Common readers know that I can normally be discovered with a smartwatch on one wrist and a Garmin GPS sports activities watch on the opposite. Quite the opposite, my oldest daughter has lengthy been a Fitbit person. However over the previous six months, her Fitbit Sense’s battery life has been removed from ultimate, and the watch has consistently been dropping Bluetooth connection.
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Happily, the timing could not have been higher for her, as a result of earlier than heading off to purchase one other Fitbit, Garmin had simply despatched me its new Got here 3S to check. Given my daughter’s need for a smaller watch that matched the scale of the Sense, I let her test it out.
The mannequin that we examined was priced at $449 and got here in a classy stainless-steel end with a sage grey case. And after spending weeks day by day driving the wearable, my daughter has been transformed. Here is why.
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Garmin Venu 3S
The Garmin Venu 3S is a well being and wellness-focused smartwatch that may final greater than per week with typical use.
My daughter’s first response to opening up the Venu 3S was shock on the prime quality match, end, and construct of the Garmin watch. She has seen and held my bigger, chunky, and utilitarian Garmin watches earlier than and the class of the Venu 3S instantly grabbed her consideration. The silicone band can be very clean and feels very like the high-end Apple Sport band in opposition to the wrist.
You might recall that Garmin’s Venu sequence is the very best smartwatch competitor to the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, with a microphone and speaker that helps cellphone calls from the wrist and voice assistant by a related smartphone. It additionally was the primary Garmin sequence to sport an AMOLED show and that’s nonetheless the case right here.
I examined the be careful for a number of days to expertise the brand new and/or improved Venu 3/3S options after which handed the watch to my daughter to check out for per week. Garmin improved the Got here 3/3S over the Venu 2 Plus with the next updates:
- Two out there sizes
- Garmin Elevate V5 optical heart-rate sensor
- Multi-GNSS assist
- Longer battery life
- Wheelchair exercise assist
- Morning Report, sleep coach, jetlag advisor, and extra utilities
- Enhanced health options, resembling HRV monitoring, restoration time, perceived exertion, and new sports activities profiles
- Up to date person interface
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The worth stays the identical as earlier than, which is nice contemplating the present financial setting and all the enhancements within the watch. It’s a stable competitor to a smartwatch for these on the lookout for a watch centered on superior well being and wellness options slightly than an extended record of third-party functions.
Since I’m a day by day Garmin person of watches with 5 {hardware} buttons, it took me a few days to get used to the three-button design and up to date person interface. The best three buttons and display swipes carry out the next capabilities:
- Swipe left to proper for shortcut app
- Swipe up and down for chosen widgets
- Prime proper button: Single press for actions and apps, press-hold for fast controls
- Middle proper button: Single press for latest apps, press-hold for voice assistant
- Backside proper button: Single press goes again, press-hold for entry to look at face, clocks, settings
We examined cellphone calls to and from the watch, they usually sounded excellent on each the watch and the cellphone the decision was made to. You may both use a touchscreen dial display or name contacts saved in your contact record. Fingers-free calling from a watch is a wonderful function if you end up collaborating in an exercise and want each palms. That is positively one function I might like to see on high-end Garmin watches sooner or later.
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The voice assistant additionally works effectively and we examined Siri with Apple iPhone units. The watch works as a speaker/mic for Siri, with the ensuing particulars proven on the iPhone show and supplied audibly on the watch. One other good options of the Venu 3S is that music might be performed straight through the speaker on the watch, one thing that isn’t attainable on an Apple Watch. Samsung helps this function too and generally I like only a little bit of background music, so having this feature is nice.
My daughter goes for a lot of walks and hikes in Colorado and enjoys a day nap every so often, so she beloved the brand new assist for nap monitoring. The Venu 3S will routinely observe your naps and it’s pretty correct. One cool function that comes with nap monitoring is the presentation of the affect a nap has in your Physique Battery studying. You must see a optimistic quantity subsequent to your nap.
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The unique problem that prompted my daughter to present Garmin a strive was the failed battery lifetime of her Fitbit. The Garmin Venu 3S is marketed as having as much as 10 days of battery life and to this point together with her day by day routine it has carefully matched that efficiency. So long as it goes for per week together with her strolling, mountaineering, sleeping, and dwelling then she is glad. The Garmin Venu 3S is a winner and given Google’s give attention to having the Pixel Watch take over for Fitbit watches, we might even see extra folks undertake Garmin watches to fill the Fitbit hole.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
In case you are on the lookout for a well being and wellness watch that lasts longer than one or two days, then the Garmin Venu 3S is an excellent choice. With assist for taking and making calls out of your wrist, voice assistant out of your wrist, and smartphone notifications, it could fill all of the roles you usually use on a smartwatch. Add within the huge Garmin assist for amassing and serving to you utilize the information captured each day and night time, then you’ve a watch that’s robust to beat.
