Is the Garmin Venu 2 right for you? (In-depth review, feature walkthrough) 

I’ve been searching the internet trying to discover how the strength training mode on the Venu 2 works. I really like the idea of the watch tracking your sets and reps, but I don’t always want to do a ‘fixed’ workout and I definitely don’t want to walk around the gym always looking down at the watch or pressing buttons. Glad to have found out there’s a automatic set mode 😊 Thank you so much for the detailed and helpful review, keep up the good work💪🏼 Greetings from the Netherlands

thanks for this super insightful video! i just ordered the venu 2s on sale and i’m excited to try it out

Hi. Thank you for the detailed review. It is normal only two LEDs to light up. The other 4 are sensors that capture the blood OX and the pulse. In the previous Garmins, they were arranged : LED, sensor, LED, sensor. So 2 LEDs, 2 sensors. Now, the 4 sensors hopefully give more accurate readings. Cheers!

I was waiting for your video :-D

Why am I now watching all of your videos lol. Soo good

Complete honesty, this is one of the best smartwatch reviews I've seen. Really evaluates everything from a health & fitness tracking addict (which I definitely am!) with real life niggles that you don't get from normal videos that have done a quick review. I think I might buy this, the workout tracking seems awesome. Thank you man keep up the good work!

Excellent and very thorough review, explanations were clear and yes it helped me decide to go with the Garmin Vivoactive series.

thanks for showing off the strength training function. It's actually what I'm looking but this is the only review I've seen that covers this, it seems to be a big advancement over older vivoactive watches.

14:45 "I don't want to may more money to a company to listent to music, while I can just listen to it on my phone" Instant Like and Subscribe.

I love the watch and all the data.

So helpful!

You are so on point about the size issue. I have a smaller frame and struggle to find a watch that has the features that I want in the smaller form-factor. Great review. I am leaning towards the Garmin Venu 2s as a daily driver but I will take a look at the Tic Watch that you mentioned.

Could you please do comparison between Venu 2s and vivoactive 4s?

Thanks for the great review! I have sleep apnea and the review on that was very helpful. I use a cpap machine and always look at how I slept the next am.

Hello, nice review. I wonder if you have had a chance to try the Viita Titan HRV smartwatch/ fitness watch. Would be interesting to get your thoughts

Amazing rev man, i have a very small wrist what do you think about 945 lte? I wear appl watch 37 size?

I always know there’s a new review coming when garmin announces a new watch 👌thanks. I’m looking at the Instinct Solar but I’m waiting for a price drop to buy.

Good video. May I ask: can this measure and quickly give you breaths per minute? What about the details on measurements of stress levels?

Thanks for the detailed review. I've passed the last weeks trying to choose between Samsung Watch 4 & Garmin Venu 2 s. Garmin wns because of battery life, the workouts & the accuracy of tracking. Pity it doesn't have the wear OS though.

Great reviews, very helpful! Can you advise if the swim function accommodate ocean swimming in addition to pool? Many thanks in advance!

Looking to replace my garmin Instinct, since the HR sensor is useless during strength training. I have been using the Galaxy watch4 for a few days and I'm very impressed. The accuracy is good and it now uses HR to calculate calories. But the less than 2 day battery life is making me debate if I should keep it. Going from over a week with the instinct to less than 2 days is kind of rough. I'm thinking the Venu might be the solution. If out for the weekend, I don't want to carry an extra charger.

Good video. Just to let you know, “Pulse Ox” is not a Garmin proprietary term. Just FYI. It’s short for “pulse oximetry”. It is a healthcare term used for years.

Thanks for the super detailed review. Very helpful. What earphones would you suggest will work with venu 2s when running?

Just got that venu 2s, been needing it to monitor my sleep apnea condition

Thanks it help me, am in the same paradox 😁

Great review- love the Venu 2 BUT...is there a way to see each song in a playlist- using Amazon Music on the Venu 2? I can only seem to see my playlist but when I click on it, there is not list- just the first song starts playing. have to hit next >| to see the next song. This makes it very hard to get to song #30...when you are running at 7mph! There has to be an easier way- anyone? If I used Spotify music app instead, could I then see each song on a scrollable list?

Love your videos man, I’d love your help, what kind of camera is the one you use to record your sleep at night?

Great and honest review. Do you have any information for the stress tracking feature. I am really interested in this feature specially with the pandemic. I try to find any information on your Vivoactive 4 review and did found it.

Thank you for such a detailed review. I just ordered the Garmin 245 which has emphasis on running. I chose it over the Garmin 55 because of support for strength training in 245. Now I see the Venu 2 has those nice animations for the strength exercises, and showing the muscle groups. Those are nice but when I think of it, not really necessary, as I have books showing me how to do those exercises. Apart from the nice graphics, are the strength training features in the Venu 2 more advanced than those in the 245? What does the 245 miss out here?

Thanks for the very detailed review. Just got my Venu 2. What was the watch face you used?

Hey there, what is your wrist size? Thanks!

How would you compare this vs their venu sq? Any standout features which leads one to v2?

That was really detailed. Thank you so much for putting so much effort into making your videos. How long does it take to fully charge up the Garmin Venu 2? Is it slower, same or quicker than for an Wear OS device? Currently I cannot decide between the Garmin Venu 2 S and the Galaxy Watch 4. I don't like the short battery life of the true smartwatches over the fitness tracker with smart functions (such as the Fitbit Versa 2 and so on). Is there something you can recommend?

Loving my Venu 2S, just wish I could get the weather on the front display, is there a way to have a weather icon displayed please? 👍🏻🇬🇧

Thanks for the great review! Lots of detail, and you really know your stuff when it comes to the Garmin ecosystem! I've been using the Vivoactive 4 for the past ~6 months or so and have really grown to love the watch, but was looking to get a newer device with better HR tracking and Sleep tracking. I ordered the Galaxy Watch 4 and promptly packed it back up for return after testing for a week. The battery life on that thing is HOR-RIBLE. And I got the larger size too, but it was really bad, at least in my opinion. So now I've ordered a Venu 2 and looking forward to trying it out and see how it feels for me on the daily. I think like you I will have to figure out if I can give up the reflective display of the Vivoactive 4. I agree - they need to release a Vivoactive 5 with all of this latest version HR monitor, GPS, etc and keeping the reflective technology. I loooove being able to have my watch sitting on my desk if I'm not wearing it and I can still look down and see the time. Cheers!

Ive had Tic Watch Pro 3 GPS for 9 months and a regular surface swim in the pool for 10 mins last week fried it. Ive swam with it before with no issues and it is IP68 rated. NOW - that they wont replace it for me, I'm about to get the Galaxy 4 Watch or Garmin Venu 2. I'm having a hard time deciding and I did like the Tic Watch! Maybe that means I'll like wear os better than garmin but I'm really liking both the Vivoactive 4 and the Venu 2 and of course being a Samsung person already the new Galaxy is tempting.

I have recently purchased Venu 2.

Is it possible to create a custom workout plan like first 30 mins elliptical, 30 push ups, 30 bicep curls etc...?

Wait garmin pay is on google wear??? Garmin and apple pay are the only phone/watch payments available in my country. and im considering this one or another wear os watch

Thanks for the review. I think many fail to understand that Garmin watches are really made for a specialized section of the population. So those that want to compare them to an apple watch, samsung or even a tic watch pro, may not be aware of the purpose of the watch? Garmin watches are primarily fitness/ outdoors watches with some smartwatch functions. Apple, Samsung, tic watch pro and the like are smart watches with some fitness functions. To reduce battery drain, certain functions are not on the watch, and Garmin seems to know to what their wearers want? Sure they will tweak the watches to incorporate some smartwatch functionality, but not at the cost of battery life and possibly losing their customer base... outdoors and fitness enthusiasts.

Nice video! I’m curious if you can expand on the comparison of the Venu2s pulse ox vs the dedicated sensors you’ve tried. I find it really interesting that you video record your sleep and can correlate the data. I have a 4 year old Vivoactive HR watch that still runs great and retains about a 2 week battery life if I don’t use gps. But it lacks pulse ox. I snore, so am curious if I have any apnea issues that need attention. I’ve considered pulse ox dedicated sensors, but the fingertip type don’t seem suited for overnight monitoring. And the ring or wrist type that are better suited to overnight monitoring are in the $160-$240 range. I hate to put that much money into a single purpose device if I could put that into a watch upgrade that would more comfortably and usefully provide the same info. Unless, of course, the Venu2/2s pulse ox data is inaccurate, relatively speaking. My goal here is to find out if there’s an indication that I need to seek professional help/cpap to nip it in the bud. My dad had sleep apnea and used a cpap machine. In your opinion, does the Venu2/2s provide accurate enough pulse ox info, or comparable info to those dedicated monitors to be actually useful? Edit: I just watched your review of the Ticwatch Pro 3. I really like that dual screen feature! And while a 3 day battery life is not bad, relative to Garmin, it sucks. But it’s still better than the Apple Watch. I also didn’t like how coarse the pulse ox readings are. Only once per hour? Otoh, the TWP3 is $100 cheaper than the Venu2.

But no word about ABC sensors, like other reviews on other channels. :( Can I set the sea level pressure on Venu 2?

Thank you for the sharing. And I'm interested whether you will share any third party apps for garmin watch.

Does the stairs counter actually work? thats one of the most annoying things about vivoactive 3.

This was well presented from the everyday, non-total-fitness perspective. Good stuff. In case you read this, I actually came to this same watch *from* a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 this month and am far, far, far, far happier with the Garmin. WearOS and Samsung's implementation is, as is the usual, ridiculously short on battery life, a privacy administration nightmare, and really just a clusterF*** of an experience IMO. Even with Venu 2 Plus out now, which meets nearly the shortcomings you outlined about this earlier version, I'm still happy with this one personally.

Great review! I'm debating what size I should get. To me the watch doesn't look too small on your wrist. What is your wrist measurement?

Great review, im going with the Venu 2, the battery life is way better than the Samsung Watch 4 imo

So it's completely off during the night?

Excellent 👍👍👍👍

Hi, thank you for the nice Video :) Can I adjust the time the screen is staying on after I turn my wrist? I dont want to have it in always on mode but I also would like the screen to stay a bit longer on after I turn my wrist? Thanks in advance!

Great video as always. Hope you weren’t bitten by the manic insect! I’m still trying to come to a decision about whether I move to the Ticwatch Pro 3 as my main everyday watch over my Garmin Vivoactive 4. I feel that the Garmin is better for sleep tracking and exercise tracking but, as you indicated, the Ticwatch is better as a wrist worn smart assistant plus you can see so much more information on the Ticwatch.

Fantastic review. Subbed!

@JSyntax great video. Have you checked out the Venu 2 Plus? They added the voice control/speaker/messaging features which might be of interest to you (in case you aren't happy with your other devices). A bit expensive of course.

NFC works really well with my Suunto 7 which is a wearOS device. I don't have to get close to terminal for it to work.

When you called “pulse ox” a “garmin word” it hurt my heart lmao Good review nonetheless! I’m considering purchasing one

Does Apple Music work with this?

I've just ordered this watch. I've also just returned the Garmin instinct 2 as I couldn't read the screen at all, without my glasses. I'm.hooing I can read the screen on the venu 2 without my specs as I'm wanting a watch for running. I can read the screen of my friends Vivoactive 4 and I understand this is the next step up from that model. Feedback would be appreciated 👍

Why would you not take over 3 minutes brake when lifting weights?

9:20 the other 4 sensors are infrared sensors, you can't see the light

Thank you for so full and useful review! I am about to buy Venu 2, but maybe 2s would be a better choice for my wrist? What is the circumference of your wrist?

nice review; however it seems to be primarily a general review of Garmin smartwatches and their features vs WearOS and Apple and not specific to Venu 2.

I'm new to smart watches, but want the long battery and health/sports tracking, over wear os 3.0 and 1 day battery. My ideal would be this watch but without AMOLED as don't need super bright watch face but prefer always on and backlit with the better battery that brings.

I just bought the Venu 2. I wasn't sure whether to go with 2 or 2s as I've got thin wrists... but as it turns out I'm pretty happy with the size of this watch and it doesn't look oversized. I previously had the smaller Garmin FR 245, but I prefer this. The touch screen with 2 buttons is pretty nice to use and I prefer that to the 5 buttons on the 245.

Great video thanks, How about youtube music support?

Thanks for the review! Was surprised when you said that you get criticized for liking and wearing smaller watches... what is wrong with that.. haters be haters.. to each their own man..

Love your review! May I know your wrist size or circumference? Just for size references. Tq

Hey @JSyntax. That two dots that sometimes emit green and sometimes emit red lights are actually LED lights only, not sensors. They light up the small blood vessels that are near the surface of your skin. The four other ones are the actual sensors that receive the light data just as the sensors in digital cameras. The LEDs correspond to camera flashes in this example. When green LED shines light into your skin, the photo-sensors take the color changes of blood vessels when your heart beats and pushes fresh blood to your vessels. The frequency of the color change is interpreted as a heart beat. I guess the red light is more appropriate to determine the amount of oxygen by the intensity of the reflected light amount; because red blood cells which carry oxygen reflects more of the red light and which is because "physics" (Jesse Pinkman comes to mind). 😁

Hi could you please Wright what is the other watch that you all the time mentioning here I would like to see more about that one as English is not my first language I can’t understand what is that brand and particular watch thank you

If you fall asleep, does the watch automatically detect it or do you have to manually set it ?

hi mate, would you say it's a good idea to get the forerunner 245 music, or is the tech slightly out of date at this point and I should wait for a new release ? My main use will be fitness + sleep tracking Thank you !

For Garmin pay can you link your Chase debt card, and just wave it to pay? That would be cool. Also, I run a lot, so does it just tell me how far I've run, but with no map underneath it? Assuming "Map My Run" can link to it.

Great video. I'm moving to this watch from the Galaxy Watch 4. The battery life is terrible and the GPS tracking is poor. I'll miss WearOS, but hey ho.

Confused. Does the always on display work correctly if you are not using Do Not Disturb?

how bright is the always on display outoors compared to the active 4?

What about gps golf?

Are there any issues I should take into if I have an iPhone 11 and would like the Garmin Venu 2s? are there apps like navigation that will give me problems?

Got the Garmin for multisport and fitness tracking not smart watch features.

Where is that WearOS 3 update for the TW3 Pro?

Hi, I wanted to buy a fitness watch that could give me close to accurate reading of my home gym workouts and at the same time properly track my sleep, HR and PulseOx. I am really confused with a lot of options and it has been difficult for me to make a choice. Could you please suggest me a good fitness watch with least issues while using. I thank you in advance for your help.

Hye sir...may I know what is your wrist size. cause I don't know to choose either Venu 2 or 2s...

The metrics about running, sleeping are good or not?

between Forerunner 245 and Venu 2s, which one do you recommend?

I love garmin music, I upload music to my device, I never take my phone with me while running...I love to have music while running, I also use audio book, amaizing

I have a question .. do you get rest suggestions?

wanna buy for gym and this stuffs...venu 2 is good for it?

is this an improvement over vivioactive 4s?

hello brother, i own the tickwatch pro 3 ultra but it measures spo2 only every 1 hr, not sure if it is actually good to take it only every hours especially during night, does garmin devices measure every sec spo2?

I really am interested in the relax reminders. I seems this is a garmin feature, but its unclear on which watches they have it. I know the venu 2 can track your stress levels during the day, but I would like to get notified when I get in to a stressful patch, and take action and a couple of good breaths. Does it also provide stress notifications/relax reminders?

Well, I have use my Galaxy Watch4 40mm for some swimming (not even a routine, just recreational), sometimes city biking and a sleep tracker The screen suddenly broken when I wake up and showing static red like having a water damage. I already try to bring it to Samsung service center near me and getting some help, but nope. It's just aged 1.5 years, already dead and out of warranty period. The service fee asked about 1.4 Million IDR (about 93.53 USD) and when I check a new Watch4 40mm price about 2.4 Million IDR (about 160.34 USD) So, it's outrages tbh, but I kinda skeptic now for Watch4 and even Watch5 because the seal seems broken after 1 year and fingercross if you ever contact the watch with rain, or even sweat And also, I will try to use garmin (seems promising enough I guess from the body itself) and I will definitely miss some feature from wear os, but the price and the durability of the hardware itself turned me off

I chose the smaller Venu 2S over the 2... Amazon had the 2S on sale for $249. The Venu 2 was $349. Was the larger size worth an extra $100? I don't think so.

Hi, 1. Is it normal that the distance measurement for cycling is more accurate than for running? The same route, but a different result: ideal for cycling: 10 km, for jogging 9.87 km. 2. The current pace displayed during your run is not correct at all. I run at a pace of around 5:30 (what is correctly summed up after each kilometer), and during the Venu 2 run, it shows a time over 6 minutes (6:40 or even 7). What can be wrong?

Do you know if you can wear this surfing?

I have lots of samsung watches, mainly cuz they used Tizen and it doesn't track my every breath like google. I'm totally switching to garmin.

You should update now with Venu 2 plus or Venu 3 :-) You have voice input with it and for home automation you have home assistant app too.

Why do you have to enter the code every time? I only do that if I take my watch off or every 24h.

Did this get a voice assistant this year?

Do you still use the vivoactive 4?

I’ve had Apple watches and just bought the Venu for Prime Day. I’m just so sick of daily charging, and the voice features aren’t really that useful. Neither are directions when you’ve got your phone with you already. It definitely feels more primitive, but I had to be honest with myself about what I really use. The only thing I miss is coaching in my earphones instead of just wrist buzzes.

Interestingly the venu 2 plus has just been released as I’m sure you are aware. Fixes 3 of your gripes.

0:06 🤯