Garmin Instinct 2 Solar vs Garmin Venu 2 Plus
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2 Solar: The Garmin Instinct 2 Solar is a purpose-built, rugged outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for extended adventures and comprehensive activity tracking, featuring enhanced battery life through solar charging. It accurately tracks steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with customizable daily goals. Its extensive activity profiles are tailored for a wide range of outdoor pursuits, offering reliable data for prolonged training and exploration in demanding environments.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and detailed sleep tracking for insights into daily well-being and recovery. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, particularly useful for altitude acclimatization and assessing physiological status during extended demanding activities, supported by consistent power from solar input.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: A key highlight of the Instinct 2 Solar is its exceptional battery life, significantly extended by solar charging. It provides up to 28 days in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours with continuous GPS active, with the potential for virtually unlimited battery life in smartwatch mode with sufficient solar exposure, making it an ideal companion for multi-week expeditions where charging is impractical.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: Sleep tracking on the Instinct 2 Solar monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery. The data, combined with other metrics like Body Battery, helps users optimize their rest and training, with reliable overnight tracking ensured by the efficient battery management and solar capabilities.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Instinct 2 Solar provides accurate outdoor activity tracking without needing a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo) for reliable positioning in diverse and challenging terrains, essential for navigation and route tracking during extended outdoor excursions.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar supports a wide variety of workout modes beyond standard running and cycling, including profiles for hiking, climbing, swimming, strength training, tactical activities, and more, providing relevant metrics for each activity, with the battery capacity to track even the longest sessions.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities like walking and running through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these movements are captured in the activity log even when a specific workout isn't manually started, contributing to seamless and comprehensive tracking over extended periods.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications, ensuring connectivity is maintained even during prolonged periods in the outdoors.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app provides users with detailed analysis of activity data, performance metrics, and health statistics. The app allows for planning routes, customizing watch settings, and connecting with the Garmin community, leveraging the extensive data collected by the watch during extended use.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: Beyond its rugged outdoor focus, the Instinct 2 Solar includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also features a barometric altimeter for accurate altitude tracking, a crucial tool for hikers and climbers, all powered for the long haul by solar charging.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Instinct 2 Solar is built to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it a durable and reliable device for watersports and wet environments encountered during outdoor adventures.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar features a monochrome, sunlight-readable, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display with an integrated solar charging lens. While not a color screen, this display offers excellent contrast and unparalleled readability in direct sunlight, which is essential for outdoor use, and is highly power-efficient, directly contributing to its exceptional battery life.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The device utilizes a five-button interface, designed for reliable operation and easy navigation through menus and data screens, particularly useful in challenging conditions or while wearing gloves. This button-based interface prioritizes functionality and durability over touchscreen complexity for demanding outdoor 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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar features a rugged and durable design built to withstand tough outdoor conditions, incorporating the solar charging lens seamlessly into the display. Its construction prioritizes resilience, while the comfortable silicone band ensures suitability for extended wear during activities and throughout multi-day excursions.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude. This feature provides valuable data for assessing acclimatization and overall physiological well-being in varied environments, with continuous monitoring supported by the extended battery life.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: It is important to note that the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar 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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Instinct 2 Solar tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to a more complete picture of their daily physiological state and recovery, essential for sustained performance in challenging situations.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery in demanding training cycles and extended trips, with reliable data available due to the device's battery 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 Instinct 2 Solar: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Instinct 2 Solar are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced tracking features, providing comprehensive and enduring value for a rugged, outdoor-focused device with exceptional solar-enhanced battery life.
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 Instinct 2 Solar: $399.99
Check Garmin Instinct 2 Solar 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