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 consumer. However over the previous six months, her Fitbit Sense’s battery life has been removed from supreme, 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 want for a smaller watch that matched the dimensions of the Sense, I let her test it out.
The mannequin that we examined was priced at $449 and got here in a trendy stainless-steel end with a sage grey case. And after spending weeks each 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 top 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 magnificence of the Venu 3S instantly grabbed her consideration. The silicone band can also be very easy and feels very like the high-end Apple Sport band towards the wrist.
It’s possible you’ll recall that Garmin’s Venu collection is the perfect 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 linked smartphone. It additionally was the primary Garmin collection 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 obtainable sizes
- Garmin Elevate V5 optical heart-rate sensor
- Multi-GNSS help
- Longer battery life
- Wheelchair exercise help
- Morning Report, sleep coach, jetlag advisor, and extra utilities
- Enhanced health options, akin to HRV monitoring, restoration time, perceived exertion, and new sports activities profiles
- Up to date consumer interface
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The worth stays the identical as earlier than, which is nice contemplating the present financial atmosphere and the entire enhancements within the watch. It’s a strong competitor to a smartwatch for these searching for a watch targeted on superior well being and wellness options quite than a protracted record of third-party purposes.
Since I’m a each day Garmin consumer of watches with 5 {hardware} buttons, it took me a few days to get used to the three-button design and up to date consumer interface. The fitting three buttons and display screen swipes carry out the next features:
- 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
- Heart proper button: Single press for current apps, press-hold for voice assistant
- Backside proper button: Single press goes again, press-hold for entry to observe face, clocks, settings
We examined cellphone calls to and from the watch, and so they sounded superb on each the watch and the cellphone the decision was made to. You may both use a touchscreen dial display screen or name contacts saved in your contact record. Arms-free calling from a watch is a wonderful function if you end up collaborating in an exercise and wish each arms. That is undoubtedly one function I’d 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 gadgets. The watch works as a speaker/mic for Siri, with the ensuing particulars proven on the iPhone show and offered audibly on the watch. One other good options of the Venu 3S is that music may be performed immediately through the speaker on the watch, one thing that isn’t potential on an Apple Watch. Samsung helps this function too and generally I like only a little bit of background music, so having this selection is nice.
My daughter goes for a lot of walks and hikes in Colorado and enjoys a day nap now and again, so she cherished the brand new help for nap monitoring. The Venu 3S will mechanically monitor 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. It’s best to see a optimistic quantity subsequent to your nap.
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The unique challenge 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 each day routine it has carefully matched that efficiency. So long as it goes for per week together with her strolling, climbing, sleeping, and dwelling then she is glad. The Garmin Venu 3S is a winner and given Google’s concentrate on having the Pixel Watch take over for Fitbit watches, we may even see extra individuals undertake Garmin watches to fill the Fitbit hole.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
If you’re searching for a well being and wellness watch that lasts longer than one or two days, then the Garmin Venu 3S is an impressive choice. With help for taking and making calls out of your wrist, voice assistant out of your wrist, and smartphone notifications, it might fill all of the roles you usually use on a smartwatch. Add within the huge Garmin help for gathering and serving to you utilize the info captured day-after-day and night time, then you have got a watch that’s powerful to beat.
