Garmin Venu 2S vs Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 2021
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar is a high-performance GPS smartwatch tailored for multisport athletes, offering extensive tracking of steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with personalized daily goals. It incorporates advanced running dynamics, cycling metrics, and swimming data, providing comprehensive performance analysis across all disciplines, further enhanced by extended operational time via solar charging.
❤️ 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, advanced physiological metrics including VO2 max estimation, training status, training load pro, and heat and altitude acclimatization. It also tracks respiration rate and Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation, offering deep insights into an athlete's health and recovery status, with sustained monitoring capabilities due to solar power input.
🔋 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: A key feature distinguishing this model is its exceptional battery life, significantly extended by solar charging. It provides up to 15 days in smartwatch mode and up to 42 hours with continuous GPS tracking, with the solar capability offering potential for even longer durations depending on sun exposure, making it ideal for multi-day events and expeditions.
😴 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: Advanced sleep monitoring is included, meticulously tracking sleep stages (light, deep, and REM) and utilizing the Pulse Ox sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. This provides valuable data for assessing recovery quality and informing training decisions, supported by reliable power for overnight tracking.
📍 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: Equipped with multi-band GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo), the Forerunner 955 Solar provides superior accuracy for outdoor activity tracking, even in challenging environments, without requiring a paired smartphone. It offers detailed route navigation and mapping capabilities, with solar charging helping to maintain GPS functionality on long treks.
🏋️ 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Forerunner 955 Solar supports a vast array of multisport and individual workout modes, including running, biking, swimming, triathlon, trail running, strength training, and more, with extensive real-time statistics and customizable data screens, powered for extended workout sessions.
💫 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: 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 training log, even during long days of varied activity facilitated by solar power.
🍎 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Forerunner 955 Solar is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications, ensuring connectivity is maintained during extended periods away from traditional power sources.
📲 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is essential, 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 and courses, with data readily available thanks to the watch's extended battery life.
💡 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: Beyond its extensive sports features, the Forerunner 955 Solar includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications, Garmin Pay for contactless payments, and on-device music storage with support for streaming services, allowing for phone-free training with connectivity sustained by solar charging.
💦 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: With a water resistance rating of 50 meters (5 ATM), the Forerunner 955 Solar is suitable for swimming and showering, making it a reliable device for tracking pool and open water swimming activities as part of a multisport training regimen, without compromising its solar capabilities.
⌚ 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Forerunner 955 Solar features a sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) color touchscreen display with integrated solar charging lens. This display technology offers excellent readability in direct sunlight and is power-efficient, crucial for extended outdoor activities where solar charging is most effective.
👌 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The device offers a dual interface with traditional buttons and a responsive touchscreen, providing flexible and easy navigation through menus, data screens, and mapping features during both activities and daily use, designed for reliability in various conditions.
✨ 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Forerunner 955 Solar features a lightweight and comfortable design with a soft silicone band, optimized for a secure fit during intense training sessions and suitable for all-day wear. The inclusion of the solar charging lens is integrated seamlessly into the design.
🩸 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: 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 recovery, with the solar charge supporting continuous monitoring.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: It is important to note that the Garmin Venu 2S does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: It is important to note that the Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: The Forerunner 955 Solar tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help athletes manage stress and optimize their mental recovery alongside physical training, supported by consistent power from solar charging.
🩹 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: 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, with these features reliably available due to extended battery life.
💳 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 Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Forerunner 955 Solar are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced training analysis, providing comprehensive value out of the box, especially considering the enhanced battery performance.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: $399.99
Check Garmin Venu 2S Price *2️⃣ Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar: $749.99
Check Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you