Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Garmin Epix (Gen 2)
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: 2022
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Garmin Epix (Gen 2) is a high-performance multisport GPS smartwatch designed for serious athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, featuring a stunning AMOLED display. It offers comprehensive activity tracking, including steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with personalized daily goals. Its extensive activity profiles and advanced performance metrics are tailored for a wide range of sports and adventures, providing detailed insights into every workout.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, performance condition, and training status. It also tracks respiration rate, Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation, and offers detailed sleep analysis, delivering critical health and recovery data essential for optimizing training and overall well-being.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) offers up to 16 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 42 hours with continuous GPS tracking. While the vibrant AMOLED display impacts battery life compared to MIP displays, it still provides sufficient duration for multi-day activities and extensive training.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Advanced sleep monitoring on the Epix (Gen 2) tracks detailed sleep stages 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, especially important for athletes managing demanding training loads.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Equipped with advanced built-in GPS capabilities, the Epix (Gen 2) provides highly accurate outdoor activity tracking and navigation without requiring a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems and offers detailed preloaded mapping features, essential for exploring remote areas and navigating complex routes.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) supports an extensive range of multisport and individual workout modes, including running, biking, swimming, hiking, trail running, skiing, strength training, and more. Its customizable profiles and extensive real-time data screens provide comprehensive metrics for performance analysis across diverse activities.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (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, even during varied training days.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Epix (Gen 2) experience, providing in-depth analysis of all tracked data, performance metrics, training insights, and recovery recommendations. The app allows for creating and syncing detailed training plans, courses, and customizing device settings.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): Beyond its primary focus on sports and outdoor performance, the Epix (Gen 2) includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and on-device music storage with support for streaming services, offering convenience during training and daily use.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Epix (Gen 2) is engineered to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it suitable for serious water sports and providing durability in wet environments.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (Gen 2) features a stunning AMOLED display with high resolution, offering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and exceptional brightness. This touchscreen display provides excellent readability in various lighting conditions, including direct sunlight, enhancing the visual experience for mapping and data review.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (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 during both activities and daily use. The user interface is designed for intuitive operation and quick access to critical information.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (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.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): 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, monitoring sleep quality, and assessing overall physiological status during demanding activities.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: It is important to note that the Garmin Venu 2 Plus does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): It is important to note that the Garmin Epix (Gen 2) does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): The Epix (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.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (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.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ 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.
2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Epix (Gen 2) are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced training analysis, providing comprehensive value for a premium device.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2 Plus: $449.99
Check Garmin Venu 2 Plus Price *2️⃣ Garmin Epix (Gen 2): $999.99
Check Garmin Epix (Gen 2) Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you