Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Important upgrades to a well-known watch

The Venu 2 Plus from Garmin is an incremental improve from its predecessor — the Venu 2 — however among the modifications which have been made are an fascinating transfer by Garmin. This can now be thought of a full-fledged smartwatch. A easy change like including a speaker, a microphone and a few new options, and immediately you’ve gotten a watch that individuals will need to use. There has by no means been any doubt relating to the well being options of a Garmin watch, however what has held individuals again is often the truth that they want a gadget for health after which a separate gadget as a cellphone companion with smarts. The Venu 2 Plus now addresses that fairly properly.

In bodily look, the Venu 2 Plus is simply a little smaller in measurement than the sooner Venu 2 with the display measurement remaining the identical. Interestingly, it’s accessible solely in a single measurement however there are three color variants — silver, slate and a cream gold — all three in chrome steel. Straps are normal 20mm with many accessible each from Garmin in addition to third-party suppliers. The watch is mild and comfy to put on. I solely took it off for a bathe and stored it on the remainder of the time for the 2 weeks that I used it.

Core well being performance is about the identical as different watches from Garmin. Lots of choices for exercises — Walk, Run, Cycle, Swim, Yoga, HIIT and the record simply goes on and on. Some further options comparable to Sleep Tracking and Hydration have seen enhancements. Body Battery, Health Snapshot and Stress have additionally been improved, and are very helpful indicators. I really like the truth that the well being targets are a steady transferring goal the Venu 2 Plus retains tweaking as you progress alongside.

The largest change although is absolutely the addition of the microphone and speaker. This now permits you to not solely make calls from the watch, but additionally hear to music and use a voice assistant. Since the Venu 2 Plus doesn’t have LTE/mobile options, each calling and assistant use the cellphone and redirect the audio as wanted.

On a Samsung cellphone, you’ve gotten the selection of Bixby or Google Assistant, and on an iPhone you possibly can merely use Siri. There is nothing particular on the watch to present assist; simply connectivity with the cellphone which is kind of seamless and easy to setup and use.

The accompanying Garmin Connect app supplies extra particulars than most individuals can deal with. Great insights, graphs and really detailed info on each phase being tracked. This is one thing that’s unmatched for Garmin.

One factor that Garmin does want to work on is the interface of the Venu 2 Plus watch. While it has improved, it could nonetheless be complicated. There is now a new button on the watch however navigating continues to be not intuitive. A protracted press versus a quick press can change what the button does and having to bear in mind what does what shouldn’t be straightforward. The app retailer Connect IQ does have some apps, together with Spotify, which work brilliantly in offline mode however it’s nonetheless restricted.

Battery-life is claimed to be 9 days, however with a single exercise a day and regular utilization, I managed to get solely about 4 days at a time from the Venu 2 Plus. Still a lot higher than among the competitors.

The Venu 2 Plus is a nice smartwatch for regular customers who will not be athletes and wish to monitor each well being and health and but have some smarts from the watch. At ₹46,990 it’s a bit costly however total options, well being monitoring and now the smartness greater than make up for it.