Garmin Venu 3: One minute evaluation
The Garmin Venu 3 is the third in a trilogy of watches which – in contrast to most film trilogies – because the third is definitely the very best of the bunch. In truth, this is without doubt one of the greatest Garmin watches outright.
Like the remainder of the Venu sequence, this can be a fairly balanced mix of smartwatch and well being tracker. Primarily, meaning the Garmin Venu 3 seems nice with a wealthy and colourful AMOLED display screen, that provides a number of the greatest Apple watches a run for his or her cash. Not like Apple Watches, which might solely go a scant 18 or 36 hours with out a recharge, this watch can final for as much as two weeks.
What you aren’t getting right here is a number of the extra premium operating options just like the Coaching Readiness rating, or Race Predictor, such as you would get on the Garmin Forerunner 265 for instance. However you do get superior sleep monitoring and options, a night report, distinctive wheelchair user-specific coaching metrics, and extra well being insights.
This watch additionally encompasses a speaker and microphone which means you may take calls from a linked telephone, proper there in your wrist. It additionally means the meditation coaching is extra immersive with audio steerage, music, and extra.
So whereas that is on the costly aspect for a Garmin watch with out premium coaching options, this does handle to supply a number of smartwatch-style capabilities – like GPS monitoring, offline Spotify, and contactless pay – whereas additionally specializing in life-style monitoring, all day and all evening.
Garmin Venu 3: Specs
| Element | Garmin Venu 3 |
| Worth | $450 / £450 / AU$749 |
| Dimensions | 45 x 45 x 12 (mm) |
| Weight | 46 g |
| Case/bezel | Fibre-reinforced polymer case, stainless-steel bezel |
| Show | 454 x 454 1.4-inch AMOLED contact |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO |
| Battery life | Watch mode 14 days, GPS solely 26 hours, GPS + Music 11 hours |
| Connection | Bluetooth, ANT+, WiFi |
| Water-resistant? | Sure, 5ATM |
Garmin Venu 3: Worth and Availability
- £450 within the UK
- $450 within the US
- AU$749 in Australia
The Garmin Venu 3 is a comparatively excessive value in comparison with different Garmin watches and contemporaries just like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, nevertheless it prices solely barely greater than an Apple Watch and does a little bit of every part (and it does it very nicely) whereas wanting premium in addition. So that you’re a value of US$450 / £450 / AU$749, barely increased than most smartwatches, however nonetheless fairly consultant of what you are getting at this stage.
In fact, these are the launch costs, so you may count on these to drop over time. You may typically discover nice offers on Garmins, and we’re betting the Garmin Venu 3 isn’t any exception. Try our Black Friday Garmin offers web page for extra info.
Garmin Venu 3: Design and display screen
- 1.4-inch AMOLED show
- Chrome steel bezel
- Cozy silicone strap, 22mm QuickFit suitable
The Garmin Venu 3 is undeniably a pretty smartwatch that can be utilized as a health tracker and as a trendy day-to-day wearable. The silicone strap is cozy, waterproof, and minimal in its design. That stainless-steel bezel additionally provides it a premium end, which different curved-screen wearables like Apple Watches and the Google Pixel Watch 2 are lacking.
However it’s solely when that display screen lights up you actually see the standard. This watch boasts a stunning 1.4-inch AMOLED show with a excessive 454 x 454 pixel decision. This super-bright and colourful display screen makes all of your metrics present up clearly and attractively, regardless of the lighting situations.
The Venu 3 works nicely with a touchscreen that not solely makes menu scrolling straightforward however options beautiful graphical transitions that create an intuitive technique to discover the menus. It is all encased in Corning Gorilla Glass 3 to ensure it stays scratch-free – which was the case all through our frankly harsh testing. 50-meter waterproofing does set your thoughts relaxed: you need to use it anyplace, together with underwater, and it is dustproof in addition.
You even have three buttons to assist menu interactions that are utilized nicely. For instance, if you wish to discard a exercise you hit the pink cross on the display screen however then have to verify utilizing one of many buttons.
The Venu 3 is available in two sizes: 41mm (often known as the Venu 3S) and the bigger 45mm, simply often known as the Venu 3. Colorways for the Venu 3 embody white, black, or black with a leather-based strap. Go for the Venu 3S and there are much more selections together with mushy gold, rose pink, sage grey, and others.
Garmin Venu 3: Options
- Pre-loaded guided meditation content material
- Wheelchair person particular monitoring
- Smarter sleep monitoring
The Garmin Venu 3 is packed filled with well being, life-style, and health monitoring options whereas providing some genuinely helpful smartwatch apps from the Join IQ retailer. One standout function was the actual fact this AMOLED display screen is taken benefit of when linked to the Ring doorbell app, exhibiting a screenshot of who’s there whenever you get an alert in your wrist.
The return of Venu 2’s speaker and microphone means you may get audio alerts and even take calls natively on the watch. It is not fairly nicely refined sufficient to allow you to speak again utilizing the Ring app, for instance, nevertheless it’s no shock the primarily third-party apps aren’t going to be nearly as good as on different platforms – Garmin has by no means pushed too onerous in that space, largely as a result of it focuses on health coaching, and it is completed that nicely right here.
You may count on a plethora of monitoring and coaching choices together with all-day coronary heart fee monitoring, deep sleep monitoring with steerage, stress scores, HRV measurements, respiration monitoring, and lots extra. All that equates to a transparent general image of your well being. As we have come to count on from a superb Garmin watch, you may as well monitor practically any train you may consider too, together with swimming and golf. Garmin has a devoted Garmin Golf app obtainable in your telephone, which you’ll sync to the Venu 3. Garmin persistently makes a few of its greatest golf watches round, and it is good to see a few of these options obtainable right here, similar to downloadable programs and shot evaluation.
The meditation content material is price mentioning as that is particularly tailor-made to this watch, providing audio and visible steerage with out the necessity to join headphones. Meaning guided meditations that monitor your respiration fee and coronary heart fee so you may see the consequences immediately.
The wheelchair user-specific monitoring is a unbelievable choice that permits you to setup in that mode, proper from the outset. It will then be capable of monitor pushes in addition to supply a choice of wheelchair-specific sports activities monitoring.
You even have a choice of helpful options day-to-day like contactless funds, Bluetooth headphone connectivity, offline Spotify playlists, and a useful flashlight mode that you just genuinely do use when pottering about in the dead of night.
Garmin Venu 3: Efficiency
- Correct coronary heart fee information
- Excellent sleep help
- Nonetheless Garmin setup points
The Garmin Venu 3, like most Garmins lately, carried out very nicely in observe. Meaning it had close to faultless GPS acquisition, was quick, and provided correct measurements. It additionally meant coronary heart fee information was correct compared with a chest strap check.
How all that information is used is what makes the Venu 3 particular. Sleep monitoring, for instance, is way extra superior right here than in most of the extra sports-specific Garmin watches. This watch not solely presents you a Morning Report of how you have slept and recovered, but in addition an Night Report, serving to you think about methods to make that evening’s sleep the very best it may be. All that equates to checking in additional together with your habits and adjusting accordingly – a part of what makes this watch supportive of change. This even has nap detection for the primary time, permitting you to pop this on to get an influence nap the place your really useful sleep length that evening is taken into consideration.
It was a shock to seek out the speaker and mic weren’t only a fad however proved genuinely helpful. There was sufficient readability to comply with guided meditations, take telephone calls, and even recognize music. The microphone labored nicely too; should you assume this function could be interesting, maybe as a busy mother or father within the kitchen who nonetheless must be linked whereas listening to what is going on on within the room, this can be a prime resolution.
So why trouble going for a sports-specific watch over this? Properly, you will discover the Venu 3 can monitor a variety of sports activities – over 30 – nevertheless it won’t achieve this in fairly as a lot depth as some sports-specific wearables. Operating, for instance, tracks velocity, tempo, HR and even has maps, however you will not get extra complicated metrics from operating dynamics like floor contact time or race predictors, which can be found for the very best operating watches.
This could be a five-star part, however telephone connection and setup was a nightmare. Having reviewed Garmins for over a decade, utilizing numerous Android telephones, this has at all times been a difficulty. A latest Forerunner 965 evaluation was so faultless within the setup that it appeared Garmin had mounted it, then this Venu 3 connection was plagued with points involving restarting the telephone, the watch, the app, manufacturing unit resets, and extra. It won’t be a difficulty in your telephone nevertheless it’s an unfixed Garmin pattern, and can’t go unmarked.
Garmin Venu 3: Scorecard
| Class | Remark | Rating |
| Worth | Larger priced however affordable | 4/5 |
| Design and display screen | Beautiful AMOLED | 5/5 |
| Options | Broad vary of choices | 5/5 |
| Efficiency | Excellent, aside from setup | 4/5 |
| Complete | A life tracker with tremendous display screen, speaker and smarts. | 4/5 |
Garmin Venu 3: Ought to I purchase?
Purchase it if…
Do not buy it if…
Garmin Venu 3: How we examined
We wore the Garmin Venu 3 on one wrist, linked to an Android machine, for months. This got here on runs, bike rides, swims, walks, yoga courses, weights classes, paddle boarding and extra.
The contactless cost options and wi-fi offline Spotify had been each used as was sleep monitoring, coronary heart fee monitoring in chilly water baths, notifications from the telephone and extra.
In brief this was lived with 24/7 to really check how you’d use the watch, and all its options.
Garmin Venu 3: Additionally think about
| Element | Garmin Venu 3 | Garmin Foreruner 265 | Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 |
| Worth | $450 / £450 / AU$749 | $449 / £429 / AU$770 | £269 / $279.99 / AU$499 |
| Dimensions | 45 x 45 x 12 (mm) | 46.1 x 46.1 x 12.9 (mm) | 44.4 x 43.3 x 9.8 (mm) |
| Weight | 46 g | 47 g | 33.5g |
| Case/bezel | Fibre-reinforced polymer case, stainless-steel bezel | Fibre-reinforced polymer | Armor aluminum body |
| Show | 454 x 454 1.4-inch AMOLED contact | 416 x 416 px AMOLED, Corning Gorilla Glass | 450 x 450 px tremendous AMOLED, Sapphire crystal |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO | GPS, Beidou, Glonass, Galileo, SatIQ | GPS, Glonass, Galileo |
| Battery life | Watch mode 14 days, GPS solely 26 hours, GPS + Music 11 hours | 13 days (20 hours GPS) | 24 hours |
| Connection | Bluetooth, ANT+, WiFi | Bluetooth 5.2, ANT+, Wi-Fi | Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi |
| Water-resistant? | Sure, 5ATM | Sure, 5ATM | Sure, IP68 |
First reviewed: October 2023
