I returned Venu 2 - here is why...

Thanks. I checked out AliExpress. Sadly, the $145 versions all say "Cannot deliver to United States." For $183 it can be shipped from China, but would take a month to get here. Do you think it's still worth it? And what does "Global Version" mean?

sensovision said:

none of those devices has Breathworks

That's not correct. I'm looking at the app on my 945 right now, but it isn't on my backup 935. I can't speak for the other watches. 

sensovision said:

Anyway there is demand for such a product and either Garmin will do it or other company would take this niche.

We can go back and forth on why we think this will or won't happen.  I'll leave you with one question you don't need to reply too unless you want, but it's meant to just ask yourself. Touchscreens have been around for a while now.  Why haven't the big 3 in sport watches (Garmin, Polar and Suunto) released your ultimate touchscreen watch with all the bells and whistles if the demand is so high?  Back in 2013, Garmin's FR620 had a touchscreen.  It was the closest to having all the bells and whistles but still came up a little short.  Users had issues with the feature, Garmin listened and it was abandoned. Those reasons haven't changed, so I believe you've miscalculated what you believe it's in high demand. I know you have difficulty believing me.  There's a simple solution.  You can go to any of the forums for the watches that have the features you want.  Start a poll asking if they prefer that watch the way it is or as a touchscreen.  It's very simple to do and there's nothing stopping you. 

Suunto 5... Is going on  That direction 

As I said before, maybe I got a bad Venu2 watch, 

I read but most important I watch reviews on YouTube from REAL users, not from websites that get paid... (Or not...)

Regarding the ship from AliExpress it took 2.5 weeks to get the watch on my hand (Alberta)

Global version is firmware in English... Not in chinese

Anyhow, my bottom line is that Garmin is loosing the battle and will loose the war if they don't change.

Chinese gadgets are getting better and better and lower prices..

MWBZ said:

Suunto 5... Is going on  That direction

Touchscreen? I'm pretty certain the 5, 7 and 9's aren't, but I may be wrong. 

MWBZ said:

As I said before, maybe I got a bad Venu2 watch

That's possible.  And I noticed you're question was never answered. Every Garmin I've purchased (way too many according to the wife) had the round sticker over the flap and the box was also sealed.  It's possible you may have received a returned unit. 

who knows said:

That's not correct. I'm looking at the app on my 945 right now, but it isn't on my backup 935. I can't speak for the other watches. 

that's nice, thank you for checking! Previously I was sure that Forenners didn't have that feature and it appeared with Venu and Vivo and then was added to Fenix via FW upgrades.

who knows said:

I'll leave you with one question you don't need to reply too unless you want, but it's meant to just ask yourself. Touchscreens have been around for a while now.  Why haven't the big 3 in sport watches (Garmin, Polar and Suunto) released your ultimate touchscreen watch with all the bells and whistles if the demand is so high?  Back in 2013, Garmin's FR620 had a touchscreen.  It was the closest to having all the bells and whistles but still came up a little short.

I have an explanation for that, back in 2013 wearables wasn't that widespread or popular as of today, and high pricing tag was stopping factor in that as well. So sport watches was used mainly by athletes and I wouldn't even try to argue that buttons are better suited for sports in general. But now winds have changed, Chinese brands made wearables way more popular and affordable and so they created new market for people who are not professional athletes but still want to track their performance in one way or another. And trust me, those Chinese watches are actually getting better, my family members are using them and I know what they are capable of, cheap Honor Band 5 measuring HR very close to my chest strap and my Vivo is a total junk in that department(I did tests on myself and my wife), same with sleep and PulseOX. So I see how the progress is going and soon those affordable watches will start to push Garmin out of it's market, as why would someone pay few hundred bucks for watch which is measuring pulse worse than $30 band?

So back in 2013 people wasn't ready for the wearable and now they are and Garmin may lose it's dominance if doesn't change its artificial product strategy.

Also, I'm sure Garmin knows there is a demand for touchscreen otherwise they wouldn't release Vivoactive, Venu, and old Vivosmart lines...

who knows said:

I know you have difficulty believing me.  There's a simple solution.  You can go to any of the forums for the watches that have the features you want.  Start a poll asking if they prefer that watch the way it is or as a touchscreen.  It's very simple to do and there's nothing stopping you. 

it would make nosense because people are biased and would advertise what they invested into, so if I start the poll in Venu or Vivo I'd get major of votes for touchscreen and not buttons and would get the opposite results from FR or Fenix users.

who knows said:

Touchscreen? I'm pretty certain the 5, 7 and 9's aren't, but I may be wrong. 

I'm sorry to break it for you, but you're wrong again, just as with thinking that having a forum where you can criticize the maker is totally unique to Garmin. If we refer to Suunto 9's manual we'll see: "Touch screen and buttons. Suunto 9 has a touch screen and three buttons you can use to navigate through displays and features."

In fact, I've considered this one myself, and it was on the top of my list, the only drawback is battery power which is improving too with each iteration.

And just to be clear, I love Garmin and planning to buy more devices from them to those I'm already own, and I wish this corporation to be successful and stay on the market of wearables, that's why I think that they need to change their strategies.

sensovision said:

Also, I'm sure Garmin knows there is a demand for touchscreen otherwise they wouldn't release Vivoactive, Venu, and old Vivosmart lines...

Agreed.  But those watches are for a specific demographic.  This is what I've been saying from the start. The average Venu, Fitbit, etc user's are concerned with the basics. Are there exceptions?  Of course.  Man bites dog. Those concerned with more metrics know a touchscreen isn't practical for the types of activities they track.  The average V2 user isn't running in the rain or snow where sleeves and gloves interfere with a touchscreen.  The average V2 user's isn't rock climbing, rafting over rapids, or hiking in extreme vegetation where rocks, water or branches touching the watch face will interfere with their activities.  The average V2 owner use their watch casually. I agree a poll would be biased depending on the forum only because people with an existing touchscreen want their cake and eat it too and don't normally conduct the activities the higher end devices do and they are unaware of the issues. Don't take it personally, but I think you fall in this category.  Those who own a higher end device are already aware of the problems a touchscreen watch poses, so they made a choice of just having their cake.  The argument about the popularity of sport watches from 2013 and now doesn't hold water either because the same problems/shortcomings with a touchscreen hasn't changed in the last 8 years. 

who knows said:

Agreed.  But those watches are for a specific demographic.  This is what I've been saying from the start. The average Venu, Fitbit, etc user's are concerned with the basics. Are there exceptions?  Of course.  Man bites dog. Those concerned with more metrics know a touchscreen isn't practical for the types of activities they track.  The average V2 user isn't running in the rain or snow where sleeves and gloves interfere with a touchscreen.  The average V2 user's isn't rock climbing, rafting over rapids, or hiking in extreme vegetation where rocks, water or branches touching the watch face will interfere with their activities.  The average V2 owner use their watch casually.

yes they are, but it's not rocket science that sooner or later the border line between watches which can do only basics and those higher-end devices will become very thing, technology is advances and so is competition. And if it goes this way, athletes wouldn't have to invest hundreds to get their body readings done reliably and person who used certain brand and got into its ecosystem early let's say into Huami would be more reluctant to switch to Garmin with its GC which is one of the best features of Garmin and it's not widely known by people who hadn't tried it.

who knows said:

Don't take it personally, but I think you fall in this category.  Those who own a higher end device are already aware of the problems a touchscreen watch poses, so they made a choice of just having their cake.

Of course I'm biased, I'm just a human after all, and no, I'm not trying to push touchscreen to all devices even without trying buttons myself, but since Garmin so in love in creating a wide range of devices trying to please all different groups it would be logical for them to create yet another device with a touchscreen and training metrics. Of course it would be better if they just add it to all range of their devices since they are sports-oriented company unlike Huawei which has recovery metrics built-in on not so expensive watches.

who knows said:

Those who own a higher end device are already aware of the problems a touchscreen watch poses, so they made a choice of just having their cake.

I plan to try buttons myself eventually, just out of curiosity at least, but trust me, no matter how good they will be I would never try to convince anyone to switch from touchscreen because I respect the freedom of choice and the freedom to be wrong. Buttons or touchscreen is just a personal preference IMHO one works better in one condition and other in different ones. Ideally the watch would have buttons and optional touchscreen which could be locked but I don't see its coming anytime soon.

who knows said:

The argument about the popularity of sport watches from 2013 and now doesn't hold water either because the same problems/shortcomings with a touchscreen hasn't changed in the last 8 years. 

I have to disagree, as just yesterday I was running in rain with my Vivoactive and I had zero issue with it, I remember that had number of troubles like screen scoll and other when I didn't want to when I was using my Vivosmart HR which is way older than VA4. So internal logic is improved. Previously I swim in sea and again my VA4 worked flawlessly, it cleverly disable touchscreen and fall back to buttons which is ideal solution to me, and again with Vivosmart or even Amazfit I had more troubles while swimming.

And technology isn't cut in stone, I remember that when first Samsung phone came with waterfall display it was a pain to use it(I never owned it but was setting it for my friend) it had false clicks all the time, and this month I've got in my hands another Samsung phone with those rounded edges, I was quite skeptical but I have to admit that it no longer irritated me with false clicks or anything, it works flawlessly and programmers did their job well this time. So clever planning and programming can make touchscreen devices work in various conditions.

sensovision said:

. And if it goes this way, athletes wouldn't have to invest hundreds to get their body readings

Athletes maybe. Not everybody is an athlete and you have your "weekend warriors" for a lack of a better term that don't require or want all the metrics available.  This is why you have so many Garmin products now.  They're covering all the bases. 

sensovision said:

trying to please all different groups it would be logical for them to create yet another device with a touchscreen and training metrics

sensovision said:

I respect the freedom of choice and the freedom to be wrong

I too value freedom of choice. I served and retired from the US Army just for that right. But marketing wise it makes no sense to create something to appease the few.  There is no logic behind that.

sensovision said:

as just yesterday I was running in rain with my Vivoactive and I had zero issue with it

You were fortunate that time.  Others have not been with the touchscreen as you are already aware of because you agreed there's an issue and you said you reported it to Garmin back when you were using your Vivoactive in this earlier thread. 

forums.garmin.com/.../accidentally-deleting-saving-activity-by-swipe-garmin-please-make-one-more-step-in-between-pause-and-save-delete-activity

Anyway, the only way to prevent a touchscreen from falsely reacting to a touch is to incorporate finger print recognition.  Again, the cost to use this is unfeasible for that feature. I guess we'll have to wait and see if all the "what if's" become reality. 

who knows said:

This is why you have so many Garmin products now.  They're covering all the bases. 

not all apparently, and instead of creating so many devices they could make a few with low tag and less features and some expensive but packed with all of them, instead of creating galaxy of products which people can hardly understand.

who knows said:

You were fortunate that time.  Others have not been with the touchscreen as you are already aware of because you agreed there's an issue and you said you reported it to Garmin back when you were using your Vivoactive in this earlier thread. 

nice try, but have you even read what I've wrote there? I'll quote myself: "yeah, I've submitted similar request myself a while ago for Vivoactive, hopefully they would rethink the way how to control pause of activity a bit, maybe physical button confirmation. "

And although English isn't my native language I'm quite sure that didn't say anything about the problem but the only thing that submitted request myself and this thread was about autopause which will run out after 15 minutes of inactivity it has nothing to do with water... Pause can be modified indeed, but inside activities I wasn't affected by water yet, maybe I will and then would change my mind, as people tend to change their minds if I get new facts on their hands.

who knows said:

Anyway, the only way to prevent a touchscreen from falsely reacting to a touch is to incorporate finger print recognition.  Again, the cost to use this is unfeasible for that feature. I guess we'll have to wait and see if all the "what if's" become reality. 

trust me that it is not, it could be solved by coding algorithm which would react to touch after physical button click for example, I've just solved your and Garmin's expensive problem, no need to thank me :)

Also, I'm a bit puzzled or maybe missed one of your messages, but can you tell why you as a happy owner of FR945 who's so totally satisfied with it looking for something in board dedicated to inferior device with AMOLED and touchscreen?