Previously known as the ProNav, the Garmin brand has been in existence since the year 1989. The company started 31 years ago in Lenexa, Kansas, USA by two individuals named Gary Burell and Min Kao. Now, the headquarters for operation is in Olathe Kansas, USA while legal domicile headquarters is in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Garmin has honed its name in the United States and beyond in the production of quality technology appliances like GPS trackers or , wearable technology, avionics.
Amongst the variety of smart watches produced by the brand, the Garmin Venu 2 stands out because of the lifestyle element that it features. In the list of the best smart watches of the Garmin, this Venu 2 tops it’s predecessor, the Garmin Venu with it’s prolonged battery life, battery saver mode, sleep tracker and a lot more!
This smart watch offers you more than 25 GPS sports activity modes. It also comes in different colors and offers a lot of improved features. If you need a classy smart watch, the Garman Venu 2 is one of the best luxury smart watch to buy.
Pros
- Prolonged battery life
- Greater than 25 GPS sports modes
- Upgraded watch interface
- Health snapshot feature
- Fast charging
Cons
- Relatively pricey
- Large bands
Things to Consider Before Buying A Smart Watch
The Garmin Venu 2 smart watch is not just the regular smart watch you see around. It is specifically designed for people who are very keen on keeping fit and keeping track of their fitness activities.
The watch indirectly becomes your gym class with its newly integrated High Intensity Interval Training mode. At the same time, you can decide on which part of your body you want to focus on exercising and the watch would give you tips and help monitor your progress. While you’re exercising, the battery of the Venu 2 can permit GPS mode and listening to music and still last for about 8 hours. However, it lasts much longer if you’re just on smart watch mode alone.
If you’re just fine with a simple smart watch with basic features, rather than choose this, you can consider other cheap smart watches to buy like the S20 smart watch with waterproof amongst others.
There are varieties of smart watches out there today, similarly these smartwatches have a variety of features and functions. Due to this, it might be a lot of stress trying to pick a smart watch for yourself. One thing that might help is to have some features you want in mind and look for them in the description of the smart watches. For instance this Garmin Venu 2 review provides a detailed description of the features, benefits and cons of the watch.
Below are some of the important factors to consider before finally clicking on the buy button for a smart watch.
Compatibility
The distinguishing feature between smart watches and the regular analog watches lies within the “smart”. The ability of the smart watch to match with your phone and send the data it records to you.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that the smart watch you’re buying is compatible with your current phone. For instance, Apple smart watches are only compatible with Apple phones, so that’s a no-go if you’re an android user. However, the Garmin Venu 2 is compatible with both android and apple phones.
Brand
A quick sample survey was done to know the popularity of some smart watch brands within people. At the end of the survey, 92% of the selected persons were familiar with Apple and Samsung brands and the remaining 8% mentioned a few other brands. No doubt, the popularity of these two brands almost weighs down on the existence of others. However, many more smart watch brands that produce very quality and competition worthy watches are there today. You should expand your reach.
Budget
Gone are the days when only the elite could afford smart watches. Now, there are a lot of budget smart watches to buy in the market. Though, you should know that the more you pay for a watch, the more features you’d get from it and the more guarantee you have that it would not stop working after a few weeks.
Features
Just as I’ve previously, it’s a lot easier to have the features you want to get in your smart watch in mind before setting out to look for one. Though, you may not be able to get all the features you want in a smart watch, you could get something really close, all things being equal. Examples of the features you may want to look out for are GPS tracker, water resistivity, sleep monitoring, text and call reception and so on.
Design
There is no best design for a smart watch. Basically smart watches come in either round or square shapes. Some people categorize round faced smart watches for men and square face smart watches for women. However, we maintain that the choice of design is dependent on your preference. Most brands also offer a variety of colors to fit different personalities and preferences.
Battery life
You would agree with us that the battery life of a smart watch is one of the most important factors to look out for in a smart watch. Of what use is a smart watch that would not last you through your early morning or evening walks?
Asides the battery life, you should also look out for the charging time of the watch, because it would be lovely to be able to charge your watch within 10 – 15 minutes before rushing out again.
Warranty
It’s better to get a watch from trusted and named brands that produce quality products rather than cheap watches that might cost you more on repair than you even spent procuring the watch. Higher end watches from these trusted brands offer about 6 – 12 months repair or replacement warranty on their watches. Though most times this does not cover for strap damage or replacement.
Specifications of The Garman Venu 2 Smart Watch
| Specification point | |
| Display | 1.3 inch 416 x 416 pixel resolution with AMOLED display |
| Strap | Quick release 22 mm replaceable band |
| Screen size | 45 mm screen size |
| Modes | Smart watch mode, GPS mode, Battery saver mode |
| Sensor | WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Altimeter, Pulse oximeter |
| Dimension | 45.4 x 45.4 x 12.2 mm |
| Battery | 22 hours without music, 12 days with battery saver mode, 11 days with smartwatch mode, 8 hours with GPS mode and music. |
| Weight | 49 grams |
| Features available | Swim proof, more than 25 sport modes, HIIT sports, Health snapshot, Respiration and pulse monitoring |
| Price in Ringgit Malaysia (RM) | 1599.00 RM |
Features and Benefits of The Garmin Venu 2 Smart Watch
Design and Display
This new Venu 2 may look a lot like its predecessor, The Garmin Venu, but it resolves the concern of only having one size option. The 44 mm case and 33 mm display of the Venu 2 gives it a very nice and sleek appearance. Despite being a sport watch, the classy design, metal bezel, silicon strap and polymer case makes it perfect for rocking during the day time.
The watch uses an AMOLED touchscreen display and comes in a variety of color options. The screen dimensions are 45 x 45 mm. Also, the silicon strap that comes with the watch is a quick release one and can be easily replaced.
Battery life
One of the great improvements with the Venu 2 is the battery life. In comparison with the original Garmin Venu which has a maximum battery life of 5 days when it is on smart watch mode, The Garmin Venu 2 instead can stay as long as 12 days without charge on battery saver smart watch mode.
On smart watch mode, it can last 11 days, 22 hours on GPS mode without music and up to 8 hours on GPS mode without music. With this battery capacity, you don’t have to be scared when you’re going on hikes or summer vacations. You could just switch to the smart watch mode and you’re good to go.
Another advantage of this battery is that it charges really fast!
Unique Features
Garmin is one brand that offers you a load of features in your smart watch. With the previous versions, you can listen to music while you’re having your exercise sessions. It also has the capacity to store about 500 songs giving you a variety of options.
However, you get more with the Venu 2. With this, you’re able to store a sum of 650 songs on the watch, you can also control the songs through the pause/play and the next/previous buttons. Another unique feature is that the venu 2 displays the song title and artist’s name on the screen.
Garmin Venu 2 can be considered one of the best smart watches for women who are intentional about keeping physically fit because of its improved, though, optional women’s health tracking feature. This feature is even more enhanced than in the Garmin Lily which was designed specifically for women. With this watch you’re more able to understand your cycle with the range of moods and symptoms embedded in it.
Performance and Software
The Garmin Venu 2 may be difficult to navigate if you’re new to their series. However, if you’re acquainted with the previous versions, finding your way with this would not be as difficult.
The Venu 2 is easy to navigate with the touch screen sensor and the two control buttons at the sides. Though it comes with a default display screen, you can change it to anyone of your choice and even get to customize it yourself.
The watch focuses on regular physical fitness activities such as swimming, running, walking. The height of it being the HITT. It shows you some animations of how to carry out some exercises like in Yoga and some others.
Connectivity and Compatibility
The Garmin Venu 2 has WiFi, Bluetooth, ANT+ and GPS. The WiFi radio automatically synchronizes your activity data into your already existing Garmin Connect account once you’re connected to a WiFi. Also, it is compatible with most Bluetooth versions out there and to connect via bluetooth, you must use the Garmin Connect to avoid disconnections in between.
Another advantage of the Venu 2 is that it is compatible with both Android and iOS likewise. So, worrying if it’ll work with your phone or not is zeroed out!
To get it paired with your phone, and to synchronize your data into your device, all you need to do is download the Garmin Connect app and you’re all set!
Fitness
The major features offered by the Venu 2 smart watch are in this category. It is however in an improved and advanced level. Thanks to its accurate GPS tracker, you get to see a map out of all the places you passed through while exercising. In addition to this, it shows you the time course of the exercise, the distance covered, your pace, the steps, heart rate and calories data.
The watch can keep record of most of your indoor and outdoor workouts. You can then decide which ones you want to show up first by adding th to your favourites. Doing this would save you the stress of scrolling through every time you want to check the data.
As previously mentioned, the watch can be your gym guide by setting goals of activities you want to perform and giving you tips for exercising different parts of your body.
It’s indeed as good having an online gym instructor.
Warranty
All Garmin smart watches have a consumer limited two year warranty on them. During this period, the company takes responsibility for any malfunctioning or material defects. Depending on the degree of damage to the watch, there could either be a repair or replacement of the component part that develops a fault.
This 2 year warranty period starts counting from the day of purchase. You must note that in order to have an audience with the company for any issue with the watch, you must be able to provide your purchase receipt.
The warranty does not cover for any cosmetics damages, damages caused by external forces like water, fire etc, consumable damages like batteries, damages caused by unauthorized Garmin service providers and so on.
Spec
With the Venu 2 you enjoy a high resolution AMOLED screen of size 45 x 45 mm with a 12.2 mm case thickness. The band or strap is 22 mm. The entire watch feels super light and comfy to wear all day and night, weighing only 49g.
It is also water resistant. You can swim with it and go as deep as 50 meters or 5ATM. Similar to its predecessor, the watch also has features like gyro, thermometer, altimeter, heart rate, pulse oximeter, sleep and stress monitoring and so on!
Other unique features
Asides the features already discussed in this Garmin Venu 2 smart watch review, some other benefits are its IQ store via the Garmin Connect app. Though not as packed as Google play or the likes, the store provides you with a number of fitness based apps. You have a maximum of 35 apps in place and you can uninstall the ones you do not use frequently.
Furthermore, you have comprehensive information about the weather for the day, you schedule and even get to see several app notifications. All these benefits and more are just there on your wrist!
Alternative Options to Consider
- Realme Watch 2
Pros
- Strong battery life
- Clearer screen display
- Water resistant
- Connected GPS support
- Sleek design and lightweight
Cons
- Poor camera pixel
- Low tension resistivity
- Not the best for fitness tracking
The Realme smart watch 2 was launched in May 2021 after the release of the realme watch in 2020, though there are not so much significant differences in appearance of the watch it comes with some step in in quality. It has 90 sport modes and can perform the basic functions of a fitness watch which include monitoring of heart rate, sleep tracking and the oxygen saturation of the blood.
The Realme 2 uses an AMOLED touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 320. The strap is also 22 mm and detachable. Supports water or swimming with IP68 water resistance rating.
The highlight of the Realme watch 2 is in the improved battery. Now the watch can last for about 10 – 12 days of uninterrupted use in between charges. Amazingly, the watch comes at a very affordable price.
This feature amongst others grants its entry into the list of the best smart watch Malaysia.
- FK88 SmartWatch
Pros
- Touch screen
- Supports bluetooth call
- Two way mobile phone search
- Silicon detachable strap
- Comes in multiple color options
Cons
- No GPS tracker or monitoring
- Battery is not long lasting
It’s hard to make a compilation of the best chinese brand smart watches without mentioning the FK88 smart watch. It is rectangular in shape and has a dimension of 40.9 * 37.5 * 11.5 mm. The screen size is about 1.78 inch and has a resolution of 330 x 385 pixels. This is responsible for the sharpness and quality of its display.
This chinese smart watch connects via bluetooth to other devices with bluetooth versions 4.0 and 3.0. It is compatible with both android and iOS likewise. Being a smart watch, it has a heart rate sensor, G sensor, blood oxygen saturation monitor, thermometer barometer, sleep monitor and sedentary reminder. Additional features that the watch offers are alarm, IP68 water resistance rating. Additionally, the watch is cheap, at 159 RM but definitely doesn’t look the price!
- OnePlus Watch
Pros
- Budget smart watch
- Sleek and beautiful design
- Long lasting battery
- Detailed display and high screen resolution
- Lightweight
Cons
- Big face and straps
- Expensive for a basic smart watch
The Oneplus watch is as simple and basic as a smart watch can be. It features only basic fitness features and runs on the Oneplus Watch OS. This though limits the users from accessing third party apps, a feature that we were rather expecting would have improved in this version. It in fact seems like there are no intentions to add this feature in any upcoming ones. We also think that the watch costs more than it has to offer, costing 744RM.
Nonetheless, if you are looking for a budget smart watch with no special characteristics, you would definitely find this soothing. However, someone who has explored other amazing watches like the Garmin series has nothing new to derive with this. Categorically, we would say it is one of the best smart watch for men because of the size. It may look too big for people with small wrists. No doubt its beautiful look and design is eye-catching and it has a long battery life of about one week.
- If you want a sport smartwatch that gives you detailed sport features and within a budget, you can opt for the Realme watch 2 which costs 229RM. Check out full details about the Realme watch watch here
- If your focus is rather on the appearance of the smart watch with simple and basic features, the Oneplus watch is your best bet. It looks like most high end smart watches, the likes of Apple and Samsung.
- The chinese brand smart watch FK88 offers you a bunch of fitness mode, bluetooth call support, for a ridiculously cheap price. Amaze yourself with its features and price by clicking on the link.
Conclusion
The Garmin Venu 2 is a perfect sport and fitness smartwatch for all fitness enthusiasts. If you like to exercise from home, the Vunu watch can be your companion, guide and tutor as well. It has the HITT feature that shows you animations on how to carry out some sports like Yoga and exercises for different body parts.
You can also trust in the watch to last you as much as 22 days on smart watch mode. The GPS monitor keeps track of your movement and while exercising you get the bliss of listening to a variety of music without running out as long as you have them on your Garmin Connect.
You can check out more information about the amazing Garmin Venu 2 here!
