What’s new, what’s (exactly) the same?
Although Garmin is claiming that the Lily 2 series brings “big updates” to the table over the original female-centric smartwatch duo, we’re going to be honest with you and say that we’re not seeing any major changes apart from what’s abundantly obvious at first glance.
For the most part, the Garmin Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic seem to be employing largely the same tricks and boasting the same key selling points as their forerunners with an identical 5-day battery life rating, nice hidden touchscreen capable of displaying all of the health information you care about, and a set of sensors that can monitor everything from your heart rate to your body battery energy, all-day stress levels, blood oxygen, respiration, sleep quality, and menstrual cycle.
Of course, that’s already a pretty impressive list of features for a smartwatch focused on fashion more than anything else, so it’s hard to imagine what more you could have realistically expected the Lily 2 to offer. Yes, standalone GPS connectivity would have been nice, but it would have also increased the aforementioned price points and reduced running times between charges.
What else is new?
The main focus of the update will unsurprisingly be on making it easier for users to follow and track their personal health and fitness goals, and if you want to be among the very first people to experience that, you can try out a beta version of the refreshed Garmin Connect platform starting today.
It’s unclear exactly how long these public beta tests will run for, as Garmin is only ready to commit to a full and proper release for the masses at an undetermined time “later this year.” That could mean February… or it could mean December, so you may want to arm yourselves with patience and expect the occasional beta-specific bug while you test-drive the “refreshed” Connect experience.
