An increasingly active lifestyle after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic has made people move more outside their homes. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it makes us healthier than ever before. Devices such as the Garmin Venu Sq 2 smartwatch are suitable for those of you who want to monitor daily health plus be more active in exercising.
Carrying the slogan “Dear Body, Find a Way to Move”, I hope that this latest smartwatch from Garmin can motivate me to move more for a healthier life, through several exclusive features that are indeed the flagship of Garmin smartwatches. Interestingly, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is the most affordable with a GPS sensor.
After using it for about a week, I can understand why Garmin smartwatches are a mainstay for various types of people. Starting from sports enthusiasts, to casual users. And the Garmin Venu Sq 2 can really be an option for those who just want to enter the Garmin wearable ecosystem, and can still enjoy a number of excellent features. Here’s the full review.
Design
The first time I saw it, I immediately felt familiar with the design of the Garmin Venu Sq 2. It carries a square design but has a blunt angle, reminds me of the old smartwatch designs that have now been acquired by other wearable companies. Not 100% the same, really.
And a design like this in my opinion will be suitable for more people, including ordinary users who want to buy a Garmin smartwatch for the first time. Pretty youthful look, especially with quite a lot of color options. The body material is made of polymer, with a bezel made of glossy aluminum plus a 2.5D curved screen. The last two points make the Garmin Venu Sq 2 look a little extravagant.
If you want even more luxury, you can change the strap which has a width of 20mm and is universal. Yes, this is the advantage of Garmin smartwatches from the previous series to the latest, providing high flexibility so that users don’t have to buy a special strap for a certain type, so it’s easy to buy a replacement strap in e-commerce.
The combination of a silicone strap and a light weight of less than 40 grams make the Garmin Venu Sq 2 comfortable to use all day long, even when you are sweating. Comes in one size, I thought at first it would look small on the wrist which generally fits a 46mm diameter watch. Not really.
And not only waterproof, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 has a 5 ATM certification. The alias will still be safe to use even up to a depth of 50 meters below the water surface. The use of polymer materials is also suitable for those who are active outside, more resistant to scratches and dents.
Screen
Although not clearly informed, all the Venu Sq series have a square screen display. And for the Garmin Venu Sq 2 itself, the screen reaches 1.41 inches with a resolution of 320 x 360 pixels. It’s sharp enough to display text and a small logo on the watch face. And most importantly, it also uses an AMOLED panel, which is a far cry from the previous generation’s LCD panels.
In addition to being protected from Gorilla Glass 3, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 screen can also light up very brightly when used outdoors—equivalent to a flagship smartwatch. Touch input is also quite reliable, and also supports always-on display. For this one, you have to activate it manually, and the consequences of the battery are much more wasteful than promised.
Well, at least there is an option to enable or disable AOD. As for the bezel size, it is quite thick, but because the watch faces are varied and designed with a black background, it looks seamless with the ornaments on the edge of the touch screen glass. Oh yes, it also supports auto-brightness, so you don’t need to set manual lighting when you’re outside or in a dim room.
Is the screen too small? Not. But some other smartwatches can indeed present a bigger screen that allows you to see more text and information without having to scroll a lot. This one is an option, really. Because the bigger the screen, the bigger the dimensions of the body. While the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is designed to fit a variety of wrist sizes—both men and women.
Operating system
This is my first time using a Garmin smartwatch. And seeing the track record and the first series that was released several years ago, I believe that their smartwatch will be easy to use. And my guess is right when using Garmin Venu Sq 2.
Almost all menus can be accessed via the touch screen. Yes, almost—unlike other smartwatches, some menus, such as the initiation of sports sessions and the Settings menu, can only be accessed via the button on the right side of the body. It does take some getting used to at the start, but it won’t take long until you finally understand how to navigate the Garmin Venu Sq 2 menu.
In the initial screen, you can scroll up or down to access the Glance menu which can be considered as widgets, displaying summary information such as stress level, number of steps, Body Battery and others. While sliding from left to right, you can access shortcuts according to taste, such as a timer or manual screen brightness setting.
Although compatible with Android and iOS, the direct message reply feature of the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is only available for Android, where you can select several message presets or add them via the Garmin Connect app. Oh yes, for curious You: WhatsApp call notifications can appear on this smartwatch.
Fitness Features
For this part, I am quite excited to try out some of the fitness features offered through the Garmin Venu Sq 2. Essential health features that are generally carried by premium smartwatches are already available, such as heart rate monitoring, stress levels, oxygen saturation values (Pulse Ox2), amount of calories burned, and sleep quality.
Menstrual cycles and pregnancy are also available to female users, with recommendations for exercise, nutrition and more. OK, data recording is complete. The most important thing for me, is how this smartwatch can make me have a healthier lifestyle, or at least be more active, other than just giving reminders to move or display data only. This is where Garmin smartwatches stand out from the crowd.
What I like the most is the Body Battery Energy Monitoring—as the name suggests, think of it as an indicator of our body’s battery, which will decrease if we are active throughout the day, and increase when the quality of sleep is optimal. That way, in the morning, you can find out whether your body is in good condition to exercise or do activities outside.
Sleep monitoring on the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is also accompanied by scores and easy-to-understand information, combined with duration, stress levels during sleep, and deep/light/REM sleep phases. There was one night where my stress level was still high throughout the duration of 4.5 hours of sleep, so it was advised not to do much activity or I would feel tired.
There is also a feature called Health Snapshot that can record statistical data such as heart rate variability, Pulse Ox, breathing quality and stress levels, which then produces documents for personal evaluation or given to other parties such as doctors, for example. Well, for sports, there are many activity profiles to choose from, from swimming, golfing, to HIIT.
There are over 1600 different types of workouts to choose from via the Garmin Connect app, or create your own. For example, when I select the sport of running, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 screen provides a number of options such as mixed intervals with warm-up sessions and customized running and rest durations. Alias does not just record and calculate the time / kilometer.
When I use it for jogging, GPS accurately records the route, while sensors built into the body of the Garmin Venu Sq 2 work to record how many calories are burned, heart rate throughout the exercise session, intensity level to calories. Reduced Body Battery score for the day, where the score afterward can be evaluated whether there is still enough “battery” for activities or need to rest more. So it is easier to understand the condition of the body every day.
And others like Fitness Age which calculates the body’s physical age, and Garmin Coach which acts as a personal running trainer to help with half marathon training. These features are very worthy of making Garmin Venu Sq 2 have a price that is a bit premium, but users no longer need to pay a subscription for these training features. Everything is available in smartwatches and applications on smartphones.
Battery
One of the advantages of the Garmin smartwatch is its very long battery life, even though it comes in compact dimensions with complete sensors. The product specifications page does not clearly state the unit capacity of the Garmin Venu Sq 2 battery. However, more important information such as its life in various usage scenarios is displayed.
It is stated that for standard use, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 can last up to 11 days on a single charge. Enabling Battery Saver mode will extend the battery life an extra day. Meanwhile, for continuous use of GPS, it will drop to a maximum of 26 hours.
If the AOD feature on the screen is activated, it can go down to only 2-3 days. My experience is more than that time claim, it can be lit from Thursday afternoon to Sunday midnight, with the use of GPS for one workout session. But quite a lot of incoming notifications, which is also no less consuming power.
Meanwhile, if used throughout the day, including exercising such as running for 90 minutes without AOD, it will decrease by around 10% every day, including active health monitoring features. For those of you who want a smartwatch with a long battery life without having to turn off the default features, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 will be a very suitable option.
To charge, it requires a special cable that must be plugged into the back of the Garmin Venu Sq 2 body. The charging process is quite fast, only about 90 minutes. And you only need to fill it again about a week later.
Conclusion
Although the outward appearance seems simple, the fitness features brought by the Garmin Venu Sq 2 are quite complete, even more so than a number of flagship smartwatches on the market. Especially how all the complete data that can be recorded, is used to provide precise information to motivate its users.
A long battery life, a quality screen, a GPS sensor and a universal strap also provide additional plus points. Plus, all the training features that can be obtained or added through the application, without having to spend extra budget. Makes Garmin Venu Sq 2 even more worthy of being an option.
The slogan “Dear Body” seems very fitting to be embedded in Venu Sq 2. Because if we examine it further, when was the last time we tried to listen to the signals sent by the body. This Rp 3,399,000 smart watch will listen, communicate and observe your body.
Not only for adult users, young people who are looking for a smartwatch with full features such as replying to direct notifications, can also choose the Garmin Venu Sq 2. Moreover, it comes in many attractive color options. Already available at Garmin Official Store Online and Garmin Brand Store Offline, except for the Cool Mint color which is exclusively only available at Garmin Official Store Online .
Garmin Venu Sq 2 Specifications and Prices
| LENS MATERIAL | Corning® Gorilla® Glass |
| BEZEL MATERIAL | Anodized aluminum |
| CASE MATERIAL | fiber-reinforced polymer |
| QUICK RELEASE BANDS | Yes (20 mm, industry standard) |
| STRAP MATERIAL | silicone |
| COLOR | Shadow Gray/Slate, White/Cream Gold, Black/Slate, Ivory/Peach Gold, French Gray/Cream Gold, Cool Mint/Metallic Mint |
| PHYSICAL SIZE | 40.6 x 37.0 x 11.1 mm Fits wrists with a circumference of 125-190 mm |
| DISPLAY SIZE | 1.41” (35.9 mm) diameter |
| DISPLAY RESOLUTION | 320 x 360 pixels |
| DISPLAY TYPE | AMOLED (always-on) |
| WEIGHT | 38 grams |
| BATTERY LIFE | Smartwatch: Up to 11 days (smartwatch mode) Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 12 days GPS Only GNSS Mode: Up to 26 hours All-Systems GNSS Mode: Up to 20 hours |
| WATER RATING | 5 ATM |
| MEMORY/HISTORY | 200 hours of activity data |
| SENSORS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, GARMIN ELEVATE WRIST HEART RATE MONITOR, COMPASS, ACCELEROMETER, THERMOMETER, AMBIENT LIGHT SENSOR, PULSE OX BLOOD OXYGEN SATURATION MONITOR |
| HEALTH MONITORING | WRIST-BASED HEART RATE (CONSTANT, EVERY SECOND), DAILY RESTING HEART RATE, ABNORMAL HEART RATE ALERTS, RESPIRATION RATE (24X7), BODY BATTERY™ ENERGY MONITOR, ALL-DAY STRESS, SLEEP SCORE AND INSIGHTS, HYDRATION, WOMEN’S HEALTH, HEALTH SNAPSHOT, RELAXATION REMINDERS, RELAXATION BREATHING TIMER |
| DAILY SMART FEATURES | CONNECTIVITY (Bluetooth®, ANT+®), CONNECT IQ™, TEXT RESPONSE/REJECT PHONE CALL WITH TEXT (ANDROID™ ONLY), SMART NOTIFICATIONS, CALENDER, WEATHER, ON DEVICE CONNECT IQ STORE, REALTIME SETTINGS SYNC WITH GARMIN CONNECT MOBILE, BATTERY SAVER, CONTROLS SMARTPHONE MUSIC, FIND MY PHONE, FIND MY WATCH |
| SMARTPHONE COMPATIBILITY | iPhone®, Android™ |
| SAFETY & TRACKING FEATURES | Livetrack, Incident Detection during Select Activities, Assistance |
| PRICE | USD $221 |
