Garmin Venu 2 Smartwatch Review
Wednesday - 26 May 2021
The latest addition to Garmin’s ever expanding collections of smartwatches is the Garmin Venu 2 and 2S. Available in 45mm and 40mm, the designs mark the second generation of the Garmin Venu delivering a slew of updated health and sports features, a full AMOLED display and the slick aesthetic worthy of a much higher price tag.
What’s New?
So, how does the Garmin Venu 2 and Garmin Venu 2S compare to its predecessor? First off, and a huge selling-point for many, is its increased battery life. The original Venu had a battery life of around five days while the Venu 2 can last up to 11 days between charges and the Venu 2s up to 10 days. If you want to use GPS, battery life drops to 22 hours and GPS with music leaves you with 8 hours, however with the Battery Saver Smartwatch Mode you can push the Venu 2 to 12 days in total. Also to no surprise is a slightly larger watch case with the Venu 2 measuring to 45.4mm in size, compared to the 43.2mm diameter of the original Venu. Those favouring a smaller case will prefer the Venu 2S which comes in at 40mm.
A bigger watch case means a larger display, and for many, the new AMOLED display is going to be a popular feature. This is the first Garmin smartwatch to receive a full AMOLED display and its crisp almost bezel-less look reminds us of an Apple watch – just with a much smaller price tag. The Garmin Venu 2 has a 416x46 pixel resolution while the Venu 2S has a 360x360. Both are colour OLEDS. The new Garmin Venu 2 is also the first from the smartwatch brand to feature their new Elevate optical heart rate sensor package which promises better accuracy of heart rate monitoring.
Since the Garmin Venu smartwatch collection is largely targeted towards fashion-forward fitness fanatics, it is no surprise that the new Venu 2 and 2S has been updated with some additional exercise modes. HIIT workouts have become a huge part of everyone’s lives during the past year during lockdown, as we’ve had to make do without gyms and exercise classes and so, Garmin have included a new HIIT on-watch sessions and guided workouts in the new design. Other new features on the Garmin Venu 2 include increased Pulse Ox accuracy, increased storage space from 3GB to 7GB of music storage, new Connect IQ 4.0 support, added Sleep Score, new widgets and new Health Snapshot feature which allows you to log a 2 minute session to record key stats, including heart rate2, heart rate variability, Pulse Ox3, respiration and stress and create a report.
Additional Features
Like its predecessor, the Garmin Venu 2 hosts a fantastic selection of health and fitness trackers for helping you get a better understanding of your body. These include the Garmin Body Battery Energy Monitor so you can see your energy levels throughout the day and choose the times for activity and rest, stress tracking, hydration tracking and women’s health tracking for monitoring pregnancy and menstrual cycles. The wrist based heart rate monitor has been upgraded for better accuracy but still continues to constantly sample your heart rate and will alert you if it gets too high or too low. It also works while you’re swimming. There is also a Mindful Breathing app for lowering stress and a Fitness Age feature which uses your chronological age, your weekly vigorous activity, resting heart rate and BMI or body fat percentage to estimate if your body is younger or older than you are. You can also get tips on how to lower or increase this.
There’s no short of features to assist you during exercise either including easy to follow, animated cardio, strength, yoga, Pilates and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts already preloaded on the watch and built-in sports apps for up to 25 GPS and indoor exercises. You can choose from more than 1,400 exercises to build your own workouts in the Garmin Connect app and incorporate the Garmin Coach to get personal advice on how to beat your high score. For when you’re away from your phone, the Garmin Venu 2 and Venu 2S watches keep you in contact with friends and family with smart notifications. You can receive emails, texts and alerts right to your watch and even respond to texts if you have an Android phone. Store up to 2,000 songs on the device, use wireless headless headphones for phone-free listening and download your favourite playlists from the world’s biggest streaming platforms like Spotify, Deezer and Amazon Music. The Garmin Venu 2 also comes with the Garmin Pay feature so you can breeze through checkout lines with a simple contactless swipe of the wrist.
If you’d like to learn more about the Garmin Venu 2 and to order your own, head over to the Jura Watches website here or get in touch with the team by calling us on 01335 453453. You can also send us a message at help@jurawatches.co.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
