You’ll be able to count on three issues from a Garmin: lengthy battery life, sturdiness, and extra health knowledge than is strictly mandatory. 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 loads to love right here. There are new coronary heart charge 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 utilize your telephone’s voice assistant. The Venu 3 sequence can also be the primary to introduce a wheelchair mode. There are a number of design tweaks and a few extra premium options which have trickled right down to the Venu 3 sequence — all of which add as much as a greater total expertise from its predecessors.
If this have 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 worth — even when it checks off loads of the correct containers.
Lengthy lasting, sporty stylish
A couple of years again, each Garmin leaned closely on rugged, chunky design sensibilities and black or neon colours. The few stylish choices out there have 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 received 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 recent 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 do this right here. I used to be capable of 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 an honest number of watchfaces and issues to select from.
The 3S can also be slim and cozy 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 evening both.
This isn’t the hardiest Garmin, however that’s nice because it’s clearly aimed toward extra casual-to-intermediate customers. I’m not notably mild with my gadgets and this factor survived a number of bouts in opposition to my kitten’s fangs. I wouldn’t advocate it should you’re partaking in excessive sports activities or vulnerable to whacking your gadgets in opposition to door jambs, however you’re nice 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 usually do 30 to 60 minutes of each day GPS exercise on the very 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 in relation 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 telephone’s voice assistant over Bluetooth. This was launched on the Venu 2 Plus just a few years again, nevertheless it’s nonetheless not one thing you’ll discover in Garmin’s product lineup exterior these three watches. All of it works properly. Calls sound clear, and it is useful even when the watch itself doesn’t have LTE. I additionally suppose it’s the correct transfer for a platform-agnostic wearable to make use of your telephone’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 through Garmin Pay. However like each different Garmin watch, the third-party app ecosystem is paltry. You’ve received Spotify for offline playlists, however the Garmin Join IQ retailer isn’t wherever 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, nevertheless it’s not fairly the identical factor.
The place the watch shines is in its mixture of wellness options. Notably 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 knowledge by factoring in your nightly coronary heart charge variability (new to the Venu 3 sequence), age, exercise historical past, and any naps you might 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 often muck up these restoration metrics — particularly since earlier than the Venu 3 sequence, Garmin gadgets couldn’t even account in your naps!
It’s baffling that Garmin had omitted nap detection for therefore lengthy, so I’m glad it’s right here now. I take loads of naps through the busy tech evaluate season, and for essentially the most half, the 3S did an excellent job of catching once I snuck in some additional Zzz’s. I wouldn’t say it was excellent. There have been just a few instances the place it was slightly off when it comes to period in comparison with my Oura Ring Gen 3. However total, it was ok 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, nevertheless it does make Garmin’s knowledge simpler to visually digest.
Exterior of sleep monitoring, the Venu 3 sequence additionally introduces audio guided meditation periods. I’m usually not a fan of those sorts of options, nevertheless it’s properly finished. You’ll be able to select a mantra that you just stick into your telephone, audio tracks, and an total 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 charge, respiration charge, and the way that impacts your total bodily stress. Oura and Fitbit provide comparable options on their gadgets, and it’s good for skeptical of us like me to see how meditation periods influence your metrics. (That mentioned, I’m nonetheless not going to make use of this function incessantly.)
It’s additionally encouraging to see that Garmin not too long ago 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, should you’re in fine condition and don’t have any recognized danger elements, this isn’t essential function. As for coronary heart charge 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 methods as a substitute 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, nevertheless it’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 couple of tenth of a mile off from my Apple Watch Extremely and telephone. That’s not an enormous drawback for informal customers or at shorter distances like a 5K or 10K. It’s extra of a factor to remember should you primarily run longer distances, like half marathons or marathons. For people who prioritize GPS, I’d take into account the Forerunner 265 as a substitute 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 be aware that regardless of this being a life-style Garmin, this has a buttload of coaching options, too. You get Garmin Coach, which affords free and downloadable coaching plans for working and biking. You get Physique Battery, which is Garmin’s metric for visualizing how a lot vitality you might have on a given day. You’ll be able to broadcast your HR to numerous health club gear, view HR zones, get restoration time estimates, and think about on-screen muscle maps for energy exercises. It’s not as expansive because the top-of-the-line Garmins, nevertheless it’s way more complete than what you’ll discover on a Fitbit.
A pricier Fitbit various
The one factor I don’t like in regards to the Venu 3S is that it’s $450. The mobile 41mm Apple Watch Sequence 9 is identical 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 might be had for much less. In the meantime, the Venu 3S doesn’t have the potential for LTE, so its essential 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 specific Garmin is aimed.
The in any other case wonderful Venu 3S can also 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 will additionally attraction to potential Venu 3 customers.
So who is that this for? Garmins are usually a greater match for disgruntled Fitbit customers. The function set and battery life are comparable, as is the general deal with health over smarts. The value disparity can simply be powerful to swallow. The Fitbit Sense 2, for example, is the priciest Fitbit, has an identical function set, barely higher smarts, and you’ll usually discover it on sale for round $250. Garmin’s essential benefit right here is healthier construct high quality, no Google or server shenanigans, and no paywalled options.
It boils right down to what sort of Garmin you wish to put money into. For many athletes on the lookout for a less expensive Garmin, the Forerunner watches are probably a greater use of your cash. That is for the Garmin customers who need an itty bitty bit extra good performance from their machine — and don’t thoughts paying a premium for it.