The Garmin Venu 2S packs the best features Garmin has to offer into a miniature size that fits comfortably on your wrist. It includes a host of premium features such as offline Spotify use, fast GPS tracking, and up to 10 days of battery life. In addition, the new Fitness Age and Health Snapshot modes give the Venu 2S most of the features you need. This is not only a marked improvement over the original Garmin Venu, but also a great example of why Garmin has rightfully earned its reputation as one of the best manufacturers of fitness tracking technology.
The input system remains unchanged from the Garmin Venu, with touchscreen operation and two push buttons on the right side. Even though the display is smaller, the revived OLED technology is a joy to behold and distinguishes the Venu 2S from the boring displays that have given fitness trackers a bad reputation. Watch faces pop off the screen, and the colors throughout the UI are vibrant and attractive.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]The controls are also much improved, the playback functions are much more responsive, and the rest of the UI responds just as quickly.One of the problems with the Garmin Venu was the overall slowness of the UI, which became more noticeable over time and at times felt like a wearable version of Windows 98.
What didn’t solve this problem was the design behind the UI, which looked clunky and outdated. In comparison, the interface this time around takes full advantage of the AMOLED screen’s capabilities, with vibrant colors and icons that are very interesting to look at. Compared to the brightly colored Windows XP, it may immediately feel old-fashioned, but there’s a reason why that OS is so beloved.
Venu 2 can record more than 25 different activities. In addition to the usual running, walking, and cycling, there are now timers for indoor climbing, bouldering, hiking, and high-intensity training such as AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) and Tabata interval training. In addition, strength training now shows which muscles have been worked, which is great for beginners like me.
Where the Venu 2S excels is in its GPS functionality. Like its predecessor, the Venu 2S can track your location independently of your smartphone, but with updated internals, establishing a GPS connection is much faster. In our tests, we were able to perform a GPS-tracked run in less than 10 seconds (some days it was a bit slower, but never more than 20 seconds).