Garmin has unveiled two new smartwatches at CES 2022 – an improved Garmin Venu 2 and new hybrid Vivomove Sport.
Let's start with the Venu 2 Plus, which is an improved version of the company’s latest full AMOLED smartwatch.
The Venu 2 Plus is a minor upgrade, enabling users to make and receive calls from the smartwatch itself, and reply to text messages.
The Venu 2 Plus also enables users to use their smartphone’s voice assistant from the wrist. Users can summon Siri, Google Assistant or Bixby for their bidding, using the built-in speaker and microphone to answer questions or control smart home devices.
Other features of the smartwatch remain unchanged, so there’s still the array of 25 tracked sport modes, GPS and the heart rate monitor with SpO2 sensor. It also boasts 9 day battery life and offline music storage, including Spotify playlists.
The case has also shrunk to 43mm (down from 45mm), so the Venu 2 Plus is aimed at those whose head has been turned by the likes of the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 and want some extra smarts.
The Venu 2 Plus is on sale now and costs $499/£399 – a jump in price from the standard Venu 2, which is $100 cheaper at present.
Read our full review of the Garmin Venu 2 Plus.
New Vivomove Sport hybrid unveiled
Next up is the Garmin Vivomove Sport, which offers the hybrid smartwatch at a lower $179/£149 price.
All the tech is behind a standard analogue display, which will keep time for six days, and offer smart notifications for five.
There’s little in the way of new features here, but the Vivomove Sport has been given a bunch of new colorways, with green added to the mix, and there’s a customization tool, so buyers can pick from an array of strap and dial choices.
In terms of smart features, it’s business as usual for the Vivomove series.
Tracking of respiratory rate, heart rate, Body Battery (energy levels) and blood oxygen saturation join more core metrics such as steps and activity for an overview of health. There are sports mode tracking but no GPS – although you can piggyback off your phone for outdoor runs.
It’s also a decent smartwatch, and will notify of calls, messages and other notifications. The screen can show details of notifications and calendar alerts, and Android users can also send message replies.
The Vivomove Sport also goes on sale today, costing $179.99/£149.99.
It's a quiet CES for Garmin, and all eyes will be on the expected launch of the Garmin Fenix 7, which is due to drop any time soon.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.