Garmin Venu 2S vs Fitbit Sense 2

🗓️ Release Year

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 2021

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: 2022



🏃 Activity

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Garmin Venu 2S provides comprehensive activity tracking, accurately logging steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed, and active minutes. It supports personalized daily goals to motivate users and offers a detailed overview of daily movement and activity intensity, tailored for users with smaller wrists.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Fitbit Sense 2 provides robust activity tracking, diligently monitoring steps, distance, calories burned, and floors climbed. Its Active Zone Minutes feature remains a core component for optimizing workout intensity based on heart rate zones. The integrated built-in GPS ensures accurate real-time pace and distance tracking for outdoor activities such as running, cycling, and hiking, offering essential data independently of a paired smartphone.



❤️ Health Monitoring

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: Equipped with continuous heart rate monitoring, the Venu 2S delivers valuable insights into cardiovascular health. It also estimates VO2 max, tracks respiration rate, allows for hydration logging, and offers advanced sleep analysis for a holistic view of well-being, all within a more compact form factor.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Leveraging advanced PurePulse 2.0 technology, the Sense 2 offers continuous 24/7 heart rate monitoring, capturing resting heart rate trends and real-time heart rate zones during exercise. It includes a skin temperature sensor for additional wellness insights and integrates advanced sleep and stress management features, providing a comprehensive health overview.



🔋 Battery Life

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S provides a strong battery life of up to 10 days in smartwatch mode, minimizing the need for frequent charging. Even with continuous GPS use, it offers up to 19 hours of tracking, suitable for a variety of outdoor activities.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 delivers a commendable battery life of over 6 days on a single charge, reducing the frequency of recharging. Its fast charging capability is highly convenient, providing a full day's power in just 12 minutes, minimizing interruptions to tracking.



😴 Sleep Tracking

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: Advanced sleep monitoring on the Venu 2S meticulously tracks sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and incorporates a Pulse Ox sensor to measure blood oxygen saturation levels during the night. This data provides valuable insights into sleep quality and potential respiratory issues, presented clearly in the Garmin Connect app.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Detailed sleep tracking on the Sense 2 meticulously monitors sleep duration and analyzes sleep stages (light, deep, and REM). It provides a comprehensive Sleep Score and actionable sleep insights within the app, empowering users to understand and enhance their sleep quality.



📍 GPS Tracking

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: With integrated built-in GPS, the Venu 2S 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 Fitbit Sense 2: With built-in GPS, the Sense 2 accurately tracks real-time pace and distance for outdoor activities without relying on a phone. The Fitbit app provides detailed route maps and intensity zone analysis post-workout, offering valuable performance data.



🏋️ Workout Modes

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S 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 Fitbit Sense 2: Supporting an extensive library of over 40 workout modes, the Sense 2 accommodates a wide variety of physical activities, from running and cycling to swimming, HIIT, strength training, and yoga. It provides real-time performance metrics, including heart rate, pace, and calorie burn, to help users monitor and optimize their training.



💫 Exercise Recognition

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 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 Fitbit Sense 2: The integrated SmartTrack technology automatically detects and records common exercises such as walking, running, cycling, and elliptical workouts. This feature ensures effortless tracking of activities, even if the user forgets to manually start a workout session.



🍎 Compatibility

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 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 Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 offers broad compatibility with both Android and iOS devices, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Android users benefit from the inclusion of Google Fast Pair for a quick and straightforward initial setup process.



📲 App Support

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central to the Venu 2S 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 Fitbit Sense 2: Synchronization with the comprehensive Fitbit app provides users with a centralized platform for detailed fitness tracking and in-depth health insights. Compatibility with popular third-party applications like Strava, Google Fit, Apple Health, and MyFitnessPal allows for seamless data integration into existing fitness ecosystems.



💡 Smart Features

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: Beyond its fitness capabilities, the Venu 2S offers practical smart features, including on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments and allows for music storage directly on the watch for phone-free listening during workouts. Access to the Connect IQ store enables further customization with apps and watch faces.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: Beyond its health and fitness capabilities, the Sense 2 offers practical smart features, including call, text, and app notifications. Integration with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa provides convenient voice control. Support for Fitbit Pay and Google Wallet enables contactless payments directly from the wrist.



💦 Water Resistance

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Venu 2S 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 Fitbit Sense 2: With a 5 ATM water resistance rating (up to 50 meters), the Sense 2 is designed to be resistant to water, making it suitable for swimming, showering, and general water exposure. It is not recommended for deep diving or high-pressure water sports.



⌚ Display Quality

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S 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 on a more compact screen size.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The device features a bright and vibrant AMOLED touchscreen display. An always-on display mode offers convenient at-a-glance access to information, and customizable watch faces allow for personalization of the visual interface.



👌 Ease of Use

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S 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 tailored for smaller wrists.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 is designed for intuitive interaction, featuring a responsive touchscreen complemented by an improved haptic side button for efficient navigation. Seamless wireless synchronization with the Fitbit app facilitates effortless data tracking and analysis.



✨ Design and Comfort

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S features a compact and lightweight design, making it ideal for users with smaller wrists. It maintains a stylish aesthetic with an interchangeable band, allowing for personalization while ensuring comfortable all-day wear and suitability for workouts.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 features a lightweight and stylish aluminum case paired with a comfortable soft silicone band, ensuring suitability for all-day wear. The design supports interchangeable bands, offering options for personalization to match individual style preferences.



🩸 SpO2 Monitoring

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 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 Fitbit Sense 2: An integrated SpO2 sensor allows for tracking blood oxygen levels specifically during sleep. This provides valuable data that can help users identify potential breathing irregularities during the night and gain insights into their respiratory health.



💖 ECG Functionality

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: It is important to note that the Garmin Venu 2S does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: A key health feature of the Sense 2 is its support for ECG (Electrocardiogram) monitoring, allowing users to check for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and generate reports that can be shared with healthcare providers.



🧘 Stress Tracking

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: The Venu 2S 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 Fitbit Sense 2: The Sense 2 features a continuous EDA (Electrodermal Activity) sensor for real-time stress detection. It provides access to guided breathing exercises and mindfulness tools within the app, offering practical resources for stress management and promoting mental well-being.



🩹 Recovery Tracking

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 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 Fitbit Sense 2: The Daily Readiness Score on the Sense 2 provides a data-driven assessment of the body's preparedness for strenuous activity by analyzing sleep quality, heart rate variability, and recent activity levels. This helps users make informed decisions about when to train intensely and when to prioritize rest for optimal recovery.



💳 Subscription

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Venu 2S are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality, providing excellent value to the user.

2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: The core functionalities of the Sense 2 are available without a subscription. However, access to advanced stress tracking features, a wider range of guided workouts, and more personalized wellness insights requires a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99/month or $79.99/year).



🏷️️ Price

1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: $399.99

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2️⃣ Fitbit Sense 2: $299.95

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