Garmin’s newest gadget goals to beat the Apple Watch and rivals at their very own recreation, providing longer battery life and higher health monitoring in a extra conventional touchscreen smartwatch physique.
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The Venu 2 is available in both 40mm or 45mm fashions, prices from £349.99 ($399.99/A$629) and is appropriate with each Android and iPhones connecting by way of Bluetooth.
In contrast to the vast majority of Garmin’s different watches, that are LCD-based and non-touch, the Venu 2 has a slick-looking OLED touchscreen that compares properly with the smartwatch competitors.
The 45mm measurement with a 1.3in display that we examined is shiny and crisp and will be learn simply in most lights, though in direct daylight it’s barely more durable to learn than Garmin’s Forerunner or Fenix watches.
There is a reasonably large bezel across the display however the remainder of the watch’s chrome steel and polymer physique is slim, mild and cozy to put on. It’s clearly a sports activities watch, however one which’s engaging and isn’t garish.
Specs
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Display screen: 1.1 or 1.3in AMOLED
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Case measurement: 40 or 45mm
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Case thickness: 12.1 or 12.2mm
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Band measurement: 18 or 22mm commonplace
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Weight: 38.2 or 49g
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Storage: 2,000 songs or about 7GB
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Water resistance: 50 metres (5ATM)
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Sensors: GPS/Glonass/Galileo, compass, gyro, thermometer, altimeter, coronary heart fee, pulse Ox
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Connectivity: Bluetooth, ANT+, wifi
Sensible-ish
The Venu 2 has a touchscreen and two buttons. The highest button opens sport monitoring from on the watch face after which acts as a cease/begin button for actions and apps. Holding the highest button opens fast settings. On the backside is the again button, which you’ll press and maintain to entry a full settings menu too.
Swiping proper on the watch face brings up fast entry to an app of your selection, which I set as timers however could possibly be alarms, music controls, Garmin Pay or others. Swiping in from the left fringe of the display takes you again to the earlier web page.
It’s all very logical and quick to navigate. The interface is way smoother and extra fluid than different Garmin watches, though not fairly on the similar degree of polish as an Apple Watch.
The Venu 2 is the primary Garmin watch with a brand new, extra highly effective chip that helps the Join IQ 4.0 platform. In idea the platform will enable for extra complicated and highly effective apps, however in the meanwhile third-party apps are primarily watch faces and music providers, together with Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer, downloaded by way of the Join IQ app. The watch has Garmin Pay for contactless funds, however few UK banks assist it.
The watch lacks a microphone so you can’t make calls in your wrist or entry a voice assistant, however no less than there are timers, alarms, the climate forecast, your calendar and different easy issues.
Sports activities monitoring
The Venu 2 has many of the wonderful sport, exercise and health-tracking options of Garmin’s high-end Forerunner operating watches.
These embrace numerous actions comparable to indoor and out of doors strolling, operating and biking, swimming, climbing, varied energy and gymnasium exercises with on-screen guides, golf, snowboarding and lots of others, plus entry to coaching plans with Garmin Coach. Working has the identical wonderful monitoring choices and accuracy because the Forerunner 745, which makes it rather more complete than most smartwatch opponents.
The Garmin will estimate your VO2 Max, which is a standard measure of cardiovascular health, and your “health age” full with suggestions on the right way to cut back it. In order for you a smartwatch that can be a severe sport-tracking watch that is it.
The Venu 2 helps offline music playback with Bluetooth headphones, however lacks out of doors race observe and triathlon modes in addition to mapping knowledge which are a characteristic of the high-end Forerunner 945 or Fenix 6 Professional.
Well being monitoring
On the well being entrance, the watch tracks virtually every part you might need day and night time, together with energy burned, steps, and stair climbs, with motion reminders once you’ve been sedentary and sleep monitoring at night time. It offers fixed coronary heart fee monitoring together with irregular fee alerts, blood oxygen, stress and respiration fee monitoring, amongst different issues.
The watch also can take a “well being snapshot”, which is a two-minute check of your coronary heart, respiration and stress, and has menstrual cycle and being pregnant monitoring. The one factor lacking in comparison with its high-end opponents is an ECG sensor for measuring your coronary heart beat rhythm.
As with different Garmin gadgets the watch collects a mountain of knowledge. Some is viewable on the watch, the remaining is displayed within the Join app in your telephone with easy-to-digest overviews and granular element for those who need to actually dig into it. Among the finest options is Garmin’s “physique battery”, which works out how a lot vitality you’ll possible have at any second with a rating out of 100. It’s a very easy and efficient means of taking a look at your day: sleep and relaxation recharges you, exercise and stress depletes you.
Precise battery
The Venu 2 will last as long as 11 days used as a smartwatch with notifications out of your telephone however with the display not on on a regular basis. Turning on each characteristic, together with all-day blood oxygen monitoring and the always-on display, monitoring sleep and going for a 30-minute run with music reduces the battery life to a nonetheless respectable 58-plus hours, which suggests charging it each third day. Flip off some much less helpful options and it ought to final greater than three days.
A 28 minute run with GPS, music and the display on on a regular basis consumed 5% of the battery, which suggests it ought to simply final a marathon. Word that the 40mm Venu 2S has a barely smaller battery.
Sustainability
The Venu 2 is usually repairable. The battery will keep no less than 90% of its unique capability after two years of use charging about as soon as per week and will be changed by service. The display is roofed in Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass 3, much like a smartphone and the strap is replaceable. The watch doesn’t include any recycled supplies. Garmin ensures no less than two years of safety updates from launch, however sometimes helps its gadgets far longer.
Garmin provides trade-in schemes for some strains and complies with WEEE and different native electronics recycling legal guidelines.
Observations
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Music will routinely sync by way of wifi when the watch is plugged in.
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You’ll be able to join Bluetooth sensors comparable to chest straps to the watch.
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You’ll be able to ship fast replies to message notifications when the watch is linked to an Android telephone, however not an iPhone.
Worth
The Garmin Venu 2 prices from £349.99/$399.99/A$629 and is on the market in both 40mm or 45mm case sizes.
For comparability, the Garmin Forerunner 245 prices from £199, the Forerunner 745 prices £400, the Fenix 6 prices from £429, the Apple Watch Sequence 6 prices from £379, the Fitbit Sense prices £280 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 prices from £349.
Verdict
Garmin is well-known for producing class-leading sports activities watches monitoring each stat underneath the solar, however even high-end variations look utilitarian subsequent to slick smartwatches.
With the Venu 2 the agency has damaged that mould. It’s a slick, engaging smartwatch that provides world-class health options and nonetheless lasts longer than big-name opponents such because the Apple Watch. The one factor lacking is an ECG.
However the Venu 2 will not be as “sensible” as the perfect smartwatches. It can connect with your telephone however solely for easy textual content alerts. There’s no voice assistant and aside from music providers, third-party apps are missing.
The Venu 2 provides a stable different to the Apple Watch, Fitbit Versa or Samsung Galaxy Watch. It’s a slicker Garmin that’s simply sensible sufficient.
Execs: good OLED touchscreen and buttons, no less than 2.5 days’ battery, correct GPS, good coronary heart fee, intensive stats for sport plus complete well being monitoring, offline Spotify, Android, iPhone and PC assist, primary smartwatch options, Garmin Pay, wifi.
Cons: costly, restricted sensible capabilities, no voice assistant, no calls on wrist, no actual third-party apps, no maps, restricted Garmin Pay assist by banks, no ECG.
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