Garmin Lily 2 review: A smartwatch that doesn't scream 'fitness tracker' | O2K72K9 | 2024-04-08 10:08:01
There are numerous choices for smartwatches available on the market. From extra "traditional" smartwatches from Apple and Samsung to fitness-focused options from manufacturers like Fitbit and Garmin, selecting your good smartwatch could be overwhelming — especially if you'd like something with type and performance.&
Personally, I've been an Apple Watch consumer for a number of years, however — while I really like the comfort of my Collection four — I'm type of uninterested in sporting it. The looks of my Apple Watch was never my favorite, but many different choices available on the market sported the identical problems. They're either too square, too clunky, too sporty, or too huge — which is why I was thrilled to see that Garmin had released its new Lily 2 smartwatch.&
Billed as a fashion-forward smartwatch for ladies, the Garmin Lily 2 ticked lots of the bins I didn't know I was in search of. With a smaller watch face, a hidden show, and 6 totally different shade choices obtainable, it definitely seems to be higher than a lot of the smartwatches I've seen available on the market — but is it well worth the $249 price tag?&
I made a decision to attempt it out for myself, and here's what you'll want to know:&
The Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch appears completely beautiful&
Straight out of the box, the Lily 2 is among the prettiest smartwatches I've seen. I selected the Garmin Lily 2 Basic in cream gold with a tan leather band, and I used to be impressed by how well-made this watch is. The patterned watch face isn't one thing I assumed I'd recognize, however it's a delicate function that lends an Artwork Deco really feel to what's already a stupendous watch.
The watch face itself is small and durable, with two totally different finishes on the cream gold exterior, and the Italian leather band is a far cry from the silicone bands I've used prior to now. The watch itself additionally holds a water resistant score of 5 ATM — as much as a depth of 50 meters — which Garmin says ought to stand up to splashes, rain or snow, showering, swimming, and more. (Nevertheless, the band you choose may influence the way you treat the watch around water.)
The watch additionally includes a hidden display, which is gorgeous in principle, but I found the shortage of analog watch arms slightly disappointing. Different Garmin watches sport physical watch palms — allowing you to tell the time without "activating" the digital show — and I felt like this function would've given the Lily 2 slightly bit more polish. Plus, the show itself is grayscale and somewhat pixelated, making the expertise really feel slightly less luxe than the bodily watch.
The swipe features have been additionally a bit slower than these on my Apple Watch, which meant the experience of utilizing the Lily 2 didn't quite match the best way it appeared. It's an exquisite accessory, yes, and it packs a strong punch with health monitoring — but the smartwatch functionalities have been a bit lacking in comparison with different options available on the market. It does embrace Garmin Pay, and it's suitable with each Apple and Android smartphones, so you possibly can receive texts, emails, and calendar alerts on your watch. Nevertheless, it's also highly tethered to your telephone — so that you'll want to carry your telephone with you to get features like GPS knowledge on exercises, weather knowledge, and so forth.&
Most of Garmin's monitoring features have been unimaginable
While I was impressed by the Garmin Lily 2 out-of-the-box, most of the tracking options have been even better than I anticipated. The Lily 2 boasts a set of Garmin's greatest well being monitoring options — together with the sleep rating — allowing you to trace all the things from your coronary heart price, steps, exercises, respiration, stress levels, and extra. As someone new to Garmin watches, I used to be notably impressed by the "body battery" rating, which estimates your power ranges throughout the day by using your heart fee variability (HRV), stress ranges, sleep quality, and train exercise.&
In comparison with my Apple Watch — which additionally tracks things like steps, train activity, respiration, and coronary heart price — I found that the addition of the stress rating, sleep rating, and body battery gave me deeper perception into the info I used to be monitoring. Not solely did this help me monitor my stress and power levels throughout the day, however it also helped me higher interpret my very own well being knowledge.
</div> As a result of the stress rating is predicated on physiological stress not just emotional stress, for example, I started discovering which issues contributed to a high-stress rating — like a heavy meal, an intense workout, or my tendency to pace on telephone calls — which allowed me to adjust my habits all through the day. If my body battery was depleting quicker than I needed it to, for example, I'd change my exercise for a meditation session (or a nap). As somebody who's an avid proponent of power management, this made the Lily 2 an unimaginable companion for structuring my day to take care of optimum power.&
And surprisingly? A lot of the knowledge seemed fairly accurate. I don't love sporting watches or bracelets at night time, but I did sport the Lily 2 for every week of bedtimes, and the sleep score was a useful piece of data. That being stated, I wasn't quite health-obsessed enough to need to maintain sporting it at night time, however the remainder of my info — like my Stress Score and Physique Battery — nonetheless felt fairly accurate even with out tracking my sleep.&
What I favored concerning the Garmin Lily 2: Tracking, aesthetic, connectivity
Obviously, the Lily 2 gave me rather a lot to like. The aesthetic of the watch was unimaginable, apart from minor disappointment with the display, and the tracking features have been an amazing asset. I beloved with the ability to use the watch to handle my power levels, perceive how totally different decisions impacted my well-being, and change my habits accordingly. Plus, the battery life held up to the five-day estimate, and — since it charged incredibly fast — I was capable of take the watch off throughout a shower and put it back on, absolutely charged.&
Not solely is it a shocking smartwatch full of some nice monitoring functionalities, however the Lily 2 also paired easily with my Apple iPhone 11 Pro, which means I might receive textual content messages, notifications, weather updates, and extra. Whether I used to be understanding, going for a stroll, or deep in my workday, the watch was cute, snug, and surprisingly convenient — apart from a couple of key features.
What I didn't like about it: Activity UX and the Garmin Connect app
Whereas the Garmin Lily 2 worked great most of the time, it fell flat in a couple of key areas: exercise monitoring and the Garmin Connect app.&
With activity monitoring, the watch usually carried out okay, however sure activities provided some critical issues. Treadmill actions, for example, didn't log any distance — the whole lot else was tracking just fantastic, together with my step rely and coronary heart fee — but after half a mile on the treadmill, I glanced at my watch and saw it had registered a distance of zero ft.&
I hopped off, opened the app to troubleshoot, and spent the subsequent thirty minutes battling with the Garmin Join App. I attempted looking for options on Garmin's help varieties, restarted my telephone and watch, and even reset the watch again to manufacturing unit settings, but nothing appeared to work. I might modify the space in the Garmin Connect online portal to match my treadmill's studying — and the space appeared to work just high quality on outside walks and runs — but treadmill exercises continued to be a source of frustration.&
Other actions appeared to perform nice& —& distance logged appropriately on outside walks and runs — nevertheless it felt just like the "actions" function on the app was surprisingly lacking for a fitness-focused smartwatch. Once I began an activity, for instance, I was locked into tracking it. I couldn't entry anything on the watch with out stopping the exercise, and I couldn't discover the choice to even pause and resume an activity as soon as it was began.&
</div> Once more, it felt like the info I used to be receiving was unimaginable — except for my hiccups with the Treadmill activity — however the actual experience of using it fell brief. It wasn't necessarily dangerous, however it simply didn't feel quite as good in comparison with different smartwatches I've tried.&
Sadly, my expertise with the Garmin Join app was additionally somewhat lackluster. The app labored wonderful, however it was cluttered, overwhelming, and confusing — even for somebody who's fairly tech-savvy. Some settings have been buried beneath multiple menus, whereas others appeared to be accessible only on the Garmin Connect on-line portal, not the app itself.&
Whereas I'm not often a fan of companion apps, especially once they're unnecessary, the Garmin Connect app is mandatory — which made the shortage of user-friendliness much more irritating. Some days my info wouldn't seem on the "my day" window at all until I refreshed my watch's connection a number of occasions, and making an attempt to know the totally different settings underneath the "more" part felt inconceivable. That being stated, it wasn't essentially a deal-breaker for me — the app's functionality didn't appear to impression my expertise with the watch, apart from the difficulty with distance measurements on treadmill workouts — it simply felt unnecessarily difficult.
Is the Garmin Lily 2 value it?
In case you're on the lookout for a small, lovely watch with some easy on a regular basis health-tracking performance, the Lily 2 is perhaps the right smartwatch for you. Garmin has clearly built a tremendous piece of hardware with this watch, however as I discussed above, it's the software program that feels a bit lacking. Nevertheless, not everyone will discover (or care) about those things, making the Lily 2 an ideal choice for somebody who needs a trendy, easy smartwatch to trace exercise and not using a ton of bells and whistles.&
As a smartwatch for the fitness-obsessed, nevertheless, I found myself wishing for extra. The watch is trendy, sure, nevertheless it doesn't rise up towards extra highly effective sports watches — and it's definitely not as "sensible" as different smartwatches. So when you're in search of an excellent exercise companion — or you need to try out extra advanced smartwatch features — you may need to look elsewhere.
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