Garmin Venu 2 Plus
It seems likely that Garmin is about to release an updated version of their Venu 2 named Garmin Venu 2 Plus (aka Pro).
Must Read: Garmin Venu 2 Review
So, what is it going to be?
Let’s first not forget that the Venu 2 is Garmin’s more sporty contender to the Apple Watch 7 & Samsung Galaxy Watch4. It’s aiming to be a pretty-screen watch with all the health features like SpO2 and sleep analysis BUT with Garmin’s superior sports features bolted on.
So the new Venu 2 Plus will have all that plus a little bit more on the health and tech side. There won’t be any significant sports features introduced, at least none that are new to the Garmin stable.
On the health side of things, Garmin is going to be fairly restricted at what it can add to the existing Venu 2. It already has PulseOx, Muscle heat maps, sleep tracking, physiological age, hydration monitoring, menstrual cycle tracking, and much much more.
On the tech side of things it also already has most of the current top-end Garmin components. It already has the Gen 4 ELEVATE HR sensor, for example, not forgetting the latest CIQ support, a recently refreshed user interface, fast charging and great battery life.
You can see 3 things from the tweeted image, below.
- This is a 3-button watch
- The on-screen image shows a microphone icon.
- Body battery (same as the existing BB feature), stress and HR widgets are shown
The microphone image could signal a voice assistant but, instead, appears to be used in the context of a voice call. Garmin devotees will, no doubt, recall the recent addition of LTE-related features to the Garmin 945 (Garmin 945LTE review here). However, the LTE features were NOT in support of voice calls but rather they supported a limited amount of live data to be sent covering emergency notifications and glorified in-sport messaging. My understanding is that Garmin is unlikely to support voice calls over LTE, however, it may well be possible that a microphone and speaker on the watch can control a voice call on your smartphone, the non-LTE versions of the Apple Watch 7 (detailed review) do that for example and also leverage WiFi calling where the carrier supports it.
Regarding Garmin’s ability to support a rich voice assistant, then I would severely doubt Garmin’s ability to deliver that. Even Apple’s Siri is below par and Apple has WAY more resources and more of a necessity to make their assistant work. It’s also unlikely that Garmin would be able to integrate both Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Assistant unless, in the latter case, it supported Wear OS. So I guess it’s possible that Garmin might use voice to support the limited control of its own feature set in some way or, at a push, controlling Alexa smarthome devices – as opposed to using LTE to query the internet for information.
One hope is that Garmin adds the new dual-frequency Sony GNSS chip. That’s a distinct possibility with a reasonable chance of happening. It will probably make little difference to GPS accuracy if added, at least initially. My bet would be that this chip will first appear on the next true sports device (Forerunner/Fenix).
The one final thing worth hoping for is improved AMOLED abilities. This is reasonably likely as Garmin’s CIQ System 5 platform is continuously adding to AMOLED-related features that will eventually find themselves on devices like the Garmin Fenix 7.
Garmin Venu 2 *Plus* incoming. Adds a 3rd physical button to support microphone capabilities. But will it be paired with a voice assistant?? Hm! pic.twitter.com/E9LO6yK7VK
— Dave Zatz (@davezatz) November 2, 2021
This leak originally comes from a Garmin retailer. The retailer will have scheduled the live date of the Venu 2 Plus and then either forgot to change it or they may simply have entered an incorrect date.
Timescales
As the leak comes from a retailer it makes it MUCH more likely that we will see a pre-Christmas release.
I am somewhat surprised at the lateness of this possible move by Garmin. That said, we’ve had two surprisingly unusual years caused by the repercussions from Covid.
Take Out
Moderately exciting! Definitely worth following as there will probably also be more reveals over the next week or so and the Venu 2 Plus WILL have the state-of-the-art Garmin stuff in it. Let’s see what that is!
Slightly more than moderately exciting, but probably not enough to distract the intense F7 seekers for long.
I suspect the shimmering halo around the microphone icon is evidence one is talking to an assistant off in cloud space. On-watch voice controls would fine too, especially if you could trigger an GCIQ app.
yes. Is any of that readily possible with a standards-based approach? eg can you integrate Google Assistant without Watch OS…and then what do you do on iOS? Garmin-developed voice recognition would be extremely difficult for a proprietary undertaking…what about all those other pesky languages and what about the fact that Google and Apple don’t exactly find it easy (I use both all the time)
Personally I would take a slightly updated version of the on-device voice recognition they had on the Virb action cam, though that would not impress those that have grown used to Alexa or Siri. I imagine that was English-only, which isn’t really how things are done lately. All I personally want is to be able to trigger one GCIQ apps that will do the real work.
The third screen shot is very much appearing to be more than just an incoming call notification.
Can you siri or okgoogle with a pair of Bluetooth Sennheisers? The watch might integrate over that path. I doubt that it would integrate well, but Garmin is under pressure when other lifestyle watches are routinely talked to and trying their luck in a market that isn’t exactly their prime is well in the company DNA. Remember Virb? They even had the NavTalk GSM at one point!
Garmin wouldn’t need to develop it, they have partners like Microsoft who offer out of the box voice recognition which can be integrated into their offerings. I’m not suggesting it’s a good idea, but it’s certainly possible.
Imagine the explosion in sales if they added real lte cognitive.
Let me just be the first to say that maybe the plus means training analytics? Aerobic/anaerobic training effect, recovery time, training load? Because that would be more of a dream scenario. Maybe it matches the lines or blurs the lines to significantly but I say it’s time to have an AMOLED screen with training metrics!
And current Venu 2 does have the improved body battery algorithm
+1
Too good to be true, but I keep my fingers crossed!
What are the chances it’s actually running a heavily skinned Wear OS? Or Tizen OS? Any proper smartwatch OS, similarly to Polar M600 or Suunto S7?
(Yeah, I know… The chances are very, very close to 0, but a man can dream!)
Hoping the chances are nil actually. Wear Os is faulty and highly temperamental on all I’ve tried. But honestly I could never see garmin going that way – they spent way too much time and R&D developing their own platform
hmmm, no
it’s zero
Hello.
This is coming too:
https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_watch_gt_runner_launch_date-news-51806.php
Huawei has been using Firstbeat metrics until now but with Garmin now owing it… Not sure how much will worth follow that route. I don’t see Garming licensing the latest ones or complete advanced integrated solutions. Huawei is now using it’s own Harmony OS so it will be interesting, at least, to watch if new in house metrics are added to their software. Their battery endurance is good, reliable sensors and they also have routable maps and navigation. I was not expecting something interesting until the fall of 2022 or 2023 but it will be nice if some surprise that worth they money today is released…
Regards.