Garmin Venu 2 Vs Galaxy Watch5 Pro: Which One Wins?

Garmin and Samsung have emerged as two of the top players in the smartwatch market, catering to different types of users with their respective wearable devices. With their latest flagship models – the Garmin Venu 2 series and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro – the two brands now find themselves competing more directly to win over athletic and health-focused consumers.

In this in-depth comparison guide, we pit the Garmin Venu 2 against the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro across a range of factors to help you decide which smartwatch best matches your needs and preferences.

Side-by-Side Specs Overview

Before diving into the details, here is a high-level specs comparison between the Venu 2 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro:

As the table shows, the specs are fairly comparable between both watches with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro edging out the Garmin on certain advanced health metrics and connectivity options. Next, we take a more detailed look the various factors that differentiate these two excellent smart wearables.

Design and Display

The Venu 2 features a classic round dial design with a aluminum alloy bezel and rear casing. It measures 45mm across (or 40mm for the smaller Venu 2S model) with a fairly slim profile of just 12.2mm making it comfortable to wear.

Samsung‘s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro sports a premium titanium case paired with a durable sapphire crystal display. At 46mm across and 15mm thickness, it is noticeably bulkier on the wrist than Garmin‘s lighter aluminum-bodied watches. The titanium build does make it ultra-sturdy while keeping overall weight reasonable at just 46g (without strap).

Both watches offer circular AMOLED touch displays with similar 1.3 to 1.4 inch diameters. The displays render colors richly with deep blacks. They are easily visible even under harsh sunlight thanks to auto-brightness adjustments.

For protection against bumps, scratches and water damage, the Venu 2 has Corning‘s Gorilla Glass 3 while the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro uses much stronger sapphire crystal. Overall, Samsung‘s smartwatch edges out with the more premium build quality andMaterials.

Health, Fitness and Sleep Tracking

As pioneers in sports watches and advanced wearables, Garmin packs impressive health and activity tracking into the Venu 2. It can continuously track your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), respiration, hydration levels, stress and more. The watch further analyzes this data to generate a proprietary ‘Body Battery‘ score indicating your body‘s energy reserves for the day.

For workouts, you get over 25 built-in sports apps encompassing running, cycling, swimming, strength training, yoga and more. GPS, GLONASS and Galileo satellite systems track pace, distance and route maps when exercising outdoors. Plus, additional Connect IQ apps are available to further customize your watch.

Samsung matches most of Garmin‘s health metrics with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. You get heart rate variance for detecting irregular rhythms, advanced sleep analysis with sleep score and blood oxygen tracking overnight. The Watch5 Pro exclusively provides body composition stats analyzing skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate and body water/fat percentage — all helpful if you are trying to get in shape or training for an event.

While Garmin still holds an edge in dedicated fitness/training features, Samsung has clearly stepped up its activity tracking game lately. Either watch perfectly suffices whether you are just looking to monitor daily step counts or train seriously for your next marathon.

Smartwatch OS and App Support

The Venu 2 runs Garmin‘s proprietary operating system optimized specifically for sports and outdoor use cases. The interface focuses mainly on health metrics, workout data, notifications and music controls without trying to cram in full smartwatch functionality.

Samsung‘s Galaxy Watch 5 series are powered by Google‘s Wear OS 3 which offers a more familiar smartwatch experience for Android users. You get Google‘s apps like Maps, Pay, Assistant and Play Store out of the box along with deeper integration with your Android phone. It also supports iOS devices but with more limited feature set.

Thanks to Wear OS access, thousands more third party apps, watch faces and complications are available on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. In contrast, Garmin only allows you install apps via its own Connect IQ store which has much more restricted catalog.

If you wish to do more than just view health metrics and control music, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro serves as better smartwatch companion given its more open ecosystem and stronger phone integration via Wear OS.

Connectivity

While both watches come with built-in GPS/GLONASS/Galileo to accurately map outdoor activities without a phone, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro offers additional connectivity enhancements.

An optional LTE version is available allowing you to stay connected even without your phone nearby. You can stream music from Spotify, download apps from Play Store and even respond to messages or answer calls directly from the watch itself when away from your phone.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro includes both WiFi and Bluetooth 5.2. Comparatively, the Venu 2 only has Bluetooth 5.0 lacking support for WiFi.

Thanks to these enhanced tetherless capabilities, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro gives you more freedom to stay connected and access features without toting your phone everywhere.

Battery Life

Despite its full color touchscreen, smaller size and lighter build, the Venu 2 still manages to outlast the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro on a single charge through efficient power optimization. Garmin promises up to 11 days of usage before needing to hit the charger. In real world testing with continuous heart rate monitoring, notifications, GPS workout recording and Normal usage profiles, the Venu 2 has consistently achieved between 8 to 10 days battery life in multiple independent reviews.

In comparison, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro with its always-on display, advanced sensors and larger form factor can operate for 36 to 80 hours on a charge depending on usage. That still exceeds most Wear OS watches that barely last a day.

If you don‘t mind nightly or every-other-day charging, the Galaxy Watch delivers solid battery life. But for multi-day outdoor excursions or travel where packing a battery pack may be inconvenient, Garmin still dominates here.

Price and Models

The base Garmin Venu 2 model retails at $399 making it competitively priced against the similarly spec‘d $329 Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Keep in mind Garmin also offers additional variants like the smaller Venu 2S and Venu 2 Plus with voice calling/assistant support to fit specific needs and budgets.

If cellular connectivity is important for untethered use, you will need to opt for the LTE-enabled Galaxy Watch 5 Pro starting at $509. Note there is no cellular option at all for the Garmin Venu series watches today.

Overall between core models, Samsung‘s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro does provide noticeably better value given its premium Titanium case, advanced health sensors, LTE option and Tizen OS / Wear OS ecosystem.

But the Venu 2 is still a very capable fitness smartwatch that outruns the Galaxy on battery life and sports-centric wearable features.

Recent Updates and Future Outlook

As popular smartwatch models in the ever-advancing wearables market, we can expect both Garmin and Samsung to keep enhancing their flagships with useful new capabilities through periodic software updates.

Updates for Garmin Venu 2

Recent major updates for the Venu 2 series from Garmin bring some very practical additions:

• Support for Garmin Pay contactless payments added in Feb 2023
• Introduction of new proprietary ‘Body Battery’ health metric also came last month. Body Battery measures your energy reserves based on sleep, stress, activity data and more.

In the next 6 to 18 months, we anticipate Garmin will further build upon the Venu 2 focusing on the core health and fitness strengths:

• More advanced run/bike/swim tracking features
• Support for more sports via Connect IQ store
• Enhanced gesture controls for easier mid-workout operation
• Additional health metrics leveraging sensors and algorithm improvements
• Extended battery life through display and GPS optimization

Updates for Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro

On the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro front, the major enhancement landing over the last couple months is:

• Body Composition using bioelectrical impedance analysis to quantify skeletal muscle mass, basal metabolic rate, body water and fat percentage

And similar to Garmin, Samsung seems to be doubling down on health capabilities with its watches and one can expect these kinds of feature rollouts for the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro as well throughout 2023-2024:

• Blood pressure tracking support
• Improved sleep pattern analysis and recommendations
• Extended battery life via display and sensor optimizations
• More precise GPS and workout analysis
• Access to additional apps and watch faces through Galaxy Store and Play Store

With both manufacturers focusing on fitness and wellness capabilities for their flagship wearables, consumers stand to benefit with these ongoing innovation cycles delivering greater value from their smartwatch investment.

Final Verdict – Which is the Better Smartwatch?

So when presented side-by-side, how does the Garmin Venu 2 fair against the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and which one should you buy?

The answer depends primarily on your specific smartwatch needs and preferences around fitness tracking vs full smart features.

For the athlete who wants the most sports modes, training features, battery optimized for ultra long workouts and adventure usage – the Garmin Venu 2 is the clear winner. Yes the base model lacks onboard music, payments or voice support but the excellent fitness capabilities outshine those gaps.

Casual exercisers wanting a fitness-capable smartwatch with extra bells and whistles like LTE, wider app ecosystem, music freedom and premium build quality will appreciate what the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro brings as the leading Wear OS device. It can fill that single gadget role on your wrist monitoring activity trends, displaying notifications, enabling contactless payments/music playback and customizing via downloaded apps and watch faces.

So in summary:

• Garmin Venu 2 – for serious athletes and outdoor enthusiasts
• Galaxy Watch 5 Pro – for those wanting smartwatch + solid activity tracking

Either watch will serve you well with all-day health metrics, workout modes for popular sports and excellent display quality with week+ long battery life. It just comes down to which form factor, software environment and specific capabilities suit your individual smart wearable needs.

Hopefully this detailed face-off has given you clarity to decide whether the Garmin or Samsung ecosystem better matches your expectations from a modern fitness smartwatch. Let us know if you have any other questions as you comparison shop!