Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4 – Which is Better?

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One of the newest smartwatches from Garmin, the Venu 2 Plus, has a lot of similarities with the Galaxy Watch 4. It’s the first Garmin smartwatch to be equipped with a loudspeaker and microphone. These features enable Bluetooth calls. Moreover, it also features three voice assistants, Bixby, Google Assistant and Siri. The Venu 2 Plus is the latest member in the Venu 2 series which succeeded the Venu that debuted alongside the Vivoactive 4 in 2019. This guide takes a look at the differences between the Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4. These two represent some of the very best smartwatches on the market. So, we’re looking at which is a better smartwatch to help you decide.

Although the Galaxy Watch 4 comes in two sizes, 44mm and 40mm, and each of these sizes is available in Bluetooth and LTE models, this comparison is between the 44mm Galaxy Watch 4 (Bluetooth model) and Venu 2 Plus which is only available in 43mm case size.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus at a glance

Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4: Specifications Compared

 
 
Product Info
Garmin Venu 2 Plus Full Specifications

Garmin Venu 2 Plus Full Specifications, Features, Pros, Cons and Price

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm) Full Specifications, Features, Price, Pros and Cons

Price $370.00 $114.98
ABOUT DEVICE ABOUT DEVICE ABOUT DEVICE
Device name Garmin Venu 2 Plus Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm)
Device type Fitness/Classic smartwatch Fitness/Sport smartwatch
Gender Unisex Unisex, Women
Release date January, 2022 August, 2021
Predecessor Garmin Venu Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2
Successor Samsung Galaxy Watch 5
Versions Bluetooth/WiFi only, LTE
BODY BODY BODY
Dimension 43.6 x 43.6 x 12.6 mm 44.4 x 43.3 x 9.8 mm
Weight 51g 30g (excluding straps)
Shape Circular Circular
Case material Fiber-reinforced polymer with stainless steel back Armor Aluminum
Strap material Silicone Fluoroelastomer, Hybrid leather
Bezel material Stainless steel Armor Aluminum
Strap size 20 mm 20 mm
Interchangeable strap 20mm, Yes 20mm, Yes
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Corning Gorilla glass DX+
Water resistance Yes, 5ATM Yes, 5ATM
Durability test MIL-STD-810G
Swim-proof Yes, recommended Yes, recommended
Color Black case with silicone band, Gray case with silicone band, Ivory case with silicone band Black, Green, Silver
DISPLAY DISPLAY DISPLAY
Display size 1.3 inches 1.4 inches
Display type AMOLED Super AMOLED, Full color
Display resolution 416 x 416 px 450 x 450
Pixel density 452.5 PPI 454.5 PPI
Always on Yes Yes
Custom watch face Yes Yes
Input type 3 Physical buttons, Touchscreen 2 Physical buttons, Digital rotating bezel, Touchscreen
CONNECTIVITY CONNECTIVITY CONNECTIVITY
Bluetooth ANT+, Bluetooth Bluetooth v5.0
Bluetooth calling Yes Yes
GPS Galileo, GLONASS, GPS A-GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/Galileo
NFC Yes Yes
Wi-Fi Yes Yes
MEMORY MEMORY MEMORY
RAM 1.5GB
ROM 8GB 16GB
Memory card slot No No
CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY
Technology None None
SIM type None None
Band No
NOTIFICATIONS NOTIFICATIONS NOTIFICATIONS
SMS alert Yes Yes
Calls alert Yes Yes
Email alert Yes Yes
Event reminder Yes Yes
Third-party apps alert Yes Yes
Reply to Notifications - -
MEDIA MEDIA MEDIA
Audio mp3/mp4 mp3/mp4
Bluetooth music Yes Yes
Loudspeaker Yes Yes
Microphone Yes Yes
Camera No No
Radio No No
SENSORS SENSORS SENSORS
Sensor(s) BIA sensor
ACTIVITY TRACKING ACTIVITY TRACKING ACTIVITY TRACKING
Blood oxygen Yes Yes
Blood Pressure No Yes
Calories Yes Yes
Distance Yes Yes
ECG tracking No Yes
Heart rate monitoring Yes Yes
Sleep tracking Yes Yes
Steps Yes Yes
Floors climbed Yes Yes
Stress Yes Yes
Fall detection Yes Yes
Menstrual cycle Yes No
VO2 Max Yes Yes
Swim-tracking Yes Yes
Underwater heart rate tracking Yes
On-screen workout Yes Yes
Sport modes Yes 90
BATTERY BATTERY BATTERY
Battery type non-removable Lithium-polymer Non-removable Li-ion battery
Battery capacity 361mAh
Battery life GPS mode with music: Up to 8 hours, GPS mode without music: Up to 24 hours, Smartwatch mode: up to 9 days ~2 days
Charging type Charging dock Charging dock, WPC based wireless charging
Charging time 30min-1hr 1-2 hours
Solar charging No No
PLATFORM PLATFORM PLATFORM
Chipset Exynos W920
CPU 1.18GHz Dual-core (Cortex-A55)
GPU Mali™-G68 MP2
Operating system Proprietary OS Wear OS 3.5
MISC MISC MISC
Companion app Garmin Connect Samsung Galaxy Wearable app
Compatibility Android 6.0+, iOS 13.0+ Android 6.0+, RAM 1.5GB+
Payment system Garmin Pay Google Pay, Samsung Pay
Voice command Yes, Alexa, Yes, Bixby, Yes, Google Assistant Google Assistant, Yes, Bixby
Find my phone Yes Yes
Box content Charger, Garmin Venu 2 Plus, Manual, Straps Charger, Manual, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, Straps

Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4 Features Compared

Design

The materials that make up a smartwatch and its appearance are two major factors that affect consumers’ choices. It’s no surprise, the Venu 2 Plus has a more stylish and durable design than the Venu 2. In the same vein, the Galaxy Watch 4 also has a more stylish design than the Galaxy Watch Active 2. The Venu 2 Plus is a more compact smartwatch, but the Galaxy Watch 4 is a slimmer smartwatch. It is only 10.9mm thick while the Venu 2 Plus comes in at 12.6mm thick.

The Galaxy Watch 4 also weighs less than the Venu 2 Plus. It weighs just 30grams compared to 51 grams of its competitor. Thanks to its aluminum case, the Venu 2 Plus has a fiber-polymer case with a stainless steel rear cover.

The Venu 2 Plus has three physical buttons alongside a touch-sensitive display which makes navigation a lot easy. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Watch 4 features two physical buttons, a touchscreen display, and a digital rotating bezel. It is safe to say both smartwatches are very easy to access.

Both smartwatches are also rated 5ATM which means that these two are waterproof up to 50 meters, and as a result, save to wear to the pool, shower or under the rain.

Both smartwatches have durable glasses protecting the display. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protects the display of Venu 2 Plus while Corning Gorilla Glass DX protects the display of Galaxy Watch 4.

In other words, I’ll say both the Venu 2 Plus and the Galaxy Watch 4 are well designed, durable, compact, and lightweight with slight differences.

Display – Galaxy Watch 4 has a more colorful display

AMOLED powers the display of both smartwatches. Although, while the Galaxy Watch 4 has a 1.4 inches display size, the Venu 2 Plus has a 1.3 inches display. Moreover, the Galaxy Watch 4 has a higher screen-to-body ratio that lets you see more at a glance. And with 450×450 resolution, the Galaxy Watch 4 has a more colorful display than Venu 2 Plus. Nonetheless, the Venu 2 Plus with a 416×416 resolution is also very colorful.

The watch face on both smartwatches is interchangeable. You get the option to swap watch face with any of your choices. For the Galaxy Watch 4, you get lots of options in the Google Playstore while there are lots of watch faces to choose from in the Garmin Connect app for the Venu 2 Plus.

Health Tracking – Both smartwatches are very fitness-focused

Both the Galaxy Watch 4 and Venu 2 Plus are fitness-focused. Each of these two is equipped with lots of health tracking features that can help you stay fit. Each will track your heart rate, calories, sleep, blood oxygen, menstrual cycle for women, water intake tracking and sedentary reminder.

Both smartwatches also feature incidental fall detection that lets the watch make a call to preset emergency contacts when your phone is nearby.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus health tracking features

The Galaxy Watch features blood pressure and ECG measurements which are not available in the Venu 2 Plus. Meanwhile, the Venu 2 Plus Features an animated onscreen workout that can guide you through preset workout modes. It also features an onscreen muscle map that shows which muscle is worked. These features are not available in the Galaxy Watch 4.

Both smartwatches also have inbuilt GPS that enables tracking for outdoor activities. Clearly, both smartwatches are very fitness-fucus and loaded with lots of health tracking features.

Music Storage and Bluetooth Calls

The Galaxy Watch 4 with a 16GB storage capacity offers more space to store your personal music on the watch than Venu 2 Plus with 4GB which can only store up to 650 tracks.

The Venu 2 Plus features three voice assistants, Google Assistant, Siri and Bixby, while Galaxy Watch 4 features Bixby and Google Assistant which was recently added. In other words, you get more voice assistant options on the Venu 2 Plus than on Galaxy Watch 4. From my experience, Bixby is far beyond Google Assistant. The voice assistant activated on Venu 2 Plus depends on the smartwatch you’re using.

As a result of a microphone and loudspeaker in the Venu 2 Plus and Galaxy Watch 4, each of these two can make and receive calls directly from the smartwatch when your phone is nearby. Both smartwatches will sync your contact list to the watch to make it easy to find a contact you wish to call. There is also a dialer on these two that lets you dial the number you wish to call directly from the watch.

Managing Notification

Each of these two also shares a lot of similarities in the way your reply to notifications. These two will alert you when you receive notifications on your phone. With three voice assistants on the Venu 2 Plus, you’ll get more than enough options to manage notifications. With the Galaxy Watch 4, you can reply to messages with your voice, texts or emojis. It is almost the same with the Venu 2 Plus.

Battery Life – Venu 2 Plus has a far longer battery life

One of the downsides to the Galaxy Watch 4 is its poor battery life. It has just about 2 days of battery life while the Venu 2 Plus can last up to 9 days. Although, when battery saver mode is activated on the Galaxy Watch 4, you can get up to 3 days of battery life, while the Venu 2 Plus will give you up to 10 days of battery life.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4: Which is a Better Smartwatch?

Garmin Venu 2 Plus vs Galaxy Watch 4 - which is better?

Going by the design, display, health tracking, battery life, music storage and more, both the Venu 2 Plus and Galaxy Watch 4 are very well designed smartwatches offering loads of features. These two are comprehensive smartwatches that let you do more than an average smartwatch.

However, despite a poor battery life, the Galaxy Watch 4 is a better smartwatch. It has a far bigger storage capacity, slimmer design, more colorful display, features ECG and Blood pressure measurement, and is far cheaper. It also gives you access to more apps, thanks to the WearOS platform. Note that the Galaxy Watch 4 isn’t compatible with iPhones.

On the other hand, the Venu 2 Plus is also a fine smartwatch. It’s the rave of the moment. It has a very stylish design, lots of health tracking features, more voice assistant options as well a long battery life. It’s the perfect alternative to Apple Watch 7 for those using an iPhone