Garmin Venu 2/2S vs Venu 2 Plus | What's the Difference?

Venu 2/2S AMOLED DISPLAY

An AMOLED display allows for more control over each pixel, resulting in richer blacks and power economy in darker watch faces. Viewing angles are better as well, which is especially desireable in a device that is being used all day for both its smartwatch and sport-specific features.

But let's be real: The gorgeious, ultrabright Venu series watches are just plain nice to look at. You'll upgrade your wrist in every way with a Garmin Venu 2/2S.

Health-Monitoring Features

You can count on a big batch of advanced health-tracking from the Venu 2/2S, including the lates Garmin Elevate sensor for Wrist-Based Heart Rate (constant, every second), Daily Resting Heart Rate, Abnormal Heart Rate Alerts, Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation (spot-check, and optional all-day acclimation and in sleep), Respiration Rate (24x7), Sleep Score and Insights, All-Day Stress, Relaxation Breathing Timer, Advanced Sleep, Hydration, and Women's Health.

Additionally, Fitness Age reinterprets your VO2 Max score in terms of age to make it more relatable by estimating the body’s age using chronological age, activity, resting heart rate, and either body fat % or BMI. The Body Battery™ energy monitor allows you to track your body’s energy levels so you can find the best times for activity. With Sleep Insights, you get recommendations on how to improve sleep based on your score.

Tracking Fitness with Venu 2/2S GPS Smartwatch

With multi-GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo) and ABC sensors, you get the best activity tracking beyond steps and calories counted, like floors climbed and GPS-based distance, time, and pace for running. Plus, this GPS watch is loaded with sport profiles from cycling to golf to snowboarding.

Easy-to-follow, animated cardio, strength, yoga, Pilates, and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts come preloaded on the Venu 2/2S, and you can download more from the Garmin Connect app. This multisport GPS watch also has added sport modes and advanced strength training and workout profiles.

To view the full list of what's offerered on this watch, visit our Garmin fitness watch spec page.

Daily Smart Features

Receive smart notifications on your Venu 2 series watch, store up to 650 songs on-watch and control and play the music from your phone, use the Connect IQ™ store to personalize your watch with free downloads of apps, widgets, watch faces, data fields, music streaming services, and more. Sync with Garmin Connect for tracking, analyzing, and sharing health and fitness activities recorded by your paired Garmin device. Plus, there has never been a better time to have Garmin Pay™ contactless payments on your wrist!

We recomment you check out this article to really dig into some of the surprising and cool things you can do with Garmin watches.

Venu 2 & 2S Battery Life

The Venu 2 gets up to 11 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, up to 12 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 8 hours in GPS mode with music, and up to 22 hours GPS mode without music.

The Venu 2S has up to 10 days in smartwatch mode, up to 11 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 7 hours in GPS mode with music, and up to 19 hours GPS mode without music.

Venu 2 Sizes & Color Schemes

The main difference between the Venu 2 and the Venu 2S is the size. The Venu 2 options offer a bright 1.3" AMOLED display — larger than the previous Venu. The Venu 2S is for those who prefer the smaller, classic 1.1" display.

The larger-screened Venu 2 offers 2 sleek color palettes: a silver bezel with granite blue case and silicone band or a slate bezel with a black case and silicone band.

The Venu 2S is a bit more adventurous with 4 fashionable color combos: a silver bezel with a mist gray case and silicone band, a slate bezel with a graphite case and silicone band, a light gold and tan case and silicone band, and a rose gold and white case and silicone band.

Not only are these smartwatches right for your wrist while you're switching up activities, but they look good in whatever mode you're in — work or play!

Garmin Venu 2 Plus Benefits

Far and away, the greatest benefit to be gained by this new Garmin watch upgrade is the ability to use many of your smartphone functions without the added cost of a cellular plan on your watch.

When paired with your compatible smartphone, enjoy the convenience of making and taking phone calls from your wrist with your new Venu 2 Plus.

Additionally, use your compatible smartphone's voice assistant to respond to text messages, ask questions, control compatible smart home devices, and more!

Other Differences Between Venu 2 & Venu 2 Plus

The Venu 2 Plus has all the health, fitness, and smart features that the Venu 2/2S models have.

The Venu 2 Plus battery life is slightly less than the as the Venu 2: up to 9 days of battery life in smartwatch mode, up to 10 days in battery saver smartwatch mode, up to 8 hours in GPS mode with music, and 24 hours in GPS mode without music.

Aside from the major addition of on-watch phone calls and voice assistant functions, this new Venu 2 familiy member has just a few more distinctions.

Size

While the Garmin Venu 2 and 2S have 1.3" and 1.1" AMOLED displays, respectively, the Venu 2 Plus has a 1.3" display. It does, however, have a slightly smaller case size than the Venu 2.

Color

The Venu 2 Plus offers its own three color schemes, including black with slate bezel, powder gray with silver bezel, and ivory with cream gold bezel.

Price

The Venu Plus 2 will set you back $100 more than the Venu 2/2S models. However, it will move you forward in terms of allowing you to make calls and to use other smartphone functions through your watch.

For a full view of the lineup, jump to our Garmin Venu 2 Plus experience page.

Should You Buy a Venu 2 Plus?

Both of these Garmin watches—the Venu 2/2S and the Venu 2 Plus—offer a rich suite of health, fitness, and smart features, earning them a seat at the smartwatch-meets-sports-GPS-watch table.

Each watch in the Venu 2 series will give you invaluable feedback, insight, and utility throughout your day and night, with features like wrist-based heart rate, Body Battery, 25 preloaded GPS tracking and indoor sports apps, sleep score and insights, on-watch music, women's health tracking, Garmin Pay, Incident Detection for outdoor activities, and more!

Plus, the stunning AMOLED display and stylish color palettes put most other fitness smartwatches to shame.  

But if you would benefit from the convenience of taking and making phone calls from your wrist (when paired with your smartphone) and responding to text messages, asking questions, controling compatible smart home devices on your watch (through your phone's voice assistant)—then the new Garmin Venu 2 Plus fitness GPS smartwatch is a no-brainer.

Check out our Garmin Venu 2 Plus experience page for more!