Garmin Venu 3 Digital Slate Stainless Steel Unisex (Brand New)
Know the real you with the Venu 3 series smartwatch, the ultimate on-wrist coach designed to support your goals whatever they may be. Improve the quality of your sleep with personalized sleep coaching and nap detection plus even more details such as HRV status. During the day, switch up your activities with animated workouts and more than 30 built-in sports apps including for active wheelchair users plus advanced training features to keep you going strong. With its built-in speaker and microphone, the Venu 3 smartwatch makes it easy to make and take calls right from your wrist when paired to your smartphone and even reply to texts by using your phone’s voice assistant. Plus, enjoy connectivity features such as music storage, Garmin Pay contactless payments and more. Featuring a bright, colorful display and up to 14 days of battery life, this GPS smartwatch is purpose built with advanced health and fitness features to help you better understand your body and sleep, easier Body Battery energy monitoring helps you keep your energy levels in check with personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress, workouts and more.
Know the real you with the Venu 3 series smartwatch, the ultimate on-wrist coach designed to support your goals whatever they may be. Improve the quality of your sleep with personalized sleep coaching and nap detection plus even more details such as HRV status. During the day, switch up your activities with animated workouts and more than 30 built-in sports apps including for active wheelchair users plus advanced training features to keep you going strong. With its built-in speaker and microphone, the Venu 3 smartwatch makes it easy to make and take calls right from your wrist when paired to your smartphone and even reply to texts by using your phone’s voice assistant. Plus, enjoy connectivity features such as music storage, Garmin Pay contactless payments and more. Featuring a bright, colorful display and up to 14 days of battery life, this GPS smartwatch is purpose built with advanced health and fitness features to help you better understand your body and sleep, easier Body Battery energy monitoring helps you keep your energy levels in check with personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress, workouts and more.
Know the real you with the Venu 3 series smartwatch, the ultimate on-wrist coach designed to support your goals whatever they may be. Improve the quality of your sleep with personalized sleep coaching and nap detection plus even more details such as HRV status. During the day, switch up your activities with animated workouts and more than 30 built-in sports apps including for active wheelchair users plus advanced training features to keep you going strong. With its built-in speaker and microphone, the Venu 3 smartwatch makes it easy to make and take calls right from your wrist when paired to your smartphone and even reply to texts by using your phone’s voice assistant. Plus, enjoy connectivity features such as music storage, Garmin Pay contactless payments and more. Featuring a bright, colorful display and up to 14 days of battery life, this GPS smartwatch is purpose built with advanced health and fitness features to help you better understand your body and sleep, easier Body Battery energy monitoring helps you keep your energy levels in check with personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress, workouts and more.
Know the real you with the Venu 3 series smartwatch, the ultimate on-wrist coach designed to support your goals whatever they may be. Improve the quality of your sleep with personalized sleep coaching and nap detection plus even more details such as HRV status. During the day, switch up your activities with animated workouts and more than 30 built-in sports apps including for active wheelchair users plus advanced training features to keep you going strong. With its built-in speaker and microphone, the Venu 3 smartwatch makes it easy to make and take calls right from your wrist when paired to your smartphone and even reply to texts by using your phone’s voice assistant. Plus, enjoy connectivity features such as music storage, Garmin Pay contactless payments and more. Featuring a bright, colorful display and up to 14 days of battery life, this GPS smartwatch is purpose built with advanced health and fitness features to help you better understand your body and sleep, easier Body Battery energy monitoring helps you keep your energy levels in check with personalized insights based on sleep, naps, stress, workouts and more.
in 3 offers
The lowest price for Garmin Venu 3 Digital Slate Stainless Steel Unisex (Brand New) right now is $680.60 at eBay.com.au, compared across 3 retailers.
The all-time low was $330.00 on 27 Feb 2026 — today's price is 106% above the lowest ever. It has been notably cheaper before — worth setting a price alert.
Prices last updated 22 July 2026.
Last updated at 22/07/2026 18:25:57
Garmin Venu 3 Smartwatch Leather + Strap Silicone Black Amoled 45mm
Delivery $16.50
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Garmin Venu 3 45mm Smartwatch Black (International Ver)
Free delivery
Garmin Venu 3 45mm Smartwatch Black (International Ver)
Free delivery
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I’ve been using a smart watch more or less daily for several years now and have tried several different brands over that time. This was my first experience with Garmin’s take on the concept, and I have to say it surprised me in several ways. Rather than leaning into the more traditional smart features, Garmin instead chose to put the health and fitness features at the forefront. And while it is a little weird to get used to coming from a more traditional smart watch, I think there’s a lot that someone looking for a step up from more basic fitness trackers might find to love.The first thing that drew my attention upon taking it out of the box was the screen – which is just as big across as the largest of the current generation of flagship watches. However ... MoreI’ve been using a smart watch more or less daily for several years now and have tried several different brands over that time. This was my first experience with Garmin’s take on the concept, and I have to say it surprised me in several ways. Rather than leaning into the more traditional smart features, Garmin instead chose to put the health and fitness features at the forefront. And while it is a little weird to get used to coming from a more traditional smart watch, I think there’s a lot that someone looking for a step up from more basic fitness trackers might find to love.The first thing that drew my attention upon taking it out of the box was the screen – which is just as big across as the largest of the current generation of flagship watches. However interestingly enough it’s paired with a somewhat slimmer body, making it look significantly smaller on the wrist. The band is made of high quality silicone and is extremely adjustable, though not exceptionally breathable. But since it uses standard quick-release lugs to attach it to the body it would be fairly easy to replace if the amount of sweat that builds up underneath it becomes a problem. Controls are all handled via the touch screen (which is vibrant, colorful, and very responsive) and three buttons along one side. There’s also a surprisingly good sounding speaker and mic combo to take calls, use a virtual assistant, or even listen to music if you find yourself lacking a pair of earbuds to pair with it.As far as usability goes, it’s a big departure from what I’m used to with WearOS devices. To start with, almost all the commands are mapped to a variety of button combos that I found a bit hard to memorize and the watch doesn’t do much to teach you about them when starting up. The user experience is also very focused on the fitness tracking features. Notifications are present but not immediately available without going through two menus, customization and settings adjustments more or less have to be taken care of on the app in the paired phone, and the integration with Android at least is a bit less seamless than I was used to. I discovered early on that certain apps which provide real time updates to their notifications end up spamming the watch, requiring you to block them to keep the thing from becoming unbearable. And watch face selection is certainly much more limited – though to be fair still quite acceptable in my opinion. I wouldn’t call any of it a deal breaker by any means, but it’s definitely a device with a learning curve.Moving onto what the device does best, however, there’s a lot of good things to highlight. The fitness tracking features are top notch, with sensors like a barometer to help alert you to sudden shifts in the weather while you’re out on a hike. The fitness apps I tried generally make very good use of them too – and the GPS performance is exemplary (as one might expect, given Garmin’s history as a company.) I am somewhat concerned that there doesn’t seem to be an official rating for waterproofing, but according to the company it should be able to stand up to most things you might encounter on trails and I can confirm that getting splashed or partly submerged for brief periods doesn’t seem to be a problem. One particularly interesting feature I experimented with is the “body battery” meter, which takes into account activity levels and sleep quality to give you a heads up as to how much energy you might be able to expend before becoming fatigued. While I can’t say it’s perfect it did at least roughly line up with when I found myself needing to stop for a break – and again seems like a great thing to have when you’re out hiking and may be trying to decide when to turn back or stop for the night to make camp. It also gets high marks for battery life – which can easily last several days with a bit of power management.In conclusion, the Venu 3 is probably not a watch for everyone. But for a very particular type of user – someone who is very active, enjoys the outdoors, and isn’t necessarily looking for an extension of their phone – it’s probably going to be sitting at the top of a very short list of smart watch options.
originally posted on bestbuy.com
Context: I'm a long-time Garmin user & a more recent Apple Watch user. As of now, my Apple watch is in a confused purgatory wondering about its future.After my initial Garmin 305 (big, chunky, laptop-looking watch only good for tracking runs), when I decided to enter the smartwatch world, I went with the Garmin 230 & eventually a 235 when the 230 was tragically lost. I ran & rode my bike for thousands of miles, using those watches to both track all that activity without issue as well as just telling time & getting notification from my phone, etc.. I was pretty darn happy!Eventually, I got an Apple watch- less because I wanted to replace my Garmin & more because I wanted an iPod shuffle... which they don't make any more! After a couple failed shuffle-like ... MoreContext: I'm a long-time Garmin user & a more recent Apple Watch user. As of now, my Apple watch is in a confused purgatory wondering about its future.After my initial Garmin 305 (big, chunky, laptop-looking watch only good for tracking runs), when I decided to enter the smartwatch world, I went with the Garmin 230 & eventually a 235 when the 230 was tragically lost. I ran & rode my bike for thousands of miles, using those watches to both track all that activity without issue as well as just telling time & getting notification from my phone, etc.. I was pretty darn happy!Eventually, I got an Apple watch- less because I wanted to replace my Garmin & more because I wanted an iPod shuffle... which they don't make any more! After a couple failed shuffle-like products, I relented and just got a refurbed Apple watch so I could load music on it. After wearing it for a while, though, I actually liked the non-activity-tracking aspects of the watch- e.g. sleep tracking, better/kinder motion tracking, etc.. What sucked about it, though- BATTERY LIFE! Has to be charged at least once a day & I NEVER relied upon it for anything more than a 1-2 hour activity.Now, the Venu3... it's got the same Garmin battery life for days at a time that I was used to (even with daily 1-2 hour GPS tracking. AND it has all the "lifestyle" apps & features that I liked about the Apple watch. It's about the same size as my older 235, but the screen is using much more of the surface and is crazy brighter (see pic), the interface is still really nice with enhancements in the ability to customize via the app & the Garmin ConnectIQ store. Honestly, the only 2 things I'd say I'm not 100% pleased with- there's no Apple Music app in the ConnectIQ store (suppose that's not a surprise) and I'd rather it have an always-on display, but I was already used to that from my Apple Watch, so I can overlook that.If you're looking a fitness & lifestyle all-around smartwatch, it would be hard to go wrong with a Venu3!!
originally posted on bestbuy.com
My first Garmin was the clunky Forerunner 305, which I still have and it still works! Since then, I’ve had other brands of GPS sports watches, as well as the Apple Watch. The new Garmin Venu 3 caught my eye, so I decided to upgrade my sports/smart watch. As a runner, I appreciate having physical buttons because they work better when wet, and the Venu offers the best of both worlds with physical buttons as well as a vibrant touch screen.Inside the box, you get the watch, a proprietary charging cable, and some instructions. The watch is very lightweight, and the soft rubber band is comfortable and secure. Setup is pretty easy, and the accompanying Garmin Connect app guides you through the setup process. If you want to add additional apps to the watch, you must also ... MoreMy first Garmin was the clunky Forerunner 305, which I still have and it still works! Since then, I’ve had other brands of GPS sports watches, as well as the Apple Watch. The new Garmin Venu 3 caught my eye, so I decided to upgrade my sports/smart watch. As a runner, I appreciate having physical buttons because they work better when wet, and the Venu offers the best of both worlds with physical buttons as well as a vibrant touch screen.Inside the box, you get the watch, a proprietary charging cable, and some instructions. The watch is very lightweight, and the soft rubber band is comfortable and secure. Setup is pretty easy, and the accompanying Garmin Connect app guides you through the setup process. If you want to add additional apps to the watch, you must also get the Garmin Connect IQ app, which Garmin’s app store for their watches. Downloading apps (such as additional watch faces) is very easy, but that’s where the setup process seemed to grind to a halt. After trying to figure out why the apps were not installing to the watch, I figured out that I had joined the Venu to my guest wifi network, but my phone was on the main network. Setup didn’t warn me about this, and while I should’ve noticed this, it would have been nice if the setup process could have at least shown a message to remind me. Once I noticed that, it went a lot more smoothly, and I was able to finish the process.The Venu 3 has a beautiful AMOLED touchscreen and 3 physical buttons. I have the 45mm size, and I love the big screen which is very easy to see. The buttons are sufficient for tracking activities, but for non-sports activities, you’ll use the touch screen. The button functions are well laid-out, but it does take some exploration to figure out how everything works. Even though I’ve had the watch for a week and have been using it every day, I still haven’t discovered where everything is located within the menu structure. I do wish the buttons provided a little more tactile feedback than they do. Of the 3 buttons, the top and bottom buttons are pretty good, but the middle button has a smaller profile than the other two, and as a result it seems a little harder to reliably press it. Perhaps this is by design, but I’m not sure. Holding that button down invokes the voice assistant, so maybe this behavior is designed to prevent accidental presses. Hopefully this isn’t a harbinger of the future reliability of the buttons.Using the watch for sports activities really couldn’t be easier. A press of the top button brings up the activity menu. Select your chosen sport, press the button again, then one more time to start tracking. GPS activation on this watch is quicker than on any other watch I’ve owned, which is fantastic. I’m able to pick up a signal in about 5 seconds, which means my running group no longer has to wait for me to get a signal before we can start the run. Choosing which stats to show on the face is easy, and I love that I’m able to do that from the watch itself, instead of having to go to the app for things like that. By default, the Venu 3 announces your lap time after each mile, but this is adjustable. I mostly only use the watch for running, walking, biking and indoor biking, but I’m glad to know it can handle other activities as well.The Venu does a great job of making information easily available. Swiping up from the bottom brings up the “glances” screen, with a big list of things like steps, heart rate, intensity minutes, sleep coaching, etc. Pressing on any of these brings up a full screen with more details, or you can go to the app on the phone for even more. This is a great feature and makes it easy to find what you want. Garmin offers a lot of widgets that you can download, so that’s an area for me to explore later.Garmin advertises battery life of 14 days when the screen is only on when you raise your wrist, or 5 days if you put it into “always on” mode. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, since I didn’t experience this myself, but I wonder if I used up more battery because of initial setup and downloading of music (more on that later). After getting everything set up and using the watch every day for a 40-minute run, I got about 6-7 days of battery life. Even that is better than anything I’ve used before, and allows me, for the first time, to be able to wear the watch at night for sleep tracking. Garmin includes a morning report to get your stats from the night before, and a sleep coach tracks your sleep, including naps. This is a pretty nice feature, and provides insight into your overall sleep patterns and their impact on your health. It’ll also suggest how much sleep you need, adding more after an especially strenuous day or reducing it after a restful day. Garmin also has something it calls a “body battery”, where it calculates an overall rating that is the net of things that recharge your body (like sleep) and those that deplete your body (like vigorous exercise). You can find out each data point that went into this calculation to get an idea of your overall energy status.Garmin watches always excel at sports tracking, and the Venu 3 is no exception. But, can it take the place of your smart watch? The Venu has a legit speaker and microphone, allowing to place and receive calls using just your watch (assuming your phone is nearby). While you won’t want to take a long call this way, it’s just fine for a quick call when your phone is too far away to reach it, and callers said I sounded just fine.The Venu also supports onboard music, meaning you can leave your phone behind and still have some tunes with you. Old school MP3s may be loaded, or you can use a supported music service such as Amazon Prime Music or Spotify. For Spotify, a subscription is required before you can load music, so I didn’t try that one. Instead, I tried out Prime Music. As a Basic subscriber, I was only offered a preselected set of all-access playlists, which is very easy, but what if I’m not in the mood for their options? Downloading the music was easy enough, but does take some time. Also, I could see the battery strength declining as the songs were copied over, so I guess that’s a power-hungry operation. It’s a really nice option to have, but it’s probably easier just to take your phone with you. You can also control playback of the music on your phone, but you have to bring up the playback interface manually after the music starts playing on the phone.The Venu 3 supports the ability to read text messages as they come in, but there’s no way to reply to them in iOS, due to some Apple restriction. I was used to doing that on my Apple Watch, so it’s a bummer to not be able to do that. The Venu also supports the ability to get notifications from all the apps, and you can select which ones to turn off. One of my most-used features on previous watches is the ability to instantly check the temperature outside, and I can do that on the Venu as well, and also get a full-blown forecast for the week ahead.I think I’m going to be learning things about this watch for some time to come, but I really like it, and it’s a very capable watch, whether you’re exercising or not. The only thing I miss from my Apple Watch is the ability respond to text messages on the watch, but it’s offset by the great battery life and physical buttons for use during sports. The overall health reporting is top notch, with plenty of details for the statistics lovers. I’ve been using it as my main watch since I got it, and I really don’t miss my regular smart watch—I don’t think you will either.
Garmin Venu 3 Smartwatch Leather + Strap Silicone Black Amoled 45mm
Delivery $16.50
Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a small commission for purchases made through this link at no extra cost to you. This helps support our site. Thank you!
Garmin Venu 3 45mm Smartwatch Black (International Ver)
Free delivery
Garmin Venu 3 45mm Smartwatch Black (International Ver)
Free delivery
I’ve been using a smart watch more or less daily for several years now and have tried several different brands over that time. This was my first experience with Garmin’s take on the concept, and I have to say it surprised me in several ways. Rather than leaning into the more traditional smart features, Garmin instead chose to put the health and fitness features at the forefront. And while it is a little weird to get used to coming from a more traditional smart watch, I think there’s a lot that someone looking for a step up from more basic fitness trackers might find to love.The first thing that drew my attention upon taking it out of the box was the screen – which is just as big across as the largest of the current generation of flagship watches. However ... MoreI’ve been using a smart watch more or less daily for several years now and have tried several different brands over that time. This was my first experience with Garmin’s take on the concept, and I have to say it surprised me in several ways. Rather than leaning into the more traditional smart features, Garmin instead chose to put the health and fitness features at the forefront. And while it is a little weird to get used to coming from a more traditional smart watch, I think there’s a lot that someone looking for a step up from more basic fitness trackers might find to love.The first thing that drew my attention upon taking it out of the box was the screen – which is just as big across as the largest of the current generation of flagship watches. However interestingly enough it’s paired with a somewhat slimmer body, making it look significantly smaller on the wrist. The band is made of high quality silicone and is extremely adjustable, though not exceptionally breathable. But since it uses standard quick-release lugs to attach it to the body it would be fairly easy to replace if the amount of sweat that builds up underneath it becomes a problem. Controls are all handled via the touch screen (which is vibrant, colorful, and very responsive) and three buttons along one side. There’s also a surprisingly good sounding speaker and mic combo to take calls, use a virtual assistant, or even listen to music if you find yourself lacking a pair of earbuds to pair with it.As far as usability goes, it’s a big departure from what I’m used to with WearOS devices. To start with, almost all the commands are mapped to a variety of button combos that I found a bit hard to memorize and the watch doesn’t do much to teach you about them when starting up. The user experience is also very focused on the fitness tracking features. Notifications are present but not immediately available without going through two menus, customization and settings adjustments more or less have to be taken care of on the app in the paired phone, and the integration with Android at least is a bit less seamless than I was used to. I discovered early on that certain apps which provide real time updates to their notifications end up spamming the watch, requiring you to block them to keep the thing from becoming unbearable. And watch face selection is certainly much more limited – though to be fair still quite acceptable in my opinion. I wouldn’t call any of it a deal breaker by any means, but it’s definitely a device with a learning curve.Moving onto what the device does best, however, there’s a lot of good things to highlight. The fitness tracking features are top notch, with sensors like a barometer to help alert you to sudden shifts in the weather while you’re out on a hike. The fitness apps I tried generally make very good use of them too – and the GPS performance is exemplary (as one might expect, given Garmin’s history as a company.) I am somewhat concerned that there doesn’t seem to be an official rating for waterproofing, but according to the company it should be able to stand up to most things you might encounter on trails and I can confirm that getting splashed or partly submerged for brief periods doesn’t seem to be a problem. One particularly interesting feature I experimented with is the “body battery” meter, which takes into account activity levels and sleep quality to give you a heads up as to how much energy you might be able to expend before becoming fatigued. While I can’t say it’s perfect it did at least roughly line up with when I found myself needing to stop for a break – and again seems like a great thing to have when you’re out hiking and may be trying to decide when to turn back or stop for the night to make camp. It also gets high marks for battery life – which can easily last several days with a bit of power management.In conclusion, the Venu 3 is probably not a watch for everyone. But for a very particular type of user – someone who is very active, enjoys the outdoors, and isn’t necessarily looking for an extension of their phone – it’s probably going to be sitting at the top of a very short list of smart watch options.
Context: I'm a long-time Garmin user & a more recent Apple Watch user. As of now, my Apple watch is in a confused purgatory wondering about its future.After my initial Garmin 305 (big, chunky, laptop-looking watch only good for tracking runs), when I decided to enter the smartwatch world, I went with the Garmin 230 & eventually a 235 when the 230 was tragically lost. I ran & rode my bike for thousands of miles, using those watches to both track all that activity without issue as well as just telling time & getting notification from my phone, etc.. I was pretty darn happy!Eventually, I got an Apple watch- less because I wanted to replace my Garmin & more because I wanted an iPod shuffle... which they don't make any more! After a couple failed shuffle-like ... MoreContext: I'm a long-time Garmin user & a more recent Apple Watch user. As of now, my Apple watch is in a confused purgatory wondering about its future.After my initial Garmin 305 (big, chunky, laptop-looking watch only good for tracking runs), when I decided to enter the smartwatch world, I went with the Garmin 230 & eventually a 235 when the 230 was tragically lost. I ran & rode my bike for thousands of miles, using those watches to both track all that activity without issue as well as just telling time & getting notification from my phone, etc.. I was pretty darn happy!Eventually, I got an Apple watch- less because I wanted to replace my Garmin & more because I wanted an iPod shuffle... which they don't make any more! After a couple failed shuffle-like products, I relented and just got a refurbed Apple watch so I could load music on it. After wearing it for a while, though, I actually liked the non-activity-tracking aspects of the watch- e.g. sleep tracking, better/kinder motion tracking, etc.. What sucked about it, though- BATTERY LIFE! Has to be charged at least once a day & I NEVER relied upon it for anything more than a 1-2 hour activity.Now, the Venu3... it's got the same Garmin battery life for days at a time that I was used to (even with daily 1-2 hour GPS tracking. AND it has all the "lifestyle" apps & features that I liked about the Apple watch. It's about the same size as my older 235, but the screen is using much more of the surface and is crazy brighter (see pic), the interface is still really nice with enhancements in the ability to customize via the app & the Garmin ConnectIQ store. Honestly, the only 2 things I'd say I'm not 100% pleased with- there's no Apple Music app in the ConnectIQ store (suppose that's not a surprise) and I'd rather it have an always-on display, but I was already used to that from my Apple Watch, so I can overlook that.If you're looking a fitness & lifestyle all-around smartwatch, it would be hard to go wrong with a Venu3!!
My first Garmin was the clunky Forerunner 305, which I still have and it still works! Since then, I’ve had other brands of GPS sports watches, as well as the Apple Watch. The new Garmin Venu 3 caught my eye, so I decided to upgrade my sports/smart watch. As a runner, I appreciate having physical buttons because they work better when wet, and the Venu offers the best of both worlds with physical buttons as well as a vibrant touch screen.Inside the box, you get the watch, a proprietary charging cable, and some instructions. The watch is very lightweight, and the soft rubber band is comfortable and secure. Setup is pretty easy, and the accompanying Garmin Connect app guides you through the setup process. If you want to add additional apps to the watch, you must also ... MoreMy first Garmin was the clunky Forerunner 305, which I still have and it still works! Since then, I’ve had other brands of GPS sports watches, as well as the Apple Watch. The new Garmin Venu 3 caught my eye, so I decided to upgrade my sports/smart watch. As a runner, I appreciate having physical buttons because they work better when wet, and the Venu offers the best of both worlds with physical buttons as well as a vibrant touch screen.Inside the box, you get the watch, a proprietary charging cable, and some instructions. The watch is very lightweight, and the soft rubber band is comfortable and secure. Setup is pretty easy, and the accompanying Garmin Connect app guides you through the setup process. If you want to add additional apps to the watch, you must also get the Garmin Connect IQ app, which Garmin’s app store for their watches. Downloading apps (such as additional watch faces) is very easy, but that’s where the setup process seemed to grind to a halt. After trying to figure out why the apps were not installing to the watch, I figured out that I had joined the Venu to my guest wifi network, but my phone was on the main network. Setup didn’t warn me about this, and while I should’ve noticed this, it would have been nice if the setup process could have at least shown a message to remind me. Once I noticed that, it went a lot more smoothly, and I was able to finish the process.The Venu 3 has a beautiful AMOLED touchscreen and 3 physical buttons. I have the 45mm size, and I love the big screen which is very easy to see. The buttons are sufficient for tracking activities, but for non-sports activities, you’ll use the touch screen. The button functions are well laid-out, but it does take some exploration to figure out how everything works. Even though I’ve had the watch for a week and have been using it every day, I still haven’t discovered where everything is located within the menu structure. I do wish the buttons provided a little more tactile feedback than they do. Of the 3 buttons, the top and bottom buttons are pretty good, but the middle button has a smaller profile than the other two, and as a result it seems a little harder to reliably press it. Perhaps this is by design, but I’m not sure. Holding that button down invokes the voice assistant, so maybe this behavior is designed to prevent accidental presses. Hopefully this isn’t a harbinger of the future reliability of the buttons.Using the watch for sports activities really couldn’t be easier. A press of the top button brings up the activity menu. Select your chosen sport, press the button again, then one more time to start tracking. GPS activation on this watch is quicker than on any other watch I’ve owned, which is fantastic. I’m able to pick up a signal in about 5 seconds, which means my running group no longer has to wait for me to get a signal before we can start the run. Choosing which stats to show on the face is easy, and I love that I’m able to do that from the watch itself, instead of having to go to the app for things like that. By default, the Venu 3 announces your lap time after each mile, but this is adjustable. I mostly only use the watch for running, walking, biking and indoor biking, but I’m glad to know it can handle other activities as well.The Venu does a great job of making information easily available. Swiping up from the bottom brings up the “glances” screen, with a big list of things like steps, heart rate, intensity minutes, sleep coaching, etc. Pressing on any of these brings up a full screen with more details, or you can go to the app on the phone for even more. This is a great feature and makes it easy to find what you want. Garmin offers a lot of widgets that you can download, so that’s an area for me to explore later.Garmin advertises battery life of 14 days when the screen is only on when you raise your wrist, or 5 days if you put it into “always on” mode. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, since I didn’t experience this myself, but I wonder if I used up more battery because of initial setup and downloading of music (more on that later). After getting everything set up and using the watch every day for a 40-minute run, I got about 6-7 days of battery life. Even that is better than anything I’ve used before, and allows me, for the first time, to be able to wear the watch at night for sleep tracking. Garmin includes a morning report to get your stats from the night before, and a sleep coach tracks your sleep, including naps. This is a pretty nice feature, and provides insight into your overall sleep patterns and their impact on your health. It’ll also suggest how much sleep you need, adding more after an especially strenuous day or reducing it after a restful day. Garmin also has something it calls a “body battery”, where it calculates an overall rating that is the net of things that recharge your body (like sleep) and those that deplete your body (like vigorous exercise). You can find out each data point that went into this calculation to get an idea of your overall energy status.Garmin watches always excel at sports tracking, and the Venu 3 is no exception. But, can it take the place of your smart watch? The Venu has a legit speaker and microphone, allowing to place and receive calls using just your watch (assuming your phone is nearby). While you won’t want to take a long call this way, it’s just fine for a quick call when your phone is too far away to reach it, and callers said I sounded just fine.The Venu also supports onboard music, meaning you can leave your phone behind and still have some tunes with you. Old school MP3s may be loaded, or you can use a supported music service such as Amazon Prime Music or Spotify. For Spotify, a subscription is required before you can load music, so I didn’t try that one. Instead, I tried out Prime Music. As a Basic subscriber, I was only offered a preselected set of all-access playlists, which is very easy, but what if I’m not in the mood for their options? Downloading the music was easy enough, but does take some time. Also, I could see the battery strength declining as the songs were copied over, so I guess that’s a power-hungry operation. It’s a really nice option to have, but it’s probably easier just to take your phone with you. You can also control playback of the music on your phone, but you have to bring up the playback interface manually after the music starts playing on the phone.The Venu 3 supports the ability to read text messages as they come in, but there’s no way to reply to them in iOS, due to some Apple restriction. I was used to doing that on my Apple Watch, so it’s a bummer to not be able to do that. The Venu also supports the ability to get notifications from all the apps, and you can select which ones to turn off. One of my most-used features on previous watches is the ability to instantly check the temperature outside, and I can do that on the Venu as well, and also get a full-blown forecast for the week ahead.I think I’m going to be learning things about this watch for some time to come, but I really like it, and it’s a very capable watch, whether you’re exercising or not. The only thing I miss from my Apple Watch is the ability respond to text messages on the watch, but it’s offset by the great battery life and physical buttons for use during sports. The overall health reporting is top notch, with plenty of details for the statistics lovers. I’ve been using it as my main watch since I got it, and I really don’t miss my regular smart watch—I don’t think you will either.
I have used many of the competitors smartwatches and was able to try out my first Garmin brand with the Venu 3 model. I was impressed with the 45mm AMOLED touchscreen display as I put on the watch on started to set it up. I then realized that the watchband took away from the amazing display since it was a basic sport type of band that I started avoiding with other brands. I liked that the watch had a USB C cable for charging the watch which seemed more convenient than some of the other brands as far as being more universal. I set Garmin up to work with my latest android smartphone and iPhone as well to be able to experience the watch on with either phone I use and downloaded the two Garmin apps I needed the most. The Garmin Connect App was a must have application to ... MoreI have used many of the competitors smartwatches and was able to try out my first Garmin brand with the Venu 3 model. I was impressed with the 45mm AMOLED touchscreen display as I put on the watch on started to set it up. I then realized that the watchband took away from the amazing display since it was a basic sport type of band that I started avoiding with other brands. I liked that the watch had a USB C cable for charging the watch which seemed more convenient than some of the other brands as far as being more universal. I set Garmin up to work with my latest android smartphone and iPhone as well to be able to experience the watch on with either phone I use and downloaded the two Garmin apps I needed the most. The Garmin Connect App was a must have application to work with the Venu 3 to be able to customize the settings and to have access to a wealth of information that the watch is able to provide for the user. I also downloaded the Connect IQ Store app to be able to add different watch faces and other applications such as a couple music apps and other ones I used. I liked that there was enough variety that seemed comparable to the competition’s apps.After going through the learning process of using a whole different platform than I was accustomed to as a first-time user of the brand I was able to start to decide how I liked it compared to my prior experience. I found the texting and answering phone call options to be inferior to what I was used to and was hoping for a better experience. I do have to say that it at least has the option for people to use a more universal approach to having access to the features via Bluetooth connection with their smartphone.The better part of my experience was the wealth of health information that Garmin had to offer via the watch sensors and software for tracking your movements along with other health vitals. I was impressed that it seemed more in-depth than what I had experienced with the competition and liked it better overall. I honestly see the watch is being much better for athletes and people more physically active than I currently am just because of my current work and circumstances. I find it to have a big impact on people who are more accustomed to competitions and online physical training classes to help motivate them.Overall, my takeaway from the experience is that Garmin has found a way to be more competitive in the smartwatch market but has not convinced me to give up my preferred brand yet.
In the world of smart watches, there are two clear tracks you can go down - Apple, Samsung and Google try to build watches that can do anything and everything with a plethora of apps and a ton of multi-purpose features. On the other hand, there are a number of other watches that focus instead on being a good watch and a fitness companion.This Garmin Venu 3 falls squarely into that second category - and well that it should since Garmin is well known for producing fitness trackers of all sorts. To that end, this watch has all that you could want in a fitness focused watch. It's a watch, certainly, and does a great job tracking your biometrics. I especially like the new body battery feature that measures your energy taking into account sleep/activity/etc. The watch ... MoreIn the world of smart watches, there are two clear tracks you can go down - Apple, Samsung and Google try to build watches that can do anything and everything with a plethora of apps and a ton of multi-purpose features. On the other hand, there are a number of other watches that focus instead on being a good watch and a fitness companion.This Garmin Venu 3 falls squarely into that second category - and well that it should since Garmin is well known for producing fitness trackers of all sorts. To that end, this watch has all that you could want in a fitness focused watch. It's a watch, certainly, and does a great job tracking your biometrics. I especially like the new body battery feature that measures your energy taking into account sleep/activity/etc. The watch has TONS of profiles to track every type of exercise and even wheelchair pushes for those that are differently abled. It can even provide coaching and help you understand how the exercise you're doing impacts your body, Of course it can provide GPS tracking and guidance which is nice when you're out running a long distance (or cycling, etc.). Of course you get more features when you pair it with your smartphone and the Garmin Connect app (and Connect IQ to get additional watch faces and the like), but you can actually store music directly on the watch and connect to a headset so you can go without your smartphone if you so choose. The watch is compatible with any 22mm band with quick connect pins (huge variety available in many places).While apps aren't the focus here, there are a number of apps you can add - Garmin Pay is helpful for paying with your watch at a tap to pay location and you can add different music apps like Spotify and Apple Music. Of course you get things like the weather, calendar and so on - and you can access your phone's voice assistant through your watch with the built-in speaker and microphone (which you can also use to make calls if you wish).So the choice of what watch you want boils down to what you're going to use it for. If you want a great watch with a ton of fitness focused features to track and encourage your activity, the Garmin Venu 3 is a great choice. I can highly recommend it - regardless of what brand of smart phone you might be using.
The case of this is a bit large (45mm diameter), but it is delightfully thin, at only around 11mm (not including the heart rate sensor bump on the bottom). If this is too big, Garmin offers a Venu 3S that is smaller. The biggest thing for me is that it is incredibly light, weighing under 48g. This is the first device that I have owned that is actually comfortable enough to wear while sleeping (there is a sleep tracking system that also monitors your heart rate variability – nice). But if you don’t find the straps to be comfortable, then they can be removed using the quick release spring bars, and replaced with any two-piece 22mm watch strap that you want to use. The battery life is also impressive, with a realistic life of around 10-12 days, given moderate ... MoreThe case of this is a bit large (45mm diameter), but it is delightfully thin, at only around 11mm (not including the heart rate sensor bump on the bottom). If this is too big, Garmin offers a Venu 3S that is smaller. The biggest thing for me is that it is incredibly light, weighing under 48g. This is the first device that I have owned that is actually comfortable enough to wear while sleeping (there is a sleep tracking system that also monitors your heart rate variability – nice). But if you don’t find the straps to be comfortable, then they can be removed using the quick release spring bars, and replaced with any two-piece 22mm watch strap that you want to use. The battery life is also impressive, with a realistic life of around 10-12 days, given moderate usage.As a fitness tracker, this is great. There is both a heart rate and a blood O2 sensor, as well as the usual motion tracking and GPS goodies on board. Doing a quick run will yield a GPS map outline of your path, as well as keeping all useful statistics. There are dozens of activities supported, including paddleboard and e-bike as options, as well as the usual walking, swimming, running, cardio, and others. The information is shown on a nice and bright round OLED display that is visible even in bright sunlight. While in an activity the data fields can be customized.When not being used in an activity, it does the usual tricks of showing your heart rate on a variety of watch faces, as well as other information, including current temperature and weather, sunrise and sunset times, number of steps taken, calories burned, current heart rate, and a lot of others. Alerts and messages from your phone can also be displayed, including text messages, emails, and phone calls. Phone calls can actually be taken through the speaker and microphone on the watch. A long-press of the middle button can also access your phone’s voice assistant. You can also control music being played back on your phone with the usual volume and playback controls. There are several customizable watch faces built-in, and you can download more from the “Connect IQ” marketplace. Many are free, and some cost a couple of dollars. I like the “LCD X” watch face, and it is worth the buck and a half asking price. You do need the marketplace app to install any additional apps, activities, or watch faces, and that same app is also used to make any customizations. It also supports a wallet, where you can store credit or debit card info, similar to Google pay or Apple pay. Once activated, it takes a four-digit PIN to unlock the cards. The only issue is that it identifies the cards by the last four digits of the car number, and you cannot give useful text names to the cards. Otherwise, it works well.So far this sounds like an excellent device, but now we get to the one area that needs work: integrating with your phone. Overall, this does a good job, but there is ONE FEATURE that it really needs that is lacking: integration with the phone’s mapping software. While navigating with Google maps (I am an Android user), it would be highly desirable to have the watch buzz and alert me to upcoming turns. While I am walking, I want my watch to vibrate and tell me that I have to turn right in 30 feet. Sadly, this does not seem to be possible at all. Showing any sort of map at all is not supported by Garmin, which is funny given that their background is in GPS and mapping. There are some 3rd party map applications, but they all have limitations and require jumping through some hoops to get them working, when they do work at all. It also does not allow you to read your email or messages (except through notifications), but this is fine given the small size of the screen.But if you ignore the lack of Google maps integration (I cannot speak to use with an iPhone), then this is an excellent product. I am hoping that Garmin will add this feature soon.
PROS+ Puts health first with a wide variety of health tracking features including body battery, stress, HRV, recovery, sleep, and more tracking available right out of the gate+ Automatic sleep and nap detection with built-in sleep coach+ Data, data, and more data for all you want to track+ Plenty of smart features like call/text response with built-in mic on watch, notification tracking, timer, alarms, flashlight, stopwatch, etc.+ Screen gets plenty bright for outdoor use with great colors for artistic watch faces+ Multiple sports apps for indoor and outdoor use+ A dedicated wheelchair mode for better accessibility+ Guided Garmin coaching functionality built-in, along with guided meditation exercises+ Heart rate tracking is very responsive and seems very ... MorePROS+ Puts health first with a wide variety of health tracking features including body battery, stress, HRV, recovery, sleep, and more tracking available right out of the gate+ Automatic sleep and nap detection with built-in sleep coach+ Data, data, and more data for all you want to track+ Plenty of smart features like call/text response with built-in mic on watch, notification tracking, timer, alarms, flashlight, stopwatch, etc.+ Screen gets plenty bright for outdoor use with great colors for artistic watch faces+ Multiple sports apps for indoor and outdoor use+ A dedicated wheelchair mode for better accessibility+ Guided Garmin coaching functionality built-in, along with guided meditation exercises+ Heart rate tracking is very responsive and seems very accurate+ Built-in GPS for route tracking and location detection+ Automatic emergency contact notification in case of emergency situation detection+ Lots of free and paid apps available via Garmin ConnectIQ+ Garmin Connect App provides lots of easy ways to interact with watch functions and data+ Very comfortable to wear all day and night+ ~2 week battery lifeCONS- Dedicated music apps need to be installed via ConnectIQ app, which limits functionality (e.g. no Tidal or Apple Music currently)- Some settings nested in the app, requiring a fair amount of online research to really know what the watch can fully do and where to access things like data privacy measures, or how to swap watch faces easilySO-SO~ Stress detection can be hit and miss with some false positives or missed stress~ Offers a ton of features and customizability, but that also makes the learning curve a bit steeper than normal to really get the benefits from the watch~ Step tracking seems a bit generous in my opinion compared to other step trackers I have used, and seems to pick up more phantom steps than usual~ Doesn’t play quite as nice with IOS as it does with Android (for example there is no direct way to limit notifications in the watch from some apps but not others, requires turning off banner notifications for the apps in IOS)THE LONG AND SHORT OF ITI really love the Garmin Venu 3. It isn’t perfect, as no device is, but it really swings with all of its might by trying to offer as many features as possible, and it is really surprising how often it nails them. This has very quickly become my favorite smartwatch I have used, and I still feel like I am learning new things everyday about it that make me like it even more. It is by far and away the most comfortable watch I have used, and it has all of the health tracking and functionality I could ask for to make everyday use very easy. I have found that the stress tracking can be a bit hit or miss, as sometimes it mistakes excitement for stress, or underestimates stress in situations where physical symptoms are lessened, but honestly, this is a very tall task for any wearable. In general though, it still managed to track average stress well, and the data did tend to correlate with what I perceived as high stress moments, even if the edge cases weren’t always detected. But this example is a good one to show how this watch performs in my view. Even when it doesn’t do things perfect, it still does them very well. It is just a very well rounded, feature rich, customizable, comfortable, and useful device. I haven’t had any bugs or quirks yet that I couldn’t easily look past, and if you are willing to spend time really setting it up to be what you want/need, you will get a lot out of it. It does really give you back what you put into it, and so you may have a steeper set-up curve than you are used to for really dialing it in and figuring out everything it can do and how to do it, but if you put in the time (which is the fun part in my eyes), you have a fantastic piece of technology on your wrist at all times. Like I said, it's my favorite smartwatch and smart wearable I have used thus far, and I highly recommend it.SET-UPFrom a set-up standpoint, the Venu 3 is pretty easy to get up and running. It mainly involves pairing the watch to your phone using Bluetooth and Garmin Connect app. The pairing process is very similar to any other smart device you may have used, and is really very straight forward. Once connected to your phone, you can connect it to Wi-Fi, and then you are pretty much off to the races. You will go through a set-up process, a quick tutorial, and then you are pretty much free to adjust everything to your liking.In terms of customization, there is a ton on offer here. You will find yourself using the Connect and ConnectIQ mobile apps a fair amount to download custom watch faces, music, and other apps native to the watch. This is a pro & a con in that you have a ton of options (can be a bit overwhelming at first honestly), but you also are reliant on 3rd party apps for some of the features like native music streaming, which means when apps like Tidal or Apple Music are unavailable, you can be out of luck. Not a big deal for me, since I like to use my phone to control music, but your mileage may vary, especially if you like to use native music apps that aren’t supported for things like control while running.You get a lot of controls and functionality on the watch itself, with many features and shortcuts accessible directly via the watch itself. You can use the mobile app to get yourself set-up, but once up and running, you shouldn’t need to use the app for everyday use unless you really want to get in-depth with metric tracking and workout creations. You can do a lot with the watch, its touchscreen, and customizable shortcuts between apps and features.FEATURESI think the biggest takeaway here is that there is a little something for everyone when it comes to what the Venu 3 offers. It bills itself as a GPS Smartwatch, but honestly I was most impressed with its health tracking functionality that could give many dedicated health trackers a run for their money. From things like dedicated automatic sleep/nap tracking, workout detection, heart rate/HRV monitoring, guided workouts/meditations, stress tracking, recovery, body battery estimation, and more; the Venu 3 really puts health first. The best part is that all of this functionality is just available out of the gate, without needing to pay for a premium monthly subscription to maintain the benefits, which can’t be said for many other health trackers. Sure, you may miss some of the more specialized health tracking features if you are really into health monitoring, but for me and most everyday users or casual athletes, I would be surprised if this isn’t more than enough for you.Add to this more traditional smartwatch features like answering calls/texts with the watch, managing notifications, stopwatch/timer, flashlight with the screen, and more, and you have a fully well rounded device. One of my low-key favorite features has been to shortcut to the flashlight app with one button press, which is great when getting up at night without having to search for your phone in the dark.You get a ton of customization between the Connect and ConnectIQ apps, and the watch specific apps you can get for free or purchase from the ConnectIQ store. I particularly love the wide variety of watch face apps available, and I have customized a few I can easily swap between for different use cases depending on what I am going for. Some of them in particular really go heavy on data tracking, if you want to have as much data as possible at your fingertips. One of the features I really appreciate, even if it doesn’t apply to me directly, is the accessibility features like wheelchair mode for health tracking tailored to those individuals who use a wheelchair daily. For women, there is also Menstrual Cycle tracking built-in.Of course, all of this would be mute if the watch didn’t perform well at these features, and thankfully it does in almost all regards. The actual tracking capabilities are very accurate from my estimation, and while things like in-depth sleep cycles and stress are hard to validate, they generally sense check with what I see/feel day-to-day. Things like REM tracking or high-stress moments may not be as accurate as dedicated devices for tracking these things, but you can’t expect miracles from an all-in-one watch like this. It hits where it counts, and still provides plenty of useful information I have been able to use to help improve my behaviors. One great example of this is when it suggested a 5 minute guided breathing meditation because I was getting stressed, which did help and I could see the results clearly in the data.COMFORT AND EVERYDAY USEIt is very comfortable to use and lightweight, and I never had any issues wearing it all day or even at night for sleep tracking, which I wasn’t expecting, given I normally hate wearing watches or other jewelry to bed. Honestly I barely noticed it was on half the time, and it only took a day to adjust to it, due to its lightweight and comfortable band, with highly granular wrist size adjustments. For everyday use, this is likewise a great device, and is very easy to navigate and function once you get used to the gestures/shortcuts. Honestly, there isn’t much to say here. It is very comfortable and intuitive to use. With practice and some customization, you should be within just a few clicks or swipes of most everyday features you want/need.
The Garmin Venu 3 touch all the bases for a great smartwatch. There are so many features and options to personalized your Garmin Venu 3 to fit your health and fitness goals. I own three other Garmin smartwatches, the Garmin Vivoactive, Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and the Garmin Venu SQ Music. I can proudly say that they all are still in good working condition. The Garmin Venu 3 was too good of an upgrade to pass up. The Garmin Venu 3 has everything the active person on every level would ever need. The bright big display is a must have and the battery can last up to 14 days. The Garmin Venue 3 is so light its hard for you to tell you have anything on your wrist. The Garmin Venu 3 comes with 3 buttons, the third built in speaker button for calls and Goggle Assistant and ... MoreThe Garmin Venu 3 touch all the bases for a great smartwatch. There are so many features and options to personalized your Garmin Venu 3 to fit your health and fitness goals. I own three other Garmin smartwatches, the Garmin Vivoactive, Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music and the Garmin Venu SQ Music. I can proudly say that they all are still in good working condition. The Garmin Venu 3 was too good of an upgrade to pass up. The Garmin Venu 3 has everything the active person on every level would ever need. The bright big display is a must have and the battery can last up to 14 days. The Garmin Venue 3 is so light its hard for you to tell you have anything on your wrist. The Garmin Venu 3 comes with 3 buttons, the third built in speaker button for calls and Goggle Assistant and Android coming with a keyboard. The Garmin Venu 3 goes the extra mile in providing a detailed health wellness and fitness insights such as body battery, energy, stress, heartrate variability, blood oxygen level and a sleep coach that lets you know how your sleep went the night before. When you go for a workout it tells you how the workout had an effect your fitness level and what you need to do to recover. The Garmin Venu 3 comes with 30 plus sports Apps for you to enjoy. The Garmin Venue set the bar by adding a dedicated wheelchair mode to track pushes. I love that they added a better variety of watch faces and that you can go to the connect store from the watch instead of using your phone as I had to do for my Garmin Venu SQ. I downloaded a host songs from Itunes Jazz Library to Garmin Express and connected my Apple Beats with ease. The Garmin Venu 3 Morning Report and daily greeting helps you get your day started. The GPS is more on point. I went for a run today and battery level was at 99 percent and after my 5K using music from my watch with headphones the battery level was at 88 percent. That is a 10 percent improvement from my Garmin Venu SQ Music. Right now my Garmin is at 77 percent with a 12 day expectancy battery life.. With the narrower bezel and 1.4 amoled display screen plus upgraded sensors on top of consistant improvements, Garmin is keeping ahead of the competition with their activity and smart watches.
The Garmin Ven 3 Health & Fitness GPS Smartwatch is most definitely a health and fitness device followed up with smartwatch technology. The watch itself is thin and sleek but the 45mm size is just that, 45mm. This is on the larger size and may very well be slightly large for many smaller arms. Just a caveat to take into account, but Garmin does have a smaller version to my understanding. The watch is lightweight and comfortable to wear with a 22mm band. The watch is comfortable enough to sleep with, which allows for night time tracking. This Health & Fitness watch provides vast information regarding overall health and tracks fitness, equipped with touchscreen display that is easy to read. Display is clear and at the standard I expect from smartwatch technology in ... MoreThe Garmin Ven 3 Health & Fitness GPS Smartwatch is most definitely a health and fitness device followed up with smartwatch technology. The watch itself is thin and sleek but the 45mm size is just that, 45mm. This is on the larger size and may very well be slightly large for many smaller arms. Just a caveat to take into account, but Garmin does have a smaller version to my understanding. The watch is lightweight and comfortable to wear with a 22mm band. The watch is comfortable enough to sleep with, which allows for night time tracking. This Health & Fitness watch provides vast information regarding overall health and tracks fitness, equipped with touchscreen display that is easy to read. Display is clear and at the standard I expect from smartwatch technology in this current age with an adequate backlight able to be read in all environments. The watch does have an apps that allows for information tracking in multiple modes; I did find it a bit intensive to obtain multiple apps to get full features out of the watch but I feel part of this is just my accustom to previous smartwatch use with a certain fruit product. But those that are available are mostly directed toward health/fitness as expected and appreciated. Of note, there is a music download option with headphone pairing which allows for a lighter profile while active on the go. I had difficulty transitioning from a traditional smartwatch with certain apps to a health/fitness watch but do see the added benefits in the change overall. The battery life is boasted to be up to 14-days, which given the sleep monitoring features is important compared to most smartwatches that if not charged every night will end up dead in the morning. I have gotten 3-days use prior to charge, but I do not like for my technology to run low on charge so here we are not putting that statement to the ultimate test. The watch charging requires a plug-in connection, which is one of the larger downfalls is no standardizations without ease of charging by convenience but rather must have the watches specific charge at hand. Overall, it is wonderful being able to access workouts, heart rate, pulse ox and other information directly from the watch that can also track sleep habits. I feel that I am more enlightened in my own life journey with this watch just believe that the smartwatch portion could have improvement but is adequate considering it is for multiple device types and is not made by a phone device company directly. I would recommend this to the right person, who is into fitness/exploration of the world and wants a diverse watch to accompany their journey
First let me tell you a little about myself, I am a triathlete, marathoner and a hiker so to keep track of any or all these I must have a good watch that does a good job and has a great battery life.The Garmin Venu 3 does a great job on all the sports as well as every day tracking.I got the Garmin Venu 3 because when I completed the Camino de Santiago (The way of St James) I had a Garmin Fenix watch and it worked excellent and I gave that watch to a family member that is going train for a triathlon so now I am starting to use the Garmin Venu 3 since it just came out.So far I have ran outside as well as inside, worked out, went on a walk, cycled and slept with the watch, unfortunately the pool has been closed at my gym but I am certain it will work there as ... MoreFirst let me tell you a little about myself, I am a triathlete, marathoner and a hiker so to keep track of any or all these I must have a good watch that does a good job and has a great battery life.The Garmin Venu 3 does a great job on all the sports as well as every day tracking.I got the Garmin Venu 3 because when I completed the Camino de Santiago (The way of St James) I had a Garmin Fenix watch and it worked excellent and I gave that watch to a family member that is going train for a triathlon so now I am starting to use the Garmin Venu 3 since it just came out.So far I have ran outside as well as inside, worked out, went on a walk, cycled and slept with the watch, unfortunately the pool has been closed at my gym but I am certain it will work there as well.Running outside, I ran a few miles without the watch being on, so make sure that once you are going for a run, first, it will get the GPS signal, once it has a good signal then it will let you know it is ready so then you have to press the start button and then go. Once I knew how it worked It did a great job tracking the run, and it gives plenty of information, pace, distance, heartbeat, time, elevation,cadence, and more. The Venu also has options in running like mixed intervals, quarter mile repeats, run and walk, workouts, training calendar and finally the LiveTrack.I took it out on a bike ride and it also gives you the distance, total time, average speed, total accent, average heart rate, and it goes into details plus has great visual charts including the map where I ran with the colors showing the speed,I like the LiveTrack feature because it keeps track of your location during the activity and lets your friends and family follow along. So, LiveTrack is useful for instance, if you are doing a race, your family and friends will know where you are so they can meet you in different spots without guessing.I like that I have a button that I can press so I can have access to my assistant, so if I have my phone on my backpack and I push the button of my watch I can ask my assistant and will answer with the watch speaker, I do not need to take my phone out.Also the body battery function is great to have, it tracks my sleep, my activity and lets me know if I need to let my body rest or if I am ready to go out again and workout.The sleep coach is also something I like, it keeps track on how well I rested and it also gives me a score and even tips on when I should go to sleep.Pool swim, you can set your watch to do 25 50 meters or yards or even custom to what the pool size is.Among other activities you also have walk, run, treadmill, bike, pool swim, strength, cardio, yoga, meditation, bike indoor, bouldering, breathwork, climb indoor, disk golf, elliptical, ebike, floor climb, gaming, golf, handcycling, handcycling indoor, hiit, hike, indoor track, open water, padel, pickleball, pilates, row, row indoor, ski, snowboard, snowshoe, stari stepper, sup, tennis, walk indoor, xc classic ski, and you can change the order on what you want to be first on the list.The Venu 3 also comes with different useful apps, Wallet, phone, music, flashlight, alarms, timer, stopwatch, health snapshot and tips. Also connect IQ Store, Body battery, calendar, calories, challenges, contacts, dial pad, floors climbed, Garmin coach, hearth rate, history, hrv status, hydration, intensity min, jet lag and each of these are helpful.I like the application; it shows my day stats, challenges, calendar, news feed and more. Connect with other people is also fun to encourage each other on activities.I also like that I can customize the look of the watch as well as preset buttons.Overall the list is long on the things I like about it, battery life is one big yes for me, it lasts up to 14 days, it might last less if you have all the notifications sent to the watch but perhaps 10 days with all the notifications, I like that a lot.The one thing I would like is a bigger size since the Venu 3 looks a bit small at 45mm.
