Why You Can Trust CNET Garmin's New Lily 2 Smartwatch Can Rate Your Sleep and Track Your Dance Moves
The Lily 2 is an updated version of Garmin's fashionable watch with more sleep and exercise tracking features.
Garmin's Lily 2 smartwatch
Garmin just announced the Lily 2 at CES 2024, an updated version of its stylish smartwatch aimed at those who prefer sleeker watches. The new model has a few extra features that were missing from the original Lily, such as a sleep score for assessing the quality of rest and additional exercise modes. The Lily 2 costs $250, while the more premium Classic version is priced at $280, and the watches are available immediately.
Among the biggest new features in the Lily 2 is the addition of Garmin's sleep score, which rates your sleep based on factors such as duration, restlessness and how much time was spent in various sleep stages. Sleep score exists on other Garmin watches and is a common feature on most wearables, but this is the first time it's coming to the Lily watch. While the Lily 2 doesn't bring any entirely new features to Garmin's health and wellness lineup, it could be a solid option for those who prefer petite, stylish watches but don't want to compromise on sleep tracking.
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The second-generation Lily also supports 18 sports apps, including a dance fitness mode, compared with the original version's 13 exercises. Garmin says dance styles such as Bollywood, EDM, Afrobeat, hip-hop and Zumba will be supported. The watch can also ping your emergency contacts if it detects an incident during certain activities, another feature that's also available on other Garmin devices but not on the original Lily watch.
Otherwise, the Garmin Lily 2 also has many of the same health and wellness tracking features found in the previous Lily and other Garmin watches, such as Body Battery. As its name implies, this feature provides a snapshot of how rested or tired you are based on factors like activity and sleep. When I recently reviewed the Garmin Venu 3, I found the Body Battery feature to be a convenient and helpful tool for deciding whether I needed to head to bed earlier or carve out time for a longer workout. The same goes for Morning Report, also available on the Lily 2, which is essentially a mini digest showing the weather, your sleep score and Body Battery upon waking up.
Like many modern smartwatches, the Lily 2 also has stress tracking, can monitor specific stages of sleep, read blood oxygen levels and monitor menstrual cycles.
One of the key differences that separates the Lily 2 from pricier Garmin watches like the Venu 3 is its lack of integrated GPS. Instead, you'll need to pair the Lily 2 with your phone to leverage GPS usage. Battery life should last for five days according to Garmin's claims, which is shorter than the pricier Venu 3's estimated 14-day battery life but still longer than the Apple Watch Series 9 or Pixel Watch 2's battery life.
You'll also get phone notifications and calendar alerts, and Android users will also be able to respond to text messages from their wrists. But only the more expensive Classic version will support Garmin Pay for contactless payments.
Overall, the Garmin Lily 2 appears to be a modest refresh that bridges the gap between Garmin's more fully featured smartwatches and the first-generation Lily, which is now roughly three years old. When my colleague Lexy Savvides reviewed that watch in 2021, she described it as being ideal for those who find sports watches too clunky but want something more than a basic fitness tracker. Based on what we know about the Lily 2 so far, it seems like its successor will continue to check that box.
