How Well Does the Venu Sq 2 Handle Garmin? Mealistic Design, Case, and Performance of a Large-Size, Low-Performance Watch
Although the Venu Sq 2 isn’t perfect, it continues to get better. At the end of the day, I like where Garmin is headed. Fitbit? I’m not so sure.
The design did grow on me after a few days. Although the case itself is plastic, the aluminum bezel gives it a chic vibe. I don’t mind wearing the default Silicone strap, but if you don’t like it, you can always change it to a standard 20mm band. Size-wise, the 40mm watch case is just right for my wrist, and it was comfortable enough to wear 24/7. At 38g, it’s lightweight, and I’m pleased to report I didn’t rip it off at night as I sometimes do with bulkier watches, and it didn’t drag down my wrist while running. It would be great if you have more small wrists, like me. My coat sleeves did not catch on the slim 11mm watch.
I prefer smaller watches for comfort because their screens can be hard to read. The Venu Sq 2 had a display that I didn’t mind. My eyesight isn’t great but the vivid colors and larger text size make it easier to read notifications on other watches. It’s not impossible to be a half second late when you use the phone, but it is not as bad as it could be.
Battery Life of the X-ray Trend Wireless Charging Blackberry: The Case Against Its Importance for Personal Computers and Smartwatches
As for battery life, the Trend has an estimated five days on a single charge. I got about 30 minutes of gps activity a day, default brightness, and more notifications than I care for, but that’s all. It not as long as you’ll get on some other fitness bands, but battery life heavily depends on your individual usage. At least now, you could stick a Qi charger in every room, and you’d be covered.
Wireless charging isn’t new to smartwatches. In fact, most modern smartwatches come with some kind of wireless charging magnetic puck. The catch is these chargers tend to be proprietary, and even if you have a Qi charger, it likely won’t work with your smartwatch. Or, at least, not reliably. Conversely, Garmin says you should be able to plop the Trend onto any existing Qi-certified charger you may already have. Losing a watch chargers is more annoying than most gadgets. Not only is there a good chance your dozens of USB, micro USB, and USB-C cables won’t be compatible, but it often costs a pretty penny to buy a replacement from the manufacturer, and third-party dupes may not always work.
This is an impressive feature set for the price. If you spend the additional $50 for the Music version, you’ll get to leave your phone at home to work or just go to the store. But unless you must have onboard music, I’d recommend sticking with the regular model since this isn’t a true standalone watch — you’ll usually have your phone with you.
My Garmin Connect App: Data Wall for a Smart Health Care System, Including Mobile Banking and Paying for Food and Drinks in a Crowdsourced Environment
The Venu Sq 2 has a credit card that is able to be used in order to pay. It will do in a pinch but isn’t as widely used as Apple Pay or Google wallet. I had no difficulty adding a card and paying for a drink from the vending machine. You’ll want to double-check the list of banks that support Garmin Pay, but there’s a ton in the US. You can use it for public transit in certain cities in the US, but only New York, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon.
The Venu Sq 2 isn’t a truly standalone watch because of the safety and fall detection features that require your phone’s cellular connection. Staying close to home is fine. I’ve left my phone behind for a short recovery run around the block and while cross-training at my building’s gym. The key is that in either scenario, I’d be able to get help even without my phone. I’d be much warier of leaving my phone at home when venturing outside my neighborhood.
On the health front you get features like sleep tracking, stress tracking, hydration tracking, guided breathing sessions, respiration rate, and the Body Battery recovery gauge. Body battery is the most unique. It’s a gauge of how much energy you’ve exerted in a day versus how much you’ve recharged the previous night. I’ve used it a ton over the years, and it’s generally spot on. For beginners, it’s a good, simple way to visualize recovery.
The privacy and legal policy of the company can be accessed within the app. You have to grant certain phone privileges to the garmin connect app. Additionally, optional safety features, like LiveTrack, also come with an end-user license agreement. For certain features, you may have to share your health data with the company. You need to agree to the terms of the Garmin Pay Privacy Policy if you decide to enable it. Integrating your activity data with other services requires you to agree to the individual terms and policies.
I am a data maximalist and so I made this data wall. (Shoot these stats straight into my eyeballs, baby.) It is not necessary for minimalists to suffer as I do. You can edit the dash to be less cluttered. I keep everything visible because I don’t want to fall into the trap of losing metrics in a maze. The thing is, so many fitness and training apps present the same exact data in a more digestible way. Hell, I often prefer viewing my Garmin data through Strava.
Changing on-wrist and app settings can be difficult. For instance, if you want to turn on the always-on display, you have to long-press the bottom button before following Settings > System > Not during activity can be seen. Timeout > Always-On. There’s no quick settings menu like on most other smartwatches. Venu Sq 2 watch faces are not possible to manage in the app, on the watch itself. You come into a lot of this, exemplified by the many FAQ’s on the Garmin Connect website.
One thing I do like about the Connect app is it’s highly customizable. The tabs can be edited at the bottom of the Connect app. It’s a steep learning curve, but if you put the effort in, you can make things as complex or simple as you like. It is not bad once you get used to it. Either I have asyndrome or that’s it.
The Garmin Venu Sq 2 and the Trend: How many times will you have to hit ‘agree’ to use a smart device?
The best thing about the Sense 2 and the Versa 4 is that it’s wrist-worn. They have less features than their predecessors, and I am not sure if we will ever see a Sense 3. If you want to upgrade, you have the only two products that you can get: thePixel Watch and thePixel Watch. At this point, I’d only recommend the Versa 4 or Sense 2 if features like EKG or a simpler app are a priority.
Every smart device now has a set of terms and conditions that you must sign before you can use it. We can’t read and analyze all of these agreements. But we’re going to start counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
To use the Garmin Venu Sq 2 or Venu Sq 2 Music, you must pair it with an iPhone or Android smartphone. That includes the phone’s Terms of Service, privacy policy, and any other permissions you grant. You must have an account for the app to use it.
Final Tally: Whatever your phone requires, plus three mandatory Garmin policies and four phone permissions for smart features. There are additional policies for health insights and safety features.
Of course, wireless charging isn’t the only new feature coming to the Trend. The watch is meant to replace the Vivomove 3 in Garmin’s hybrid lineup and adds Garmin Pay, its sleep score feature, and a barometric altimeter. The Trend has the same displays as the other Vivomove watches, but they are only on a single piece of paper.
That’s only the first image that popped into my head — probably because that’s the version of me I wished I was while testing the Trend. My shoes are white, my nails are chippy and my clothes are more practical than cute. The design of the Trend is feminine, but it is targeted toward women. Since it is an all- black version, you can swap the straps for any standard 20mm band, and I can easily see it on the wrist of a business person who is wearing a snazzy suit. It’s got a 40mm case, but there are plenty of people who prefer that to larger ones. The Trend does not appeal to anyone who is looking for a rugged vibe.
The only thing that gives me pause is the Trend’s price. At $270, it’s only about $30 cheaper than the Vivomove Style. And if you get the gold versions of the Trend, they’re the same price. The main difference between the two is the Trend has Qi charging, while the Style has a hidden color OLED display and better materials. It’ll boil down to what discounts you can find, the colors you want, and whether you want the option of wireless charging. In an otherwise solid hybrid lineup, this unnecessarily muddies the waters.
Water Resistance, Adaptation, and Water Resistance in a Water-resistant Waterproof and Waterproof Vivomov Watch for Men and Women
The strap makes it lightweight at 43 grams and is ideal for everyday wear. I never felt the need to rip off my arm while sleeping and it didn’t weigh me down while I was working out. It has 5ATM of water resistance, which means you could hop in the pool with it and be fine, though I wouldn’t because touchscreens and water don’t mix. However, you don’t have to take it off if you’ve got a pile of dishes to wash, get caught in a downpour, or need to wrestle a prickly cat into the bathtub.
It will never be the smartest watch on the block. But if you’re not looking to control a smart McMansion, the Trend has a great mix of basic and modern features.
I love these hidden displays because it’s a clever way to bring analog style into the modern era, all while being adaptable to different price points. Like the entry-level Sport, the Trend opts for monochrome LCD instead of the color OLED you’ll find on the more expensive Vivomove watches. But unlike the Sport, the Trend’s hidden displays allow you to view data on the entire screen instead of just the bottom half. That makes it much easier to read full notifications and navigate menus.
The are a few downsides. If you wear gloves, the touch screen can be difficult to use if you are sweaty. The hidden display can also get washed out in bright lighting, but you can tweak brightness levels to help mitigate that. I’d also love it if the display itself were more responsive, but having tried almost every Vivomove device, the Trend’s display is definitely an improvement from earlier models.
Push notifications, media controls, find my phone, alarm, watch, timer, and analog hands will all automatically move out of the way when you switch to the newest version of the app. Android users can also reply to texts and reject phone calls. The Trend includes safety features, such as fall detection and live tracking, as well as more advanced communication features. If you need safety features, they are there if you need them.
You won’t have internet with this watch, but you will receiveBluetooth, wi-fi, and ANT Plus. You can’t have built-in gps on your phone. So this isn’t going to be a standalone watch for long solo runs or hikes, but it’s more than adequate for keeping you in the loop during work or at the gym.
This tracker is better suited to workouts where you can zone out or where just getting the credit for doing something is enough. It was great for walking, mobility, arm day, and yoga. It was alright for shorter runs, but I would prefer the Apple Watch Ultra for half training. The same applies to health tracking. The best sleep tracker I have tested is from Garmin but it doesn’t get you in the right place. Heart rate data is good, but sometimes your nightly SpO2 will be suspiciously low. You probably won’t like that if you obsess over numbers, but accuracy is only one aspect of health tracking. The bigger goal is to see your progress over time, and the aptly named Trend is more than equipped to do that.
Rather, I wouldn’t recommend trying to check your metrics mid-workout because it took me out of the flow. The dimmer display and lack of physical buttons made it difficult for people to see where they were near the screens.