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Because there is a world beyond the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.
Lexy Savvides
Principal Video Producer
Lexy is an on-air presenter and award-winning producer who covers consumer tech, including the latest smartphones, wearables and emerging trends like assistive robotics. She’s won two Gold Telly Awards for her video series Beta Test. Prior to her career at CNET, she was a magazine editor, radio announcer and DJ. Lexy is based in San Francisco.
This story is part of 84 Days of Holiday, a collection that helps you find the perfect gift for anyone.
There’s no shortage of great smartwatches to give as a gift, but if you want one of the most flexible options, something that works with Android and iOS, that’s the Garmin Venu 2 Plus. It’s ideal for anyone who wants a flexible watch that can keep an eye on their activity and get notifications from their phone.
Why it’s a great gift: You might associate Garmin watches with fitness enthusiasts only, but the Venu 2 Plus is the first real hybrid smartwatch I can wholeheartedly recommend for people who aren’t necessarily athletes first and foremost. It has a bright, circular AMOLED display, plus a speaker and mic so you can talk to your voice assistant or take quick calls on your wrist when your phone is within range. You can access plenty of third-party apps like Spotify. And of course, you can track a range of different workout types and get extra details like sleep data, recovery metrics and accurate heart-rate monitoring.
The battery life is also second-to-none. Some other watches can barely last one to two days on a full charge, but even with the screen in always-on mode, tracking workouts and sleep, you can get a week or more from the Venu 2 Plus before needing to charge it. You can read our hands-on with the Venu 2 Plus for more details on how it goes head-to-head with the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.
What you’ll pay: The Venu 2 Plus retails for $450 but sometimes is on sale for less than $400. If that’s still out of your budget, definitely consider the regular Venu 2, which has most of the same features, apart from the speaker and mic.