Written by
Matthew Miller, Contributor
Matthew Miller
Contributor
Matthew Miller started using mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He was a co-host, with Kevin Tofel, of the MobileTechRoundup podcast for 13 years and authored three Wiley Companion series books.
Full Bio
Posted in The Mobile Gadgeteer
on January 4, 2022
| Topic: Mobility
For the past few weeks, I have been wearing the new Garmin Venu 2 Plus as my primary GPS sports watch. While I’ve been bouncing between a Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE and a COROS Vertix 2, the new features and brilliant AMOLED display of the Venu 2 Plus have me seriously considering this as my new daily driver.
The
Venu 2 Plus
builds upon all of the great features found in the Venu 2 with the ability to make and take phone calls from the watch when paired to your smartphone, much like the non-cellular
Apple Watch models
. You can also now use your smartphone’s assistant to send text messages, ask questions, and more right from your wrist. It’s convenient to keep your phone in a pocket or bag while taking care of basic communication needs right from your wrist, especially if you are walking around a city or have your hands full.
9.4
Garmin Venu 2 Plus
Outstanding
$449.99 at Garmin
Like
Phone call and voice assistant supportGorgeous, brilliant AMOLED displayTouchscreen and button navigation interfacePowerful Garmin ecosystem and capabilitySolid battery lifeSupport for a vast number of sports and activities
Don’t Like
ExpensiveButton press required for voice assistant
The vibrant color display is easy to read in various lighting conditions and is responsive to taps and swipes. A third button is also now present on the right side of the Venu 2 Plus, so you can assign a single press action to go along with activating your voice assistant with a press and hold of the button.
Hardware
The main attraction for the Garmin Venu series is the brilliant AMOLED display that has vibrant colors and stark blacks, so fonts, graphics, and animations pop on the screen. At first glance, the Venu 2 Plus looks like the Venu 2 with the same 1.3-inch display that smoothly flows to the edge of the watch. However, there are now three hardware buttons on the right side instead of two. A speaker opening is positioned in the center of the left side.
The top right button is that action button that is used to open up the activity launcher with a single press or to launch the controls menu with a press and hold. You can also hold this button for a period of time until you feel three vibrations, and then your message for assistance will be sent out through your connected phone. The bottom button, back, returns to the previous display, marks a lap, views device settings, and more. From the watch face, you need to press and hold the back button to get to the settings menus.
The centre-right button is new for the Venu series, and within the settings, you have single button press and button hold options. I currently have a single button-tap to open up alarms and a button-hold to launch the voice assistant (this is the default setting for a hold).
A basic 20mm wide silicone band is provided with the Venu 2 Plus. Quick-release slider pins are found on the back so you can quickly and easily change out the bands.
The heart rate sensor is positioned on the back with the standard 4-pin Garmin connector for charging up the watch.
Also: Best sports watch 2022: Garmin, Coros, Polar, and more
Watch software
One of the new features of the Venu 2 Plus is phone calling. You can set up a quick controls button for this, make a call via the voice assistant, or tap the lower right button and choose the Phone Calling option. You can access a phone keypad or access the contacts you have set up in your system for the watch from this screen. You can also tap the lower arrow to view recent calls.
During a call, options appear to hang up the call, mute your microphone, change call volume, or add other callers to the active call. Taps on the display are used for this phone call navigation and work flawlessly on the Venu 2 Plus.
The other new feature is the voice assistant. The first time I launched this from the watch options appeared on my smartphone display so I could choose from Google Assistant or Samsung Bixby as the default assistant. If you have an iPhone, then Siri is also an option for the voice assistant. There is no ability to launch the voice assistant from the watch with a command, so the default shortcut is the best way to initiate the voice assistant.
The default watch face is very basic, focusing on showing off some brilliant colors on the AMOLED screen. Several others are loaded on the watch, some with customization options too. You can also download hundreds (maybe more) of watch faces from the Connect IQ store.
The Venu 2 Plus is designed for the everyday, casual athlete that mixes up running, cycling, walking, swimming, yoga, pilates, and other indoor/outdoor sports. More than 25 sports apps are available, and within each of these sports, you can customize the displays and data that is shown on the watch as you participate in the activity. The real power of the Venu 2 Plus is found in the HITT and workouts that are supported through the Garmin Connect app. Many of the specific activities within workouts, such as yoga, show you animated graphics of the various moves, and as someone who rarely performs these exercises, this is an essential feature to have on the watch. You can get more applications and data fields from the Connect IQ Store.
As someone who is spending more time on the golf course with the Garmin Approach CT10 club trackers I purchased, it’s great to see the extensive golf support on the Venu 2 Plus. The Venu 2 Plus is designed to be a very attractive GPS sports watch option for the masses while not mastering the course, as we see with the Garmin MARQ Golfer that is optimized for golf.
Swipe up or down on the watch face to scroll through your widget glances. Tapping on any of these small glance options opens up the full widget so you can view your collected data in great detail. Several options are available, including Body Battery, stress, sleep, intensity minutes, notifications, weather, and many more. The date and battery status is shown at the top of these glances too.
Like most recent Garmin devices, the Venu 2 Plus has an integrated Wi-Fi radio so you can have your activity data synced to your Garmin Connect account when you return to a Wi-Fi zone previously established. It’s great to enter my house after working out and automatically sync my data to my Garmin account.
Another reason for the Wi-Fi connection is to download music to store directly in the watch storage. Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music are all supported by the Garmin Venu 2S. Music playback from the watch works very well with all of the headsets I tested out.
One workout option is called Health Snapshot, and you can select it to see various health data captured over a two-minute period that can then be logged and shared with your doctor. Breathwork is another available activity with several techniques (coherence, relax and focus, tranquillity) that can be used to reduce stress and improve your health. During these stressful times, breathwork is a great way to focus and re-energize yourself.
See also: Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE review: Connected features for safety and live tracking.
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