Garmin Venu 2 Plus review: More tempting (and expensive) than ever

Garmin has always catered to important athletes eager to pay a premium for an accurate health smartwatch, with a great deal of buttons, sturdy monitoring software program program, and tons of battery life. Each has its private space of curiosity: the Forerunner 945 LTE caters to runners with its full-color maps and LTE, whereas the rugged Garmin Fenix 6 has 10 ATM and upgraded GPS for hikers.

Then you should have closing 12 months’s Garmin Venu 2, which defied categorization a bit. Its engaging AMOLED present and stainless steel bezel, 11-day battery life, and music storage made it an actual pleasure to utilize. However in the long term, it was a $400 plastic watch, competing with lifestyle watches in worth with out requirements like cellular calling or voice assistant entry. Enter the Garmin Venu 2 Plus, which supplies you these cellular perks, plus some new choices like animated on-screen HIIT workout routines.

An accurate Garmin lifestyle watch, the Venu 2 Plus presents you an analogous ultra-bright AMOLED present as a result of the Venu 2, however as well as the similar plastic actually really feel. Weighed in the direction of the alternative nice Garmin watches or commonplace lifestyle producers like Samsung and Apple, it’s solely probably the most appropriate selection for a very specific space of curiosity of well being freak. We’ll support you identify within the occasion you match the bill or must look elsewhere.

The brand new Garmin Venu 2 Plus retails for $450/£400, a small worth improve on the distinctive Venu 2. Introduced all through CES 2022, the Venu 2 Plus launched worldwide on January 4, 2022.

It’s accessible in three colors: Slate with Black band, Silver with Grey band, and Mild Gold with Ivory band. All three use customary 20mm silicone watch bands, which suggests you probably can swap them out if compulsory.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus: What you could love

My colleague’s Venu 2 evaluate sums up numerous what makes the Venu 2 Plus such a pleasure to utilize, given every have very comparable choices and software program program. The colourful show display screen seems to be like vibrant open air, the place most others are washed out and barely seen. Plus, as you probably can see above, the Venu sequence’ AMOLED exhibits lets you add a custom-made watch face with any image as your background, together with a shocking little little bit of attraction and personalization that the alternative Garmins can’t match.

Button navigation makes the Venu 2 (Plus) UI easy to navigate whereas exercising, with the touchscreen as a backup for calmer moments. Each watches observe your coronary coronary heart cost, respiration, SpO2, altitude, sleep patterns, well being age, and stress. And due to built-in music storage and onboard GPS, you probably can take pleasure in some Spotify train beats in your wi-fi earbuds with out a phone on you.

In fact, that closing stage just isn’t as attention-grabbing with the Venu 2 Plus, on account of its key enhance is a built-in mic for answering phone calls or asking Google Assistant or Siri some questions. So you could largely want to take care of your phone with you, even when it can carry out by itself.

The completely different useful Plus-specific addition is a third button between the two nav buttons. With it, you probably can configure two separate shortcuts activated by a quick or prolonged press, resembling accessing music controls, stopwatch, Garmin Pay, or your phone’s Assistant. Most settings and apps are too arduous to entry shortly all through a train, so it’s useful to resolve on these you need most.

Due to the 5 ATM water resistance, Gorilla Glass 3 present, and fairly lightweight design, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus will work for a variety of sports activities actions modes. However in my experience, it’s the excellent match for regular well being membership rats or athletes who must do some important indoor vitality or cross-training.

Garmin affords dozens of workout routines with over 1,600 potential practice varieties by the use of the Garmin Join app, from self-guided workout routines to reps that require well being membership instruments.

You choose pre-made Garmin workout routines of varied ranges of depth (or design your particular person workout routines) and add them to your watch. Then you definitely merely select the HIIT (Excessive-Depth Interval Coaching) mode, select your train, and get to work. Right here’s the place it is going to get thrilling: if you happen to have no idea tips about easy methods to do a particular practice, faucet it and you will note an animated gif of tips about easy methods to full it accurately. It’ll forestall some Googling and get you correct into the train.

You’ll create your train with specific intervals and rest durations and use utterly completely different HIIT timers like AMRAP, EMOM, or Tabata. When you’ve received completed your routine, you probably can confirm your train profile on the watch to see which muscle tissues you labored out. That strategy, you could uncover within the occasion you’ve been neglecting a particular part of your physique. And also you probably can confirm depth minutes primarily based totally on how usually your effort took your coronary coronary heart cost above a certain stage.

You’ll moreover admire the snazzy optimistic reinforcement you get every time you hit a every day well being intention, inside the kind of cutesy animated sequences themed to your accomplishment. Hit your every day elevation climb intention, and you will note a ball bouncing up a flight of stairs.

Should you probably can afford the Venu 2 Plus, it lives as a lot as its predecessor and is an absolute pleasure to utilize.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus: What you’ll not like

Typically speaking, your Venu 2 Plus experience will rely on the way you’re feeling about buttons or touchscreens on smartwatches. My personal well being watch hierarchy is crown > buttons > touchscreens, and I always appreciated how most Garmin watches forego contact navigation absolutely. So by way of the usage of a hybrid button/contact system, Garmin made the Venu 2 Plus further mainstream however as well as most likely will drive off some Garmin followers who must stay away from unintended touches and futile swiping.

Do you want buttons to touchscreens? In that case, the Venu 2 Plus is purposeful nevertheless shouldn’t be your first choice.

Total, I’ll say that its touchscreen had fewer factors than completely different watches’ screens that I’ve examined, presumably on account of its large dimension; and some of my colleagues select contact to the identical previous left-side buttons for up/down scrolling, which I completely respect. So that’s further of a “what you (possibly) received’t like” stage.

In change for the Plus’s new mic, you miss out on two days of battery life, dipping to 9 days max from 11 with the underside Venu 2. Fortunately, this primarily applies to regular drainage over time. In phrases of exact workout-tracking, every closing for 8 hours of GPS monitoring with music, whereas the Plus actually beats the underside watch in GPS monitoring sans music: 24 hours vs. 22 hours. And on all the, every watches win in the direction of most completely different Garmins for battery life. Once more, this isn’t a critical problem for most people.

When testing the mic, my voice received right here by the use of clearly to my title recipients on the alternative side. On my end, the speaker sounded loud enough in a silent room, if a bit tinny, nevertheless was troublesome to hearken to out on the earth. You end up having to hold the watch to your ear to hearken to, then convey it to your mouth to answer.

Essentially the most concrete downside proper right here is how pricey the Venu 2 Plus is. It’s cheaper than the Forerunner 945 LTE (merely barely), nevertheless that a minimum of is self-sufficient with out a phone. Many superb Garmin watches will value you half the value of the Plus with comparable designs and sensors. What they lack is that pretty AMOLED show display screen capable of right animations. You’ll should decide if that’s worth the extra worth.

I moreover had some gripes with the Garmin Join app. It locations all completely different well being apps to shame on the subject of choices, nevertheless that moreover means it’s a maze. Say it’s good to add a model new train to your watch: are workout routines beneath Actions, Exercise Monitoring, or Coaching? Higher search all three until you uncover them! Then, when it’s good to add the train, it is going to wait to sync it to your watch, which could take a hefty chunk of time. And I moreover didn’t admire having to acquire a second Garmin Join IQ app merely to get custom-made watch faces.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Competitors

As a $450 well being smartwatch, the Venu 2 Plus has no shortage of additional cheap rivals in your money, every from Garmin and competing producers. Anybody looking out for one in all many greatest working watches ought to try the Garmin Forerunner 55 in its place. Its non-touch present undoubtedly seems to be like worse, however it presents you specialised teaching metrics and comparable battery life for decrease than half the value.

Or, within the occasion you’re eager to step outdoor of the Garmin ecosystem, I’m an infinite fan of the Coros Tempo 2, an ultra-lightweight watch that lasts all through 30 hours of GPS train. Its 64-color LCD present isn’t any Venu 2 AMOLED, however it’s an affordable completely different considering it, too, costs merely $200.

Desire a lifestyle watch with a great deal of well being and effectively being choices on the side? The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 has tons to advocate it in the direction of the Venu 2 Plus. It weighs loads a lot much less nevertheless has an even bigger Tremendous AMOLED 1.4-inch panel. It lacks an altimeter nevertheless has BIA and ECG sensors for greater effectively being readings. And as a Put on OS 3 watch, it has far more third-party app help.

Or, within the occasion you’re an iPhone particular person, the Apple Watch Collection 7 stays the premium smartwatch to beat in every {{hardware}} and software program program. Each it and the Galaxy Watch 4 actually value decrease than the Venu 2 Plus; nevertheless, neither has the specialised software program program Garmin affords.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Must you buy it?

You should purchase this if …

• You must cross-train typically all through quite a lot of sports activities actions regimens
• You typically put together outdoor and need a vibrant show display screen
• You must reply calls by way of your smartwatch

You shouldn’t buy this if…

• You want quite a few third-party apps
• You could have a restricted funds
• You must work out with out your phone shut by

Folks first starting out a well being routine for a model new 12 months’s determination would possibly revenue from the Garmin Venu 2 Plus. It has a variety of sports activities actions and well being membership workout routines prepared for you, whereas the radiant present will current you tips about easy methods to full strikes you’ve received not at all heard of sooner than. On the similar time, the Venu 2 is admittedly for important well being of us who can perception themselves to take care of up a routine. Should you’ve received tried a couch-to-5K sooner than nevertheless couldn’t keep it up, maybe start with a cheaper health tracker first.

4
out of 5

Should you probably can reasonably afford the Venu 2 Plus, you’ll not regret looking for it solely for the AMOLED show display screen and software program program. You would possibly hypothetically buy the Venu 2 within the occasion you don’t convey your phone with you on workout routines and don’t plan to placed on it outdoor of workout routines. In any other case, I do suppose it’s worth the extra $50 for connectivity within the occasion you intend on sporting it typically for effectively being and step monitoring.