screenrant.com Garmin's Venu 2 Plus Smartwatch Is All About Health, And Style

Garmin has added a new smartwatch to its lineup called the Venu 2 Plus, an updated version of the standard Venu 2 that can make calls, comes with an extra button, and a handsome price tag of $450. Renders and the specifications sheet for the new Garmin smartwatch leaked previously, and were were spot on. The looks haven’t changed much, but Garmin has managed to reduce the footprint this time, including reducing the strap size from 22mm on the vanilla Venu 2 to 20mm on the Plus model.

Just as the leaked materials suggested, a small upgrade has also been made with the introduction of a stainless steel backplate. The Venu 2 offered a round AMOLED display with a 416 x 416 pixels resolution, and the Plus model isn’t changing that, despite the smaller profile. Previous leaks also mentioned the possibility of a handful of other smartwatches being released in 2022, including the Fenix 7 series, Instinct 2 series, and Epix Gen2. However, none of them have arrived just yet.

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The new Venu 2 Plus looks quite appealing with its stainless steel bezel and a round OLED display with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 on top. In fact, there is some similarity here with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 series. As for fitness, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus can track heart rate, heart rate variation, blood oxygen saturation levels, respiration rhythm, sleep cycle, stress and energy levels, as well as pregnancy and menstrual cycles. Animated on-screen workouts are also part of the package, alongside the ability to create a custom workout routine by choosing from over 1,600 exercises. There are over 25 sports apps preloaded on the latest Garmin smartwatch to help keep a tab on everything from swimming and cycling to golf sessions.

Good Looks, Diverse Tricks, High Price

The standout feature though is support for making voice calls. Users can make calls straight from their wrist, as long they’ve got a connected phone in their pocket. This is not standalone calling functionality, something that Apple has been offering for years with cellular versions of the Apple Watch. Instead, this is Bluetooth calling and requires the Garmin Connect app to be installed. Thankfully, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus doesn’t discriminate between an iPhone and an Android phone when it comes to making calls. Where it does make a distinction, however, is rejecting phone calls and responding with a text message, as these are exclusive to Android phones.

Phone calls can be made or answered courtesy of the voice assistant users have installed on their phone. Google Assistant, Siri, and even Samsung’s Bixby all work just fine, and aside from just handling calls and sending messages, the assistant can also be used to control smart home devices, get answers about the weather and so on. Music enthusiasts will also be happy to know that they can download songs and playlists from Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music, and listen via wireless headphones or earbuds without having to carry a phone at the same time. The Garmin smartwatch's water resistance rating is set at 5 ATM, and the battery is said to last up to nine days in smartwatch mode. However, all of this does not come cheap with Garmin's Venu 2 Plus smartwatch priced at $449.99.

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Source: Garmin

Nadeem has been writing about consumer technology for over three years now, having worked with names such as NDTV and Pocketnow in the past. Aside from covering the latest news, he also has experience testing out the latest phones and laptops.When he's not writing, you can find him failing at Doom eternal.