Garmin Venu 2 Plus Review: For Fitness Enthusiasts

Garmin smartwatches and health wearables have been round in India for fairly a while. Whereas I had heard about these being in style amongst health fanatics, I’ve hardly ever noticed one in use. So, when the Garmin Venu 2 Plus got here in for evaluation, I used to be shocked to see the characteristic checklist and the value. Priced at Rs. 46,990 in India, it goes up towards the Apple Watch Sequence 7, which we and plenty of others have rated extremely. So, is the Garmin Venu 2 Plus the best smartwatch for you, or would you be higher off with another? I put it to the take a look at to seek out out.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus value in India

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is priced at Rs. 46,990 in India and is barely accessible with a 43mm dial. You may select between Graphite Black, Cream Gold, and Powder Grey, and each comes with an identical strap.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus Design

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a round dial with a 1.3-inch AMOLED show. Surprisingly, it is solely accessible in a single 43mm dial dimension; you aren’t getting different choices such as you do with the Apple Watch Sequence 7 (Assessment) and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 sequence. This occurred to be simply good from my hand, however many individuals would possibly discover it too small or too large.

The Venu 2 Plus has a metallic bezel with a textured sample, which seems and feels premium. There are three buttons on the best, whereas the left solely has the speaker. The case is made out of polycarbonate and makes use of normal 20mm straps. The equipped strap has fast launch pins which make it straightforward to swap with no need any instruments. Garmin has used metallic for the underbody of the Venu 2 Plus, and that is the place you may discover the well being sensors. This space additionally has charging contacts in a recess. Garmin’s cable clicks into place simply for charging, which eliminates any fumbling.

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a 1.3-inch AMOLED show

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus weighs 51g which implies it’s fairly a bit heavier than the Apple Watch Sequence 7. In comparison with the Apple Watch, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a commanding presence in your wrist. The strap is properly designed and didn’t trigger any pores and skin irritation throughout the evaluation interval. It additionally stored the watch fairly snugly towards my wrist, which helped with accuracy when measuring my coronary heart fee and SpO2 ranges. The Venu 2 Plus is rated for 5ATM water resistance and might monitor swims too.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus software program, options, and ecosystem

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus runs on proprietary software program and can be utilized with an iPhone or an Android smartphone. You should use all its options when paired with an Android cellphone, however if you happen to use an iPhone sure options will not be accessible, comparable to the power to answer to messages. You should use the speaker and microphone on the Venu 2 Plus to reply incoming calls in your wrist, however you will want to boost the watch fairly near your face to listen to the caller clearly. The Venu 2 Plus has Bluetooth in addition to Wi-Fi connectivity and might hook up with identified networks independently. There isn’t any mobile connectivity on the Venu 2 Plus like you will get with the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 sequence.

I paired the Garmin Venu 2 Plus with a Samsung Galaxy S21 (Assessment) smartphone for every week after which switched to an Apple iPhone 12 Professional (Assessment) the next week. The Garmin Join app is nearly an identical on each platforms, and it was straightforward to arrange. The house display of the app is a dashboard that reveals all of the well being parameters that the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has recorded. It shows the variety of steps taken, variety of flooring climbed, coronary heart fee, Physique Battery (power degree), stress degree, and even sleep particulars. You may faucet on any of those to see extra info. There’s even a calendar view of all these stats, which may be seen at a look.

The underside of the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a number of sensors to measure coronary heart fee and SpO2

The app permits you to take part in health challenges and even lets you create your personal. You may add buddies and compete with them. When you accomplish that, their health exercise reveals up within the information feed tab of the app. You too can use the Garmin Join app to alter watch faces, customise fast shortcuts, set exercise targets, and toggle completely different monitoring options.

On the Garmin Venu 2 Plus, you may swipe up or down on the house display to entry “Glances” that are primarily widgets that showcase info comparable to your SpO2 degree, coronary heart fee, sleep stats, and extra. The UI additionally has a widget that golf equipment all notifications out of your paired smartphone making it straightforward to look in any respect of them in a single go, nevertheless interacting with them requires a further step. You may customise these widgets utilizing the Garmin Join app.

The center button on the Garmin Venu 2 Plus prompts the voice assistant of the paired smartphone. The in-built speaker makes it potential for the assistant to answer to your instructions by the watch. The topmost button on the best brings up a Favourites menu with a brief press, whereas a long-press opens up a management menu. The decrease button takes you again a step within the UI, however it’s also possible to swipe proper on any display to return. Lengthy-pressing it takes you to the settings. I discovered this navigation scheme to be overwhelming once I first began utilizing the Venu 2 Plus, and discovering the best setting took some looking. The training curve is barely steep in comparison with an Apple Watch however issues bought higher after some use.

You may summon the private assistant in your paired smartphone utilizing the Venu 2 Plus

You may monitor a variety of exercises on the Garmin Venu 2 Plus starting from fundamental workouts comparable to strolling and working to power coaching. You too can create customized routines by clubbing completely different power coaching workouts utilizing the app or the Garmin Join web site. It is simpler to create customized exercises on a PC and sync them with the Venu 2 Plus, which is a big advantage of such an ecosystem.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus efficiency and battery life

I used the Garmin Venu 2 Plus for over three weeks, monitoring my walks nearly each day, and in contrast the outcomes with these of an Apple Watch Sequence 7 to examine its accuracy. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus makes use of its built-in GPS for monitoring out of doors workouts. Locking onto a GPS sign took lower than 30 seconds on most events. Distance monitoring was correct, and the Venu 2 Plus recorded precisely 1km for each 1km I walked. Step monitoring wasn’t far off in any respect, and the watch displayed 999 steps for the 1,000 that I counted manually.

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus can repeatedly monitor your coronary heart fee and it was correct when in comparison with the Apple Watch Sequence 7. The Venu 2 Plus was additionally fast to detect modifications in coronary heart fee whereas I used to be understanding. You may monitor your SpO2 degree on the Venu 2 Plus and even monitor this all through the day, mechanically. That is disabled by default. I discovered the SpO2 readings to be on par with these proven by a medical-grade pulse oximeter.

You get a whole breakdown of your sleep cycle if you happen to put on the Venu 2 Plus to mattress

Sleep monitoring was correct and the Garmin Venu 2 Plus managed to trace completely different phases of my sleep too. The app breaks this down into deep sleep, gentle sleep, REM, and waking intervals. You may even allow SpO2 monitoring whilst you sleep. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus claims to trace stress as properly, and the outcomes proven have been in step with how my day felt. Whereas all these parameters made the analytical aspect of me very comfortable, the sheer quantity of data was overwhelming at occasions. Garmin ought to discover a technique to streamline the way it presents all this knowledge to the consumer. Maybe including personalised insights within the app would make it simpler to know all of the stats a bit higher, particularly for novice smartwatch customers.

The battery lifetime of the Garmin Venu 2 Plus was spectacular. With my utilization, which consisted of monitoring night walks nearly each day, notifications from my paired smartphone, coronary heart fee monitoring enabled on a regular basis, and even monitoring sleep, I nonetheless managed to make the watch final round six days per cost. That is a lot larger than what the Apple Watch Sequence 7 is able to – I wanted to cost it each different day. I do count on the battery life to be decrease with all-day SpO2 monitoring and the always-on show characteristic enabled. Charging the watch with the equipped cable and my very own 10W energy adapter  resulted in a forty five p.c cost after half-hour, and the watch was totally charged after roughly one other hour.

Verdict

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is a really succesful smartwatch for health fanatics. It will probably monitor a variety of well being parameters and works throughout Android and iOS. To high all of it off, battery life is excellent for the options it provides. Priced at Rs. 46,990 in India, it’s costly and would possibly solely attraction to a distinct segment viewers. The dearth of LTE connectivity may additionally deter some consumers – the Apple Watch Sequence 7 (Assessment) provides this however at a larger value.

In case you are an athlete or a health fanatic who actively desires to trace exercises and health-related parameters, then the Garmin Venu 2 Plus might be a worthwhile funding. iPhone customers who solely need to casually monitor their health and desire a easier consumer interface would possibly discover the Apple Watch Sequence 7 a stable various. These on a price range can contemplate the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and the Apple Watch SE (Assessment) as a substitute.