Garmin Lily 2 Review | PCMag

Designed for women, the Lily 2 is Garmin’s smallest and most stylish fitness tracker. Starting at $249.99, the Lily 2 tracks activity and sleep, along with key health metrics such as blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), energy reserves, heart rate, and respiration. This second-gen model offers some nice upgrades over the original, including an aluminum casing instead of plastic, support for easily swappable bands, additional sports-tracking modes like dance fitness and indoor rowing, and a new sleep score metric. The Lily 2 Classic model we tested (starting at $279.99) adds support for Garmin Pay. Though it lacks some features of the $159.99 Fitbit Charge 6, including an integrated GPS and the ability to sync your heart rate to gym equipment, the Lily 2 still offers plenty of useful insights in an attractive jewelry-inspired design, earning it our Editors’ Choice award for fitness trackers for women.

Garmin Lily 1 vs. Garmin Lily 2

The $249.99 base model Lily 2 comes with a silicone band in either lilac or coconut (off-white). The Lily 2 Classic comes with a nylon band in either coffee (tan) or sage gray for $279.99, or you can upgrade to a leather band in mulberry tan for $299.99. For this review, Garmin sent the sage gray Lily 2 Classic.

(Credit: Amber Sayer)

There are several differences between the original Garmin Lily and the Lily 2. The second-generation Lily has a similar design as its predecessor, but the plastic case has been upgraded to aluminum, which improves durability and aesthetics, and the bezel is flat and angled as opposed to rounded. At less than 0.4 inches thick, the Lily 2 is slightly slimmer than the original and fits well under long-sleeve shirts.

The original Lily had a proprietary 14mm watch band that you couldn’t change, or at least not easily. One of the biggest improvements of the Lily 2 is the switch to a standard 14mm quick-release strap. This gives you access to a wide selection of third-party watch bands that will fit the Lily 2, and the ability to easily swap them in and out as you please. This is a fantastic upgrade because the band is typically the weakest link (pun intended) in a wristwatch and the first thing to break. When you cannot easily change the band, you can end up with an expensive, unusable watch face. Plus, for stylish women who see their watch as much of a fashion accessory as a health tracker, being able to customize the look day-to-day with different bands is a big perk.

The Lily 2 has several new activity profiles, including dance fitness, which lets you track various styles like Afrobeat, Bollywood, EDM, hip-hop, and Zumba. It also offers activity profiles for HIIT, indoor rowing, and jump roping. It otherwise continues to support all the activity profiles of the original Lily, including biking, cardio, elliptical training, pilates, pool swimming, running, stair stepping, strength, treadmill running, walking, and yoga. The list of available activity profiles on the Lily 2 should be sufficient for most casual fitness enthusiasts, but the Fitbit Charge 6 offers some additional options with 40 exercise modes, including CrossFit, skiing, snowboarding, and surfing.

The Lily 2 (left, pictured alongside the Fitbit Charge 5 at right) is slim and lightweight (Credit: Amber Sayer)

When we reviewed the original Lily, we griped that there was no way to view your sleep data on the watch itself, and that has changed with the Lily 2. A sleep widget on the second-generation watch shows data for the previous night, including the total duration of your shut-eye. The Lily 2 also offers a daily sleep score to help you quickly gauge the quantity and quality of your previous night’s slumber, plus insights on how to do better.

On the safety front, Lily 2 offers an incident detection mode not available on the original that lets you send SOS alerts to select emergency contacts if you fall during certain outdoor activities, such as when biking or skiing.

Classic Editions of the Lily 2 also feature Garmin Pay, a contactless payment system like Apple Pay. This is a very useful addition that lets you pay with a wave of your wrist when you don’t have your credit card on you.

Though the Lily 2 costs about $50 more than the original model, its higher-quality construction and support for quick-release bands justify the higher price. Plus, the new overnight insights and additional sports modes are great for those looking to monitor and improve their wellness.

In terms of battery life, the Lily 2 promises the same five days on a charge as its predecessor, but its real-world averages have improved from the last generation. In testing, the original Lily’s battery drained to zero in about four days, while the Lily 2 went the full five and then some. In comparison, the Fitbit Charge 6 promises up to a week of battery life on a charge, but drained in just three days with the always-on display enabled in testing.

The Garmin Lily 2 is a strong alternative to the Fitbit Charge series due to its more stylish and sleek design, comparable battery life, and robust fitness metrics when paired with the Garmin Connect app (available for Android and iOS). 

Left to right: Fitbit Charge 5, Garmin Lily 2 (Credit: Amber Sayer)

Detailed Sleep Tracking

Overnight, the Lily 2 keeps track of your sleep duration, the amount of time you spend in each sleep stage (awake/restless, deep, light, and REM), as well as your resting heart rate, stress, Pulse Ox (blood oxygen saturation), and respiration rate. In the morning, its companion Garmin Connect app offers a detailed breakdown of your sleep metrics, as well as a composite sleep score.

I tested the Lily 2 alongside an Oura Ring and a Fitbit Charge 5, both of which also track sleep. One advantage of the Lily 2 and other Garmin wearables is that you get access to all of your tracked data and health insights without a membership. Oura, in comparison, only shows basic scores for activity, readiness, and sleep without a $5.99 monthly subscription. Fitbit also requires a Premium subscription ($9.99 per month or $79.99 per year) for certain metrics, including a breakdown of your sleep stages.

Sleep stats from the Lily 2 in the Garmin Connect app (Credit: Garmin)

After wearing it to bed one night, the Lily 2 tracked 6 hours and 48 minutes of sleep and gave me an overall sleep score of 74, or fair. “Your sleep was a bit short, but you had a good sleep,” the app said. “Sleep like this is critical for boosting your immune system and repairing your body.” It classified both my light and deep sleep duration as “excellent,” but said I fell short on the REM phase, which accounted for 81 minutes of my total sleep duration. Based on your heart rate and movement, it also tracks restlessness throughout the night. For that night, it tracked 22 restless moments, another factor that brought down my sleep score.

When I compared my sleep data from the Lily 2 and the Oura, there was a high level of agreeability between the two devices, which is a good sign that your sleep metrics aren’t just being determined haphazardly. Since I don’t have a Fitbit Premium membership, I get fewer insights from my Fitbit Charge 5, which offers a sleep score for free, but lumps together REM and deep sleep without a subscription. I appreciate that the Lily 2 separates these stats for free because there are distinct benefits of each sleep phase.

Health stats and recovery insights from the Lily 2 in the Garmin Connect app (Credit: Garmin)

I also appreciate Garmin’s Body Battery metric. This is essentially your state of readiness. Factors like how much sleep you got the previous night, how active you have been, and your stress (as determined by heart rate variability and heart rate) play into your Body Battery levels. As someone who tends to push myself too much, it is helpful to have a quantifiable number that provides insight into whether I am overdoing it and should take a rest day, or if I am fully recovered and ready for a vigorous workout.

A Top Lifestyle Tracker, But Not for Serious Runners

As a competitive distance runner, I have tested and reviewed many Garmin watches as well as similar GPS running watches from competitors.

The Garmin Lily 2 focuses on lifestyle features for women looking to have support in being more active, recording various types of exercise, analyzing sleep quality and quantity, and having a chic everyday watch rather than a utilitarian sports watch. Serious runners who are looking for a GPS watch with more specific running performance metrics should consider the Garmin Forerunner series or the Garmin Fenix line. There is little value in comparing the Garmin Lily 2 with the Garmin Forerunner GPS running watches in depth because the products are designed to do different things.

You can connect the Lily 2 with its companion app to allow for GPS tracking while outdoor running, cycling, hiking, etc., but there is no GPS technology on the watch itself. This means that you have to carry your phone with you while you run in order to accurately record your distance, pace, stride length, and running route. 

Post-run stats from the Lily 2 in the Garmin Connect app (Credit: Garmin)

On the Lily 2 itself, you can track outdoor running, but if you aren’t connected to the app, there is no GPS. Instead, the Lily 2 will just count your steps and estimate your calories burned based on your heart rate. After you finish tracking a run, the connected GPS data is uploaded to the Garmin app so you can review your stats and workout history.

I wore the Lily 2 and a Polar OH1 standalone heart rate monitor for one workout, and their average heart rate readings were identical. Moreover, the Lily 2’s heart rate readings were usually plus or minus one beat per minute relative to the Oura during both activity and sleep.

Aside from GPS, there are a few other features that I wish the Lily 2 included. Mainly, I think it would be great if there was a stair tracking feature, which is a very helpful metric for many people. For example, a prospective health study of nearly 9,000 older men found that the number of stairs climbed regularly was inversely associated with all-cause mortality, and better for overall health and reducing disease risk than regular walking. However, there is no barometric altimeter in the watch (the same is true for the Fitbit Charge 6), so this isn’t possible.

It would also be nice if you could broadcast your heart rate from the watch via Bluetooth or ANT+ to other fitness apps or equipment, a feature that is available on the Charge 6. This isn’t a feature I necessarily need, but if you want to take a Peloton class, for example, you can’t connect the Lily 2 to your bike so you would need a separate heart rate monitor.

A Chic Choice for Active Women

The Garmin Lily 2 offers women an ideal balance between fashion and function. With a slim and lightweight build, it’s a lot more chic than a traditional fitness tracker and much more comfortable than a bulky sports watch. At the same time, it reliably tracks your calories burned, heart rate, sleep, steps taken, SpO2, and more to help you stay motivated and lead a healthy lifestyle. With its higher-quality construction, improved band customization options, new sleep insights, and additional sports modes, the Lily 2 easily justifies its $50 price increase from the last generation. The Fitbit Charge 6 is still our top pick if you’re shopping on a budget, but if you’re in search of a more aesthetically pleasing wellness wearable, the Garmin Lily 2 is our Editors’ Choice for female-focused fitness trackers.