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I returned Venu 2 - here is why...

MWBZ
over 4 years ago

Hello everyone

I was a proud owner of an F5X+ for a couple of years, but then I decided to change it for a better screen smartwatch and I chose Honor GS PRO.

It was a fantastic smartwatch, beautiful AMOLED screen, 14 days battery (8 days with AOD), ALL the training stats: Training Effect, Recovery, etc.
However, the lack of SUPPORT AND UPDATES after Honor separated from Huawei, no integration at all with 3rd party such MFP, Strava, or Fit, the poor design app (compared to Garmin), and the lack of a web option to track your data (compared to Garmin again) make me rethink it after 2 months.
When I saw the news about Venu 2, I was excited and decided to give it a try so I purchased one.

Nice screen, reply to notifications, sleep spO2 analysis, integration with MFP, FIT, etc, Total calorie count (not just the exercise) were nice features to have back.

But then I started to realize that the look of the watch is "cheap" plasticky for a 520$CAD watch, plus no training effect, training load, recovery, a battery that last ONLY 2 days (with all sensors, spO2 ONLY for sleeping track), NOT using the AOD... my excitement started to transform into disappointment.

I had issues with spO2, where values dropped to a low 80%! Even my F5X+ with an older sensor never ever give me lower than 90%, the battery never lasted more than 2 days with only 1 hour of exercise with GPS enabled per day, watch face selection was not good either...

It was too much for me to keep the watch. So I sent it back and I bought Huawei Watch 3 Active for 20$CAD more...

Yes, I will have to deal with the terrible app, no webpage, no integration, but at least I have the features that I want (and I think most people want).

I could accept the cheap look of the watch, the 2 days battery, and even the spO2 readings, if I have the other features (TE, TL, R, etc).

For me, The stupidity of the Garmin management to artificially remove features and continue the disappointment of their users forced me to switch to Huawei.

That is my story.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to MWBZ


    as you keep on following the forum, you have probably noticed that it is still a bug fest!
    so many issues and instabilities and problems.... with the watch and with the garmin connect platform in general.... it is bewildering! wish i had returned the watch, when i had the chance....

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to BikerWithAVenu2

    BikerWithAVenu2- "Bug fest" has not been my experience at all with my Venu2.  It's been incredible, as is the platform. Sometimes the bugs can be on the user side (PC issues.)

    I really don't have a dog in this fight since I don't care what anyone uses.  Just out of curiosity though, if you hate it so much, why are you so active in this forum.  Simply just don't use it and move on?  Many of us actually like it.  

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to RunForest!!
    RunForest!! said:
    Just out of curiosity though, if you hate it so much, why are you so active in this forum.  Simply just don't use it and move on?

    I can't say that I hate Garmin, in fact I love it, and I think that most people who are frustrated with bugs feel the same.

    And I would speculate judging by myself that they do the posting in here trying to make Garmin devices better and help the company to improve their offerings. At least that's motivating behind my actions.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to sensovision

    All products have some bugs.  I have not found my Venu2 to be buggy (yet.)  Posting once is ok but some people in here continually post basically the same thing. I mean this thread is 9 pages long- on a product that was returned.  Garmin knows all about the bugs and I doubt they are waiting on 9 pages of posts before they try to fix them.  It often has more to do with the integration, home networks, etc.  They devices are tested to work.  Maybe they could allow users to not download the latest versions e.g., no auto updates or easy one click roll backs.  That would be progress.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to RunForest!!
    RunForest!! said:
    All products have some bugs.  I have not found my Venu2 to be buggy (yet.) 

    sure every code has a bugs by definition, no arguing here :)

    RunForest!! said:
    rmin knows all about the bugs and I doubt they are waiting on 9 pages of posts before they try to fix them.

    I'm not even sure they would read every single post in here or at least act on it. But people participating in posts like this can actually form a driving force in the end and can submit some request to the Garmin to which it would act, like this one: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/venu/250482/feature-request-sleep-widget/1192275#1192275

    Of course it doesn't mean that Garmin would listen and fulfill the request but at least they consider it and possibly it will influence the direction they move to.

    RunForest!! said:
    They devices are tested to work.  Maybe they could allow users to not download the latest versions e.g., no auto updates or easy one click roll backs.

    Personally I downloaded Betas and tested them and Garmin team was very responsive and co-operative in fixing bugs, I have to credit them for this. But sure, I'd love that at least some updates were optional or there were more testing and more gradual rollouts for updates, this could solve a lot of nerves to those who rely on stable work of the watch.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to sensovision

    @sensovision All valid points.