Garmin
Forerunner 255 Series
Long battery; but wrist HR tracking is inconsistent.
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I switched to an Instinct 3X OLED, and went back to ultra.
As a gift, I think it is a good choice. Battery life is fair, you can go out for a 5 to 7 days of travel without charger or cable for Venu 3. In the daily life, I usually charge it once every week, but it can definitetly last even longer than one week. I have Venu3, Instinct 3 AMOLED and one Apple Watch, but my favorite is still Venu3.
I love both but after owning the Instinct 2, then owning a Galaxy watch, this time, I went with the instinct 3 amoled. MIP is awesome but I love colours popping on the display, plus the added extras (red shift, font size) are also nice imo. Since I'm not on the sun 50% of my day I prefer low light visibility and would not benefit from solar charging at all. Plus, I have some Gshocks in my collection and my previous MIP i2 was kinda similar in terms of how a watch feels with the monochrome display.
Yes. For that price its worth it. It's a flasghip watch, expected to get features and updates for multiple years. It's on par with the Fenix/Epix line, has all the top-tier features, just a different segmentation. Just to give you an idea, the Instinct 3 amoled tactical also costs like 600 new but that's an a upper-mid tier watch where the Enduro is the top of the line product. For some the 50mm case might be daunting but I also got the 50mm instinct 3 after owning a 45mm instinct 2 and I have to say it feels better.
I had a galaxy watch 4 for awhile (I use it because I am an android user) but I got a Venu 2 had it for about 2 years and the battery life was insane and since then I switched to a instinct 3 amoled, and the battery life is even better, I charge maybe every 2 weeks or more. I dont do crazy runs but want to soon. Rn it just tracks walks i do every day
I have my fenix 7x and an instict 3 amoled instict it's nicer to look at of course if you want to run some ultratreil the battery isn't enough
Was this simply on that model? Was your I2 also amoled but faster? I am trialing an amoled I3 and the lag is rough.
I have both the I3 MIP and Amoled, with the intent to return one. MIP works great as intended but feels like it's boring to use compared to Amoled. It's a tough call. I have the amoled running on AOD on low brightness to alleviate the lag issue.
Garmin
Forerunner 255 Series
Long battery; but wrist HR tracking is inconsistent.

Garmin
Forerunner 955 Series
Best value, clear MIP screen; limited smartwatch features.

Garmin
Fenix 7 Series
Durable, multi-week battery, flashlight; high price, buggy software.
Garmin
Instinct 2 Series
Rugged, solar multi-week battery; bulky, small screen readability issues.

Garmin
Enduro 3
Multi-week solar battery, lightweight; but bulky form factor.

Ranked #1
Oura - Oura Ring Series

Ranked #1
Apple - Ultra Series

Ranked #1
Garmin - Enduro 3

Ranked #1
Garmin - Fenix 7 Series

Ranked #1
Garmin - Forerunner 255 Series

Ranked #1
Oura - Oura Ring Series