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Suunto 7, Apple Watch 5, Garmin Venu and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 compared: the differences, which one to choose?

Suunto 7, Apple Watch 5, Garmin Venu and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 compared: the differences, which one to choose?

March 29, 2020

4 of the best smart health connected and sport watches on the market today
Price and physical characteristics compared
Autonomy: use limited to short outings
The sensors: all well equipped but not compatible with external sensors
The functions offered: watches more smart health connected than sporting
Our opinion on Suunto 7, Apple Watch 5, Garmin Venu and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2: which is better?
Where to buy these models

Buy Suunto 7

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€ 479 € 455.05 (* 1)

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€ 479

(* 1) Discount of -5% on this product with the promo code 5A15 !

Buy the Apple Watch 5

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€ 449

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€ 449

Rakuten

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€ 479 € 399.99

Buy the Garmin Venu

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€ 345

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349.99 €

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2

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€ 309 € 285

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€ 309

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4 of the best smart health connected and sport watches on the market today

Who is sport smart health connected watches for?

The smart health connected watches (or Smartwatch) offer intelligent functions useful in everyday life such as 24 hour health monitoring, assistance in the event of an incident, telephony, display of maps and plans, a contactless payment solution, listening to music, information (weather, calendar, train and plane timetables, reservations, etc.), an intelligent assistant, and much more. They can sometimes be used for sport but it is not their primary purpose.

The sports watches are designed for sports. They generally include a GPS chip and a heart rate monitoring. They offer support functions for athletes and performance monitoring, sometimes including physiological measurements indicating fitness, progress made, recovery time, etc. Watches for mountain, outdoor or exploration also offer GPS navigation functions to locate or follow a programmed route and weather functions.

The sports smart health connected watches, like the 4 that we have chosen to compare in this article, are intended for mixed use: daily life and sport. They incorporate both intelligent functions useful in everyday life and sports functions. They can be worn 24 hours a day, generally offer an elegant design and are relatively light.

In this comparison, we have chosen 4 recent models, the latest of each brand (2019-2020). These watches are among the best current smart watches. They will be of particular interest to people looking for a Smartwatch and practicing an occasional to regular sport. For an exclusively sporting use, for the practice of an intensive sport or for the competition, it would be better to turn to exclusively sport watches (see our comparison of cardio-GPS watches).

Suunto 7: combining everyday life and sport with downloadable apps

Released in January 2020, the Suunto 7 is the first Suunto watch to run on Wear OS, Google's operating system for watches. It offers advanced sports functions, which makes it a smart health watch ideal for people who play sports on an occasional or regular basis. The advantage of Wear OS is to offer the best of the smart functions of the moment thanks to downloadable apps.

It has topographic maps, a payment solution and allows you to listen to music without a Smartphone. Wear OS gives access to the Google assistant (the watch has a microphone to interrogate it), health monitoring (Google Fit), access to information (Internet). In terms of sporting functions, this watch is close to the Suunto 5 but with the extra mapping. However, its autonomy is much lower, it does not offer adaptive personalized training and GPS navigation is limited.

Read our detailed review and our opinion on Suunto 7Buy Suunto 7

Apple Watch 5: an all-purpose watch with advanced health monitoring but minimalist sports functions

Released in 2019, the Apple Watch 5 (barely improved version of the Apple Watch 4 released in 2018) provides astonishing health monitoring functions, including the famous electrocardiogram (ECG), a miniaturized medical device intended to detect certain heart abnormalities. It detects falls, can call an emergency number if necessary, offers 4G telephony and access to information without the need for a smartphone. Equipped with a microphone and a loudspeaker, it makes it possible to interrogate the Google intelligent assistant and to obtain answers to its questions. In short, it is ultra-complete in terms of intelligent functions and health monitoring, not to mention that many apps can be downloaded from the Apple Store. It is elegant and will match any outfit. It is not the most suitable for sport but it will suffice for occasional athletes. Please note, it only works with an iOS Smartphone (iPhone).

Read our detailed review of the Apple Watch 5 and our reviewBuy the Apple Watch 5

Garmin Venu: the watch with payment, mp3 player and advanced health monitoring

A jewel of technology, this smart health connected watch with an AMOLED touchscreen offers advanced functions and has met with great success. It has many sports profiles including yoga, skiing, golf, rowing, bodybuilding. It has a Garmin Pay contactless payment system to pay for purchases directly from the watch, an mp3 player and ultra-comprehensive health monitoring functions. It assesses the level of stress and physical condition, allows you to load training programs, embeds animated exercises to learn how to do cardio, weight training, yoga and Pilates workouts. It is a serious alternative to high-end watches or Smartwatches (Apple Watch, etc.) for a lower price. The Garmin Venu offers the same functions as the Vivoactive 4, a slightly cheaper model without an AMOLED screen (Read our detailed review of the Garmin Vivoactive 4).

Read our detailed review of the Garmin Venu and our reviewBuy the Garmin Venu

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2: a smart health connected and sporty watch with optional 4G telephony

This new model replaces the Galaxy Watch Active by bringing some new features, including 4G telephony (available as an option as on the Apple Watch), a digital rotary crown for easier navigation, a built-in speaker, a slightly better autonomy and a Bixby assistant working in French. The Smartwatch, designed for “active” people, is the smart health connected version of the sportier model, the Galaxy Watch. It offers an elegant design with a superb borderless AMOLED screen (curved edges) and 2 case sizes. It offers sufficient sports functions for the occasional to regular sportsperson. It includes a coach who advises you and motivates you to move, manages the interval training and your pace. Animated exercises allow you to learn the movements. His health monitoring is excellent.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2

The main differences between Suunto 7, Apple Watch 5, Garmin Venu and Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2

In the comparison table below, we highlight the main differences between the 4 watches. Note the differences in case size (some models will be better suited for thin wrists), autonomy, on-board sensors. You will find our opinion at the end of the article as well as a comparative table of the advantages and disadvantages of each model.

Go directly to our opinion

Price and physical characteristics compared

The price: 300 to 600 € depending on the brand, model and finish

The price of these 4 watches is relatively high, from 300 to 600 €. The Suunto 7 is offered at a price similar to that of the Apple Watch (around € 500). Certain options, such as 4G telephony (LTE versions) offered on the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch, and the finish (type of case and bracelet) add to the price. Garmin offers a model running on a proprietary OS. Less provided in intelligent functions than the competing models, it constitutes, with the Galaxy Watch, the best offer in terms of sporting functions.

Design and structure

We are dealing with pretty smart health connected watches, each with its own style. The Suunto 7 with its metal crown and a unique size case. The Apple Watch, ultralight, with its square aluminum, titanium, steel or ceramic case, an impeccable finish. The Garmin Venu, with a more sporty look. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 with its borderless screen and an aluminum or stainless steel case and a military certification.

With the exception of Suunto and its one size watch, the others mark offer 2 case sizes. People with fine wrists will appreciate it (see also our comparison of the best cardio GPS watches for women). Note also the smoothness of the Apple Watch and the Galaxy Watch (less than 11 mm). The Suunto 7 is significantly larger and thicker, an unfortunate point for a product intended to be worn on a daily basis.

The look is of course to take into account when choosing your watch knowing that it will be worn permanently, in town as at work in addition to sport. The diversity and interchangeability of the bracelets is an additional advantage. Apple offers the richest range of bracelets with many colors and materials.

The Apple Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch have a loudspeaker to be able to make calls (LTE versions) and hear their correspondent without the need for bluetooth headphones. Aside from the Garmin Venu, these watches also have a microphone to interrogate the personal assistant (Google assistant, Siri or Bixby (Android only)) or even to dictate an SMS.

The screen

The 4 models offer a color, touch and AMOLED screen (read our explanations and the advantages of an AMOLED screen here). These screens which equip Smartphones and more and more smart health connected watches offer a rich palette of colors (16 million colors against only 64 for MIP screens) and thus make it possible to display animations and animated watchfaces of high quality. In return, they consume much more.

The definition (number of pixels) is excellent for the 4 watches, in particular for the Suunto 7 (454 x 454 px!) And the Garmin Venu (390 x 390 px). The screen of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 offers a magnificent rendering.

Go directly to our opinion

Autonomy: use limited to short outings

Autonomy is not the strong point of smart health connected watches. The AMOLED screen consumes much more than a transflective MIP type screen. The use of smart health connected functions (music player, card display, etc.) leads to autonomy. Added to this is increased consumption linked to the complexity of the operating system (OS). To increase the autonomy, the manufacturers propose to deactivate the display automatically after a few seconds of inactivity.

The 4 compared smart health connected watches do not offer energy saving mode in sports use, nor intelligent battery management (Suunto offers it on Suunto 5 and Suunto 9 but not on Suunto 7).

The Suunto 7 theoretically offers a 2-day autonomy in smart health connected watch mode (activity monitoring but no sporting activity) and 12 hours in GPS mode with heart rate monitoring. It lasts 40 days in "watch" mode (display of time and battery level).

The Apple Watch 5 remains faithful to its 18 h of autonomy, as on the old models, but its screen now remains permanently active (function nevertheless disengageable). It takes ten hours in sports use, 6 hours with the use of GPS and the optical heart rate monitoring and less than 5 hours if one uses a 4G (telephony, Google assistant, etc.).

The Garmin Venu offers an autonomy of 5 days for use with activity tracking, 20 hrs in GPS mode and 6 hrs in GPS mode with music listening. As long as you do not activate the display permanently!

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 would hold 43 h in smart health connected watch mode and 10 h in GPS mode, values a little optimistic according to tests but better than the previous model.

Given their limited autonomy, these smart health connected watches clearly cannot be used for long-term outings such as ultra-trail races, long hikes. It's limited if you can use them for a marathon.

Go directly to our opinion

The sensors: all well equipped but not compatible with external sensors

All the watches in this comparison are very well equipped with sensors. They carry a GPS chip, a heart rate monitoring on the wrist, a barometric altimeter (but which cannot be calibrated manually), a barometer, a compass (except the Samsung Galaxy Watch).

Garmin also offers a thermometer and a pulse oximeter for the evaluation of blood oxygenation (used in the mountains and for sleep analysis) and acclimatization at altitude. Apple has an electric heart rate sensor and an ECG (electrocardiogram) function. Samsung is strengthening its optical sensor by using 8 instead of 4.

The weak point of these watches, with the exception of the Garmin Venu, is that they are not compatible with external sensors (foot pod, cadence, speed, power sensors, etc.). The Apple Watch 5 just allows you to connect a cardio belt. Too bad for watches that want to be sporty! The follow-up will therefore be limited, in particular for fans of running and cycling.

Go directly to our opinion

The functions offered: watches more smart health connected than sporting

GPS navigation and guidance functions: advantage for Garmin Venu

GPS navigation (route tracking, route planning, return to departure, navigation to waypoints, etc.) is an essential function for hiking, exploration, trekking but also for organizing a bike or running outing on unknown paths. With cartography, it's the ultimate.

Suunto 7 offers topographic maps in color including heat maps (routes most used by the community, useful for finding an itinerary when you do not know the places). These cards can be viewed without connectivity. They can therefore be viewed in the mountains, without a network. Unlike Garmin (Fenix 6 Pro, Forerunner 945), these cards are limited in size (50 km x 50 km at most). The watch charges them automatically, depending on the place of use, but this requires a connection to Wi-Fi or to a Smartphone receiving the network! The touch screen makes it easy to move the map or zoom. Navigation on the S7 is however limited. The watch displays the trace but does not offer any guidance or function for returning to the starting point. You will have to do your best to follow the trace displayed on the screen and zoom in if necessary.

The Apple Watch displays maps and can be used as a GPS, provided you have an iPhone and the network or purchase the LTE (4G) model. However, beware of battery consumption! We can also find apps dedicated to navigation on the Apple Store.

The Garmin Venu offers advanced GPS navigation but no mapping. It displays the GPS track, makes it possible to record and follow a route recorded in the watch and to retrace these steps. It also offers voice guidance. In addition to these functions, Garmin has generalized the LiveTrack function on its watches, which allows it to be followed on the Internet. The Garmin Venu also offers the GroupTrack function to follow other athletes wearing a Garmin watch that has this function.

Sport profiles and sports functions

Sports profiles are increasing on watches but sometimes, it is only the name of the profile that changes. Garmin offers fewer profiles than Suunto, but they are relevant for each sport (counting the number of ski descents, number of strokes and rowing rate, running dynamics for running, etc.) and others can be downloaded from Garmin Connect. The watch can also detect certain activities (it recognizes the type of sport practiced). Suunto, for its part, offers 39 activities on its S7, 7 of which are detectable.

The advantage of the Garmin Venu is that it can be paired with certain external sensors (cardio belt, cadence and speed sensors, foot pod). The other watches do not offer this possibility (exception of the Apple Watch which allows you to connect a cardio belt) which limits the training possibilities. The cardio belt is for example essential for an accurate measurement of the heart rate, especially for the interval training or in aquatic environment.

Garmin also offers numerous sports assistance functions: programming of training sessions taking into account previous outings, split training, race against an opponent or against yourself, estimation of race time, programming of alerts, definition of objectives, etc. These functions, combined with physiological measurements, offer powerful tools for demanding athletes, even if, on this smart health connected model, the functions remain limited (The Venu is located at the bottom of the range of Garmin sports watches).

Aside from the Apple Watch, these watches are not true multisports. You cannot do activities without stopping the recording and restarting a new exercise. This limits their use for activities like triathlon or swim-run.

Physiological measurements

Physiological measures help the athlete to manage his training and optimize his performance or even predict a race time depending on the distance to be covered, the level of training and the physical condition of the athlete. The watch can estimate VO2max, stress level, lactic threshold and more. At Garmin, these estimates are provided by the algorithms of the company Firstbeat but the Venu only offers 5 measurements (against 18 on the Fenix 6). At Suunto, this is delegated to Google via Wear OS. For sport, it is the VO2max and possibly the level of body energy (Body Resource at Garmin) which are interesting to assess its progress (performance) and its level of recovery.

Les fonctions connectées

Si Garmin avait jusqu'alors l'avantage sur la concurrence en proposant de nombreuses fonctions connectées avancées, ce n'est plus le cas aujourd'hui. Suunto et Apple offre désormais des possibilités infinies grâces aux apps téléchargeables conçues pour le Wear OS et l'Apple Watch OS, des environnements permettant à n'importe qui de développer sa propre application. Sur la Garmin Venu, il faudra donc s'accommoder des fonctions que Garmin veut bien offrir. Chez Samsung, le nombre d'apps offertes dans la Galaxy Store est encore très petit.

La Suunto 7 dispose d'un microphone et permet de consulter l'assistant intelligent Google. On peut poser une question à la montre et obtenir une réponse, du moment qu'elle est connectée à un Smartphone et que le réseau est disponible. La montre permet d'accéder à des services sur Internet ou sur son Smartphone (agenda, météo, calendrier, réservations, consultation d'horaires d'avion, etc.). Elle ne dispose pas de lecteur mp3 mais une app dédiée permet d'écouter de la musique. Une fonction de paiement est disponible. On peut également répondre aux SMS en dictant un message. Toutes les fonctions offertes par Garmin (sauf celles faisant appel à l'oxymètre) peuvent potentiellement être offertes sur la Suunto 7 du moment qu'une app dédiée existe dans la Google Play Store.

Chez Apple, la situation est similaire. La montre dispose d'un microphone, un assistant intelligent et des apps à souhait à télécharger depuis l'Apple Store. La montre est donc très évolutive et déjà très riche en possibilités.

Chez Garmin, les fonctions sont nombreuses mais limitées. On trouve sur la Venu un lecteur mp3 avec écoute possible en streaming via Spotify, Deezer ou Amazon Music, une solution de paiement, les fonctions LiveTrack et GroupTrack, une fonction de détection de chute et d'appel automatique d'un numéro d'urgence en cas de chute, la commande d'appareils à distance (caméra 3D VIRB, etc.), une fonction de détection d'incident (chute par exemple) et d'appel d'un numéro d'urgence en cas d'incident avec transmission des coordonnées GPS. La montre affiche les smart notifications (mails, appels et SMS) et offre la possibilité de refuser les appels entrant d'un Smartphone ou d'envoyer des SMS prédéfinis.

Samsung offre une librairie encore pauvre en apps téléchargeables. Les fonctions pour la health sont nombreuses. Il faudra attendre que la librairie s'enrichisse davantage pour rivaliser avec Apple et Suunto.

Le suivi d'activité

Les 4 montres offrent des fonctions classiques de suivi d'activité (pas, distance, étages gravis, qualité du sommeil). Apple et Garmin offrent les fonctions les plus complètes de suivi de la health. Chez Suunto, ces fonctions sont déléguées à Google Fit et chez Samsung, c'est l'application Samsung Health qui s'en charge.

Notre avis sur la Suunto 7, l'Apple Watch 5, la Garmin Venu et la Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 : quelle est la meilleure ?

Les fonctions connectées : avantage à l'Apple Watch et la Suunto 7

On a affaire à 4 excellentes montres connectées et sportives, les meilleures du marché à ce jour. En termes de fonctions intelligentes, l'Apple Watch et la Suunto 7 nous semblent les plus complètes. Apple et Samsung offrent en outre davantage de possibilités d'évolution grâce à Wear OS et le Watch OS d'Apple. La Garmin Venu offre également des fonctions intéressantes qui satisferont la plupart des utilisateurs, surtout sportifs, grâce à ses fonctions connectées conçues pour rendre plus agréable la vie du sportif (musique, paiement, assistance en cas d'incident, etc.). Apple et Samsung offrent en plus des modèles LTE avec connectivité 4G, ce qui permet d'accéder à la téléphonie et aux fonctions à distance (information, cartographie, musique, etc.) sans avoir besoin d'un Smartphone ou du Wi-Fi à proximité.

Fonctions sportives : Garmin et Suunto en tête

En termes de fonctions sportives, ces 4 montres restent cependant limitées.

L'autonomie, d'une part, est le point noir de ces modèles. Elle limite l'utilisation de la montre avec GPS à seulement quelques heures, pas de quoi faire de longues sorties (ultratrail, grandes randonnées ou même marathon). Seule la Garmin Venu ne s'en tire pas trop mal avec ses 20 h d'autonomie en mode GPS.

D'autre part, les fonctions sportives sont limitées. On ne peut pas connecter de capteurs externes (à part chez Garmin et, chez Apple, la possibilité de connecter une ceinture cardio). Il ne pourra donc pas y avoir de suivi poussé (cadence, vitesse, puissance voire fréquence cardiaque en natation et pour le fractionné). Le suivi des performances est minimaliste. Les fonctions de navigation GPS inexistantes (sauf sur la Garmin Venu). Les mesures physiologiques sont absentes ou rares. Même la Suunto 7, qui pourtant bénéficie de toute l'expérience de Suunto, n'offre que le pack minimum de fonctions sportives alors qu'on aurait pu s'attendre à ce qu'elle offre les fonctions assez complètes de la Suunto 5.

Garmin et Suunto constituent la meilleure offre en termes de fonctions sportives. Pour des fonctions sportives plus élaborées, optez pour une montre purement sportive (voir nos comparatifs meilleures montre de running, meilleures montres pour la randonnée, meilleures montres triathlon).

Les plus de chaque modèle

Suunto 7 : pour la vie quotidienne et le sport

La Suunto 7, avec ses fonctions intelligentes la rapprochant d'une Apple Watch (mais en nettement moins élégante à nos yeux et beaucoup plus volumineuse) intéressera les personnes qui recherchent avant tout une montre connectée pour la vie quotidienne et qui, en plus, veulent pouvoir l'utiliser pour le sport.

Si elle bénéficie de toute l'expérience Suunto en termes de fonctions sportives, elle présente un certain nombre de limitations qui peuvent être rédhibitoires pour de nombreux sportifs. Ses fonctions sont moins développées que celles des autres montres Suunto (Suunto 5, Suunto 9). Son autonomie est trop faible pour certains sports (ultra-trail, randonnée de plus de 5-6 h). Elle ne permet pas de connecter des capteurs externes, notamment une ceinture cardio. Les possibilités d'entraînement sont donc limitées. Elle pourrait être une bonne montre outdoor grâce aux cartes embarquées et ses cartes de chaleur. Malheureusement, la navigation est limitée (pas de suivi d'itinéraire). Quant aux mesures physiologiques, elles restent marginales. Bref, sur les trois caractéristiques qui font la force de la marque (autonomie, fiabilité et fonctions outdoor avancées), deux ne sont pas au rendez-vous.

Son intérêt reste l'utilisation en ville avec des fonctions sportives bien meilleures que les Smartwatch classiques (Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch, Garmin Venu) et un écran superbe. Mis à part son design volumineux et un peu trop sportif pour la ville, elle plaira aux personnes qui aimeraient porter une Apple Watch mais qui ne disposent que d'un Smartphone Android (fonctionne aussi avec un iPhone).

Apple Watch 5 : pour son élégance et ses fonctions intelligentes avancées

L'Apple Watch est à nos yeux la plus élégante des 4 montres de ce comparatif, à condition d'aimer le boîtier carré ! Elle est aujourd'hui l'une des montres connectées les plus vendues au monde. Attention, elle ne fonctionne qu'avec un appareil iOS (iPhone par exemple). L'offre (matière du boîtier et des bracelets, finitions) est la plus large. Elle pourra s'assortir à toutes les tenues et être portée sans rougir en ville et au travail. Difficile de faire la différence avec une montre de bijouterie. Elle est appréciée des non sportifs qui veulent mener une vie plus saine ou qui recherchent une motivation à bouger. Pour une utilisation sportive plus poussée, mieux vaut investir dans une montre dédiée au sport.

Garmin Venu : le bon compromis pour les sportifs (fonctions, autonomie)

C'est la montre proposant le plus de fonctions pour les sportifs (même si le modèle se situe en bas de la gamme sportive Garmin), une navigation GPS complète et une bonne autonomie. Elle offre des exercices animés (squats, pompes, pilates, etc.) pour apprendre les mouvements. En contrepartie, ses fonctions connectées, certes très fournies, sont limitées à ce que Garmin veut bien offrir. De plus, aucune évolution n'est à espérer, contrairement aux montres embarquant Wear OS ou Watch OS. Elle conviendra aux personnes qui cherchent une montre polyvalente avec une utilisation sportive occasionnelle à régulière.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 : pour son élégance et ses fonctions intelligentes

Cette montre offre un joli design, des fonctions intelligentes complètes dont l'assistant Bixby maintenant disponible en français et une interface fluide et agréable à utiliser grâce à la couronne digitale. Ses widgets sont personnalisables. Elle propose un suivi de la health ultra-complet. C'est une bonne montre pour la vie quotidienne et pour une utilisation sportive occasionnelle. Les moins initiés apprécieront le coach sportif, les animations pour apprendre à bien faire les exercices (squats, pompes, etc.) et le comptage automatique des répétitions (musculation, squat, etc.). Son autonomie est faible. Dommage aussi que la librairie Samsung Store soit encore pauvre en apps téléchargeables. Elle conviendra davantage pour une utilisation au quotidien avec un peu de sport à l'occasion. Elle ne nécessite pas d'utiliser un Smartphone Samsung.

Comment choisir entre les 4 montres

Pour le sport, mieux vaudra se tourner vers Garmin et Suunto. Pour les fonctions intelligentes, l'Apple Watch et la Suunto 7 sont actuellement les mieux fournies.