Forerunner 265 and Venu 2 Plus are two good smartwatches of Garmin for an almost identical price. We evaluate the two smartwatches and bare out the main features and differences between each of these smartwatches for your ready consideration and decision-making.
Physical specifications
Forerunner 265 is designed for runners, cyclists, and outdoor activities. Venu 2 Plus is designed as a complete smartwatch package.
- Forerunner 265 has a size of 46.1 mm and a thickness of 12.9 mm. Venu 2 Plus has a size of 43.6 mm and a thickness of 12.6 mm. While Forerunner 265 is broader, Venu 2 Plus is a relatively thinner watch.
- The body of Forerunner 265 is made of fiber-enforced polymer and Venu 2 Plus is made of fiber-enforced polymer body, stainless steel bezel and back cover.
- Forerunner 265 comes with a 22 mm silicon band and Venu 2 Plus has a 20 mm band.
- Forerunner 265 is recommended for a wrist circumference of 135-205 mm and Venu 2 Plus is recommended for a wrist circumference of 125-190 mm.
- Forerunner 265 weighs 47 g and Venu 2 Plus weighs 51 g.
Venu 2 Plus comes off as a sleek watch with a much better presence and appearance.
Additionally, the Venu 2 Plus smartwatch also has an in-built speaker and microphone. The Forerunner 265 lacks an in-built speaker and microphone.
Display specifications
- Forerunner 265 has an AMOLED display. Venu 2 Plus also uses the AMOLED screen display. In terms of display, the Forerunner 265 and Venu 2 Plus offer equivalent brightness, screen contrast, and display clarity.
- Both watches have a display resolution of 416 x 416 pixels.
Running features
- Forerunner 265 has in-built profiles for running, cycling, swimming, and outdoor recreation. All these profiles are missing on the Venu 2 Plus.
- Forerunner 265 has a group or category or training, planning, and analysis features for the runners. Some of these features include heart-rate broadcast, HRV status, and VO2 max.
- Forerunner 265 also has additional running profiles to cover Outdoor Track Running, Treadmill Running, Trail Running, Virtual Running, and Ultra Running.
- The ‘Spectator messaging’ safety feature is available on the Forerunner 265. On a similar basis, you can use the ‘Live Event Sharing’ feature on a compatible Android smartphone.
- The Forerunner 265 watch supports a multi-frequency positioning sensor. You could take GPS coordinates from multiple satellite systems at the same time. Multi-band GPS support is available on the Forerunner 265 watch. Venu 2 Plus does not support multi-band GPS as it lacks a multi-frequency positioning sensor.
Since the Forerunner range has been customized for runners, the presence of running profiles is a significant differentiator between the Forerunner 265 and Venu 2 Plus smartwatches.
There can be no two ways around the fact that runners and outdoor activity enthusiasts would be happier with a Forerunner 265 smartwatch.
Battery
- Forerunner 265 has marginally better battery life than the Venu 2 Plus. This is in line with the use case scenario of the Forerunner range of running watches.
- On the smartwatch mode, Forerunner 265 can go up to 13 days and Venu 2 Plus can last for up to 9 days.
- On the GPS mode, Forerunner 265 can go up to 20 hours and Venu 2 Plus can last up to 24 hours.
The GPS mode battery usage of Forerunner 265 is relatively higher than the Venu 2 Plus. This is because of multi-band GPS or GNSS support on the watch.
The Forerunners are designed to offer better battery life for a satisfactory running experience.
Golf
- Venu 2 Plus comes with in-built support for Golf. All the standard features of Garmin Golf are part of the Venu 2 Plus smartwatch.
- Forerunner 265 does not support Golf.
Other features
Apart from the obvious stated differences between the Venu 2 Plus and Foereunner 265, many features remain unchanged between the two smartwatches. We list the main features and abilities of the two smartwatches in the table given below.
| Features | Forerunner 265 | Venu 2 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| iOS Compatible | Yes | Yes |
| Android compatible | Yes | Yes |
| Display screen | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
| Display type | AMOLED | AMOLED |
| Always-on-display (AOD) | Yes | Yes |
| Device storage | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Speaker-microphone | Yes | No |
| Water rating | 5 ATM | 5 ATM |
| Swim-proof | Yes | Yes |
| Color display | Yes | Yes |
| Touchscreen | Yes | Yes |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo |
| Heart Rate Sensor | Garmin Elevate | Garmin Elevate |
| Heart rate monitoring | Continuous heart rate monitors | Continuous heart rate monitors |
| SpO2 monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Accelerometer | Yes | Yes |
| Gyroscope | Yes | Yes |
| Altimeter | Yes | Yes |
| Thermometer | Yes | Yes |
| Ambient light sensor | Yes | Yes |
| Multiband GPS | Yes | No |
| Wireless connectivity | ANT+, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi | ANT+, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi |
| Music storage | Yes | Yes |
| NFC Payments | Garmin Pay | Garmin Pay |
| Incident detection | Yes | Yes |
| Respiration rate | Yes | Yes |
| Sleep monitoring | Yes | Yes |
| Body Battery energy monitor | Yes | Yes |
Summary
In our opinion, the Forerunner 265 makes for a compelling buy by runners and outdoor enthusiasts. This is because the Forerunner 265. For general-purpose smartwatch usage, a Venu 2 Plus smartwatch is a preferred option.
Both watches are priced at $449.99. So, there is no cost implication for either of these two watches.
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Helen Kurt is a geeky nerd who loves to cover the wearables space. She has over 5 years of experience in the smartwatch domain. You can reach her on email at [email protected].