The Garmin Venu 2, which was one of the best smartwatches of 2021, has gotten a big update for 2022. It now has a microphone that lets you make and take calls from your wrist and use your phone’s voice assistant. It’s a smart addition that makes this smartwatch a lot more useful, whether you’re working out or not. In every other way, this is the same great sports watch as before, but this time there is only one case size. That and the fact that it can’t be charged wirelessly are minor complaints, though, and if it’s in your price range, we highly recommend putting the Venu 2 Plus on your shortlist if you’re looking for a smartwatch you can wear all the time.
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is the 2022 version of the Garmin Venu 2, which came out in 2021. It has all the same features as the Garmin Venu 2, plus a microphone. This lets you answer calls from your wrist and use the voice assistant on your phone without touching it. It works with Siri, Google Assistant, and Bixby, and it makes an already great smartwatch even better.
1. Design
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is almost the same as the Garmin Venu 2, but while the original watch had cases that were 40mm and 45mm, the Venu 2 Plus only has a 43mm case. It’s a good compromise. It’s big enough to hold the extra parts of the new watch, but not so big that it’s too big for smaller wrists.
The new parts have to do with the watch’s new microphone, which is on the left side of the case. A new button on the right side gives you quick access to your phone’s voice assistant. It’s a nice addition. You’re much more likely to use it if you only have to hold a button for a second instead of going through menus. When we tested the watch, we used Google Assistant a lot more than we normally would.
The Venu 2 Plus comes in three colors: cream-gold stainless steel with an ivory band, slate stainless steel with a black band, and silver stainless steel with a powder gray band. All of the standard bands are made of soft silicone, but if you don’t mind paying a little more, you can choose a more luxurious band made of suede, leather, or metal from Garmin’s selection of other quick release bands.
Like the Venu 2, the Venu 2 Plus has a water resistance rating of 5ATM. This means it can be used in the shower and while swimming, but not for diving or high-speed water sports.
It has a weight of 51g, which is a little more than the 40mm and 45mm Venu 2 models (which weigh 38.2g and 49g respectively). You won’t notice a difference in everyday clothes, though.
The watch is charged with the same custom USB-A cable that is used to charge the rest of Garmin’s watches. It’s easy to plug into the back of the watch case and stays in place, but it’s not as convenient as charging by induction.
The AMOLED touchscreen on the Venu 2 Plus is bright and has a high resolution. It is also smooth and easy to use. It has a mode that keeps it on all the time, but this really drains the battery.
2. Battery life
As usual, the battery life will depend on how you use the watch, especially the SpO2 and GPS features. Garmin says that the watch can last up to nine days in smartwatch mode, up to ten days in battery saver mode, up to eight hours with both GPS and music, or up to 24 hours with GPS but no music.
We used the Venu 2 Plus with all-day pulse ox turned off and tracked one workout a day. The battery drained at a rate of about 10% per day, which is better than what was promised and is very good for a powerful AMOLED smartwatch. To put things in perspective, the Fitbit Charge 5, which has a smaller screen, can only stay charged for up to seven days at most.
The Venu 2 Plus is one of the most power-efficient watches of its kind. It’s not quite as impressive as the 46mm Huawei Watch GT 3, which has similar specs and can run for up to two weeks on a single charge.
3. Features
As we’ve already talked about, the main difference between the Venu 2 and the Venu 2 Plus is that the Venu 2 Plus has a microphone. This lets you use your phone’s voice assistant and make and take calls as long as your phone is within Bluetooth range.
The sound quality from the mic is great. Your voice is easy to hear when you’re on a call, and we had no trouble getting Google Assistant to understand our requests when we tried it with an Android phone connected to the watch. In fact, having Google Assistant on our wrist made it so convenient that we used it a lot more than we normally would, even when we weren’t working out.
Not only is it convenient to be able to make and take calls, but it’s also a nice safety feature that comes in handy when you’re worried about losing your phone or can’t get to it quickly. In an emergency, you can also use a shortcut on your watch to automatically call a contact, and activities like running and cycling have automatic incident detection that kicks in when the watch detects a fall.
If you don’t want to be bothered, you can send a text message to calls and messages that come in. In the Garmin Connect app, you can choose from a lot of pre-set options or make your own.
If you’d rather run without your phone, you can store up to 350 songs on the bike itself. You can also use Bluetooth to control music playback on your phone with the watch.
All View
There’s no need to buy different devices for everyday use and exercise. The Venu 2 Plus is a smartwatch with a lot of features. It looks good enough to wear every day and has great tools for tracking your workouts. All of Garmin’s watches are great for tracking running, cycling, and regular gym work, but the company is growing, and the animated yoga and Pilates workouts on the Venu 2 Plus will help you mix up your training.
