Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) vs Garmin Venu 2 Plus
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): 2023
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) is a top-tier multisport GPS smartwatch designed for demanding athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, featuring a vibrant AMOLED display and extended capabilities. It provides precise activity tracking for steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with customizable daily goals. Its extensive range of activity profiles and advanced performance metrics cater to a wide array of sports and adventures, offering detailed data for performance analysis and improvement.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Garmin Venu 2 Plus offers comprehensive activity tracking, accurately recording steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and active minutes. It supports personalized daily goals and provides advanced fitness insights, building upon the core capabilities of the Venu 2 series with added features.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): This device features continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, real-time stamina, and training status. It also tracks respiration rate, Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation, and offers in-depth sleep analysis, providing critical health and recovery data essential for optimizing training and overall well-being during intense activities.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Equipped with continuous heart rate monitoring, the Venu 2 Plus provides valuable insights into cardiovascular health. It also estimates VO2 max, tracks respiration rate, allows for hydration logging, and offers advanced sleep analysis. A key addition is the ability to take on-demand health snapshots, providing a quick summary of key health stats.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) delivers impressive battery life, offering up to 20 days in smartwatch mode and up to 60 hours with continuous GPS tracking. The integrated solar charging capability further extends these durations with sufficient sunlight exposure, enhancing its utility for prolonged expeditions and multi-day events.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus provides a strong battery life of up to 9 days in smartwatch mode. When utilizing GPS and music simultaneously, the battery life is up to 8 hours, suitable for typical workout durations. This balance of smartwatch and active use battery life is a key consideration.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): Advanced sleep monitoring on the Epix Pro (Gen 2) meticulously tracks sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and utilizes the Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing recovery quality and informing training decisions, crucial for athletes managing demanding training loads.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Advanced sleep monitoring on the Venu 2 Plus meticulously tracks sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and incorporates a Pulse Ox sensor to measure blood oxygen saturation levels during the night. This comprehensive data provides valuable insights into sleep quality and potential respiratory issues, accessible through the Garmin Connect app.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): Equipped with advanced built-in GPS capabilities, including multi-band GNSS support, the Epix Pro (Gen 2) provides highly accurate outdoor activity tracking and navigation without requiring a paired smartphone. It offers detailed preloaded mapping features, essential for precise route planning and navigation in diverse and challenging environments.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: With integrated built-in GPS, the Venu 2 Plus accurately tracks outdoor activities such as running, cycling, and hiking independently of a paired smartphone. This ensures precise recording of routes, pace, and distance for detailed workout analysis directly on the device and in the app.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) supports an extensive and customizable range of multisport and individual workout modes, including profiles for running, biking, swimming, hiking, trail running, skiing, strength training, and many more. Its comprehensive real-time data screens provide detailed metrics for immediate feedback and post-activity analysis across virtually any sport.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus supports over 25 preloaded sports apps, including running, biking, swimming, yoga, Pilates, and HIIT. It provides real-time statistics and offers on-screen animated workouts for strength training, cardio, and yoga, enhancing training guidance and versatility.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring seamless recording of basic movements within the overall activity log, complementing its specialized sport profiles.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Garmin's Move IQ feature automatically detects and records common activities such as walking and running, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log without manual intervention, contributing to a seamless tracking experience.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications, ensuring users remain connected and data is readily available through the associated mobile application.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The device offers broad compatibility with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and enabling smart notifications directly on the wrist.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): Synchronization with the robust Garmin Connect app is fundamental, providing in-depth analysis of all tracked data, performance metrics, training insights, and recovery recommendations. The app facilitates the creation and syncing of detailed training plans and courses, along with extensive customization options for the watch settings.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Venu 2 Plus experience, providing detailed insights into activity data, performance metrics, and health statistics. The app allows for goal setting, progress tracking, and access to Garmin's extensive fitness ecosystem and community.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): In addition to its core athletic functionalities, the Epix Pro (Gen 2) includes practical smart features such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments and offers on-device music storage with compatibility for streaming services, providing convenience during both training and daily use.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: A key differentiator for the Venu 2 Plus is the inclusion of voice assistant compatibility, allowing users to interact with their paired smartphone's assistant directly from the watch. It also includes on-wrist notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and music storage for phone-free listening during workouts. Access to the Connect IQ store enables further customization with apps and watch faces.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Epix Pro (Gen 2) is engineered to be fully suitable for swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it a reliable and durable device for triathletes and those who train in or around water.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Venu 2 Plus is engineered to be suitable for swimming, showering, and general water activities, increasing its durability and usability for users with active lifestyles that include water exposure.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) features a bright and vibrant AMOLED touchscreen display with high resolution, offering stunning colors, deep blacks, and exceptional brightness. This display provides excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, enhancing the visual experience for mapping and data review.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus features a bright AMOLED color touchscreen display. This high-resolution screen provides excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including bright sunlight, ensuring that data and notifications are always clear and easy to see.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The device offers a dual interface with reliable buttons and a responsive touchscreen, providing flexible and easy navigation through menus, data screens, and mapping features. This dual interface is designed for intuitive operation and quick access to critical information during both activities and daily use.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus offers an intuitive user interface with a combination of touchscreen navigation and physical buttons, providing easy access to features and statistics. The responsive design and seamless syncing with the Garmin Connect app contribute to a user-friendly experience.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) features a premium and durable design with a high-quality titanium bezel and stainless steel or DLC coating, built to withstand extreme conditions while maintaining a comfortable fit for all-day wear and extended outdoor use. The design balances robust construction with aesthetic appeal.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus features a stylish and comfortable design with an interchangeable band, allowing for personalization. Its construction is suitable for all-day wear, balancing aesthetic appeal with practical functionality for fitness tracking, and is available in various finishes.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for on-demand spot checks and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen saturation levels. This feature is particularly valuable for acclimatization at altitude, monitoring sleep quality, and assessing overall physiological status during demanding activities, with solar charging supporting continuous data collection.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for on-demand spot checks and continuous monitoring of blood oxygen saturation levels, particularly valuable for acclimatization at altitude and for gaining insights into sleep quality and respiratory function during the night, providing essential health data.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): It is important to note that the Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: It is important to note that the Garmin Venu 2 Plus does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The Epix Pro (Gen 2) tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress and promote mental well-being alongside physical training and recovery.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Venu 2 Plus tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability. It also offers guided breathing exercises directly on the watch, providing tools to help users manage stress and promote relaxation throughout the day.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): The device provides advanced recovery insights, including a daily readiness score, recovery time advisor, training status, and training load focus, offering detailed guidance to help athletes understand their recovery needs and optimize their training schedule to prevent overtraining and improve performance.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature is a key recovery tool, providing insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data. This helps users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest, aiding in optimizing recovery strategies.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): A key benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Epix Pro (Gen 2) are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality, advanced training analysis, or mapping features, providing comprehensive value for a premium, performance-oriented device.
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Venu 2 Plus are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality, providing excellent value to the user.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): $1,099.99
Check Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2) Price *2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: $449.99
Check Garmin Venu 2 Plus Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you