Garmin Venu 2 Plus, GPS Smartwatch with Call and Text, Advanced Health Monitoring and Fitness Features, Silver with Gray Band
- Suit your style with a smartwatch that’s available in three colors and features a bright, crisp AMOLED display
- Enjoy the convenience of making and taking phone calls from your wrist when paired with your compatible smartphone
- Use your compatible smartphone’s voice assistant to respond to text messages, ask questions, control compatible smart home devices and more
- Know your body better with extensive health monitoring features, including the Health Snapshot feature, Body Battery energy levels, sleep score and insights, fitness age, stress tracking and more (this device is intended to be an estimation of your activity and metrics; it is not a medical device)
- Find new ways to keep your body moving with more than 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, including walking, running, cycling, HIIT, swimming, golf and many more
- Use preloaded workouts that include cardio, yoga, strength, HIIT and Pilates, create your own in the Garmin Connect app on your compatible smartphone, or try Garmin Coach free adaptive training plans to help you prepare for your next running challenge
- Download up to 650 songs to your watch, including playlists from Spotify, Amazon Music or Deezer (may require a premium subscription) and connect with your wireless headphones for phone-free listening
- With a supported country and payment network, leave your cash and cards at home; Garmin Pay contactless payments let you pay for purchases on the go
- Safety and tracking features include Incident Detection (during outdoor walks, runs and bike rides) and Assistance, both of which send a message with your live location to emergency contacts (Requires setup and your smartphone to be in an area with network coverage where data connectivity is available).
- Get an uninterrupted picture of your health, thanks to battery life of up to 9 days in smartwatch mode and up to 8 hours in GPS mode with music, plus rapid recharging and battery saver mode
$450
Dial in to your well-being with Venu® 2 Plus. This GPS smartwatch has advanced health and fitness features to help you better understand your body. When paired with your compatible smartphone, enjoy the convenience of keeping that phone in your pocket, and making and taking calls right from your wrist. You can even use your smartphone’s voice assistant to respond to text messages. Switch up your activities with animated workouts and more than 25 built-in sports apps. Built-in music storage lets you bring your favorite tunes along. And get even more functionality on the wrist with Garmin Pay™ contactless payments in supported countries and payment networks, safety tracking features and more (Requires setup and your smartphone to be in an area with network coverage where data connectivity is available)
From the manufacturer
Specification: Garmin Venu 2 Plus, GPS Smartwatch with Call and Text, Advanced Health Monitoring and Fitness Features, Silver with Gray Band
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10 reviews for Garmin Venu 2 Plus, GPS Smartwatch with Call and Text, Advanced Health Monitoring and Fitness Features, Silver with Gray Band
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Happy Sea Slug –
My little companionI had been a loyal Fitbit user for years until I got the latest model Charge HR, and, well, the heart rate monitor sucked. So I decided to venture into the world of Garmin.Boy, I’m glad I did. The Venu 2s is really a next-level device compared to Fitbit. I have owned mine for about five months now and it has become my constant fitness companion. The HR monitor isn’t perfect, but it’s WAY better, functioning as it should maybe 95% of the time. I bought the 2s because I’m a woman. I was worried it would be too small, but it’s actually quite substantial on my medium wrist, not too big but it took a few days to adjust to the size. I also sprung for a black band from the Garmin store because I did not care for the grey. The result is a really sharp-looking watch.Also, I have really sensitive skin and was pleased to find I had zero issues with rash or irritation on the band.I don’t use all the features, but these are my favorite:Glances: If you swipe up or down on the watch face you get various snapshots of all your activities and stats. Easy if you want to check the weather, how long you slept the night before, how many workouts you’ve done in the last week, etc. If you tap any of the snapshots you get more detailed info. You can customize which apps show up in glances.Build-Your-Own-Workout: In the Connect mobile app and on the web app you can design your own workouts and the watch guides you through them as you perform the exercises. This is useful for strength training where it can time rest between sets and tell you what exercises are next. You can see your whole planned workout at a glance and where you are in it. Then you can manually adjust the number of reps and weight you actually used for each set as you go. I use this all the time. I have built standard strength workouts, special workouts when I had a knee injury, workouts for when I’m away from home and have no weights, etc. It’s also good for designing running intervals. I also love that when you design a workout in the Connect Mobile app, you can see what muscle groups are engaged. This helps me balance the full body workouts better.Connect Mobile App: In general I just love this app. It keeps track of all your workouts, fitness intensity minutes, and gives you detailed information about everything you’ve done. The learning curve for figuring it out is kind of steep, there are a lot of details and functions hidden inside it, but once you learn where everything is, it’s fine.Intensity Minutes: Experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week. Garmin tracks this for you. Garmin uses its own mysterious algorithm to determine which exercises count as vigorous and which count as moderate. You get twice the credit for vigorous minutes. This algorithm does not match AHA or CDC guidelines. It’s possible to go into the watch and set certain HR zones as vigorous, so if you don’t like how they do it, you can change it.Things I don’t love:The build-your-own workouts are limited to certain exercises on a fixed list, which is incredibly stupid. Especially because I work with kettlebells and the kettlebell options are extremely limited. There is no way to enter a custom exercise name, so sometimes I have to use something on the fixed list as a placeholder for the actual exercise I’m doing. For example, kettlebell halos are in my workout regimen as tricep dips. Apparently users have been asking for custom exercise names for years and Garmin hasn’t complied.Beyond the glances and workouts, which are fairly intuitive, changing settings within the watch itself is pretty annoying. I prefer to use the Mobile app and then sync it for most changes, but some things have to be changed in the watch itself (how to calculate Intensity Minutes is one of those things.) Prepare for endlessly nested menus.The default watch faces are hideous. I paid something like $5 using the Garmin IQ app for a user created watch face I love. It’s a flower that blooms as my daily steps increase. I’ve used the same one for months. If you are really into switching watch faces, expect to spend some $ or be stuck with garish designs.There are three different desktop apps you need to reach the full potential or your Garmin. There’s Garmin Express, which syncs your watch and installs updates when you connect it to your PC via USB. There’s the Garmin Connect web-based application, which allows for most of the tweaks and status reports you’d get on the mobile app, and then there’s the IQ app, where you can buy user-created apps and watch faces. It boggles my mind that these three apps aren’t integrated on the PC.One last bit of advice: Anytime you try to change something in the mobile app, you have to sync your watch before it really takes effect. This is true if you change HR zones, if you tweak a custom workout, or change any setting. I keep forgetting to do this and end up disappointed when I expected the change to take place. Sync your watch! It’s fairly easy to do from the mobile app. When you’re done making a change, look for the little sync icon in the top right (Android)Overall because of the aforementioned drawbacks I would rate it a 4.5. I don’t know how it compares to other watches of its class, but it blows Fitbit out of the water.
Shadoza –
I’ve own 7 devices, 3 brands, love Polar but Garmin wins, here’s whyBRAND Comparison:Fitbit – Pro: it is intuitive. Con: Micro-transactions. User is expected to pay monthly fees for services already on the device. Caters to Corporations rather than consumer.Polar – Pro: accuracy in HR readings, offers arm band and chest strap combinations. Con: Expensive, zero customer service, Web and phone services cater to new models / Operating systems. Won’t play nice with older systems.Garmin – Pro: does not charge extra monthly fees for features already on the device. If you don’t like the hard band, there are hook and loop after-market bands that work well. The website and phone app works reasonably well with older software. Doesn’t offer an armband, BUT, the Polar arm band works when the sensor feature is turned on! Yes, you can use your Polar OH1 with your Garmin Venu Sq. Con: Garmin’s customer service is not as good as it once was. The live chat only works on some platforms.Garmin Features(Notice: There are more features, these are the ones I related to.)Sleep1. The sleep time goal cannot be adjusted. It is set to 8 hours and cannot be moved to more or less. Garmin has indicated they have no plans to change this.2. The sleep readings are not very accurate. If one lays in bed after waking up and move their eyes around, the device will call it REM sleep…even if one is not sleeping. If one gets up to use the bathroom or let the pet in/out, the sleep reading may restart once sleep is resumed. (If one adjusts the sleep time to correct this issue, they will lose the Pulse Ox data, for the entire day if the all-day feature is turned on.)3. The hours slept cannot be adjusted without screwing up the Pulse Ox readings, the Body Battery (energy) readings, and the Stress reduction readings. Seems they are all co-dependent on reaching that forced 8 hour goal. None will work well for those that sleep on their arm and may not work well for those that sleep on their side.Weight Maintenance1. Weight maintenance works in tandem with a third-party app called MyFitnessPal. (Good app but requires newer phone model to download.)2. Using the Calories In/Out feature for weight control removes the total calories burn reporting from the phone app. Kind of annoying if one has a burn goal.Calories1. The calories report only gives weekly / monthly active calories. (Again if one has a daily burn goal, too bad for you.)2. The daily, live, readings are good. It provides the total burn, then shows the breakdown of active and resting (non-active) totals. (It only does this if one is not working with weight control features.)3. User can set calorie burn goals but the phone app does not respect them (keep reports on that goal.) User cannot set a daily burn goal.Pulse Ox1. This feature has issues related to the sleep feature.2. The device offers a sleep only, all day automatic, and manual use.3. Doesn’t matter which you choose the device will default to average readings or last reading at times. 4. Turing off the sleep readings while leaving on the all-day readings will result in no posting of all day readings. You can see them on the device but not on the apps. Turning off the automatic reads (both sleep and all day,) one can still manually read, and these numbers (accurate or not) will report to the app.Respiration1. Works during sleep regardless of the Pulse Ox setting.2. If one uses the breathing feature to relax, some strange readings may occur. For me, using the relax feature decreases the reported count to 3 breaths per minute and increases the stress.3. Respiration rate does not appear to report during exercise. (I find this annoying.)Heart Rate1. Is reasonably accurate when compared to other brands and other devices.2. Keeping the wrist band high on the wrist is required to gain accurate readings. Not comfortable but functional.3. Resting rate is not a resting rate. It is the daily low. There doesn’t seem to be a feature of actual taking of resting heart rate.4. Low, high, and current (live) rates are available on the phone app. The device reads the heart rate about every 5 minutes or when activity is detected (this feature can be changed.)5. If the device is set to read real time, a notice suggests the battery could be drained faster. I use that option and charge every two to three days with activity.6. The customization of the device (some of which are downloaded separately) provide many options for seeing this data during a workout.Body Battery1. The body energy feature is not functional in my opinion. It is tightly related to sleep hours, patterns, readings. If the user has different sleep metrics then the device, they will find their energy level does not recharge even if one feels they’ve had a good sleep.2. The body battery drains all day during activity. If one wants to recharge (relax,) the move feature will harass them to get up and move, which results in more drain. Not a good feature; it can be removed or ignored.Stress1. The stress feature is also based on the unfortunate sleep feature. Movement causes stress, not moving causes the move feature to harass. It’s stressful on its own. (stress feature can be removed or ignored.)2. Using the option to de-stress by included programs caused me more stress so that didn’t work well.Other1. The option to download widgets, apps, faces, is great. Not every item is good but the selection and options are.2. Faces included are customizable. (Includes both analog and digital faces.)3. Nice face appearances and data selections are included, but the information doesn’t talk about this so take a look before hunting for a new face.4. Features are mostly customizable. (User is not forced to look at golf apps / widgets if they don’t golf.) Remove the ones you won’t use, keep the ones you will. Space is limited so choose wisely.5. If a featured item is removed, it can be reinstalled.
Anonymous –
Buy this watch.When COVID hit, I decided to get off the sofa and start exercising. I’d bought a Samsung Galaxy watch and for the last 2+ years it was a fixture on my wrist. I seriously credit that watch to motivating me to get and stay in shape. I’m in my late 40s, lost and have kept off 40 pounds, and am training for my first triathlon.Unfortunately, the Galaxy watch failed on me when I mistook the fact that it had a swimming activity feature for it actually being waterproof. (That’s sarcasm — it was supposed to be safe in a pool, but that didn’t prove to be the case unfortunately.) So I quickly was in the market for a new watch that I could wear while swimming. My road bike uses Garmin technology, so buying a Garmin watch made sense. I loved my Samsung watch so much that the bar was very high for Garmin, but after wearing this new watch for several weeks, I can wholeheartedly say that it FAR EXCEEDS my expectations.The battery life is phenomenal. I had to charge my old watch everyday. The Garmin Venu 2 I charge once, maybe twice a week. And it charges quickly. I didn’t think this would be that big of a convenience, but it is.The health and fitness features on this watch are so much better. This is a true fitness watch that happens to have smart watch features (like alerting for texts, calls, etc.). I started using the “coaching” running program where you can select from a handful of trainers and sign up for a training program that sets workouts for you to prepare for races of various lengths. You set the days of the week and on those scheduled days your workout pops up for you to start at your convenience. The workout progresses gradually as you improve in your fitness. I *loathe* running, and if it weren’t for this program making me feel like I’m accountable, I don’t think I’d be making the progress I am.Frankly, this watch has so many great features, there’s no way I can cover them all here. Thorough reviews on the internet abound.One last thing is that, as a rather petite woman, I was on the fence about whether to get the Venu 2 or the 2s, which is smaller. Preferring larger watches, wanting a little more real estate as far as the watch face goes, and preferring the color options (as well as knowing I could return it for free!), I opted for the Venu 2. No regrets there.Oh, and it works great in the pool 🙂
RobertW –
Really PleasedMy objective hadn’t been to buy a smart watch…I’d used a Garmin Vivofit for years to monitor my heart rate while exercising on machines that communicated with it at the gym. However, I wanted to broaden my exercise routine; a broadening that would take me away from the machines. So, the objective was to get a device that would communicate with my Polar chest band while exercising. Objective accomplished; and, BOY, did I ever get much more!Having never worn a smart watch, I’d never paid much attention to them. They’d seemed like just another gadget that I really didn’t need. However, now that I have it, I really love the convenience of being able to catch much of what my phone brings me on my wrist.As one who’d used the Gamin android app and website to monitor my exercise regimen for quite awhile, the Venu 2’s ready interface with both app and website seemed like a natural fit. I was right about that.At the moment, I’m using it daily to record and log my workout results, and it’s a very convenient way of staying on top of communications that are coming into me; both text and email. I also like the little prompts it gives to get moving and breathe deeply when stressed. Moreover, it’s something of a comfort when I see it congratulate me for having passed whatever goals it’s monitoring for me.The battery life is amazing. I haven’t pushed it to its limit, but extrapolating what I see in the way of daily power loss, I’m pretty certain that I’d get well over a week’s use before having to plug it in. I also like the easy interface with the Garmin app on my PC when I plug it in. It appears as an additional drive, capable of accepting firmware updates and communication with the app while it recharges.Never one to walk around listening to music, I’ve not yet loaded my iTunes library into it. Nor do I use it to take phone calls via ear buds. Perhaps I’ll start using those features down the road; but, at least for the time being, my phone seems perfectly adequate for that.My wife says that she wishes it had a bit of a slimmer profile, but I don’t find it all that different in that respect from many men’s watches.All in all, though, I’m very pleased with the Venu 2. It accomplishes exactly what I meant for it to do…and much more!
Amazon Customer –
Excellent Value, Robust Feature SetI bought the Venu for myself and the Venu Sq for my wife. We looked seriously at smartwatches from from the two leading phone manufacturers (as well as some lesser-known brands) and chose Garmin Venu sq because it has SPO2, is water resistant and it is more cost-effective than the other options. Overall, I am very satisfied with this purchase and, if I needed to replace it, I would buy the same watch.The Garmin Connect app was a pleasant surprise in terms of exercise tracking and data management. Coming from another smart device (a dedicated fitness tracker) I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it is. Honestly, I don’t miss the other app (or the fitness tracker) at all.Things I like:1) The feature set is excellent2) The battery life is EXCELLENT3) The data this device can collect (especially HR and sleep) is very useful (HR is accurate as compared to a pulse oximeter)4) It is very (and legitimately) water resistant5) Once you understand how it uses data to create a stress level, the stress level function is surprisingly useful and accurateThings that could be improved:1) The bluetooth connection to the phone drops fairly frequently (for some reason, this seems to be a bigger issue with the Venu sq than the Venu)2) SPO2 is not accurate on the Venu sq or the Venu, however, it seems to be off by a consistent interval3) You need two apps to manage this watch – one for data and one for UI (though they work in tandem)4) The initial setup seemed to take a very long time (numerous updates, etc.)
Everett –
Awesome battery life, and perks but the heart rate monitor is terribleI bough this watch based on a YouTube video showed data suggesting that the heart rate monitor was similar to a chest strap. No, not even close, at worst it is off by up to 30 bpm and at best it is off by 5 to 10 beats but that only occurs when you are “sitting still or sleeping”. However, given that everything else about the watch is pretty good and the battery life is excellent (I get at least 6 days out of a charge), I will give it a thumbs up. To be fair, all of the fitness trackers with wrist-based heart monitors are grossly inaccurate. Therefore, I bought a cheap ($30.00) heart strap which solved the problem. Allow me a moment to vent for a moment to suggest that these companies are aware that their wrist-base heart rate monitors are “terribly inaccurate” but they promote the function anyway. I basically have to synch down a fitness tracker to the point that it makes my hand tingle in order to get a better but still inaccurate reading. My target HR during cardio is between 175 and 180, neither this watch or my Fitbit (I wear them at the same time to compare their function and accuracy) “consistently” projected heart rates this high. However, after buying a chest chest strap, and syncing it with the Garmin (Fitbit will not allow you sync other chest straps) my HR number are as expected. In short, this Garmin is a nice watch but if your heart rate is important to you be prepared to invest in a chest strap or perhaps consider fitness trackers that come with a dedicated chest strap. I hope this is helpful!
Scott –
It’s really good, but…I had it for a couple weeks. Use to track steps, cardio, walks, jogs, gym mostly, but it does so much more. However, after turning off push notifications for certain things I still get them. When you hit a goal like steps, it will alert for each step after not allowing access to anything else unless you stop walking because it gets locked up alerting, but then wait for alerts to stop, then proceed to next function. It’s really annoying. I still get voice-mail alerts and phone stuff after turning phone notifications off. Still get others too for social media. Also, it won’t track any rep counts for lower body when using strength mode. And when it tracks upper body movements like bench, curls, presses, etc. It won’t count all the reps, maybe 7 out of 10, or less sometimes. I like how it tracks my cardio stuff, intensity minutes, heart rate, calories, sleep, etc. Overall, I love it, but it needs some work on the mentioned issues. And I wish it had access to the gym and fitness activity listed in app, but this model doesn’t have that feature unfortunately.UPDATE: The issue with the alerts getting stuck was from Samsung health pushing notifications. I turned it off and the issues stopped. I also noticed that the strength training aspect not only doesn’t count lower body reps, but when it counts upper body stuff it’ll confuse bench with military press, or curls, etc.. So not only does it not count every rep, it counts bench reps and military press or whatever and to change you need to go in and edit each set. I’m not doing it, but that’s how you could fix. You can also add the not counted reps and change it to reflect what you’re doing, but who wants to do all that! Also hit my intensity minutes and got 500 twice in one day but still never got my Badge! Still love the watch tho.
Number Six –
Works As Advertised – No problemsThis is the 5th smartwatch I’ve ordered/received in the attempt to replace my June 02, 2019, now 3yr old $41.49 cent Kronoz ZeRound 2 call/receive watch, and finally this GARMIN VENUE 2+ seems to be the device I’ve been searching for! The other 4 devices which didn’t work due to the authorized dedicated app not pairing with my phone or whatever the problem was?!!? I was surprised I had pairing issues with my Samsung A 52 5G phone for some odd reason. I was about to give up on replacing the watch when I decided to try the GARMIN VENUE 2+ but with my Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro phone and everything works! The app works, pairing effortlessly. The call/receive function works, the health features work, and the messaging works. That is all I wanted.I will mention that the other 4 unnamed devices I tried to use with my Samsung smartphone and shuddered to think the phone might’ve been the problem? The devices may work fine with other phones IDK?!!? I returned the watches before I thought to even try my Xiaomi Poco smartphone. [I have nothing against Samsung products at all and use my Tab S7 daily.]I am now using said Xiaomi Poco X3 Pro with the GARMIN watch, and there have been no issues whatsoever. N-O-N-E!! I have not tried to pair it with the Samsung and will most probably try that sometime in the future, but I’m not eager to do so since the Poco phone works so well with the GARMIN watch as desired. I don’t need all of the Sport Activity functions except for about 3 or 4 of them, as all I truly wanted was to be able to call/receive via Bluetooth, use Heart rate, Sleep, Steps, O2 and other related health functions.I am quite pleased with the GARMIN VENUE 2+ smartwatch but still wonder why I had such difficulty with the other watches. They ranged in price from $$ to $$$. So while I paid the most ($463.00) for this GARMIN watch I have no complaints! Another big plus is the advertised battery-life which also was an ability I wanted on my watch. Yep, it eliminates up the need to charge it frequently. I have had no issues with the GARMIN watch nor the Connect app whatsoever. [There was even a Number 6 “The Prisoner” watch face!!😊) I’ll update again in September 2022 to report anything pro or con since I’ve only been using this device for less than 2 weeks. But it worked right away from the moment I unboxed it, affixed it to my wrist, and never looked back. I didn’t even need to charge it! Yes, I’m chuffed all around. Honestly, we ALL just want the “stuff to work” the first time and continue to do so without fail, right? This Venue 2+ provides that for me.
Grace –
Fantastic fitness watch that works fine as a smartwatch tooI had a Samsung Gear S3 for 3 years before buying this watch. The S3 was a good watch, but so many of the fitness functions were flawed. It had poor GPS tracking so my runs would come out with shortened distances, and even though it had weights and other workouts, I couldn’t build a full workout program.After watching many video reviews, I decided to switch to the Garmin Venu 2. The build quality is great and the watch is actually a little slimmer and lighter than the Samsung. I found that Garmin had several different coaching programs so I started one for a 5k. I’ve been working through it for 2 months now and I’m really enjoying it. It does a great job of pushing me hard enough, but giving me recovery time to get stronger. I haven’t been able to run this well in a long time so it’s really a great feeling. On top of that, I built my own custom 3 day split for weights. When starting a weight workout, it shows my first exercise, amount of weight, and how many sets and reps. It counts the reps as best it can although some movements don’t involve your watch arm so it will be off. You click a button to end the set and it starts the rest countdown that you set up in your program while also giving you a simple menu to adjust the amount of reps and the amount of weight that you did on that set. Tracking the rest time is awesome and keeps me from getting distracted and off pace. It’s a fantastic companion for weight lifting and I’m really enjoying having it.The battery life is simply awesome. I’m tracking either weights or a run almost every day and I’m getting 9 days of battery life between charges. My Samsung watch started at about 3 days of battery life and has decreased over time to about a day and a half. It does have a proprietary plug so I have to be careful not to lose the cord. USB C would have been nice, but Garmin has been using this plug for a long time so it is easy to find replacements online.I’ve paired wireless headphones to the watch (Samsung Buds) and I listen to Spotify. They work great and don’t have any drop outs.I’m a big fan of having a lot of complications on my watch face so I can get a lot of information with a quick glance. The default watch faces were just okay, but Garmin has a store with more options. I’m currently using a free one called “Clear and Powerful” and I’m obsessed with it. It has a nice clean style while still providing a ton of data (in addition to the time I have date, sunrise/sunset, steps, floors, battery, altitude, temp, and moon cycle).Sleep tracking is great and very accurate. It is useful information and they pair it with a body battery meter that shows how rested and ready for workouts you should be. There are lots of other graphs and tracking that it does for heartbeat, oxygen, and breaths per minute. It’s all well laid out and not overwhelming.There are a few small drawbacks. There’s no speaker or microphone on the watch so you can’t take calls directly from it. You also can’t activate an assistant. Besides those specific areas, the watch shows me all of my notifications and I can see and use canned replies to texts. I almost always want to use my phone for any real replies so this is fine for my needs. I did have a few times in the past when I took a call on the Samsung watch. It was convenient, but again, not a deal breaker for me to not have it as I’ll answer the call on the Buds or on the phone itself. The watch will still show who is calling and allow me to decline or answer from the watch.So over all, a really great watch. The smart watch features are enough to cover making sure you don’t miss calls, texts, and notifications, and provide a lot of data on the watch face. The battery life is amazing and it’s really nice to know I could go on a trip and not even have to worry about charging it for the entire time. The running coach is very good and the weights workout creator is easy to use, but very rich in features. Anyone serious about fitness should take a strong look at this watch.
Bird and Wildlife Photography by Anjeanette –
Garmin venu sq smartwatchI have been wanting a smartwatch for awhile and in the past have only had money for the cheap knockoffs on Amazon that cost $35 or less and I really wanted something nicer. So I researched reviews on Amazon between Fitbits and Garmin smartwatches and decided to give the Garmin Venu Sq a try.Positives: This smartwatch is really nicely built, has a comfortable feeling while wearing day and night. You can download the connect IQ store app to purchase different watch faces for a really cheap price and can buy different watch bands through Amazon which is nice too. The other thing that I really like about this smartwatch is how super easy it was to pair with my android phone and I love the app. It is super easy to navigate and see all the awesome data that it provides. I also like how you can make connections with people who are using Garmin devices and challenge them in the app on different things weather its getting more steps in or other types of activities. It also has GPS which really is nice to have. Negatives: I have noticed that the sleep tracking is pretty bad on this smartwatch, it’s very inaccurate and in the 4 days I have had it its only recorded two nights of my sleep and even then it was off on the time I fell asleep and when I tried to change the time in the app for my bed time it manually added my sleep time and I could not find a way to delete that. That was very frustrating to me because it should not be that hard to delete and it totally pissed me off when I couldn’t. At $160.00 there shouldn’t be this issue. I have also noticed that when I am taking walks it will not record my steps for the first several minutes or my activity like on my watch nor in the app even though I make sure its synced with each other before starting my walks. It starts recording my walk sometimes at the half way mark which is so weird and messed up. It should start recording as soon as I start my walk otherwise its totally off and inaccurate on my steps , calories and my distance. My sleep and my steps are like the most important things to me. The other information that I get from this watch is neat to see but isn’t as important to me. And unfortunately neither of these two things work all that well. One more thing that is pretty disappointing is the battery life. i have had to charge this watch twice now in four days. That’s awful. I’m going to update this review probably in a couple of weeks to see if anything improves with more time. But if I find anymore issues with it or continue to have the same problem with it I will be returning this watch.Update January 4th 2022, I got this watch in mid December 2021 and it has helped motivate me more than anything. I have been walking more and challenging myself to get more steps in everyday. It’s also fun to challenge others on the Garmin connect app. Since December 22 2021 I have lost 8lbs. I’m really shocked I have lost that much weight. Yesterday Jan 3rd I hit my highest mileage of 6.5 miles and 15,000 steps. That’s just taking between 3-5 walks a day.As far as the watch goes its still horrible at tracking my sleep information. I asked on the Garmin connect Facebook group how to make the battery last longer and got some great tips. Last night I downloaded a watch face that is battery saving and turned off the vo2max and pulse ox settings and setup do not disturb times which helps make the battery last longer. After making those changes my watch went from 100% to 98% from 9pm last night to now at 1:12pm which is much much better than what it was doing. The sleep tracking though still is basically useless. The body battery also is not worth much because it’s based on how much sleep I get and if that isn’t accurate than the body battery isn’t much use either. So basically I bought an expensive to me step counter and connection app with a couple other ok features. I will keep this watch only because I don’t have any more money to get me something nicer and that might work better. I did end up buying this exact watch for one of my younger twin sisters for Christmas before I had a chance to really know the downfalls of it. And also my other twin sister who lives in Texas bought herself one as well. She is use to a fitbit which she has had for 3 years and loved it but it was finally wearing out and not working properly anymore and she got this one. I’m not sure she is all that impressed with her choice to buy the Garmin venu sq.