Garmin Venu 2 Plus, GPS Smartwatch with Call and Text, Advanced Health Monitoring and Fitness Features, Slate with Black Band

Before I settled on the Venu 2 Plus, I tried Fitbit Sense 2 and Venu Sq2. So I'll describe my experience with all here. All are great fitness and health tracking/monitoring watches, by the way. I was looking for a health tracking watch, as my days of endurance training is all but over, so my review will focus on the health tracking and smart watch features. Also, I was looking for a replacement for Apple Watch (for poor batter life and poor sensing accuracy) and previously owned Garmin Forerunner 220, Vivoactive HR, and Fenix 3 watches.Fitbit of course has the better designed phone app and generally easier to use interface. It's a nice watch with great looking hardware. It definitely looks more like a fitness tracker than a watch, but that's what some people might be looking for. If you are looking to do sleep tracking, it has smaller footprint and is more comfortable to sleep with. It did everything it promised to do quite well. I was particularly excited about the cEDA feature, but it was not as useful as I had expected (what is a "body response?") At the end, the dealbreaker for me was the battery life. I wanted it for all the sensing features, but when you use the watch with most of the features on, you get no more than 2 days of batter life (not the 6 days advertised). My goal was to abandon the Apple Watch that only gets 18 hours, and this is not a major improvement for me.The Garmin Venu Sq 2 is also a very nice watch and has great HR, sleep, stress tracking, etc., very accurate GPS, and good batter life (5-6 days) in a small package. The design of the Connect app is not as user-friendly as the Fitbit app, and generally navigating both the phone app and the watch is not as smooth as the Fitbit of the Apple Watch. For example, the "glances," controls menu, the watch face all look like they belong to different watches. Navigating across them isn't as smooth. There was also a bit of a delay in the watch face appearing when I raised my arm. Perhaps 500 ms too late for it to feel like there isn't a delay. Some of the forums said that it's because of the 3rd party faces, but I had this problem even with Garmin faces. Finally, it was not as comfortable to sleep with on your arm as the Fitbit was. I also couldn't find a watch face I liked from the Garmin designs. I then purchased the Totem Designs "Dash" watch face for $2.67, and I really loved it. Eventually, there were too many small things I didn't like about the Venu Sq 2: discomfort, delay, etc.I was not hopeful that Venu 2 Plus was going to be much better than Venu Sq2, but I was pleasantly surprised. Its battery lasts 9 days with all the bells and whistles on. I tested this and got 6 days before the battery went below 30%, which is excellent. Charging it once a week is really a new concept for me coming from the Apple Watch. This watch also connects to your phone's smart assistant. It's a bit buggy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. However, overall it's a more comfortable, responsive, and all in all better watch. Although it's a bit bulkier than Venu Sq 2, it is not less comfortable on my arm throughout the day or during sleep. Its screen responds right away. It's a large, bright, crisp screen. The health metrics tracking is amazing, very accurate, very responsive. No more of Apple Watch's "your heart rate was XX 37 minutes ago." It measures it very accurately and very quickly. I didn't know how much I was going to like the circular AMOLED screen, but it is a great screen. Being able to answer and (mostly) decline calls is a huge plus. I used the ECG sensor once, and it works as well as the one on the Apple Watch. I wake up in the morning, look through my sleep, HR at night and monitor HR, body battery, stress, steps/calories through the day. I got the Titan (analog) and Tempo (digital) watch faces from Totem Designs ($2.67 each), and they both look gorgeous. (You lose the ability to go directly to an app from a hard press on the widget, but the better design is worth it.) All in all, I am very happy with this watch and plan to keep it as long as it lasts!In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised by Venu 2 Plus as health tracking watch with good smart watch features and would recommend it for people who are looking for these features!

While some of the reviews have complained about poor battery life but it's been several days since I charged it and it's still at 69%. If it holds up, it's the watch Samsung has always tried to build and failed, and Garmin has succeeded. I love my old Forerunner 645 Music but this Venu 2 Plus has so far, almost all the same features but several more including the first Garmin with phone calling and taking calls, a built-in pulse oximeter, and even an ECG tool that rivals the Kardia Mobile single line units.There some things I've had to hunt for, like turning off the totally annoying "MOVE" alert--I move at MY convenience, not a watch's! And I would very much like to replace the steps function on the main screen with, oh, maybe battery life? It does seem like the swimming app is far too limited. My home pool is 40' long, long enough for laps, but the custom pool length setting is only in yards and requires more than 13 1/3 yards. That makes no sense. You should be able to punch in any length, in meters, yard, OR feet, along with decimals or inches.Finding decent accessories is tough. I just sent back on pair watch bands because they kept falling off the watch. Screen protectors of quality are also tough.But like the Forerunner, with a metal bracelet instead of the silicone thing it looks far more dressed up and formal, yet still does everything I need.The Forerunner was the first Smart Watch that worked for me, as the Samsung Galaxy watches are have all sorts of bugs. I have tried them and had to return them. So I am hoping that the Venu 2 plus is a great upgrade from the Forerunner. So far, it seems to be everything the Apple watch is, and more, with better health sensors, and it works with Android phones and iPhones, both, which the Apple watch doesn't. Also, it's round, not a blunt ugly rectangle.Update: After almost a month the battery life on this watch is amazing--so far 6 days on 1 charge and 30% left. Batteries should not be allowed to fall below 20% so I'll charge it then. I found a free watch face I like that is analog, has battery life, altitude (it's rather hilly here), a digital read out as well, and it tells you the month, not just the day & date.The compass function is buried in navigation and I haven't been able to set it up--inferior to the 645's which is instantly accessible.