Garmin Venu 2 Plus Smartwatch Review: Improve Your Fitness With Style

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus affords a smartwatch expertise that may alter the way in which you go about your day, must you go all-in on its choices.

I by no means noticed myself being a smartwatch junkie, however right here we’re. To me, the fact of wearable expertise felt intrusive but inescapable. I’m much less the kind that’s tech-obsessed and extra the kind to abscond into the wilds and keep away from cell service at any value.

So, it’s wild I discover myself so obsessive about Garmin’s slick Venu 2 smartwatch. I truly bought swept into the Garmin ecosystem by testing its Instinct 2 Solar, however I lamented the utilitarian and masculine vibe of the factor. I needed to put on one thing that might go to a cocktail party or on a run. For me, the Venu 2 Plus does the trick.

In brief: The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is user-friendly, trendy sufficient for nearly any state of affairs, and supplies the sort of every day stats and data that may really enhance your life — if you happen to so select.

Garmin Venu 2 Smartwatch Review

About the Venu 2

The Garmin Venu 2 is available in 4 fashions.

The 2S is the smallest of the Venu collection, with a 40mm face ($399). Should you desire a extra substantial spherical face, the Venu 2 Plus ($449) affords a 43mm possibility, whereas the Venu 2 ($399) maxes out at 45mm. Additionally, the Venu Sq ($249) affords a extra reasonably priced sq. face, and with this form, one may consider it as an Apple Watch dupe.

At the upper value level, the Plus presents the premium expertise of the collection. And that is the actual watch that I’ve in hand. It affords options together with stainless-steel {hardware}, animated on-screen exercises, and voice performance for texting, calls, and entry to Voice Assistant expertise.

Though not particularly gendered, choices throughout the Venu 2 collection definitely cater to floor preferences that lean both masculine or female. The watch I put on is cream-colored with subdued gold accents, however darker neutrals together with granite blue, powder gray, and black can be found.

Beyond that, it’s the watch’s skill to pile bodily knowledge out of your wrist to your smartphone that takes the cake. Personally, I really like the Garmin Connect app, its choices for bettering your well being, and the wild quantity of knowledge it affords within the course of. More on that now.

Day-to-Day With the Garmin Venu 2 Plus

As somebody who wasn’t fully dedicated to the thought of the every day put on of a smartwatch, I’m shocked to search out myself a bit misplaced after I take it off.

Why? Instead of counting on my iPhone for timekeeping, I merely flip my wrist, and the Venu 2 Plus involves life. On the face I’ve chosen, I’m in a position to see the date, time, my heartrate, the battery cost, and the steps I’ve taken for the day.

I discovered that realizing how a lot I’ve walked every time I test the time encourages me to maintain transferring, one thing my iPhone or inside clock by no means did.

Over the previous few months, I’ve persistently hit my objective of at the least 7,500 steps for the day, and sometimes greater than that. The watch celebrates with slightly confetti buzz every time you hit a objective, which is a pleasant little dopamine increase in small moments. Gamification for the win, Garmin.

But the operate of the watch that basically holds me accountable is the information I’ve develop into accustomed to checking every day within the Garmin Connect app — most notably, my sleeping habits.

I’ve observed a direct correlation between the times I’ve slept effectively (based on the watch) and the way energetic I really feel. And, in flip, the times it tells me I had a crappy night time. Perhaps, pricey mates, it is a placebo impact. However, the information appears so as to add up.

On these crappier days, I can see that maybe I didn’t stroll a lot the day earlier than. I won’t have gotten my coronary heart charge up,  or I do know that I had one too many glasses of wine.

And present-me has began to consider how future-me may function, thanks to those little nuggets of knowledge.

Venu 2 Plus: Fitness Coaching

Since sporting the watch, I’ve misplaced 12 kilos. I attribute this partially to the easy interactions of seeing how a lot I’m transferring or not. And with feeling higher and changing into extra lively, I made a decision to see how the Garmin Coaching facet of the app may have the ability to assist me preserve going.

I’m on the street to working a 5K by means of the Garmin Connect app via Jeff Galloway’s plan. There are a number of coaches to select from; I selected Galloway extra on a whim.

A starting survey permits you to select how a lot and what sort of working you wish to do, then the app builds a program to get you began.

Thus far, it’s easy. The working plan is mapped out, simple to get to by way of the Activities part of the watch, and I’ve but to run into main bugs.

And working isn’t the one teaching possibility. Built-in exercises from HIIT to energy to yoga and Pilates can be found proper on my wrist.

The Venu 2 Plus additionally affords voice activation and the power to make cellphone calls by way of the watch itself, although personally, that’s not a lot of a promote for me. If you’re into that type of factor, know that it’s there and it really works.

Where the Watch Falls Short

I don’t have a lot to complain about with the Venu 2 Plus. The battery is phenomenal, although if it had been infinite, I’d be happiest. Still, I’ll take what I can get.

I haven’t personally skilled bugs in both the coaching parts or the information assortment. Though I’ll say that it did take me some time to determine the way to get to my teaching periods inside the watch itself. (“Idiot, go to the Run exercise,” I say to myself now.)

The one difficulty I’ve had that drives me semi-nutty is that it typically takes a second for my watch face to faucet on. If I’m in a rush, or preoccupied with one thing else, and I’ve to faucet the watch face just a few instances, it’s not precisely a nuclear meltdown but it surely’s been shut.

I’ll additionally add that although the value isn’t root-level, it ain’t astronomical both. This is definitely a midlevel watch from Garmin, and at a lot lower than half the value of an Apple watch for many choices, I say it’s a helluva win.

Conclusion: The Garmin Venu 2 Plus

Did a watch truly encourage me to get again on the well being wagon after just a few years of knee surgical procedures and recoveries, the induced delinquent malaise of the pandemic, and my regular edge towards the slouchy nature of American center age? I believe it did.

At the very least, it incentivized habits by making knowledge available always. Perhaps I’m merely a cog within the hamster wheel of Garmin’s refined knowledge machine. If I’m in a position to run a 5K for the primary time since 2017, I’ll be one very comfortable buyer.

Listen, if getting a smartwatch is in your radar, that is one to noticeably contemplate. Personally, I’m glad to have it on my wrist and at my beck and name. This is tech that may actually higher your life by encouraging small behavioral modifications by way of knowledge; it definitely did that for me.

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