Garmin Venu 2S vs Garmin Instinct 2
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: 2021
2️⃣ Garmin Instinct 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 Garmin Instinct 2: The Garmin Instinct 2 is a rugged outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for durability and comprehensive activity tracking in challenging environments. It accurately tracks steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes with customizable daily goals. Its activity profiles are tailored for a wide range of outdoor pursuits, offering reliable data for training and exploration.
❤️ 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 Instinct 2: This device provides continuous heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and sleep tracking for insights into daily well-being. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, particularly useful for altitude acclimatization and assessing physiological status during demanding activities.
🔋 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 offers exceptional battery life, providing up to 28 days in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours with continuous GPS active. Solar charging capabilities further extend battery life significantly with sufficient sun exposure, making it ideal for extended trips where charging is limited.
😴 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 Instinct 2: Sleep tracking on the Instinct 2 monitors sleep stages and provides insights into sleep quality, helping users understand their recovery. The data, combined with other metrics, contributes to the overall picture of physical readiness.
📍 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 Instinct 2: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Instinct 2 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking without needing a paired smartphone. It supports multiple satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo) for reliable positioning in diverse terrains, essential for navigation and route tracking.
🏋️ 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 supports a variety of workout modes beyond standard running and cycling, including profiles for hiking, climbing, swimming, strength training, and more, providing relevant metrics for each activity.
💫 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 Instinct 2: 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.
🍎 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization and smart notifications.
📲 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 Instinct 2: 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.
💡 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 Instinct 2: Beyond its rugged outdoor focus, the Instinct 2 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.
💦 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 Instinct 2: With a robust water resistance rating of 100 meters (10 ATM), the Instinct 2 is built to withstand swimming, showering, and various water activities, making it a durable and reliable device for watersports and wet environments.
⌚ 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 features a monochrome, sunlight-readable, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display. While not a color screen, this display offers excellent contrast and readability in direct sunlight, which is essential for outdoor use, and is highly power-efficient.
👌 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 Instinct 2: 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, prioritizing functionality over touchscreen complexity.
✨ 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 features a rugged and durable design built to withstand tough outdoor conditions. Its construction prioritizes resilience, while the comfortable silicone band ensures suitability for extended wear during activities and throughout the day.
🩸 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 Instinct 2: 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.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: It is important to note that the Garmin Venu 2S does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
2️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: It is important to note that the Garmin Instinct 2 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 Instinct 2: The Instinct 2 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.
🩹 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 Instinct 2: 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.
💳 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 Instinct 2: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all features and data tracked by the Instinct 2 are accessible through the free Garmin Connect app, requiring no additional subscription fees for core functionality or advanced tracking features, providing comprehensive value for an outdoor-focused device.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Garmin Venu 2S: $399.99
Check Garmin Venu 2S Price *2️⃣ Garmin Instinct 2: $349.99
Check Garmin Instinct 2 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you