Garmin 010-02430-00 Venu 2, GPS Smartwatch, Advanced Health Monitoring, Fitness Features, Silver Bezel with GraniteBlue Case and Silicone Band

If you are reading this, then you are probably going through all of the smart watch/fitness watch/adventure watch options and getting dizzy. That was me. After weeks of research, I was down to the Venu 2+ and the Instinct 2 Solar. And then this Venu 2 (non-plus) went on sale during Prime Day.Moving from a Fitbit Charge 4, the Venu 2, Venu 2+, or Instinct 2 Solar would have given me more features, but I was hung up on what the Venu2+ (phone call functionality) and Instinct 2 Solar (infinite battery life) offered that this plain Venu 2 didn't. However, at the Prime Day price, I could not pass it up. Now, after owning this watch for a few months, I have forgotten most of what those watches offered above the Venu 2.I primarily run, hike, and play golf with the occasional bike ride or other activity thrown in. Though I do at least one of those activities 4-5 days a week, I am not a serious participant in any of them and so the truly high end features are not needed. For what I do, the Venu does it all (well, very nearly all) and does it well. And, it looks good doing it. Taking my three primary activities, I'll give you my take:1. Running. I was looking for a watch to use while training for a set of races. Data screens are nicely configurable and I was able to pair it with my foot pod (for treadmill) and, in the end, managed to beat my race goal time significantly. The watch is easy to see even in the brightest sunshine and the display is crystal clear. It's also easy to configure and navigate through and the choice of watchfaces is infinite. There were only two things that I would have liked but didn't have regarding running: There is no virtual pace partner (my old Forerunner 620 had that) and you can't send PacePro Pacing Strategies to the Venu 2. Neither of these are critical, but if I had to add two features, those would be it. Not specific to this watch, the Garmin Connect app and the training programs offered through it are fantastic. Music controls are easy to use, too, and it holds plenty of tracks.Hiking. The GPS tracking is very accurate and for casual hiking (which is all I do) there is nothing lacking. Though it does gather elevation info, it does not have the pro hiking features found on Instinct 2, Fenix, etc. Not a problem for me.Golf. Now this was my most pleasant surprise. I had a Garmin Approach watch already and I loved it. Notice that the previous sentence was in the past tense. Yeah, I don't use my Approach any more. The Venu 2 works great as a golf watch and is easier to use. The only slight negative is that you have to download the courses manually rather than having them all populated in the Approach. You also have a limited amount of memory available, so you can only download a half dozen or so courses at once. Otherwise, I love it for golf. It will even track your shots as you play giving you distance and direction info for each. I now know that I have been lying about how long I hit my driver and kidding myself that I don't have a slice. Note that my Approach watch is not an S60 or S62, so doesn't have the most advanced features those have, but, again, I don't need those things as data overload would only make the rounds even longer.As for other things, I really enjoy:Beautiful OLED displayWatch face customizations for both looks and functionalitySleep tracking (Garmin is brutal about your sleep)Stress trackingBody battery is a great and accurate indicator of how much energy you have leftPhone finder (use it all the time)Fall detection (luckily haven't needed it, yet).Battery life if you don't use GPS is nearly 2 weeks.Syncs flawlessly with my phone, tablet, or computer.Spot on heart rate monitor.Things that could be better:The tracking of elevation without GPS is pretty bad.Bezel is a little rough.Some better apps for navigation would be nice.Tracking of nontraditional movement does not always work ( e.g. using a push mower you don't get steps because your arm doesn't swing).Native support for YouTube Music is unavailable(though there is an app to give you most functionality)Garmin makes literally dozens of different active watches and the Venu 2 is one of them. That meaningless statement is meant to say that you just need to decide on the features you need and the price you are willing to pay, and Garmin will have a watch for you. The Venu 2 line of watches are in that area between a fitness watch and a smart watch with some of the best features of both...and you don't have to charge it every 2 days like the true smart watches.It's been funny to see Apple advertising "new" features for the latest Apple Watch. These are features that have been on Garmin watches for years. I know Apple has its eye on Garmin's market and through their cult-like following will undoubtedly take some share, but as long as Garming keeps innovating, they are going to be among the best watches with the most choices anywhere.

Having owned many Fitbits, a Galaxy watch, and a new Pixel watch to compare... This watch solidly beats them all. It has excellent construction and things like a normal watch band with more adjustment settings. The software is excellent and FREE FOREVER. It provides text, calendar, and other app notifications like approve/deny for MFA (I'm on Android so ymmv). The battery lasts about 9-12 days with me using it for workout tracking and staying connected to my phone. It has all the health and safety features I could want including stress tracking and they're all very accurate. After owning this for a few weeks I felt obligated to write this review. If anything changes I'll update it!

All and all, a very solid product. I am replacing Vivoactive HR after the notch on watch for the watch band broke for the 3rd time. Still getting used to this watch but the overall technological improvement is noticeable, screen is phenomenal, and price point was manageable. Still getting used to all the bells and whistles but using this to track HR and calories burns so it has not missed a beat. Watch has way more options than I'm currently using. Battery life is a solid 3 to 4 days with being used an hour in the AM plus some extra time in the evening. Gave it 4 stars on the sleep and mobile apps only bc I haven't fully explored.

I have previously used several of another very popular brand of health & fitness tracking watches. Some slide over into the smart watch category. What I have found is that no matter what the features are, no matter how "awesome" the watch looks & performs, it doesn't matter if battery life can't make it at about a week.If I have to remember to charge my watch & take it off to do so (which defeats the purpose of all the nifty tracking stuff) then it will frustrate me. I should be able to go away for a weekend and not have to lug another charger along with me and probably lose it. Anything less than a week, I'll end up not using for very long.I have this watch 4 stars **** instead of 5, because of this watch is a 5, then Garmin could stop here. They wouldn't need watches that cost twice as much and have 2, 3, or more than 4 times the battery life. At this price point, it's probably 4½ starts. If it was $100 less, maybe it would be a 5 star at that price point. It's all perspective. For the price I paid, MSRP, I would like a few things to be better, ideally battery life.This watch manages about a week, although just barely (certain adjustments or using certain features will increase our decrease that if course), but it still has all of the fancy sensors (and quality ones at that) and pretty decent software. Decent. There's some room for improvement. Navigating through it's menus takes some getting used to, and there's some things that I have to look up or just fiddle with for awhile to remember how to find. They have added a way to remove certain menu items you don't use or need, and you've always been able to edit their order. The sleep software is adequate, but after using that other previous brand, it really shows where they can improve there, and in the 8 months I've had it, I have seen some minor improvement. I would love to see it do a better job of determining when I'm sleeping, even if it's a 30 minute nap, on it's own, instead of me telling it when I sleep.Overall, it's a great watch. I consider it to be a nice step up from previous brand, and it has convinced me to eventually step up into one of the even more expensive watches, if for no other reason than the even much better battery life. As long as I continue to see improvements, I'll gift this one to a family member and make the leap, but I think ifd about a week is what you need to get by, you will not be disappointed.Pros:-Very durable-Adequate battery life, not "long"-Lots of features and quality sensors-Looks great, and has a quality look and feel-Partially customizable menus+MoreCons:-Battery life at this price point I feel should be better, but for Garmin you need to pay at least double this for better battery life and these features-Sleep software is still in the earlier stages for Garmin (I believe they had just purchased a company that was doing this and that software is still being tweaked and continually developed)-Menus could be better streamlined. Adding new watch faces from the Connect IQ app is not the simplest task. I also hate that I have to have multiple apps on my phone for my watch.