Designed with women in mind, the Garmin Lily series aims to soften Garmin’s image as a hardcore sports watch brand. Like the Withing ScanWatch 2 and Vivomove Trend, the Garmin Lily 2 gives you access to all the smartwatch features you need without looking like someone who can’t talk about anything other than his latest PB.
Capable of tracking 18 types of sports compared to 13 types of exercises on the previous model, the watch now supports dance styles such as Bollywood, EDM, Afrobeats, hip-hop, and Zumba. It can also notify emergency contacts if it detects an accident during certain activities. This feature is also available on other Garmin devices, but not on the original Lily watch.
In this Garmin Lily 2 review, we examine whether this wearable is more than just a pretty (watch) face and whether it can look the part and serve all your health and fitness needs . Here’s everything you need to know about the price, availability, and specs of the latest Garmin smartwatches.
[First reviewed Jan 2024]
Garmin Lily 2 review
Price and availability
Garmin Lily 2 will be available in January 2024 and is currently available for purchase at Garmin UK, Garmin US, and Garmin AU. When purchasing Lily 2, you have several options. The silicone band option comes in two different colors: cream gold and metallic lilac with a coconut silicone band, priced at £249.99 / AU$429.99 / £249.99.
There is also a fabric band option with a cream gold bezel and coffee band, or a silver bezel option with a sage gray band, priced at £269.99/AU$521/$344.
There is also a leather strap option with three different bezel options: cream gold, silver, and dark bronze. Priced at £299/AU$578/$380.
Both the fabric band option and the leather version come with Garmin Pay, which allows you to make contactless payments using your watch. For this review, we are using the Lily 2 Classic model in silver with a sage gray fabric band. It is also available from third party retailers.
Quality of design and construction
At first glance, the Garmin Lily 2 looks no different than its predecessor.
Both watches feature the same approximately 1-inch (34 mm) monochrome (16-level grayscale) LCD touchscreen display, protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 lens. The display resolution is 240 x 201 pixels.
The bezel and case are made of anodized aluminum. Garmin Lily 2 weighs just 24.4 grams, measures 35.4 mm in width and height, and is 10.1 mm thick.
To wake up your watch, rotate your wrist or tap the Home button. The home button is a small circle at the bottom of the screen that is easy to miss (guilty if you ask me!). This will show you activity, watch face status, vibration feedback confirmation when you tap on the clock or settings.
Features
I set the watch face to display the time, date, calories burned, and steps taken so I could access all my stats. However, there are also simpler options that just show your heart rate, or the weather and calories burned.
Swipe down to access your dashboard, where you’ll find a “Do Not Disturb” feature and access to your notifications, music, and wallet. One tip I’ve found in terms of making the user interface easier to use is to increase the display timeout from its default short value to a medium or long value. Otherwise, the screen will turn off very quickly and you will have to start the whole tapping and searching process again.
Garmin Lily 2 has all the basic features you’d expect from the best fitness tracker and best smartwatch on the market, including 24/7 heart rate monitoring, steps, and calories burned. You can also monitor your blood oxygen saturation and stress levels during the day (or night), whether you’re within cell phone range or not.
You can also use Garmin’s Body Battery feature to see how much you’ve recovered. Garmin also has a cute feature called Morning Report that gives you a summary of your sleep each morning. I love waking up in the morning when my watch tells me a recommended workout based on the weather, my calendar for the day, and my sleep and recovery. It’s fun to scroll through in the morning, especially if you care about statistics.
Compatible with both Android phones and iPhones, the Garmin Lily 2 doesn’t include music storage/playback, but you can control your music with your phone. You can also control and read mobile phone notifications that arrive by syncing with your phone efficiently.
Similar to what you’ll find on the best Apple Watches, you’ll also get movement alerts to remind you to keep moving throughout the day. I also tracked my water intake on my watch by simply pressing the add button every time I drank a glass of water.
Garmin Pay is only available on more expensive models. The cheaper Garmin Lily 2 doesn’t have this feature. Both the Garmin Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic use GPS connected to your phone. This means you need to carry your phone with you when recording your runs or bike rides outside the house.
There is also a pool swim tracking option. This finally frees you from the need to count your length in the pool with the Lily 2’s 5 ATM water resistance (safe to a depth of 50 meters).
workout tracking
To start a workout, press the center Home button, select Workout, and scroll through the activities until you find your sport. As an avid runner, I used this feature the most and loved the little runner that jogged across the screen when I pressed Go.
As mentioned above, the Garmin Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic both use your smartphone to collect GPS data. This means that if you want to see your route, you’ll need to carry your smartphone with you when recording your run or bike outing. , as well as basic metrics.
However, the mileage and pace were accurate, and the watch has an accident detection safety alert feature, which gave me peace of mind while out and about. All I had to do was assign him 3 contacts as emergency contacts and they could LiveTrack my route.
I will also be notified if my watch detects an incident. Similarly, you can manually send notifications if you feel in danger. When I tried it out, my partner received an automated message with my name and her GPS location. I also received a message letting my contacts know I was in danger.
After your workout, you can also use Garmin’s Body Battery feature to see how well you’ve recovered.
Speaking of recovery, one of Lily’s biggest new features is the addition of Garmin’s Sleep Score, which evaluates your sleep based on factors such as duration, restlessness, and time spent in various sleep stages.
Sleep Score exists on other Garmin watches and is a common feature on most wearables, but this is the first time it’s been included on a Lily 2 watch. To access, swipe right to view the day. Here, your sleep time and sleep score are simply displayed as Excellent (90-100), Good (80-89), or Fair (60-79).
More detailed graphs can be viewed in the Connect app. Here you can access statistics for your average resting heart rate, average Sp02 (measured by how much oxygen is in your bloodstream as it moves through your body, compared to its maximum capacity). Consistency of sleep.
Women’s menstrual cycle tracking
Garmin Lily 2 is marketed to women, so you get all of Garmin’s women’s health tracking features. This allows you to track both physical symptoms (such as fatigue and bloating) and emotional symptoms, as well as the start and end of your period. (e.g. mood or brain fog).
Some of these data points can be tracked through the watch, while others must be entered through the phone app. There’s also pregnancy tracking, and as you record more data over time, your cycles become more detailed and you get reminders and predictions about your periods and fertility.
This app predicted my menstrual cycle pretty accurately and helped me get a complete 365-degree view of my health, fitness, and hormones. Finally, I found out there’s a reason why I feel so tired during my luteal phase. That is, knowledge is power.
Battery life and charging
The watch charges with a simple magnetic clip, and the battery lasts for 4-5 days as promised, taking just over an hour to fully charge. This gave him plenty of time to take full advantage of all the features, including Garmin Pay contactless payments, which is new to the Lily 2 but has been included in other Garmin watches for years. .
Just load a compatible credit card into Garmin Pay, but be sure to check the list of supported banks before heading out for coffee without backup.
verdict
The best part about the updated Garmin Lily is that users who prefer a more sophisticated smartwatch can now access professional workout features without having to compromise. Train and track with a petite watch that doesn’t stand out like bulky sports watches.
This watch perfectly tracks all your workouts and displays all the stats you need, from your steps to your breathing rate. The battery lasted 4-5 days as promised.
This watch is well-made and has female-specific features such as cycle and pregnancy tracking, making it even more appealing to women who like and need overall health and well-being. Small, elegant, and gorgeous to look at, there are plenty of options for those who want to start their fitness journey or increase their level of fitness.
Recommended for those looking for a watch that looks stylish while silently tracking all your personal and fundamental metrics behind the scenes.
Please also consider
If you like a high-quality, stylish smartwatch in a similar price range, try the Fitbit Sense 2. It’s a lively fitness tracker with a color touchscreen display and boasts a wide range of features to satisfy anyone interested in tracking every aspect. You’ll want to know about their health.
The ScanWatch Light Watch Active 2 is another great-looking alternative to the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 comes complete with a girly strap and tracks everything from ovulation to a woman’s cycle via wrist temperature data.
Needless to say, the Lily 2’s price is quite high for a smartwatch without onboard GPS, which is built into all the other smartwatches mentioned above. Garmin’s Vivoactive 5 is also an option. It also looks great and has an 11-day battery life, built-in GPS, and some boot-up features.
However, the Garmin Lily’s weight of 24g is significantly lower than the Vivoactive 5 and Vivoactive 4, and although the Vivoactive 4 also manages to have onboard GPS, it weighs a hefty 50.5g, which makes it far more luxurious than the Lily 2. It’s nowhere near as good as some models. Both have elegant designs.