Garmin Venu 2 Plus in the test: Premium in the right way
RRP $ 449.99
“The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is a premium smartwatch in every way, also in terms of price. But if you consider rock-solid connectivity, a lot of data and control by voice assistants, it deserves its price. "
benefits
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Solid connectivity
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Telephone calls and assistant
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Battery life
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Strong GPS
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Lots of data
disadvantage
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High price
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Unintuitive user interface
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Some services are missing
I think it is very important that we get this review right by saying that I am not the target audience for the Garmin Venu 2 Plus. I'm on the wrong side of 300 pounds and the wrong side of 40, although the former is more likely to disqualify me. My idea of a great workout is to park down the block to go to the donut shop. When Garmin contacted me and asked if I would like to check out their latest smartwatch, of course I took the chance. Well I didn't jump because fat men don't jump, but you get the idea.
I've been using the Garmin Venu 2 Plus for two weeks and while I'm not the ideal Garmin wearer, I can see where this watch is the ideal smartwatch for me. For most of my trial period, I wore the Garmin smartwatch that was paired with a Pixel 6, and also wore an Apple Watch SE that was paired with an iPhone 13 Pro for comparison purposes.
Here are my thoughts.
Design and comfort
Adam Doud / Digital Trends
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a bright and crisp 1.3-inch AMOLED screen that is bright and easy to read in all situations. It's comfortable to wear, even though it's a little thicker. The three buttons on the side are easy to press and provide correct feedback when pressed. Each button has its own function, from starting an activity to entering menus, but new to the Venu series are the microphone and speaker.
The Venu 2 Plus is the first Venu smartwatch that makes and receives calls and controls your phone's assistant.
The Venu 2 Plus is the first Venu smartwatch that makes and receives calls and controls your phone's assistant. This is actually the feature I was looking forward to the most as I use the Google Assistant a lot throughout the day. Also, especially since I picked up the Apple Watch SE, I've gotten used to leaving my phone on my desk when I'm moving around the house and answering calls on my watch.
Using the wizard is similar to most other smartwatches, except that they can be woken up with a command word. The Venu 2 Plus requires you to press and hold the center button for a few seconds to connect. It's a little slower than I'd like (about three seconds), but it's not terrible in any way. Verbal responses play through the watch, just as you would expect when accessing the Google Assistant through a watch or headphones. Overall, it's a seamless experience.
Software and connectivity
What I liked most about the watch is the absolutely solid connectivity. As mentioned earlier, I wore both the Apple Watch SE and Garmin Venu 2 Plus at the same time, and both watches rang simultaneously for notifications each time. I expect this type of connectivity from the Apple Watch. After all, Apple is Apple. But with so many smartwatches and fitness trackers, frequent disconnections can be problematic. It even happens when you wear a Samsung smartwatch with a Samsung phone. But the Garmin stayed connected all the time, even when my phone was a house away.
However, the software of the Venu 2 Plus takes some getting used to. Most smartwatches use gestures in each individual direction for different things. The Garmin mostly sticks up and down, with only occasional swiping movements. The buttons all have different functions and rely on a press or a long press for different functions. I understand that there is only a limited amount of programming possible for three buttons, but even at the end of my two-week trial period I was still not used to all of the functions.
Notifications are extensive and detailed. The only gripe I could make is that the notification icons are limited. Weather, Google Photos, and Vivint Home Security notifications are all shown with the message icon. In fact, the icons that work and don't work are very different. It can get a little confusing trying to find specific messages. Also, some options for responding to messages are not straightforward. For example, when you reply to an e-mail, the phone opens the reply window. Replying to a text message is limited to a few preprogrammed replies.
The Garmin App Store has a decent number of apps and watch faces that mingle with other app stores, including Samsung and Google Play, that far outshines most fitness trackers like Fitbit and Xiaomi. Supported music services include Spotify and Deezer, but it lacks YouTube Music. Unfortunately, that's the service I'm subscribing to. Of course, the app functionality pales in comparison to the Apple Watch, but that would assume that both devices want to serve the same customer, which they aren't.
Health and Fitness Tracking
Before we dive into the fitness tracking aspects of this watch, let's pause to talk about philosophies. Apple certainly puts a lot of emphasis on health tracking and data. However, Garmin did not set out to develop a smartwatch. It should first create a health tracker that happens to work with your smartphone. This can be seen in areas like the Garmin Connect app, which is designed to give you as much data as possible. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus also tracks your heartbeat multiple times per second instead of once per second or even every few minutes.
Sleep data in particular is great information, and unlike the Apple Watch, tracking sleep doesn't cut your battery life by half or more.
I don't have the professional equipment to reliably record some training data (e.g. chest strap, BMI scale, O2 sensors, etc.), but the data I got from the Garmin Smartwatch is valuable. Sleep data in particular is great information, and unlike the Apple Watch, tracking sleep doesn't cut your battery life by half or more. For those who really collect data, the watch can also process inputs for tracking water usage or women's health. These have to be entered manually, of course, but it's nice to have all of this information in one dashboard.
Exercising, which to me means walking around the block, gives you even more data, including a map of your route, speed, average heart rate, climbs, pace, and more. The Apple Watch gives you similar data, both in bed and on the go. Apple even adds other protections like AFib detection and fall detection, both of which are important from a day-to-day safety perspective. Garmin has a feature that detects high-G events (read: falls) while a measured activity is in progress, which notifies emergency contacts if you trip and fall while running. That's nice, but only during measured activities, not all the time.
Performance and battery
Simply put, the battery life is amazing. Garmin advertises with around nine days of battery life, with a full AMOLED display and heart tracking that measures several times per second. The battery is drained when you add GPS and music streaming, but for everyday use this watch just keeps going.
When testing alongside the Apple Watch SE, the difference in battery life was sobering. I had to replenish the SE almost every day. In contrast, I only charged the Garmin watch twice during my two-week trial period. Even before I set up the Apple Watch SE for sleep tracking, it was maxed out for two days before the charger was needed.
Adam Doud / Digital Trends
When I talked to Garmin about my upcoming Disney trip, they asked me to start a hiking activity with full GPS at the beginning of a day in the park and to check the available data at the end of the day. The battery can handle constant GPS contact and aggressive health measurements for an entire day. While this review was being written prior to this vacation, I'll be testing this out.
When I first started using the Apple Watch, I was amazed at how Apple was able to create apps that were so fully featured compared to the rest of the industry. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus offers an equally enlightening experience when it comes to battery life. Even if you turn on the GPS and keep playing music, you still get eight hours. Nothing else I've tested before comes close.
Price and availability
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus will hit the market on January 4, 2022 and can be purchased from Garmin for a fairly high price of $ 450. Garmin is quick to point out that all health monitoring is done without a subscription, which is fine, but Garmin has a legacy of high-priced hardware and the Venu 2 Plus definitely continues that.
Our opinion
Overall, the biggest thing about the Garmin Venu 2 Plus is the price that makes me pause, but that too comes from a man who doesn't work. Still, the battery life is fantastic, the connectivity is hard to beat, and the additional ability to take calls and use a voice assistant really rounds off the package for me. There are cheaper alternatives, and just as the Apple Watch SE taught me that apps are important, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus taught me that battery life is also very important.
From a software standpoint, the Garmin has a steep learning curve, but once you get it, it's easy to use and surprisingly robust. Receiving notifications as soon as they touch and respond to your phone is often not as smooth on devices that are supposed to be a smartwatch first and then a fitness tracker. Garmin really offers a complete package here with very few compromises.
There is no doubt that this is a premium device after a niche clientele. Garmin is number one in the fitness world, even above the Apple Watch, and it's not hard to see why. Not only are you a device dedicated to monitoring your health, with a range of accessories to help you do so, but you also get a fully functional smartwatch that has those basics too. That makes the Venu 2 Plus a compelling product if you have the budget for it.
Adam Doud / Digital Trends
Is there a better alternative?
If you fall into that category of customers Garmin is looking for, no. This is it, with the possible exception of other Garmin offerings. If you're a general smartwatch user, the answer becomes less clear. If you're using an iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 7 is better in many ways, with the notable exception of battery life. In the world of Android, the water is getting murky. The Samsung Watch 4 with Google and Samsung's new version of WearOS is very appealing. Regarding less expensive options, boy, hello, there are options. But none of them will keep up.
How long it will take?
Garmin products are known for their build quality, and I can confirm that with this smartwatch too. The watch has a Gorilla Glass 3 dial and can be worn for swimming up to 5 ATMs or about 50 meters. Garmin products also typically come with a one-year warranty.
Should you buy it?
Yes. The Venu 2 Plus is a fine smartwatch and shouldn't even be a smartwatch. PR talk aside, this is a really nice wearable that gives you a ton of health data and features in a single, admittedly expensive, package. If you are into sports (which some may refer to as something other than "fitness") this watch is a breeze. If you want a smartwatch that will last more than a weekend, you have it. If you're not sure that your next smartphone has the same operating system as your current one, this watch works both ways. Your bank account might not be a huge fan, but you can love a lot here.
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