Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Venu 2 Plus: Which to Buy?

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The Forerunner 265 and Venu 2 Plus both offer many different and similar features to track and improve the performance of health and fitness enthusiasts. But to know which one among them can add more value to your lifestyle, you have to read this article.

Price

Price is an important factor because you want your hard-earned money to be spent on a worthwhile product that can fulfill your needs. Let me tell you that these are mid-range smartwatches with a quite similar price of $449.99, and according to this price, they provide you with many features.

Design & Build

The designs of both these watches are quite awesome.

Starting with the Forerunner 265, its bezels and full body are made from fiber-reinforced polymer, a type of lightweight but strong plastic. This makes the watch quite light, weighing only 47 grams. Aesthetically, it looks very athletic and sporty.

Similarly, the Venu 2 Plus also has a lifestyle-focused design like its predecessor. Its bezels and rear are made of stainless steel, and the sides are built with fiber-reinforced polymer, making it not only strong but also premium in look and feel. However, because of the metal, its weight is 51 grams, which is slightly heavier than the Forerunner 265.

The case size for the Forerunner 265 is 46 mm, while the Venu 2 Plus has a slightly smaller case at 43 mm. Both are the best sizes for wrist sizes ranging from 135 to 205 mm. If your wrist size is smaller, you can opt for the Forerunner 265s or Venu 2s.

Both smartwatches come with silicon straps, and there is a significant design difference in their straps. The Forerunner 265’s band has a dual color tone, while the Venu 2 Plus band has a nice textured design, which look and feels quite premium, enhancing its overall look.

Display

Both feature the same 1.3-inch AMOLED display, along with a resolution of 416 x 416 pixels. Due to this, things like fitness stats and notifications appear very clear, whether you are indoors or outdoors.

These are quite bright displays that can be used in direct sunlight without any issues. Moreover, their screens are equipped with Gorilla Glass 3, which protects them from scratches.

Buttons

The Forerunner 265 has a 5-button configuration, providing users with more input options for various functions. In contrast, the Venu 2 Plus comes with a 3-button setup, which will be attractive to those who prefer a clean design control.

On the left-hand side of the Forerunner 265, there are three buttons: Power, and Up and Down buttons. On the right-hand side, there are two buttons: the first one for start and pause, and the second is a back button.

All three buttons on the Venu 2 Plus are on the right side. There are no specific Up and Down buttons. The top and bottom buttons are similar to those on the Forerunner 265, but the middle button is slightly different. You can customize this button as a shortcut for any app, but by default, it is used more for the Voice Assistant.

Features

In terms of smartwatch features, the Venu 2 Plus has a slight advantage as it is more of a lifestyle-oriented smartwatch, offering regular smart features. However, the Forerunner 265 is not far behind, only lacking in some areas while still providing all the essential smart features.

Looking at the similar smartwatch features first, both allow you to view smartphone notifications on the watch and receive calls. You can also respond to text messages with predefined responses and have the option for contactless payment through Garmin Pay.

Additionally, you can control smartphone music or play and control music directly on the watch as they support apps like Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer. Both watches have 8 GB of memory storage, allowing you to download and save songs from these apps.

The Venu 2 Plus comes with an in-built microphone and speakers, a nice feature that enables on-wrist call and voice assistant capabilities. The microphone works quite well; during a call test, the person on the other end reported clear audio. However, the speakers are not extraordinary, providing decent sound for a small device. For utilizing the call and voice assistant features, your phone needs to be within the watch’s range for these features to work.

Both also offer safety features like incident detection, assistance, and live track, which send alerts to you and your contacts in case of detected accidents during your activities. You can also share your real-time location with any contact.

The alert sounds on both are quite different, with the Forerunner 265 emitting only a beep sound, while the Venu 2 Plus offers various distinct tones.

Both come with a 5 ATM water resistance rating, so you can comfortably wear them while swimming without any issues.

Equipped with built-in GPS, both watches enable effortless recording of speed, distance, and location, eliminating the need for a separate smartphone. This feature ensures precise and accurate location tracking, enhancing the overall utility of the watches.

However, the Forerunner 265 has a slightly advanced multi-band chipset, making it capable of using two satellite frequencies at once. This is a very useful feature for those who trail in challenging environments. In such places, satellite signals can bounce off the surroundings, providing inaccurate data. This technology fixes that issue, ensuring the delivery of accurate data.

Health & Fitness

Just as the Venu 2 Plus had a slight advantage in smartwatch features, the Forerunner 265 takes the lead in this area as it is a fitness-focused watch, packed with numerous health and fitness features essential for a professional athlete.

The health tracking system in both is quite similar to a large extent. Both constantly monitor heart rate, blood oxygen saturation level, fitness age, stress level, sleep, and body battery. The body battery is a metric that indicates your energy level.

Both use the same generation heart rate sensor from Garmin, so most activities’ heart rate is monitored quite accurately in both.

However, a unique feature in the Venu 2 Plus is its compatibility with the ECG app. If you’re unaware, ECG stands for electrocardiogram, which records your heart’s electrical activity to determine whether your rhythm is normal or abnormal, known as AFib. This condition can lead to blood clots in the heart, potentially causing stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related problems. This feature can be extremely useful for those with heart-related issues who need to check regularly.

In the realm of activity tracking, the differences between the two are minimal. Both watches come equipped with features such as a step counter, calorie tracker, floors climbed, distance traveled, and intensity minutes. They offer a range of indoor and outdoor activity profiles, with some overlap and some unique to each. Shared profiles between the two include walking (indoor and outdoor), hiking, running, treadmill use, indoor track, biking (indoor and outdoor), pool swimming, yoga, and stair stepper, ensuring a comprehensive tracking of various activities for users.

The Venu 2 Plus has activity profiles like climb indoor, pickleball, or golf, etc., while the Forerunner 265, focusing more on runners, includes ultra run, trail run, track run, triathlon, virtual run, and other sports profiles.

In terms of training feedback, the Venu 2 Plus can track your Running VO2 MAX, telling you your fitness age. The Forerunner 265 also has this fitness age feature and can track Cycling VO2 max along with running.

Moreover, the Forerunner 265 has a Race Predictor, which calculates predictions about your race performance based on your training history, recent workouts, and fitness level. This helps a lot in setting and achieving goals.

There are two more features in the Forerunner 265. The first is Training Status, which monitors factors like VO2 max, HRV status, exercise load, load focus, and recovery time to tell you the impact of your training on your performance.

The second feature is Training Readiness, which tracks HRV Status, Recovery Time, exercise load, sleep history, or stress history to tell you how ready you are for your next training. This feature helps prevent injury by indicating when your body needs recovery, as overtraining without adequate recovery increases the chances of injury.

Battery Life

The battery life of both these watches has impressed me quite a bit, but again, the Forerunner 265 takes the lead here. With regular use, it lasts for 13 days, and even with features like Always on Display, it lasts for 5 days. When using different GPS and Satellite features, it provides over 10+ hours, and if listening to music with Satellite, the battery backup lasts for about 6 to 6.5 hours.

On the other hand, the Venu 2 Plus offers a battery backup of 9 days, and with features like Always On Display, it lasts for 2 days. In GPS mode without music, it offers 24 hours, and in GPS mode with music, the battery run time is up to 8 hours. This is not too bad, and compared to other companies’ smartwatches, the battery life is quite good.

Garmin Forerunner 265 vs Venu 2 Plus: Which is Better?

If you’re a fitness enthusiast aiming for precise training tracking, navigating challenging terrains, or participating in events like triathlons or virtual runs, the Forerunner 265 stands out as the ideal choice. It brings forth exceptional features such as Training Readiness, Training Status, PacePro, and Race Prediction, all tailored to enhance and monitor your performance meticulously. Additionally, it offers superior battery life, ensuring uninterrupted performance tracking.

On the flip side, for those not in professional athletics but keen on monitoring regular fitness and health metrics, the Venu 2 Plus emerges as a worthy contender. Its elegant design seamlessly blends with any attire, making it a perfect accessory for both college and office environments. The watch is enriched with an array of health tracking sensors, ECG app compatibility, on-wrist call functionality, and voice assistant features, meeting all standard smartwatch expectations comprehensively.

I have also compared the Forerunner 265 with Venu 3, as it offers many advanced features at the same price of $449.99. So, if you want to buy a watch from the Venu series, make sure to check out this comparison, it will be of great help to you.

Arya

Hello! I'm Surendar Arya, a passionate tech writer from Uttar Pradesh, India. I'm a freelance contributor to the tech blog - The World's Best And Worst. My enthusiasm for technology drives me to explore the latest trends and innovations in the field. I take immense pleasure in guiding individuals on how to leverage technology for their benefit, making their lives easier and more efficient.