Garmin Venu 2 Plus Review: For Fitness Enthusiasts
Garmin smartwatches and health wearables have been round in India for fairly a while. While I had heard about these being fashionable amongst health lovers, I’ve hardly ever noticed one in use. So, when the Garmin Venu 2 Plus got here in for evaluation, I used to be stunned to see the function listing and the value. Priced at Rs. 46,990 in India, it goes up towards the Apple Watch Series 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 worth in India
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is priced at Rs. 46,990 in India and is barely obtainable with a 43mm dial. You can select between Graphite Black, Cream Gold, and Powder Gray, and every one 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 obtainable in a single 43mm dial measurement; you aren’t getting different choices such as you do with the Apple Watch Series 7 (Review) and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 sequence. This occurred to be simply excellent from my hand, however many individuals would possibly discover it too small or too huge.
The Venu 2 Plus has a metallic bezel with a textured sample, which appears to be like 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 simple to swap without having any instruments. Garmin has used steel for the underbody of the Venu 2 Plus, and that is the place you will 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 suggests it’s fairly a bit heavier than the Apple Watch Series 7. Compared to the Apple Watch, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus has a commanding presence in your wrist. The strap is nicely designed and didn’t trigger any pores and skin irritation in the course of 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 observe 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 can use all its options when paired with an Android telephone, however for those who use an iPhone sure options should not obtainable, resembling the flexibility to answer to messages. You can use the speaker and microphone on the Venu 2 Plus to reply incoming calls in your wrist, however you will want to lift 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 may get with the Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 sequence.
I paired the Garmin Venu 2 Plus with a Samsung Galaxy S21 (Review) smartphone for per week after which switched to an Apple iPhone 12 Pro (Review) the next week. The Garmin Connect app is nearly an identical on each platforms, and it was simple to arrange. The dwelling display screen 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, Body Battery (power degree), stress degree, and even sleep particulars. You can faucet on any of those to see extra info. There is even a calendar view of all these stats, which could be considered 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 helps you to take part in health challenges and even permits you to create your personal. You can add associates and compete with them. If you accomplish that, their health exercise reveals up within the information feed tab of the app. You can even use the Garmin Connect app to vary watch faces, customise fast shortcuts, set exercise objectives, and toggle completely different monitoring options.
On the Garmin Venu 2 Plus, you may swipe up or down on the house display screen to entry “Glances” that are basically widgets that showcase info resembling 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 simple to look in any respect of them in a single go, nonetheless interacting with them requires a further step. You can customise these widgets utilizing the Garmin Connect app.
The center button on the Garmin Venu 2 Plus prompts the voice assistant of the paired smartphone. The in-built speaker makes it attainable for the assistant to answer to your instructions by means of 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 you too can swipe proper on any display screen to return. Long-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 studying curve is barely steep in comparison with an Apple Watch however issues acquired higher after some use.
You can summon the non-public assistant in your paired smartphone utilizing the Venu 2 Plus
You can observe a variety of exercises on the Garmin Venu 2 Plus starting from primary workouts resembling strolling and working to energy coaching. You can even create customized routines by clubbing completely different energy coaching workouts utilizing the app or the Garmin Connect web site. It’s simpler to create customized exercises on a PC and sync them with the Venu 2 Plus, which is a large good thing about 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 virtually day by day, and in contrast the outcomes with these of an Apple Watch Series 7 to verify its accuracy. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus makes use of its built-in GPS for monitoring outside 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 observe your coronary heart fee and it was correct when in comparison with the Apple Watch Series 7. The Venu 2 Plus was additionally fast to detect adjustments in coronary heart fee whereas I used to be figuring out. You can monitor your SpO2 degree on the Venu 2 Plus and even observe this all through the day, robotically. This is disabled by default. I discovered the SpO2 readings to be on par with these proven by a medical-grade pulse oximeter.
You get an entire breakdown of your sleep cycle for those who 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, mild sleep, REM, and waking durations. You may even allow SpO2 monitoring when you sleep. The Garmin Venu 2 Plus claims to trace stress as nicely, and the outcomes proven had been in step with how my day felt. While all these parameters made the analytical aspect of me very completely satisfied, the sheer quantity of knowledge was overwhelming at occasions. Garmin ought to discover a approach to streamline the way it presents all this information to the consumer. Perhaps 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 virtually day by 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. This is way increased than what the Apple Watch Series 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 function enabled. Charging the watch with the equipped cable and my very own 10W energy adapter resulted in a forty five % cost after half-hour, and the watch was absolutely charged after roughly one other hour.
Verdict
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is a really succesful smartwatch for health lovers. It can observe 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 presents. Priced at Rs. 46,990 in India, it’s costly and would possibly solely enchantment to a distinct segment viewers. The lack of LTE connectivity might additionally deter some patrons – the Apple Watch Series 7 (Review) presents this however at a increased worth.
If you might be an athlete or a health fanatic who actively needs to trace exercises and health-related parameters, then the Garmin Venu 2 Plus could possibly be a worthwhile funding. iPhone customers who solely wish to casually monitor their health and need a less complicated consumer interface would possibly discover the Apple Watch Series 7 a stable different. Those on a funds can contemplate the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and the Apple Watch SE (Review) as a substitute.
