Garmin · Venu Series · Garmin OS · Launched August 2022
Garmin Venu Sq 2
The Garmin Venu Sq 2 is the second generation of Garmin's square-form lifestyle smartwatch — adding a significantly upgraded AMOLED display, onboard speaker for Bluetooth calls, expanded health suite with nap detection and morning report, and a refined aluminium bezel design. It bridges Garmin's deep fitness intelligence with daily wearability, all in a lightweight 38g body with up to 11 days of battery life.
AMOLED Display (New)
Upgraded from LCD — vivid always-on 1.41" screen
Bluetooth Phone Calls
Built-in speaker + mic — new vs Venu Sq 1
Garmin Pay NFC
Contactless payments from your wrist
11 Days (smartwatch mode)
8 days with AOD · up to 24hr GPS
Key Features
AMOLED Display Upgrade
The Venu Sq 2's most important upgrade over its predecessor is its 1.41-inch AMOLED touchscreen, replacing the original Venu Sq's LCD panel. The jump to AMOLED brings dramatically richer colours, deeper blacks, and significantly improved sunlight visibility. The display runs at 320×360 pixels and supports Always-On Display mode — a feature absent from the original Venu Sq's screen. The glass is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and the watch face library has been expanded to take advantage of the improved display capabilities. In everyday use, this is the single most impactful visual difference between the two generations.
Bluetooth Phone Calls
The Venu Sq 2 adds a built-in speaker and microphone — a first for the Venu Sq line — enabling Bluetooth phone calls directly from the watch. When paired to an Android or iOS device via Bluetooth, incoming calls are displayed on the watch face, and you can answer, speak, and end calls without touching your phone. The speaker also supports audio notifications and watch face chimes. This addition closes a meaningful gap with competing lifestyle smartwatches at this price point. Call quality is functional rather than premium — adequate for quick conversations but the small speaker size limits volume and audio fidelity compared to a phone held to the ear.
Garmin Pay NFC
The Venu Sq 2 includes Garmin Pay — Garmin's NFC-based contactless payment system. Supported cards from participating banks and card networks can be loaded into the Garmin Connect app and stored on the watch. At checkout, you simply hold the watch to any NFC payment terminal. This is a significant practical addition over the original Venu Sq, which lacked NFC entirely. Garmin Pay works independently of your phone — once a card is loaded, payments work without your phone nearby. The supported bank list varies by country; users should verify their card and bank compatibility before purchase via Garmin's official Garmin Pay bank list.
Body Battery™ Energy Monitor
Body Battery is Garmin's proprietary energy management feature that uses heart rate variability, stress data, sleep quality, and activity data to calculate a 0–100 energy reserve score throughout the day. It tells you at a glance whether your body is at full capacity for a hard workout, or whether recovery should take priority. The Venu Sq 2 shows Body Battery history and trends in the Garmin Connect app, which can help users make informed decisions about training intensity and rest. It's one of Garmin's most practically useful wellness features and genuinely differentiates the watch from competitors offering basic step and heart-rate data only.
Morning Report
Morning Report is a new Garmin software feature available on the Venu Sq 2 that presents a personalised morning briefing on the watch face when you wake up. It summarises your overnight sleep quality and duration, your Body Battery energy level, today's weather forecast, and your planned workouts or calendar events — all in a glanceable digest before you reach for your phone. It's designed to help you make immediate morning decisions about your day (whether to push a workout, how prepared you are, what the weather demands) without opening the Garmin Connect app. The feature requires firmware and Garmin Connect app to be kept up to date.
Advanced Sleep & Nap Tracking
The Venu Sq 2 features Garmin's Advanced Sleep Monitoring, tracking sleep stages (light, deep, REM), SpO₂ trends overnight, breathing rate, and heart rate variability to calculate a Sleep Score and Nightly Recharge metric. New to the Venu Sq 2 is nap detection — the watch can automatically detect and log daytime naps, incorporating nap data into your overall daily recovery picture in Garmin Connect. This is particularly useful for shift workers, parents of young children, or anyone whose sleep schedule is irregular. The nap detection is passive and automatic; no manual logging is required.
What's New vs Venu Sq 1
🆕 AMOLED Display
🆕 Bluetooth Calls
🆕 Built-in Speaker
🆕 Garmin Pay NFC
🆕 Morning Report
🆕 Nap Detection
🆕 Always-On Display
🆕 Aluminium Bezel Option
↑AMOLED display vs LCD on Venu Sq 1
↑Always-On Display mode added (was absent from Sq 1)
↑Built-in speaker + microphone added
↑Bluetooth phone calls — new capability
↑Garmin Pay NFC added (Sq 1 had no NFC)
↑Morning Report daily briefing feature added
↑Nap detection added to sleep tracking suite
↑Aluminium bezel variant added (new design option)
↑Battery: 11 days typical (up from 6 days on Sq 1)
↑GPS: up to 24hr (up from 14hr on Sq 1)
→Same square form factor retained
→Same 5 ATM water resistance
Health & Fitness Features
❤️ 24/7 Heart Rate
🩸 SpO₂ (Spot-Check)
😤 Stress Monitoring
💤 Advanced Sleep
🔋 Body Battery™
🫁 Respiration Rate
💪 Fitness Age
🚺 Menstrual Cycle
🤰 Pregnancy Tracking
✔24-hour continuous heart rate monitoring
✔Pulse oximetry (SpO₂) — spot-check and overnight
✔Stress monitoring (heart rate variability)
✔Respiration rate monitoring
✔Advanced sleep monitoring — stages, score, Nightly Recharge
✔Nap detection (automatic, passive)
✔Body Battery™ energy monitoring (0–100)
✔VO2 Max estimation
✔Fitness Age calculation
✔Step counter · Distance · Calories burned · Floors climbed
✔Menstrual cycle tracking + pregnancy tracking
✔Hydration tracking (manual log)
Battery Life
11 days
Smartwatch Mode
8 days
Always-On Display
24 hrs
GPS Mode
26 hrs
GPS + Music
Full Technical Specifications
| Display | |
| Display Type | AMOLED — Always-On Display supported |
| Size | 1.41 inches |
| Resolution | 320 × 360 pixels |
| Glass | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Watch Faces | Extensive library via Connect IQ store · downloadable third-party faces |
| Design & Build | |
| Shape | Square (rounded corners) |
| Case Material | Fibre-reinforced polymer case · stainless steel or aluminium bezel options |
| Weight | 38.2g (with strap) |
| Dimensions | 40.6 × 37.4 × 9.5 mm |
| Strap Width | 20mm — standard swappable |
| Colours | Slate (stainless bezel) · Cream Gold · Peach Gold · Shadow Grey · Mint (aluminium bezel) |
| Water Resistance | 5 ATM (50 metres) |
| Battery | |
| Smartwatch Mode | Up to 11 days |
| Always-On Display | Up to 8 days |
| GPS Mode | Up to 24 hours |
| GPS + Music | Up to 26 hours |
| Charging | Proprietary Garmin magnetic charging cable |
| GPS & Sensors | |
| GPS Type | GPS + GLONASS (single-band) |
| Sensors | Elevate™ v3 optical heart rate · Pulse oximeter (SpO₂) · Accelerometer · Gyroscope · Barometric altimeter · Ambient light · Thermometer |
| Audio & Calls | |
| Speaker | Yes — built-in |
| Microphone | Yes — built-in |
| Bluetooth Calls | Yes — answer/end calls via Bluetooth to phone |
| Music & Storage | |
| Music Storage | Up to 500 songs stored on watch |
| Music Services | Spotify · Amazon Music · Deezer (requires premium subscription) |
| Phone Music Control | Yes — remote control of phone's music player |
| Sports & Fitness | |
| Sports Modes | 40+ built-in activity profiles |
| Pool Swim Tracking | Yes — stroke detection, lengths, SWOLF score |
| Animated Workouts | Yes — animated on-screen workout instructions (strength, cardio, yoga, Pilates) |
| Intensity Minutes | Yes — WHO guidelines-aligned weekly activity tracking |
| Connectivity & Smart Features | |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.0 |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 2.4GHz (for music sync and software updates) |
| NFC / Payments | Yes — Garmin Pay (NFC contactless payments) |
| Notifications | Yes — calls, texts, emails, app alerts (display + audio) |
| Smart Notifications | Reply to messages on Android · Emoji replies on iOS |
| Compatibility | |
| Android | Android 6.0 and above |
| iOS | iOS 14.0 and above |
| App | Garmin Connect (iOS and Android) |
| Third-Party Sync | Strava · MyFitnessPal · TrainingPeaks · Apple Health · Google Health Connect · 2000+ Connect IQ apps |
Verdict
✅ What We Like
+AMOLED is a transformative upgrade — the jump from the original Venu Sq's LCD to AMOLED is not a subtle spec improvement; it's a fundamentally different and more enjoyable screen experience, with colours, contrast, and legibility all dramatically better
+Garmin Pay fills a critical gap — NFC contactless payments from the wrist are a daily-life convenience that was conspicuously absent from the original Venu Sq; the Sq 2 adds this without compromise
+Best-in-class wellness intelligence — Garmin's Body Battery, Nightly Recharge, Morning Report, and stress tracking represent a more holistic, actionable health picture than most competitors at this price point
+Excellent battery for an AMOLED watch — 11 days in smartwatch mode and 8 days with AOD active is genuinely impressive for an AMOLED display smartwatch, comfortably ahead of Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch, and most Wear OS devices
+Garmin Connect ecosystem depth — access to 2000+ Connect IQ apps, deep third-party integrations, and best-in-class long-term health data history gives the Venu Sq 2 a platform advantage over more closed ecosystems
⚠️ Things to Know
−Single-band GPS only — the Venu Sq 2 uses GPS + GLONASS but not multi-band or dual-band GPS; users who run in dense urban environments or under heavy tree cover may notice occasional route accuracy issues compared to higher-end Garmin models with multi-band GPS
−SpO₂ is spot-check, not fully continuous — unlike some competitors offering all-night automatic SpO₂ tracking by default, the Venu Sq 2 offers spot-check and overnight modes, but continuous all-day SpO₂ drains battery significantly and is not the default mode
−No voice assistant — the Venu Sq 2 does not support Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri on the watch face; if wrist-based voice assistant functionality is important, this is a genuine gap compared to alternatives like Amazfit or Samsung watches
−Garmin Pay bank coverage varies — while Garmin Pay is broadly supported, the list of compatible banks and card issuers is not exhaustive; buyers should verify their specific card is supported in their country before purchase
−Touchscreen-only navigation — the Venu Sq 2 uses a touchscreen without physical navigation buttons (aside from the top-right button); users who prefer button navigation during workouts with wet or gloved hands may find touch-only operation less reliable
Bottom Line
The Garmin Venu Sq 2 is the original Venu Sq corrected on every meaningful front — a proper AMOLED screen, Garmin Pay, Bluetooth calls, and dramatically better battery life — in the same compact, light, daily-wearable square design. For buyers new to the Garmin ecosystem, the Venu Sq 2 offers the most complete lifestyle smartwatch Garmin makes at this price: AMOLED quality, NFC payments, Garmin's best-in-class wellness intelligence, and 11 days of battery in one package. For buyers choosing between the Venu Sq 2 and higher-end Garmin models — if serious GPS sport tracking, multi-band GPS, or running dynamics metrics matter to you, step up to the Venu 3 or Forerunner line. But if you want a beautiful everyday watch that happens to be exceptional at health monitoring, the Venu Sq 2 is the most sensible choice Garmin makes.