On my last day of vacation, I sat on a pristine beach, sipping a piña colada while looking out over the turquoise Caribbean sea. In four days, I charged my Apple Watch Ultra 2 three times and was left with about 30 percent. On the other wrist, I had the more modest $249.99 Garmin Lily 2 Sport. It was about 15 percent, but I hadn't charged it once. In reality, he had left the cable at home, hundreds of miles away. As I pondered this, the Ultra 2 began to hum. My phone may have been buried under towels and bottles of sunscreen at the bottom of a beach bag, but Peloton was having a bad earnings day. The way the watch is set, there was no way it was going to let me forget it. The Lily 2 also hummed from time to time. The difference was that reading notifications was too annoying and therefore easily ignored.
That small slice of time sums up everything that makes Lily 2 great, and maybe not so great.
My 10 days with Lily 2 were split into two dramatically different weeks. The first was a chaotic hell where we spent running around doing 10,000 things before the holidays. The second, I tried my best to be a chill beach potato. That first week, I found the Lily 2 to be cute and comfortable, but it didn't meet my particular needs. While on vacation, its limitations meant it was exactly the kind of wearable I needed.
That didn't surprise me. The Lily 2 is not designed to be a mini wrist computer that can occasionally replace your phone. It's meant to look stylish, tell you the time, and hey, here's some basic notifications and fitness tracking. This is ideal for casual users, the kind of people who loved fitness bands and Fitbits before Google started tinkering with the formula.
The main thing with the Lily 2 is that you have to accept that it will look good on your wrist, but it will be a bit fiddly to use. He original lilyThe screen did not register hits or touches as well. It has improved a little with the Lily 2, but only a little. I didn't find reading notifications, navigating menus, and just doing most things on the watch as convenient as a more full-featured touchscreen smartwatch. This added friction is one of the main reasons why the Lily 2 simply didn't fit my needs in daily life.
As a fitness tracker, the Lily 2 is mediocre. The main additions this time are better sleep tracking and a few more types of activities, such as HIIT, indoor rowing and walking, and meditation. There are also new dance and fitness profiles with various subgenres, such as Zumba, afrobeat, jazz, line dancing, etc. That said, the Lily 2 isn't great for monitoring your data mid-workout. Again, complicated movements and a small screen add too much friction for that.
I also wouldn't recommend trying to train for a marathon with the Lily 2. Since it uses your phone's GPS, my results with outdoor runs were mixed. A four-mile run was recorded as 4.01 miles. Excellent! Another two-mile run was recorded as 2.4 miles. Less cool. It's a tracker better suited to an active life, but not one where the details really matter. For example, it was great for tracking my general splashing and floating activity in the ocean, but it's not really the tracker I'd use if I was trying to track laps in the pool.
The Garmin Lily 2 is a simple but stylish hybrid analog smartwatch that offers notifications and basic fitness tracking.
At 35mm, it's a skosh larger than the original Lily, but a lot smaller than almost any other smartwatch on the market. It's also lighter than most at 24.4g. That makes it an extremely comfortable little watch. Most days I forgot I was wearing it.
While I'm not a fashionista, I didn't feel like my lilac review unit was difficult to fit into my everyday wardrobe. But if fun colors aren't your thing, the Classic version costs $30 to $50 more and has a sleeker feel, a more muted color palette, and nylon/leather straps. (Also adds contactless payments.)
For a woman with a small wrist, the 35mm size is an advantage. But although I personally don't think the Lily 2 has For a women's watch, it is undeniably delicate. If you want something with a more neutral vibe or a slightly larger size, Garmin has the Vivomove Trend or Vivomove Sport. Withings' ScanWatch 2 or ScanWatch Light are also attractive options.
Ultimately, the Lily 2 is ideal for people who want to be more active while trying to reduce notifications. It's also a great alternative if you miss the old Misfits, Jawbones or Fitbit Alta HR. Deep down, I wish it were me, but the reality is that I have too much FOMO on my devices and worry too much about my running data. That said, the next time I go on vacation (or feel the need to unplug) I think I'll choose Lily 2 and attempt leave the rest of my life at home.
