Few smartwatch manufacturers design devices specifically for women, making Garmin's Lily line-up particularly noteworthy in this niche market. Less than a year after launching the Lily 2 Classic, Garmin has introduced the Lily 2 Active, demonstrating their commitment to this market segment. While maintaining the elegant design that made the Lily series popular, this new model introduces significant improvements, including built-in GPS tracking, enhanced battery life, and better health and sports tracking capabilities. If these enhancements pique your interest, join me for an in-depth review exploring what the Garmin Lily 2 Active has to offer:

Garmin Lily 2 Active: Who is it good for?

The Garmin Lily 2 Active is a great choice for:

• Women who are into a healthy lifestyle and want to track activities like dancing, golf, tennis, yoga, or pilates
• Those who want to track their overall health and fitness activities
• Women who prefer an elegant smartwatch that's comfortable to wear

Pros and cons

Here are the things I like about the Garmin Lily 2 Active:

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• It's small, lightweight, and comfortable to wear
• Elegant design for women interested in fashion
• The hidden display keeps your data private
• The physical buttons improve the user experience
• Offers built-in GPS tracking and NFC payments
• It’s the best health and fitness tracker from the Lily line-up

There are some downsides, too:

• It can't track as many activities as competitors (it’s missing hiking, mountain biking, etc)
• Lacking Wi-Fi connectivity

Verdict

The Garmin Lily 2 Active represents such a significant leap forward that it deserves a more distinctive name than one suggesting mere similarity to its predecessors, the Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic. The integration of built-in GPS expands its tracking capabilities and broadens its appeal, while the addition of two physical buttons streamlines the user experience. Health monitoring has been enhanced with Heart-Rate Variability (HRV) measurements, and although still somewhat limited, its sports tracking capabilities surpass all previous Garmin Lily models. These improvements, coupled with an extended battery life, lead to a better smartwatch. Despite certain limitations, such as the absence of Wi-Fi connectivity and a relatively restricted range of trackable activities, the Lily 2 Active successfully fulfills its promise as an elegant, capable, and user-friendly health and fitness tracker, designed specifically for women.

Unboxing the Garmin Lily 2 Active

The Garmin Lily 2 Active comes in a gray cardboard box with a picture of the smartwatch on its front cover, alongside the company's branding and the product name. While the packaging doesn't provide information about the features of this product, it highlights an essential element that sets it apart from the Garmin Lily 2 Classic - its built-in GPS tracking capabilities.

The packaging for Garmin Lily 2 Active

When you open the box, you immediately see the smartwatch. A removable sticker protects the display, showcasing how the watch will look when turned on.

When you open the box, you see the watch

Continue looking inside the box to find the following items: the smartwatch, the USB-C Garmin charging cable, a brief user guide, and important safety information.

There's not much bundled with the Garmin Lily 2 Active

The unboxing experience for the Garmin Lily 2 Active is straightforward. You get only the basics you need to get started, without any special extras.

Design and hardware specifications

The Garmin Lily 2 Active bears a strong resemblance to its predecessors, the Lily 2 and the Lily 2 Classic. However, it's slightly larger, measuring 38 x 38 x 11 mm or 1.49 x 1.49 x 0.43 inches. Despite its minor increase in size, this smartwatch remains remarkably lightweight, at just 29 grams or 1.02 ounces.

The Lily 2 Active also distinguishes itself from the rest of the Lily 2 line-up with three unique color combinations:

• Jasper Green smartwatch with a matching Jasper Green silicone band
• Lunar Gold smartwatch paired with a Bone silicone band (the version I received for testing)
• Silver smartwatch complemented by a Purple Jasmine silicone band

These color options aim to please women who prefer a more vibrant or sporty aesthetic.

The colors available for Garmin Lily 2 Active

The bezel and the case on the Garmin Lily 2 Active are made from anodized aluminum. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and it features a grayscale liquid crystal panel that remains powered off unless you interact with it. The display has a size of 25.4 mm x 21.3 mm or 1.00 x 0.84 inches, and a resolution of 240 x 201 pixels. On the lower part of the display, there's a small button, which acts as a quick-access control that can be customized by the user.

Garmin Lily 2 Active has a grayscale liquid crystal display

A big improvement introduced by the Lily 2 Active is the presence of two physical buttons on its right: the one at the top helps you access the list of activities that you may want to track and also acts as a confirmation button, while the one towards the bottom acts as a Back button.

On the back side of the smartwatch, you have Garmin's proprietary charging port, as well as the Elevate Gen 4 sensor, which can also be used as Pulse OX blood oxygen saturation monitor. A compass complements the sensors list, alongside an accelerometer, and an ambient light sensor.

Garmin Lily 2 Active has an Elevate Gen 4 heart rate sensor

Garmin Lily 2 Active also features Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity, as well as built-in GPS tracking and NFC payments through Garmin Pay. However, there's no Wi-Fi chip, and all firmware updates are sent to the smartwatch via Bluetooth, which is slower. Luckily, the battery capacity seems to have increased, as Garmin is promising an autonomy of up to nine days on a single charge.

Garmin Lily 2 Active features better connectivity options

Some users will appreciate that the Garmin Lily 2 Active has a water resistance of up to 5 ATM, making it safe to wear in the shower or when swimming in pools.

Based solely on its design, aesthetics, and hardware specifications, the Garmin Lily 2 Active is potentially the best smartwatch in the Lily line-up. However, if you're unconvinced or wish to explore its extensive list of features, I recommend reviewing its detailed specifications. You can find comprehensive information about the Lily 2 Active on the official Garmin website.

Setting up and using the Garmin Lily 2 Active

Before pairing your Garmin Lily 2 Active with your smartphone, first install the Garmin Connect app, available for both Android and iOS. The smartwatch connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and you must create a Garmin account to use it.

Pairing the Garmin Lily 2 Active with your smartphone

During the initial setup process, you set your sleep schedule, your activity goals, choose the wrist on which you're wearing it, etc. At the last step of the wizard, you're informed that you can start using your new Lily 2 Active, and that you should set up key features, like Garmin Pay or Safety. I recommend you add emergency contacts, who are automatically contacted when the smartwatch detects you've just had an accident and may be in danger.

It's a good idea to set up Garmin Pay, Safety, and other features

Another thing you should do is customize the activities you want to monitor with your Garmin Lily 2 Active. Along with standard options like walking, running, and yoga, this smartwatch can also track Dance Fitness activities for dances like pop and jazz, Zumba, cardio, hip hop, and more.

However, you should pay attention to the list of activity profiles available for the Garmin Lily 2 Active. It can track a total of thirty activities. While this number may seem large, unfortunately, it isn't. If you're into cycling, for example, you'll be disappointed to learn that you only get a profile for Biking and another for Indoor Biking. Women who regularly go on mountain biking trips or practice other forms of cycling will be disappointed that Lily 2 Active doesn't have a specific tracking profile for their favorite sport.

The list of activities you can track isn't very long

After completing the initial setup, newcomers to Garmin's ecosystem should dedicate some time to thoroughly exploring the Connect app. Familiarize yourself with its options, menus, and features to make the most of your smartwatch. If you transition to the Lily 2 Active from a Fitbit, Samsung, Xiaomi, or Apple Watch, you may initially find Garmin's software ecosystem more complex. However, with a bit of patience, you'll likely master it quickly. Over time, you'll come to appreciate the Connect app's high degree of customization and the wealth of data it provides.

You can personalize everything about the Garmin Connect app

Once you're done with configuring the Garmin Lily 2 Active, you'll spend most of your time in the Home tab of the Connect app. As with everything Garmin, this section is highly customizable. You can rearrange the order of statistics displayed, add or remove specific data points based on your interests, and select which metrics you want to highlight in the In Focus section. This level of personalization allows you to tailor the app's interface to your specific priorities, ensuring that the most relevant information is always easy to access.

The basics health stats are in the Home tab

The Garmin Lily 2 Active offers exceptional comfort due to its small size, light weight, and high-quality materials that prevent skin irritation. You'll quickly adjust to wearing it, even during sleep. However, some of the women I've asked for feedback noted they would prefer a slightly thinner, wider design.

Garmin Lily 2 Active is super comfortable to wear

During my testing of the Lily 2 Active, I was impressed by Garmin's significant enhancements to the user experience. First of all, the screen on the smartwatch activates automatically with remarkable consistency when you move your wrist to view it. On the rare occasions it doesn't, a simple press of the button at the screen's bottom activates the touchscreen. Navigation has also been streamlined compared to previous Lily models. The addition of two physical buttons on the right side allows quicker and more intuitive access to various functions. Furthermore, the touch responsiveness of the screen has been improved, making swipes and taps more accurate and efficient.

The touch display is a lot more responsive

The screen on the Garmin Lily 2 Active is its most distinctive feature, remaining off by default until activated. If it’s active, visibility is excellent when viewed straight-on, even in bright sunlight, but limited from an angle. While this enhances privacy in social settings, it may also be frustrating if you want a display that's easy to see in most situations.

Outdoor visibility is good

The watch comes with a limited selection of watch faces, all elegant and discreet. Unlike other Garmin models, you can't download new faces, but you can customize the watch with various widgets to compensate for this limitation.

Garmin Lily 2 Active has a few watch faces available

The Lily 2 Active doesn't support voice calls directly. While you can accept or reject calls, conversations must be conducted on your smartphone. However, you can respond to calls and messages using customizable predefined text messages set in the Garmin Connect app.

You can accept or reject calls on the Garmin Lily 2 Active

The Garmin Lily 2 Active also showcases improvements in battery performance. Garmin claims up to 9 days of use on a single charge when Pulse Oximetry tracking is disabled. However, some users, myself included, prefer to monitor blood oxygen levels during sleep. With this feature enabled, you can expect a battery life of six to seven days, depending on how many activities you track and on how long they are.

The smartwatch comes with a USB Type-C charging clip that you can plug into a smartphone charger. A full charge takes approximately 74 minutes, while a quick 30-minute charge boosts the battery from 1% to 50%. You can see more details about the charging speed of the Garmin Lily 2 Active in the chart below.

The charging speed for Garmin Lily 2 Active

The Garmin Lily 2 Active has significantly surpassed my expectations. When I first unboxed it, I anticipated a device similar to the Lily 2 Classic, merely with added GPS tracking. However, Garmin has refined this smartwatch in numerous ways, resulting in a superior user experience compared to all previous Lily models. The Lily 2 Active excels in many aspects, from the user experience to the display's responsiveness, improved battery life, and the expanded range of features.

If you've enjoyed what you've read so far, and want to know how good Garmin Lily 2 Active is at tracking your health and sports activities, turn the page and continue reading this review.🙂