About two years ago, Garmin decided that it was not enough that it was a company that produces successful sports watches, while it was losing customers to the manufacturers of smart watches such as Apple, Samsung or Shiomi.
The monitors of the watches from Garmin until that time were colorful, but not with AMOLED technology that gives the required richness of colors.
Garmin Venu 2 - Photo: Tzachi Hoffman, Tzachi Hoffman
Garmin realized that the screen quality in question is less interesting to professional athletes, who are not willing to give up long battery life for a higher resolution, but it does need another category.
This is where the first generation of the Venu comes into the picture, which has come to provide a solution for consumers who want a watch that does not give up smart capabilities but also emphasizes sports.
A few months ago, the company launched the Venu 2, a watch that focuses on display quality and design, among other things.
Design and screen: Garmin Venu 2 - waterproof AMOLED screen
At first glance, the Venu 2 is very similar to the previous generation, but there are still details here that are easy to pay attention to.
First of all the screen grows slightly from 1.2 inches to 1.3 inches.
Those who are still interested in a compact screen, can find the Venu 2s model that is similar in its capabilities to the Venu 2, when it comes with a 1.1-inch monitor.
This is a structure that is probably more suitable for people with small hands.
The strap itself is made of silicone and is comfortable on the hand.
The watch is waterproof to a depth of 50 meters (5ATM) and also includes swimming monitoring.
As mentioned, the screen comes in a round configuration and with the high-quality AMOLED technology and a resolution of 416 by 416 pixels.
This is excellent display quality with rich and sharp colors, I have not had any problems viewing direct sunlight.
Garmin has also incorporated a new graphics processor in this model, which can better handle the animations that the watch displays.
For example, in the hour view that includes moving wallpaper or in the movement of the interface.
The watch is controlled via the touch screen and also via two physical buttons located on the right side.
The response of the screen is good and I have not had any problems using it even with sweaty hands.
Interface: Garmin Venu 2 - Hebrew interface, digital payment and Spotify
Garmin offers a full interface in Hebrew, which I find a bit cluttered, although it is convenient to use and allows a lot of adjustments to be made.
Basically, the main screen you will use (except for the training menus) is slid up or down from the fixed clock display.
There you will see how many steps you have taken and the destination you are aiming for.
The same goes for drinking water, floors, intense minutes a week, calories, heart rate, body energy, stress, pulse oximeter, sleep, alerts, weather and more.
Basically, a quick scroll allows you to get all the information you need, on the other hand, the feeling is full of eyes.
Garmin allows you to answer incoming messages or calls using generic answers that can be customized through the smartphone app.
The answer option is only available to Android smartphone owners and not iPhone.
One area where smartwatches want to stand out is safety, meaning here, the ability to alert another person when a watch user is injured during exercise.
This option sends a message and email with the location to three pre-defined recipients.
Garmin points out that the trigger for the automatic activation of this feature is a sudden slowdown or injury.
Also, I think it is necessary to practice with the smartphone, so that the watch can send the alert and that it can not call MDA or another rescue body itself.
Also, the watch knows to alert for the user, when his pulse is high or low for 10 minutes, while he is not active.
Garmin is the only company in Israel today that offers a payment solution for smartwatches for Android users (at least until Google Pay arrives in Israel).
Garmin Pay is currently only available to Isracard MasterCard customers and Visa and MasterCard Max credit cards (but not to Bank Leumi customers who hold a Max card).
Garmin Pay's watch solution allows you to run only with the watch and not rely on a smartphone or credit card to purchase a drink at the kiosk.
Garmin also includes in Venu 2 an option to download playlists from streaming services like Spotify and Dizer, so you can listen to music only with headphones, directly from the watch.
Sports and health: Venu 2 - tests your daily energy
If you bought a Garmin watch, sports and health are probably the most important option for you in the product.
Let's start with health, Garmin really wants to improve your longevity, so it allows you to monitor sleep at night, which also provides a pulse oximeter (the average oxygen saturation value in the blood), which helps to understand your overall health.
After sleep, the watch will also indicate hours, sleep phases performed at night, including feedback indicating if the user was calm at night and may want to go to bed earlier.
Garmin Venu 2, Garmin
The Venu 2 knows how to get up from the chair at any given time, it allows you to measure how many glasses of water the user drank per day and also updates the destination according to sports activities performed. The Body Battery comes to help easily understand how much the user is willing to go into activity. This index rises when good sleep occurs or at rest and it decreases after strenuous activity, high stress and poor sleep. The desired condition is a high value at the beginning of the day. Garmin relies on Venu 2 better on sleep quality, in order to update the energy index.
Another measure that helps to understand what is happening in the user's body is VO2Max - it is a measurement of oxygen that the body can utilize effectively during exercise and is represented by a double-digit number.
The result is determined by fitness level as well as by age and gender.
The higher the result, the better the fitness, aerobic endurance of the heart and blood vessels.
Another measure is fitness age, which also helps the user understand how fit he is.
This metric relies on the actual age of the user, the activities he performs, resting heart rate, BMI or body fat percentage.
If all this is not enough for you, Garmin also offers a Health Snapshots which weighs different metrics simultaneously for 2 minutes, but does not really explain about them.
In Venu 2 we get the fourth generation pulse sensor from Garmin, which comes to show more accurate performance. I compared it to a pulse band for Garmin's chest, which is considered a very reliable solution. The watch showed similar or very close results while running, but it took it a few seconds to catch up with changes in ups or downs in the heart rate. In general, the deviation I saw at different times during training was a single number of beats per minute and sometimes even over 10 beats per minute. If you are an amateur trainer, this will suffice for you, if you want a more reliable measurement, you will need to buy a chest strap (this is true for any watch). In terms of the GPS integrated in the watch, he most of the time was able to locate the location relatively quickly.
Garmin offers monitoring of many sports activities: running, walking, floor climbing, cycling, yoga, snowboarding, skiing, aerobics, swimming in the pool and many more.
By the way, in some of the exercises, such as weightlifting or yoga, animated videos appear that explain how to perform the exercise correctly.
Battery: Garmin Venu 2 - battery for 4 days
Garmin promises that its battery will last up to 11 days, which is of course a lot, but in practice, once you turn on some of the monitoring capabilities regularly and use the screen display in Always On mode, the battery time is drastically shortened to 4 days.
The charging connector is unique and there is no option for wireless charging, this is probably an option that Garmin should think about in the next version.
Price: NIS 1,800 (official Runlight importer, two-year warranty)
Bottom line, the Venu 2 is a smart sports watch, aimed at consumers who want to buy an Apple or Samsung watch. It focuses on sports and health activities, including many metrics that help the user understand how fit he is. In addition, it offers smart capabilities, such as a payment service (Garmin Pay, not on all credit cards) and a connection to popular streaming services.
