You possibly can count on three issues from a Garmin: lengthy battery life, sturdiness, and extra health information than is strictly needed. All that’s true of the $449.99 Venu 3S. However in comparison with the corporate’s beefy multisport watches that is, technically talking, Garmin’s most smartwatch-like watch.
That’s not a excessive bar to clear, however there’s so much to love right here. There are new coronary heart fee sensors which help EKG readings for atrial fibrillation detection. Garmin has additionally added a extra superior sleep coach and, lastly, nap detection. On the wellness entrance, it consists of audio meditation periods. And just like the Venu 2 Plus, it additionally has a mic and speaker so you should use your cellphone’s voice assistant. The Venu 3 sequence can be the primary to introduce a wheelchair mode. There are a number of design tweaks and a few extra premium options which have trickled all the way down to the Venu 3 sequence — all of which add as much as a greater general expertise from its predecessors.
If this had been about $100 cheaper, I’d say Garmin’s rivals (cough Fitbit cough) ought to be nervous. Because it stands, I’m having a tough time getting over the value — even when it checks off a variety of the fitting bins.
Lengthy lasting, sporty stylish
Just a few years again, each Garmin leaned closely on rugged, chunky design sensibilities and black or neon colours. The few stylish choices out there had been exorbitantly priced with a so-so function set. So I’m happy that the Venu 3 sequence is a pleasant mixture of affordability, enjoyable styling, and luxury.
The Venu 3 sequence is available in two sizes: the 41mm Venu 3S and the 45mm Venu 3. I’ve acquired smaller wrists, so I opted for the 3S. My evaluate unit has a gold chrome steel bezel with a pinkish-purple case and strap. It’s contemporary and enjoyable with out being too garish. Typically with extra colourful watches, you must make a tradeoff for extra formal occasions. You don’t actually have to try this right here. I used to be in a position to put on this to some enterprise occasions, and there are extra muted colour choices that also have a modern aptitude. The 1.2-inch OLED show is crisp, and you’ve got a good choice of watchfaces and problems to select from.
The 3S can be slim and comfortable to put on, measuring 12mm thick and weighing 40g with the strap. I examined this watch all through the autumn and had zero points with the case catching on my varied jacket sleeves. I by no means had the urge to tear it off in the midst of the night time both.
This isn’t the hardiest Garmin, however that’s superb because it’s clearly aimed toward extra casual-to-intermediate customers. I’m not significantly mild with my gadgets and this factor survived a number of bouts towards my kitten’s fangs. I wouldn’t advocate it in the event you’re partaking in excessive sports activities or vulnerable to whacking your gadgets towards door jambs, however you’re superb for on a regular basis exercises.
Battery life was additionally on par with what I anticipated. The 3S will get 9 to 10 days on a single cost the always-on show disabled. With it on, that’ll drop to round 4 to 6 days, relying in your utilization. (I typically do 30 to 60 minutes of every day GPS exercise on the best GNSS settings when testing, with all notifications enabled.)
Extra wellness than smarts
Garmin watches are good, however they’re extra just like Fitbits than the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch with regards to smarts. They’re health trackers which have some good options, and the Venu 3S has greater than most Garmins.
The primary factor that makes the Venu 3 sequence good is the flexibility to take calls from the wrist and work together along with your cellphone’s voice assistant over Bluetooth. This was launched on the Venu 2 Plus a number of years again, but it surely’s nonetheless not one thing you’ll discover in Garmin’s product lineup outdoors these three watches. All of it works nicely. Calls sound clear, and it turns out to be useful even when the watch itself doesn’t have LTE. I additionally suppose it’s the fitting transfer for a platform-agnostic wearable to make use of your cellphone’s voice assistant. It’s much more sensible than Amazon Alexa, which is what Fossil watches, Fitbits, and another funds trackers have opted for prior to now.
In any other case, the good options are pretty fundamental. You get the standard alarms, timers, calendar, and climate. It additionally helps contactless funds by way of Garmin Pay. However like each different Garmin watch, the third-party app ecosystem is paltry. You’ve acquired Spotify for offline playlists, however the Garmin Join IQ retailer isn’t anyplace near what the Apple App Retailer or Google Play Retailer has to supply. Garmin has a bunch of third-party integrations with outdoorsy apps like Strava and Komoot, but it surely’s not fairly the identical factor.
The place the watch shines is in its mixture of wellness options. Significantly with regard to sleep monitoring — an space the place Garmin has tended to lag behind the competitors.
Sleep Coach is a brand new function that contextualizes your sleep information by factoring in your nightly coronary heart fee variability (new to the Venu 3 sequence), age, exercise historical past, and any naps you may need taken. That’s an enormous deal, since a lot of Garmin’s platform facilities round coaching and your physique’s bodily readiness to tackle extra pressure. In my expertise, Garmin’s so-so sleep monitoring would sometimes muck up these restoration metrics — particularly since earlier than the Venu 3 sequence, Garmin gadgets couldn’t even account on your naps!
It’s baffling that Garmin had omitted nap detection for thus lengthy, so I’m glad it’s right here now. I take a variety of naps throughout the busy tech evaluate season, and for essentially the most half, the 3S did an excellent job of catching after I snuck in some further Zzz’s. I wouldn’t say it was good. There have been a number of instances the place it was a bit of off by way of length in comparison with my Oura Ring Gen 3. However general, it was adequate and I felt extra assured in my restoration and coaching load metrics.
On the wrist, you additionally get extra detailed metrics than earlier than. It’s not a drastic change, but it surely does make Garmin’s information simpler to visually digest.
Exterior of sleep monitoring, the Venu 3 sequence additionally introduces audio guided meditation periods. I’m typically not a fan of those sorts of options, but it surely’s nicely completed. You possibly can select a mantra that you simply stick into your cellphone, audio tracks, and an general theme whereas watching a guided visible on the wrist. It’s an excellent use of the OLED show and microphone. I additionally dig that it tracks your coronary heart fee, respiration fee, and the way that impacts your general bodily stress. Oura and Fitbit provide comparable options on their gadgets, and it’s good for skeptical people like me to see how meditation periods influence your metrics. (That mentioned, I’m nonetheless unlikely to make use of this function continuously.)
It’s additionally encouraging to see that Garmin just lately expanded the variety of gadgets that now help its EKG and atrial fibrillation function. I attempted it on the Venu 3S, and I used to be unsurprised to see that it detected no indicators of AFib. That mentioned, in the event you’re in fine condition and haven’t any identified threat elements, this isn’t vital function. As for coronary heart fee accuracy, I discovered that it was correct to inside about 5 bpm of my Polar H10 chest strap throughout exercises.
One other neat little replace: the Venu 3S now helps a number of GNSS programs as an alternative of simply GPS. It’s not the extra correct dual-frequency GPS you’ll discover on the Fenix 7, 7 Professional, or second-gen Epix watches, but it surely’s a step up. That mentioned, I did have some wonkiness in my GPS outcomes early on in testing the place the Venu 3S was a few tenth of a mile off from my Apple Watch Extremely and cellphone. That’s not an enormous downside for informal customers or at shorter distances like a 5K or 10K. It’s extra of a factor to remember in the event you primarily run longer distances, like half marathons or marathons. For folk who prioritize GPS, I’d contemplate the Forerunner 265 as an alternative because it’s the identical value however comes with dual-frequency GPS.
These are what I discover to be essentially the most significant updates. However I’d be remiss if I didn’t word that regardless of this being a way of life Garmin, this has a buttload of coaching options, too. You get Garmin Coach, which gives free and downloadable coaching plans for operating and biking. You get Physique Battery, which is Garmin’s metric for visualizing how a lot vitality you may have on a given day. You possibly can broadcast your HR to numerous fitness center tools, view HR zones, get restoration time estimates, and examine on-screen muscle maps for energy exercises. It’s not as expansive because the top-of-the-line Garmins, but it surely’s far more complete than what you’ll discover on a Fitbit.
A pricier Fitbit different
The one factor I don’t like concerning the Venu 3S is that it’s $450. The mobile 41mm Apple Watch Sequence 9 is similar value, whereas the LTE variations of the Google Pixel Watch 2 and 40mm Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 value $400 and $270, respectively. The non-LTE variations of all three watches could be had for much less. In the meantime, the Venu 3S doesn’t have the aptitude for LTE, so its foremost benefits are battery life and health monitoring. And with health monitoring, these competing flagships ship a good-enough expertise for the informal customers at whom this explicit Garmin is aimed.
The in any other case glorious Venu 3S can be a sufferer of Garmin’s bloated product lineup. I’ve mentioned it numerous instances, however Garmin might stand to prune its choices in order that its merchandise aren’t competing with one another. Like I mentioned earlier, the Forerunner 265 is a really comparable product that prices the identical, and there are a handful of different way of life Garmins that value a lot much less that may additionally attraction to potential Venu 3 customers.
So who is that this for? Garmins are typically a greater match for disgruntled Fitbit customers. The function set and battery life are comparable, as is the general concentrate on health over smarts. The worth disparity can simply be robust to swallow. The Fitbit Sense 2, for example, is the priciest Fitbit, has the same function set, barely higher smarts, and you may typically discover it on sale for round $250. Garmin’s foremost benefit right here is healthier construct high quality, no Google or server shenanigans, and no paywalled options.
It boils all the way down to what kind of Garmin you need to put money into. For many athletes in search of a less expensive Garmin, the Forerunner watches are possible a greater use of your cash. That is for the Garmin customers who need an itty bitty bit extra good performance from their system — and don’t thoughts paying a premium for it.