Fenix 6. It’s an actual disgrace as a result of this watch might have been nice for each, and it could be a greater match for a lot extra folks if it simply had extra exercise choices. We’ll replace this overview if Garmin has a change of coronary heart and fixes that with a software program replace, however I wouldn’t maintain your meticulously tracked breath.

Images by Brent Rose for The Verge