Live Science Verdict
The Venu Sq 2 is the most affordable fitness tracker Garmin makes that has real smartwatch - style glossiness . It ’s a little pricier than its harbinger but a good alternative to the Apple Watch SE if you care the sound of longsighted battery life .
Long barrage fire life
Great OLED display
Very beneficial heart rate truth
GPS is slow off the mark
Does not have an altimeter
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The Garmin Venu Sq 2 is one of the brands more low-cost fitness tracking watches and while it has n’t yet made it into our guide of thebest Garmin watch , there ’s plenty to have a go at it about this little beauty .
It ’s hard not to think of this as a budget banding when tiptop - pricy watches like the Fenix 7 and Epix 2 exist . But the Venu Sq 2 is really a direct challenger for the gamy - profile Fitbit Versa 4 or Apple Watch SE . Not so budget now , eh ?
The Garmin Venu Sq 2 beats both thoroughly for battery lifetime , and is probably the best of the trio if you desire an slow - cash in one’s chips , low maintenance fitness ticker . It ’s also importantly better - looking than the original Venu Sq , if significantly more expensive too .
agree out our guide to thebest fitness trackersfor more inspiration or read on to discover everything you call for to love about the Venu Sq 2 .
Price and availability
Garmin released the Venu Sq 2 in September 2022 , two years after the original Venu Sq . It costs $ 249/£229/$399AU for the base exemplar . Or you may make up $ 299/£259/$499 for the Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music Edition , which has 3 GB of redundant room for locally stored medicine and podcasts .
Design and display
The Venu series is home to some of Garmin ’s glossiest - looking sentry . This one gets tightlipped to the Apple Watch style , the “ Sq ” referring to the substantial flesh .
There ’s knotty Gorilla Glass 3 on top , a band of anodised aluminum around the watch face and polymer / plastic for the quietus of the casing . It ’s a bite pragmatic - looking , but still a huge ascent over the original Venu Sq , thanks to its OLED screen . That covert put up a 360 x 320 pixel resolution , which appears A-one - sharp . It also just looks great and can get brilliant enough to compensate for gay days .
This watch is very light , at just 38 g. I do find I regularly take it off in the middle of the night when asleep , or at least one-half asleep , but it ’s soft enough to change the 20 mm strap with something a piffling more accommodating .
Features
This silky touchscreen watch still has plentitude of Garmin ’s hardcore sport - tracking genetics . Flick up from the bottom of the watch face and you ’ll see a series of what Garmin called coup d’oeil . These are stats like your steps , heart rate , calories , Body Battery and tenseness .
you could also weightlift the upper side button to enter the natural process screen , which is where you start a tracked workout . I counted 32 dissimilar exercise modes in this section . And there ’s some more interesting stuff and nonsense here than just the reams of effectively very tracked mutant some watches offer .
For example , Navigate lets you see where you are in intercourse to a spot on a mathematical function . Health Snapshot monitor your pedigree oxygenation and heart rate for two minutes to value your stress and respiration rate . And there are also lots of classic usage modes from including running , take the air and cycling to more alien fare such as skiing , row and pickleball . Yes , pickleball .
The Intensity Minutes feature film lets you localize workout goals . And after each run you ’re show your VO2 Max , which you could keep an center on as an index of longer - condition onward motion . And you may do some basic guided workouts through the watch too .
There ’s enough here to make you inquire what separate the Venu 2 Sq from the Venu 2 , which costs importantly more . We dug a little deeper to bump out .
First up , the Venu 2 Sq has no altimeter . This mean it ca n’t show the numeral of stairs you climb and wo n’t show your altitude — a reasonably crucial stat for hike and skiing . It also lacks the Venu 2 ’s gyroscope , which is used to tell when you go from running to walk . You do n’t get any of the Venu 2 ’s fancy animated workout either . These show visual representation of gym usage and yoga motility .
It also does n’t pop the question Performance Condition , Training Readiness and Training Load features . These are found in high - end Garmins and let athletic type all right - melody their physical exercise procedure . However , it does have Body Battery , which lets you see when you might be scat yourself into the land too much .
Overall , it ’s fairly basic by Garmin standard . But that ’s reflected in its price , and there ’s enough to work with here for those who are n’t obsessive about stats .
Performance
A sensor inspection and repair is one of the main reasons for the Garmin Venu 2 Sq to subsist . It get the same Elevate v4 heart rate array as top - tier models like the Garmin Epix 2 and a newfangled GPS chipping .
We have brush up a large smattering of vigil with Garmin ’s former heart rate hardware . They are all pretty outstanding , but some have scramble a bit with eminent - exertion workouts liken to the Garmin Fenix 7 , which we often use as a bench mark .
We noticed no such military issue in the Garmin Venu 2 Sq . It seems to record almost identical core rate reading to the Fenix 7 , which is middling much the idealistic outcome . You ’re fuck off better accuracy than the Fitbit Versa 4 here and final result comparable with those of the Apple Watch SE .
Location accuracy is a different case . The Venu 2 Sq can take up to a mates of minutes to triangulate when you ’re in a Modern area . The actual length - calculated accuracy of the Venu Sq 2 is o.k. ( we compare it to the Garmin Fenix 7 to check that ) but you do n’t get the parity with Garmin ’s high - end watches .
Battery life is another highlight , particularly if we consider the Venu 2 Sq an Apple Watch SE alternative . Garmin says this watch can last up to 11 days , or 12 in its battery saver mode . After two full days of normal use , with one hour - long cut through workout , the Venu 2 Sq lost 22 % of its battery . This suggests it would last around nine days with real - world use .
The bad news program is that one of the neatest feature article reduce stamp battery life dramatically : always - on screen door mode . By nonremittal the Venu 2 Sq sieve only turn on when you whip the watch around to your fount , or touch the projection screen or one of the buttons . Always - on keeps the show lit all solar day , turning off when you reach the layer - time hours you set in the Garmin Connect phone app .
To get a “ worst case scenario ” reading we monitored the battery grade over a Clarence Day ( well , 26 hours ) with this modality engaged , and did a evenhandedly lengthy 80 - 90 minute GPS tracked physical exercise . After 26 hr the Venu Sq 2 had lost 29 % of its charge , suggesting 3 and a bit days of role should be the minimum stamina most people see .
Verdict
Garmin ’s Venu Sq 2 get a big display rise over the master copy . It lay down this seem a much less “ cheap ” vigil in exercise . It ’s just a shame it is also literally less cheap than its predecessor , at $ 50 more .
The affordable angle still works , though , as the beguiler Garmin Venu 2 costs significantly more , and the Sq 2 has clear advantage over both the Apple Watch SE and Fitbit Versa 4 . Its stat accuracy is full than Fitbit ’s . Battery aliveness is a world asunder from Apple ’s .
As with any other great Garmin , the Venu Sq 2 provide good exercise tracking chop in a watch you do n’t have to charge that often . Some of Garmin ’s more advanced feature are overleap here , but an altimeter is the only rank one . This means it ca n’t show your ALT directly , or work out how many stairs you wax each twenty-four hours .
If this isn’t for you
What else does Garmin declare oneself for similar money ? Not much . The near alternative come from elsewhere : Fitbit ’s Versa 4 and Apple ’s slightly more expensive watch , the SE .
Both expect a spot slicker than the Venu Sq 2 . Apple ’s ticker also has Garmin - gradation tracking truth , but you will have to excite it pretty much every day — one of the best understanding to purchase a Garmin instead .
The Fitbit Versa 4 is slightly cheaper than the Venu , but some of its features are lock behind a $ 9.99 a month Fitbit Premium paywall . It also does not seem to have sum charge per unit truth as good as Garmin ’s .
