Garmin - Venu 2 Plus

Venu 2 plus and I currently use a FR965

Metrics. The venu was cool for day to day stuff but I never got into most of the features so when I started running I upgraded to the FR

I’ve got the Venu 2plus. Just before the 3 came out. And I have apple situationship heheh Garmin rocks saving for the Fenix. The Garmin has outlasted everything I’ve throw. At it and the venu2a is nothing compared to the robustness of the other watches.

Since you’re a runner using Runna and want better battery life, the sweet spot is probably the Forerunner 265 if you want something light, run-focused and comes with AMOLED brightness which your Galaxy probably has. If you want more of a “smartwatch vibe” with a mic for calls then maybe the Venu 2 Plus is the only Garmin that adds voice assistant and call handling but its training metrics aren’t quite as deep as the Forerunner 955/965 series ones If I were you I’d also consider the Forerunner 955 or 965 for serious running and battery though, it’s pretty much the best watch you can get as a runner IMO or you could try [9 Best Smartwatches Worth Investing in 2025 for Running and Hiking](https://alaskanarrows.com/best-smartwatches-in-2025-for-hiking-and-running/) for others as well Cheers

Same. Got Venu 2 Plus. Still going strong. I don’t think I would update. Not groundbreaking features, but at crazy prices.

Simplicity and better health functions - body battery, sleep, training. But mainly simplicity. In Apple to many apps - mainly paid ones. Also I was not using all features. Also gsm connection is very poor quality. So I came back to my old venu 2 plus and is great.

My Garmin Venu 2+ gets 9 days with all regular sensors on.

what are you talking about? same use cases for both but the Garmin is better looking and has longer battery. the Fenix is for a while different market demographic, irrelevant to bring up tbh. Comment I replied to was deleted. Whatever reddit back to your basements

I just bought a used Venu 2 plus for $125 On eBay. Works perfect for me. It does have much of those features but also the basic health tracking

I was a Garmin watch wearer/user for about a decade. Various models, ended up with a Fenix 5, all was good. Work then introduced a healthcare policy and we all got free Apple Watch Series 7s for tracking. I tried it out for a month, loved the integration to Apple, sold the Fenix. Then about a year later, I hankered after something with better battery life. So I bought a Venu 2 Plus. I wore this for less than a day, missed the Apple integration hard, returned the Venu and bought an Apple Watch Ultra. I'm wearing that right now.

I use a Garmin Venu 2 plus and I'm happy with how it tracks things in the pool. I think most Garmin watches with pool function track very well. Not all Garmin watches have open water swimming though. Mine for instance doesnt.

I have an AW Ultra and a Venu 2 Plus. I go back and forth between the two, but currently wearing the Venu

For what it’s worth I have an AW Ultra and a Venu 2 Plus. My AW is in a drawer.

I went from the Venu 2 plus to the 570 a few weeks ago. I had been waiting for the 4 to come out, but got impatient. I don't have any regrets. They did add a lot of the features I wanted to the 4, but it doesn't have auto max HR detection, and it only has HR based DSW, not pace based. The auto max HR detection was a must have, so I made the correct decision for me. I didn't really have an issue using the touch screen except sometimes after my swim and before I dried my hands, I couldn't scroll down to see my data. I'm just getting used to the 5 buttons, they are quite convenient.

Those are wildly different watches, price points and use cases. If this is what you are comparing I would personally go for the best watch I could afford. If the Fenix 8 is in your options go with that. Rather than buy something that will be obsolete soon, or fits your needs today go with the option you can grow into and will last you a while. I have personally gone the other way and every 2 years I have upgraded to a new watch that fits my needs. That is until this year when I bought a 970. Previously I have owned the vivofit, vivoactive, and Venu 2 Plus. What meets my needs today is the 570, what I will grow into is the 970. So if you can afford the Fenix 8 do that.

I’ve had my Garmin Venu 2 Plus for a few years. Works great 👍🏻 Battery lasts 7+ days ( depending on how much GPS tracking activities you are doing), light and is not in the way while wearing a long sleeve shirt. For kayaking, there is Canoeing as an activity (and since a kayak is a type of canoe by definition) and that works great and as someone else wrote, there is also paddle boarding.

Any watch will do for that amount of running, since CrossFit and weight training do not benefit much from a watch. A heart rate strap would be better to control HR during workout, specially CrossFit where it is impractical to use the watch in some workouts that I can get damaged. Anyway, since you want calls I would just chose the ones you like more aesthetic wise and budget from the ones that support microphone and speaker (Venu 2 plus, Venu 3, new Fenix and new forerunner lines)

Which Garmin are you using? And are you looking for a fitness watch with smart capabilities or a smart watch with fitness capabilities? I have the Venu 2 Plus and it's great, wish I could upgrade to the Venu 3 for a few more smart watch capabilities, but I can't really complain.

Have you used a Venu model before the X1? I'm hesitant to pull the trigger on the X1 after losing my Venu 2 Plus in a wreck a few months back. I'm hoping a 4 gets announced but honestly the only thing I think I'll miss is the ECG app. Not that I ever needed it for myself but I'm a health professional and would occasionally take one of the older people at church when they are feeling unwell.  Edit: I can get the X1 for 640 plus tax now that it's been 2 months from release my discount from health insurance is activated. 

Thanks OP. I might pull the trigger on it and then just resell it if I'm really missing the ECG that much. 

The Venu 2 Plus has 95% of what the Venu 3 has (including ECG), and can be had for about the price of the Vivoactive 5. But I’d still go to your nearest Apple Store and see what they can do for you - in my experience they’re pretty good. If you get a replacement (even a refurbished one), you can sell it if you’ve lost faith with them.

Make sure it’s the 2 Plus not the plain 2 you look at; there’s quite a difference.

Frankly, you'd be better off with an Apple Watch (if you use an iPhone) - and you'd save your Mom a lot of money. If you're not an Apple person, then possibly something from Samsung or Google. The Venu 3 would still be sporting overkill for your use case, and no Garmin really works well as a smart watch compared to the AW.

Fair enough. I have the Venu 2+ (among others) and it’s fine. The battery lasts 4-6 days under most use cases (I don’t use Always On) and it covers all the activities I do. Garmin Pay is useless in my country (UK) and I never use the voice features, but I do appreciate the ECG - even though I had to go to the USA to activate it! But as a smart watch it really doesn’t do a lot, like all Garmins. I simply use my phone.

Love my Garmin - on my third one, a Venu 2 Plus. Great for tracking runs, and tracks strength training as well. It does an okay job of guessing what exercises are, and you can enter reps and weight. It works better if you create your own workouts, and there are some existing workouts you can choose from. I find it helpful to track my progress, although someone laborious in that except for tracking some benchmark exercises, there is no place to track progress on individual exercises. I have created a series of workouts I like, and then each time I do the workout I open the previous time I did the workout on my phone so I can use that as a baseline.

garmin - pick your flavor. i have had garmin for over 10 years, various models . i have the venu 2 plus

I use the venu 2 which does all of that, as someone who exercises a lot I reckon it's pretty good for the price It's worth noting that no device will ever give a truly accurate calorie burn though

I had no problem with the Garmin Venu2 in the pool. Although there may be better for competitive swimmers. I'm an old guy, and just want lap count, which like step count isn't really steps it's wrist movement computed to steps. You have to know the length of the lane. But it in works. :s

I have the venu2 and like it. Guessing the venu 3 will have some added features

I have a Venu (from 2021) and it is still receiving updates

I have had several Garmin watches over the years I used them, including the Venu 2, the Fenix 7 and my last was the FR265. All were terrible at sleep tracking for me. No wearable is accurate at sleep stages but for me apple reflects how I feel. I found Garmin had me getting terrible sleep every night, never catching my actual sleep properly and having me sleep when I was wide awake. The nap feature was a total disaster for me, giving me 3-4 naps daily while I was a work at my desk, certainly not sleeping. Oura overestimates deep and Rem significantly, no way I am getting 3 hours of deep sleep a night. As for sleep scores they are junk science. Sleep is complex and the idea that a watch/ring can pair it down to a simple number when it can't accurately measure sleep stages is ridiculous. Even sleep labs are not accurate in doing this. If you have 2 techs look at a the data in a sleep lab they will not agree. It just is far too complicated. It is better to look at the amount of total time slept if you are going to look at sleep at all. Body battery and stress scores in my opinion are just gimmicky features that I never paid attention to. I prefer to listen to my body rather than a watch. I did appreciate the activity tracking of the Garmin but again when the sleep data is being used for a great deal of the metrics the data became useless for me. The idea that more HRV readings is better has been created by the fitness world, just like the idea that you should take 10000 steps a day. More HRV measurements, particularly continuous measurements are not needed, one reading in the morning is really sufficient.

Try to golf 18 with an apple watch, the golf app will quit here and there, and walking (yes I walk) up the 18th you will get a low battery warning, this is starting with a full charge, you won’t get 18 in an afternoon round. My Venu2 uses 17% battery for 18 holes AoD, not tried to turn that off yet.

Good point. My Venu2 does broadcast, but I have a Garmin heart rate strap that's more accurate (but the initial reason I got it is because it's more convenient for cycling).

I would personally always take a Forerunner over the Venu series, as I am pretty serious about my fitness. I don't really care much about smart watch features, just need a bare minimum. And the venu series seems to take tradeoffs with fitness features to accommodate the increase in smart features.

Been wearing the same Garmin for 5 years now. Sometimes the splurge is worth it. If you can wait, there will probably be some deals for the upcoming holidays and Black Friday, but that is a bit away. Personally I do like an all in one smart watch for fitness tracking and phone syncing.

Garmin Venu series are comparable to an Apple Watch. Garmin’s GPS tracking for outdoor activity is a little bit better/accurate. That’s something to consider if you want to log hikes, bike rides, walking, running etc. I use an iPhone and just download the Garmin Connect app, that’s where all the data is stored. The Venu series are more fashionable. The first Venu model has the basic sleep tracking. I know the newer ones have some other updated features. I do find the sleep tracking, body battery, active/resting calories data to be pretty accurate based on how I feel.

If you want a watch that leans more towards the social side in appearance, go with one of the Venu series that fits your budget. If you want a watch that leans more towards the sporty side in appearance, go with one of the Forerunner series that fits your budget. Both will fit your requirements.

Most people coming from apple go vivo active or venue. Venue being closest to a smart watch. Personally, I'm a instinct guy. Although I'm wearing a Fenix today since I didn't charge my Instinct for 2 weeks and it died before bed. I've swam tens of thousands of meters (more like hundreds but..) in pool, open and salt water with my Garmins. Done free diving (only to about 40ft, I'm not very good) and press the buttons regularly sub surface. I've also done cliff jumping with every watch, and haven't lost a garmin to water intrusion. I would definitely select a 100m rated model for water sports. Any watch can fail but I've had 6 garmins and none have. I also had a bunch of Casio and Timex over the years and not one failure.

From what you have written, budget is not a constraint for you. I'd go for a watch. Tracking sleep is very useful. I am implementing small changes to improve sleep and the data from the watch is helpful. Eventhough it's not perfect. If i could afford it, I'd buy a Garmin Venue right now. Also, while a chest strap may be a tad bit more accurate for heart rate tracking, it is not something you want to wear for hours at a stretch every day. There a watch is useful.

Garmin - They have a lot of watches at different price points. There is built-in GPS and the battery lasts for several days, unlike a smart watch that you typically need to charge every night. The Garmin app easily syncs with other fitness apps, if that's important to you. If you have a smaller wrist, go for the "S" models that will look and fit better.