GARMIN’S first Venu watch was a moderately successful experiment in introducing a touch-sensitive colour screen to a mid-range fitness smartwatch genre that the US company had mostly populated with dimmer, grey, ultra-battery friendly non-touch displays.
The Venu 2 steps things up considerably. It has significantly improved the battery life of the device, as well introducing different size models, new training features and advanced abilities for the display to show you how to exercise properly.
The result is a top notch tool rather than a smartwatch that includes additional fitness and health features.
If you’re after the latter, similarly-priced offerings from Apple, Samsung or even Huawei may be a better choice, for reasons I’ll explain below. But if you’re really looking for something that is an excellent fitness companion and motivator above all else, this beats all of those rivals (with one caveat, also mentioned below) – I’ve little hesitation in regarding it as best in class.
There are now two different sizes. My test model was the larger 45mm version, which is almost the exact same size as other circular smartwatches such as Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 3 or Huawei’s Watch 3. There’s a 40mm version called the Venu 2S, which is aimed at those with small or slender wrists and is styled a little more as a female-targeted device.
While it otherwise has the same features as the larger one, it has slightly lesser battery life. Unlike some rival brands, though, there’s no difference in price between the two models.
The amoled display is bright and vivid and a big leap up from other wearables that Garmin produces.
It comes into its own not just with its visibility and contrast (which make it easy to see on sunny days), but also in the way it shows you things that other watches just don’t do. For example, its post-cycling or running GPS maps are fantastic, as are all of the statistics and charts you can immediately access instead of having to dig them out in your phone’s app.
The animations showing you how to do specific exercises or routines, from weights to yoga, are superb. It even gives you displays of bodily diagrams showing you which muscles you should be feeling the burn on as your workout progresses. This is a really slick, novice-friendly approach that maximises the technology in the display.
The high-end screen does mean that you won’t get the kind of two-week battery life you might on some of Garmin’s other high-end fitness watches, such as the grayscale Fenix models. But battery life is still pretty good, at between four to seven days for me, depending on how often I use GPS or features such as its Spotify music-downloading ability (almost unique among fitness watches). For comparison, that’s well over twice what I’d get on an Apple Watch, even with the optional always-on display feature activated on the Venu 2.
In terms of its looks and design, this is very much styled as a fitness device. Everything is comfortable but tough; there’s less of an aesthetic attempt to pull in general smartwatch customers, like Apple, Samsung and Huawei do.
Like all of its main rivals, the Venu 2 uses its own operating system – almost no popular smartwatches use Android anymore.
Menus are pretty clear and you quickly get used to navigating through things. A very big advantage that the Venu 2 has here is its customisation – you can set up your exercise accessibility here in a way that few other smartwatches let you do
Overall, operation of the watch is controlled by two buttons on the right hand side and its touchscreen. The buttons are fairly intuitive – one is for action while the other is to reverse one step. Both can be long-pressed for more top-level function control.
Most of the rest is by swiping or tapping. Overall, this is a high-quality touchscreen, but in terms of fluency, it’s not quite what you’ll get from the likes of an Apple Watch; there is a little bit of lag and judder on it compared to the silky, frictionless scroll of an Apple Watch. This is somewhat to be expected, though; Garmin is competing on slightly different features, not least of which is longer battery life, to Apple.
In terms of fitness features and programs, this is where Garmin really comes into its own.
Of all the fitness smartwatch companies out there, Garmin is still at the top when it comes to the depth and breadth of fitness and health metrics. You get quite a bit more than the basic running, swimming and biking profiles here.
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As well as recently-introduced activities (such as hiking and indoor climbing), there are specific Hiit profiles for very focused activities and very detailed strength workout guides.
You can pair the Venu 2 to an external sensor, such as a chest strap.
As most smartwatches are now doing, there’s also a range of more general health metrics that seek to tell you whether you’re generally healthy or not. This includes a blood oxygen sensor, stress metrics and health cycles such as menstruation and pregnancy.
There’s also now an enhanced sleep score you can get through its sensors.
One relative advantage that this has over rivals (especially Fitbit) is that you can access a lot more of your progress, results and scores on the watch itself thanks to that fantastic display. Most other devices make you go to the accompanying smartphone app to check in any detail.
The only real feature it’s missing in its health lineup is an ECG sensor, something that both Apple and Samsung make a big deal of. In other words, this won’t tell you quite as accurately or immediately if there’s a potentially acute problem with your heart rate. Instead, there’s a more general ‘low’ and ‘high’ heart rate indication system.
Most of what Garmin senses about your health can be combined in what Garmin calls a ‘health snapshot’, a two-minute wrist reading that sums up the vital statistics gathered from your body.
In terms of other smartwatch features, the Venu 2 shines in some ways and lags in others.
It has the huge advantage that many Garmin smartwatches have of being able to fully download music tracks, playlists and podcasts from three of the four biggest services – Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer. This ability, which most rivals don’t have, effectively means that you can go on a walk or run and leave your phone at home while still listening to your tunes or podcast. (If only they’d add Audible, Garmin would blow the competition away for entertainment.)
On the other hand, there’s no speaker or microphone here, meaning that you can’t take a quick call or use it for any smart voice controls. Furthermore, if you’re using it with an iPhone, you won’t be able to respond to messages on it; you’ll only be able to see them. (This isn’t the case on Android phones.)
And while there’s a wireless payment system on board (Garmin Pay) it naturally doesn’t work with any of the main Irish banks, unlike both Apple Pay and Google Pay.
However, it will work for you if you have a Revolut or KBC account.
Other drawbacks? Other than the lack of a microphone and speaker, the price is very much on the premium side.
But overall, if it’s something you want as an exercise or fitness accessory, this is one of the best things on the market you can buy. If you’re a fitness novice who likes full-colour touchscreens, it’s easily the best thing you can buy.
