Garmin - Venu 3

Both will work for running though you might miss the Training Readiness score and the training load values on the 265S. Like you said, the Venu is better looking.

I have watched his videos to, all of them. i also now own a garmin venu 3. That being said, apple isnt accurate in everything. For example how many kcal you have burned is always off on apple. Than have you seen the video's of his girlfriend that tested it? these measurements are all WAY more accurate with the Garmin than from himself. That being said, does it matter if it sometimes is a bit off for example the hearthrate? If you care about HR that much, a cheststrap is always more accurate.

I have a Venu 3 and I love it.

I have the Venu 3 and I think it’s great. Haven’t tested the gym workouts though. I would definitely go with this watch if your looking for a more smart watch rather than a running watch, in that case I would pick the forerunner. The battery life for the Venu watch is great, also the voice assistant is a pretty nice feature. The one thing I’m missing on this watch are maps and waypoints navigation that the new forerunner watches has.

The sleep tracker works really well, way better than my old watch which was the Vivoactive 3. It’s really accurate regarding sleep and wake up time. Also the sleep stages and sleep score feels accurate, for example when drinking, I always get a really low score and often I feel that I have slept like shit. 😁 Battery lasts more than a week but that depends on how much you use the GPS, AOD etc. If I don’t use AOD, It last for about a week (with still ~ 10% left) normally with 3 long running activities. With AOD, it’s like 3-4 days. Edit: Some third part watchfaces consumes alot of battery so it also depends on what face that is used.

I switched to the Venu 3 because I wanted to Able to trigger Siri from my watch. I’ve used it 3 times the last month I’ve had it. Maybe not worth it. I’m not super athletic but I wish I would have gone with the 265 or 965

I used to swear by fitbit. My mileage and pace was RIGHT where I wanted it to be. Then I was due for a new watch and chose garmin. My pace was off by about a minute per mile and my fitbit was about half a mile off per mile. It frustrated me immensely. I assumed it was a watch issue. It was a me issue. I only use garmin. I used a pre-owned garmin venu 2 forn2 years since I had never used a garmin. I bought a new venu 3 and looove it!

Venu 3 has a ton of issues with Google Assistant for many (most?) android phones. For months. Check the Garmin forums for details. I made the switch to a PW3 and have no regrets. Yes, battery life is a significantly worse but I was already charging daily so its not an issue for me.

I use the Venu 3 by garmin and use the lap button on the cardio setting to track my rounds. I sometimes hit my buttons with the grips, but I bought the zox bands for it so I can stretch it further up my wrist. The face of the venu isn't beveled, so a screen protector is an absolute must have.

Look at any of the Venu options.I rock Venu 3 daily myself & I don't use every feature. If you don't use or need any of the other features just don't enable them. Use just the ones you need

It depends on what you need it for. Most people would be fine with a Venu3 honestly.

Second the venu 3. I love it. It's a great all around watch for daily wear and general fitness, and the golf features are solid - it does everything I need on the course. I use it for distances, tracking shots and club stats, and keeping score. All pretty seamless and easy to use during a round. I believe you can pay for a Garmin golf subscription and unlock even more features if desired

Venu (3 or 3S) and Vivoactive 5 are both cute and come in neutral colors. They're decent for running but are more "lifestyle" watches than running watches. The 265S (S means it's the smaller version) is better for a serious runner. It isn't super "cute" but it comes in white with light blue accents. You can buy aftermarket straps of course.

That was exactly my take as a Venu 3 owner. In fact, if anything, it has one less button and less battery life, so I'm not sure why I'd buy this.

Coming from WearOS watches, I am much happier with Garmin, mostly because of the battery life. You might want to take a look at the Venu 3 as it would give you a lot of the features you need at a much lower price then the brand new Venu 4. I have the Venu 3 and I've been very happy with it. I am primarily a cyclist. I occasionally hike and do cardio exercises twice a week. I am not a runner at all. So I personally would never benefit from all the additional running stats that the Venu 4 provides. I do use the voice assistant capability on my Venu 3 quite a bit, though that's gotten a little slower with Gemini, it still works well enough. I get a wealth of stats on my sleeping, my calorie burn, my heart rate and heart rate variability, stress and a number of other things. The fact that the battery can last almost a week means that I have no trouble sleeping with it overnight and getting continuous stats. I can tell you that I have no problem responding to text messages from my watch and it's nice that Garmin also has the ability to respond to many notifications as well. It may not be 100% integrated with Android like the pixel watch would be. But for me it's good enough. Overall, it's the battery life that wins the day for me with decent integration with Android being nicer than I expected.

The Venu 3 had this and you'd activate it with the third button, which Venu 4 removed. Even if Venu 4 may still contain the feature, note that it was horrendously buggy on Venu 3.

If you just want a smart watch with great battery and don't care about all the sport features, this is definitively a downgrade from the Venu 3

My venu 3 is 5 days almost exactly every time. I use the overnight spo2 monitor though cause I was curious

I bought a Garmin venu 3 for mapping my walks (among other things) and absolutely love it.

I’d second the Venu

Yeah check my recent post, just reviewed it.

I would pick up the venu 3 on a sale. It’s going to have a newer generation heart rate sensor. Elevate v5 sensor. This is going to be slightly better for tracking metrics. The venu 4 just came out so there is prob gonna be a sale soon on that. I would check Garmin’s website every now and then

Depending on what features we are talking about, Garmin Venu 3 and Amazfit (Balance, TRex) both are delivering strong battery.

You can see [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/smartwatch/comments/1db9i4s/quick_minireview_of_huawei_watch_fit_3_vs_huawei/) and [here](https://old.reddit.com/r/smartwatch/comments/1e8kcg3/quick_minireview_of_the_garmin_venu_3_compared/) some of my previous mini-reviews. This time I was rather busy when the Huawei arrived so the review is actually after about 3 months of real use and in the meantime I also got some time to compare against the other models in the title. The features that are (still) most important to me: - very comfortable to wear and very clear to read, preferably nice-looking without being “too much” - reliable and preferably with long battery life - reasonably safe/private with my info/data - ideally not locked in a closed ecosystem - right now I find essential the ability to read notifications and answer calls from it - good data quality coming from watch and good presentation of it (on watch but even more so in the app); that has to include good sleep and nap detection - acceptable value for money - ideally some form of safe payment. Comfort – for me from the shortlist in the title the best is Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro (HWF4P), then Venu 3 and then around the same point FR255 and GW7 – but in fact the “normal” Huawei Watch Fit 4/3 is smaller (and more comfortable) and Watch Fit 2 even more so. Display – here things get more complex, on paper HWF4P should have the brightest display but even after the most recent firmware update (which mentioned things regarding max brightness) that does not seem to be the case, in super-sunny places it is somehow bright but Samsung GW7 sometimes looks the brightest and Venu 3 comes close 2nd - so for the moment HWF4P only gets 3rd place. Even that one is somehow debatable, since in fact under super-super-bright sunlight the most readable is by far the trans-reflective (MIP) display from the FR255. From all I still like most Venu 3 where I have a more reliable and fast power-up of the face from AoD (also I like the [face](https://imgur.com/G7HHIG8) itself the most). Here I must also mention that Huawei is the only one that does not have a way to have larger fonts and that IMHO most of the faces available for HWF4P are not designed too clean / elegant / highly visible. EDIT: one other thing that is worth mentioning is the general size vs display size vs "feel size" - the 3 round watches seem similar in size (as they somehow are) but feel a little different, GW7 "feels" the largest even if in fact is the smallest overall (44.6mm = 1.75in) yet has by far the largest display (38.1mm = 1.5in) while Venu 3 somehow feels much smaller even if it is larger (45mm = 1.78in) but with a smaller display (36mm = 1.4in). FR255 is even larger (46mm = 1.79in) yet the screen is even smaller (33mm = 1.3in). Huawei is rectangular 44.5mm x 40mm with an effective display around 35mm x 30mm. Usability on the beach or swimming in the pool in bright sunlight – FR255 is actually the best since on top of the MIP display it also has the 5-button navigation (and no touchscreen), on the other models you need first to lock the touchscreen or make it lock automatically when you start a workout. Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro now has a diving mode - but I did not personally test that – which would make it a competitor for Apple Watch Ultra and Fenix 8 models. I used HWF4P a lot for swimming and the new “Drain” function (similar to Apple Watch) was very handy. Battery life – FR255 is again the best but HWF4P now comes 2nd (and 1st from the AMOLED displays, I suspect that “wake to AoD” instead of “wake to full face” has some role in this) and the 3rd reasonably close is Venu 3, while GW7 is a very distant last (in the same level as Apple Watch models). Depending on how many workouts I do I can easily get 5-6 days from FR255 and about 4 with HWF4P, and Venu 3 is coming just a little behind (all with AoD, extra brightness from Venu 3 clearly takes a larger toll than the one in HWF4P). For me personally the Huawei models are still better for sleep detection, clearly better than the Garmin / Samsung / Apple – one reason is the comfort on wearing it and another is the fact that is not so crazy about fixed sleep hours as Garmin (and Apple) are. I still consider the Huawei ecosystem reasonably private, possibly at the same level as Garmin. Samsung is worse, Apple is for the moment a tad better and Google is probably the worst. For the moment my sleep data stays with Huawei, my workout data with Garmin (and partially Apple which gets some basic info on each workout in the Fitness app). From the shortlist in the title only the FR255 does not have a mic/speaker so it can’t take calls, all other can, but you can still reject/accept on FR255 and then talk on the phone – I mention this since it has the best way to do it using buttons while for the other depends on touchscreen (and for instance on Venu 3 it is sometimes weird/laggy) – probably models like Fenix / FR570 / FR970 are best for calls from Garmin. Initially Huawei modes were the loudest for calls but Venu 3 also got an update and is now almost as loud, Huawei and Samsung GW7 still seem to be better for calls when in a noisy environment. Data quality – GPS – in my tests it looks like FR255 is the best, GW7 most often 2nd, then Venu 3 and HWF4P almost equal – Huawei did a serious progress here from the poor GPS on Watch Fit 2 and only average on Fit 3. EDIT2: On the HWF4P you can load the region/country/continent maps on your watch and then start any GPS activity (like hiking or outdoor running or similar) and then you can scroll up from the main activity screen and get a map of where you are and you can "walk back" to the point where you started (or any other markers that you set), but is not clear if already possible to do full "turn by turn navigation" (as on FR9xx or Fenix/Epix and so on). Data quality – HR – my feeling is that Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is first, then Venu 3 and GW7 but with latest firmware FR255 does not seem far behind. Huawei has added NFC to Fit 4 Pro (and ONLY ONE other model of the rest of Fit4!) so all of the watches in the title now have it, however HWF4P only has payments in 2-3 countries in Europe at this point (I believe Germany, Austria and maybe 1-2 more). Samsung is probably best with Google Pay, main downside for Garmin seems to be that is locking the payment with PIN much too easy if you keep your watch a little bit less tight on your hand but is perfectly usable if you are left in the swimming pool even for the FR255 (which does not have touch, but in fact in the water the touchscreen is not a plus). Value for money – I got all of those on some very good deals so right now it might be a little hard if you want to pick just one – I find that I use the least GW7 (short battery life), I use the FR255 (by far the least expensive) for all workouts and pool/beach stuff and Venu 3 gets most used for daily wear while Huawei Watch Fit 4 Pro is most used for sleep. Alternatives at this point – not really many with better value for money, for rectangular watches Amazfit Bip 6 is probably one but is less comfortable and IMHO software is inferior to Huawei. In fact, for non-sports use Huawei Watch Fit 4 (or 3 if you find it half-price) could be an alternative for many people. On the other direction in value for money Garmin Venu X1 is almost certainly better than HWF4P but for at least 3x the price, and latest Apple Watch Ultra at 4x, and HWF4P is more comfortable than Venu X1 and much more comfortable than AWU. For round screens if money is not that much of an issue Garmin FR570 (42mm or 47mm) or FR970 have brighter screen and better GPS (plus sapphire screen with DLC bezel, advanced maps and separate flashlight on FR970).

I have a Garmin Venu 3. To be clear, I didn't buy it for its golf functionality, but I like it way better than my Apple Watch.

I'm an Apple Watch SE user who recently decided to explore the Garmin ecosystem. You'll find more details and context in the post below. I've been using the Vivoactive 6 for about a week now. Before that, I had bought the Venu 3 for $450, but eventually returned it after getting the VA6. Here's why I made the switch: - I rarely use the watch speaker (I used to be an Apple Watch SE user), and I generally prefer taking calls on my phone. - I don’t like being notified on my watch, since I always have my phone with me. - Thankfully, I don’t need ECG/EKG features, so that wasn’t useful for me. **Context:** The main reason I switched to Garmin is that Apple Watch—even the Ultra—doesn't really provide actionable health insights. What impressed me about Garmin is the level of actionable insights it offers *without* requiring a subscription. Some of the highlights: 1. Sleep Score and Sleep Coach 2. Stress tracking 3. Body Battery 4. Recovery insights 5. Custom workouts and Garmin Coach ...and probably more features I’ll discover as I continue using the VA6. Most of the core health tracking features are similar to the Apple Watch, but Garmin seems to go a step further with its detailed insights. So overall, Garmin feels like a more complete fitness-focused smartwatch to me. ### What I liked in the VA6 compared to the Venu 3: 1. **New UX Improvements** - Fully redesigned UI/UX that feels modern and premium — more in line with 2025 standards. - Notification center with "Clear All" option (finally!). - Control center similar to Android/iOS. - Built-in Compass app. - Revamped UI/UX for several existing apps. - Smart alarm (haven’t tried it yet). - Adjustable font size. - Calendar app that shows all future events — unlike V3, which only shows today and tomorrow. 2. **Custom Workout Creation** - You can create fully custom workouts on VA6, which the V3 doesn’t support. 3. **Course/Route Syncing** - Ability to send training courses or routes directly to the watch. 4. **Improved Haptics** - The vibration motor feels noticeably better than the one in V3. 5. **Premium Strap** - The strap feels more refined and premium than what comes with the V3. ...and I’m sure there’s more I’ll uncover over time. **One thing worth noting:** although the watch has a UI that's quite feature-rich and visually heavy, I initially expected it to lag. But after using it for a week, I haven't experienced a single hiccup — it's been smooth throughout. After exploring the VA6, the Venu 3 felt like a bit of a downgrade—especially since I don’t care much about answering calls, using the speaker, or having ECG functionality. Yes, the Venu 3 has Garmin’s 5th-gen sensor and the VA6 has the 4th-gen, but the difference between V4 and V5 isn’t significant in terms of real-world use. I also had a look at the VA5 at a nearby store. Even though the VA5 and VA6 use similar materials, the VA6 feels much more solid and premium in hand. ### Final Thoughts Some of these points might not matter to longtime Garmin users who are happy with their current devices and don’t feel the need to upgrade. But for someone new to the Garmin ecosystem, or someone looking to jump in now, the VA6 seems like the best value. You get the latest design, more relevant features, and hopefully more updates going forward (fingers crossed).

Go with a venu 3, all the important things is there, it has great accuracy comparable with forerunners, and it's adequate for your running needs, and also the design is more fitting for you.  But yeah, if I have to choose for myself I'd go with Forerunner because as a guy I like Forerunner better design wise, and I like to have all the features even though I might not need it. 

Doubt you'll need it. The housings are both from solid materials, and the screens on both watches are sapphire (given you get the sapphire version of the fenix). Maybe get a case if you want the watch to remain spotless for future resale value.......

If you want the best HR tracking, get a watch with the Elevate v5 sensor and ECG. Smth like a Fenix 8 or Venu 3.

If you want a smartwatch then go for samusng but be ready to charge it every 1 or 2 days. If you want something to motivate you to move more and something that has a long battery life I would go for garmin. I switched from watch 4 to venu 3 and I couldnt be happier

I temporary got my hands on a Watch 3 and decided not to get a Pixel Watch after that. This shockingly bad system to change the band was one of the reasons (albeit a minor one) I decided against it. In the end I got a Garmin Venu 3 and I'm very happy with it. Not as smart but with great battery life and smart enough for my use case.

I don't know if you're being serious, but I work out, crossfit, run, bike and hike with a Venu 3. Really no need for an overpriced Fenix.

It's just smaller with more colour options...everything else will be the same. I quite like my Venu 3. There are some sports tracked by the VA6 that it doesn't have, but they are a bit niche. I assume these are part of the new base set for new software...so will likely be included in future Venu models. If you're a runner then the FR965 (or maybe even the FR265 to save money) might have been a better choice. The Venu has somewhat more of a smartwatch focus, with easy/automated call and notification integration from your phone...but lacks the coach and training readiness features

Yeah. The Venu should be fine. In theory the Vivoactive should also be fine...even some of the really cut down models like the vivofit or lily might do enough

I totally agree, but am genuinely curious about one thing. What made you think you wanted an all in one smartwatch originally? I've been a Venu 3 user for the last couple of years (tiny fitness bands before that) and glancing at notifications and getting the wrist vibration for a call are all I can imagine ever needing. What additional functions is a smartwatch supposed to offer (especially as my phone is in my pocket right below it) The only missing aspect I can see is mobile connectivity, which would enable something like Spotify on a run without a phone. And you wouldn't need high end processing capacity for that. They already do Bluetooth and WiFi.

Garmin Venu 3, solid.

I use the Venu 3 and it does the job perfectly.

I am in the same boat. But a venu 3 owner I think i am going with pixel. Garmin is a fitness tracker without the smart features and it is not top tier for tracking. Apple and Google are better. Garmin has its benefits. Battery life, GPS, and music playback is 10 hours or so. It's easy, dont have to worry about battery and its metrics are not bad if you dont want the best accuracy. Venu 4 has a flashlight. I am going to wait to see what quantified scientist says about the sleep accuracy. But thats the annoying one. Fitbit 5 years ago did better. Pixel is close to apple and has the smart features. It is my choice right now and I may come back to garmin if they spend more on accuracy rather than 20 watches. Going to suck to get used to charging daily, but worth knowing what I am looking at is closer.

Garmin Venu 3. I love it so much.

I have a venu 3 that I love but I'm getting close to maxing out my options with Garmin Coach. It stops training at half marathons and paces up to 4:24min/km. Do people with fenix or forerunners have extensive coach programs availables within the app such as training for marathons and paces let's say up to 4 min/km? If so, do you think venu 4 will get those now that it has triathlon options? Thanks!

I switched from AW to Venu 3 about a month ago. I do not miss the AW BUT - Garmin is not really giving me more than AW did. Things like body battery and training readiness (don’t have the latter) are just insights. I’d never actually change my plan for the day because of that feedback from the watch. I’m loving the switch, but it’s no miracle path to fitness.

I tried to replace my Venu 3 with a pixel watch 3. I made it about 2 days before I returned it and went back to the Garmin. Honestly, if a Garmin and the Sleep As Android developer could get that app working reliably (including vibrating the watch silently first), I would never have any reason to even look at another watch. All the other 'shortcomings' either have a useable alternative (eg. Garmin Pay vs Google Wallet) or are such a low priority (eg Triggering Higher Assistant doesn't really work well if at all) to me, that I don't really miss them at all.

Planned on buying the venu 4 but after totaling the cost with Best Buy coverage replacement it comes out to $750. $almost $600 just for the watch. I paid $350 brand new for the Venu 3 2 years ago. Will buy another

It's more like that do you want all those on a too small screen when you could just get your phone out of your pocket if you want to do that on a screen which is actually useful for this kind of stuff. I like my Venu 3 because I treat it as a smart-watch: A device which tells me not only the time and date, but all other kinds of stats. Time is just one of those stats. I actually never connect it to the phone via bluetooth, because I hate getting distracted with vibrations on my wrist. And also, I'd never get a watch which only lasts for a day or two. 1-2 weeks is a good enough time so it doesn't bother me. I'd kill for a phone which also would have a battery capacity like my watch.

I had the Garmin Venu 3 for a while and found that it was solid for both weight lifting and golfing

I always enjoyed hiking and trail running, but adding Garmin was a great addition. I've had the Fenix 6 and after lost it on a lake, got the Venu 3. Venu 3 is my go to choice, what an amazing and fast watch.

Venu 3 here. Charge it about once a week. Happy with that. GPS takes maybe 15 seconds to get a lock. HR is really accurate, ( checked against a Polar chest HR strap). OXY is also very accurate. GPS is accurate. It's rugged enough for me. Waterproof, and survived a few knocks. I work outdoors and wear it all the time, and the screen is easy to read in the sun. I can reply to SMS , answer phone calls, and receive any and all notifications from my connected phone... Works for me

I recently spent 20 hours on a monitor in the hospital. Wearing my new Venu 3 . The HR + Oxy on the Garmin almost exactly matched the hospital monitor all the time. Impressed

Funny. As an all Apple desktop ipad iphone userfor years I find Apple’s mobile UI infuriating and confusing, Guess I’m noot koool enough. Had an AW but got a deal on a trade in at bestbuy and upgraded to venu3. Much cleaner UI for me. My old instinct v1 menus still do confuse me a lot, FWIW. Glad I went venu3.

Regardless of Garmin watch, I would recommend Garmin over pixel watch. You highlighted mostly fitness features as being important, so Garmin would probably be the way to go. I have a Garmin Venu 3, and a Pixel 6A. They work well together, and the Venu 3 has just enough smart features to keep me happy. The battery life is amazing, which is super important to me and from what I understand the Pixel watch battery is atrocious. Unless pixel integration is that important you to you (like watching YouTube videos on your watch :D ? ), I find the Garmin and Pixel integration quite a nice combo. (And if God forbid, you ever decide to go with an iPhone, you don't have to switch watches)

Garmin venue 3 works great for tracking my swimming and other workouts. Great smart watch with a good battery life

I have a venu 3 and I just use it to track the total time of my workout.

My Venu 3 lasts 3 days at best lol

Better do your homework- what are your main requirements- before deciding on a specific watch. I love my Venu 3, found my way easily, very intuitive. But if you are seriously in training , sporting, and interested in those metrics- better look at FR265 (the FR965 for the maps), the Fenix 8, or Epix line. No surprise if used to another watch, that it’ll take time to get to know the possibilities. I’d say a week is early days for arriving at a negative conclusion. Are you already familiar with adding and tailoring the Data screens (search & install from the ConnectIQ app, for the various activities, like running, cycling, to your needs? Looked at the available iApps on ConnectIQ?

Running, training? Then absolutely NOT the Venu 3 (my watch)-it is absolutely lacking Training metrics. Nice watch but not for the serious runner. Instead the FR265 (no maps) or FR965 has maps on board.

Apparantly asking the question is answering it. When you are not really into sporting (which could change) and no need for supporting training build metrics, the Venu 3 is great (my watch). But if within budget, I’d go for the Venu 4, because you might enter once into training, running etc..and it’s a great (albeit imo overpriced) watch.

Compared to the Venu 3 it has those supporting training build metrics (also to be found on the FR265 and further, as well as the later Fenix series) like Training readiness and components. The Venu 3 is very limited in this respect: only the Recovery item.

For proper health statistics, check the Venu 3 which comes with the latest, more accurate HR sensor, the Elevate 5. FR265 /165 both have the older Elevate 4, more focused on sporting/training. Or wait for the Venu 4 to be released, probably later this month.

Of those “six million other functionalities”, which once really do add value? I have my iPhone and my Venu 3- who cares about all those useless AW features?

Well that’s not my experience. My 19 months old Venu 3 still easily holds battery for up to 10 days. Normal use/settings, only PulseOx on demand. Coming from Suunto, now with Garmin for 7 years, happy, splendid service (Germany) and looking to stay with Garmin going forward. Can’t see serious competitive watch brands- at least not for my requirements. But OK it’s all personal. My expectations are met, so far.

“Better safety and health features” such as? Venu 3 had already Afib detection. My Venu 3 battery lasts 9/10 days with 3 hours of outdoor GPS activities per week. Ultra 3? Not worth mentioning…🤣

Guess VA6 or Venu 3 (my watch, but i’m only walking in the mountains) would also fit; it’s just how much you are into serious training, and interested in supporting metrics, like Training readiness, training load, increasing/monitoring VO2 max and other components. VA6 /Venu 3 are (imo) very limited in this respect. As for VA6 vs Venu 3: V3 comes with mic & speaker, VA6 not. V3 comes with latest HR sensor (Elevate 5) hence ECG, VA6 has older Elevate 4 sensor and no ECG . V3 has barometric altitude sensor, the VA6 not. However, the VA6 comes with some new features, not on the older Venu 3, probably on the Venu 4 expected to be launched this month September.

That’s not true.- it’s called Activity Tracking, the Venu 3 has it and I’m pretty sure also on VA5/6 and Lily 2 Active.

If training (program) building up fitness, is your thing I’d not take the Venu 3 (my watch). Instead look at the FR265 which, at the same time has proper health tracking. When I’d be into training, I’d swap my Venu 3 for it.

If you do more than swimming, check out the venue 3, the smart watch functions are decent, it covers most bases for "normal" people including golf, and looks nice overall.

I think it has no sense to upgrade from venu 3. I personally expected to see offline maps, they advertise google maps which can also be imported in the previous model. The advantages are only in the software, plus the flashlight. It's a Big NO from me.

Venu 3 or Vivoactive 5 for you from your parameter you stated. As to Garmin over the forbidden fruit watch.........all day!

I'm with you: Garmin is the way. Recently switched to a Venu 3 and wayyyy better than fitbit

I have a Venu 3, but I'm android. I don't take calls on it (I'm.. not really sure I could do it without feeling weird about it lol) but have no issues seeing calls and texts. Hell, because android is the way it is, it shows more notifications than my Galaxy Ultra does. Because f.ex Discord has no watch app, so my Ultra is like "I can't read suddenly, I don't know". But my Venu ports the notification over no problem, because it's just another notification with an icon and text. I find it works well for the Peloton but I prefer to use syncmyworkout + tracking an activity on the Garmin, as this gets more data overall than either Peloton or Garmin alone. Battery life is IMO fairly good - worse with AOD but still lasts several days easily.

If FR 570 has "resume later" than that alone would be a a winner. I hated with my Venu 3 that if I'd cycle to work, I would have to create two activities since Venu auto saves after 30 minutes and no way to stop it.

I've got a Venu 3, it gets the job done for everything and has some running features. I wouldn't recommend the forerunner series unless your planning on running mutual races a year and want all the data and features alongside the training guides.

Venu 3 or vivoactive 5 - I’m an iPhone user but having to charge the AW every day put me off! I have the VA 5 and so far a great watch but I do plan on upgrading to the Venu sometime next year.

I like it, When I do meditation, its nice not having things in my ears, they are distracting to me, so I listen from my Venu 3 speaker and its super nice! Also, for me, not having in earbuds allows me to hear my surroundings better too, which I like. I didnt think I would care but I would miss it. it's also nice being hands free taking a call in the office or where ever. I agree that having a phone obviously is better to take calls, but if youre actively doing something and need your hands it's great! Calls are super clear too. Idk! It might be a gimmick but I actually fine it useful in ways I didnt even think about.

Long story short I’m really happy overall. The good: - Great phone app with loads of detail, I play football regularly and was really impressed that they even have heat maps and stuff. Running activity has loads and loads of data it’s almost overwhelming but it’s amazing value for money. - Largely the software is smooth and lag free - Build quality is excellent - Great customisation with the quick release bands and the different watch faces. The data shown on the different activities can be modified. - From the watch itself to the app I like how Garmin comes across as a very grown up product if you know what I mean, it takes itself very seriously which I like. The bad - - With certain glances from the App Store installed the software does lag slightly, not significantly but it does lag every time. These aren’t dodgy apps - Rainy pro and Sun and Moon - The UI could have been a little more inventive to allow for quicker navigation - Sleep tracking is great if you are an amazing sleeper who doesn’t have interrupted sleep or gets up in the night. I get up to pray and when I go back it doesn’t pick up that sleep again. It is an issue because sleep tracking was a major reason for me buying a fitness tracker. - Very minor things like for some reason unless you install a watchface or download an app the Venu 3 doesn’t give you Sunset/sunrise times

I really can’t speak about any other Garmin watch because I was looking for a stylish watch with good to great tracking that was cross platform in terms of phone OS. The Venu 3 satisfied all my criteria of what I wanted so I didn’t really look at anything else in the Garmin lineup. The only thing I do know is both the Venu 3 and forerunner are likely to be refreshed very soon and the Venu 3 already lacks software that is on the new Vivoactive 6 although for me it’s nothing major. So if you’re not in a huge rush and already have a smartwatch maybe wait it out? I’d say you’d be happy with either just see what suits your use case.

Yes its great. The other models that you mentioned add more features mostly for running purpose. Notice that only venu 3 add micro and speaker to reply phone call on ur warch

I've come to the conclusion that the only way one can get the advertised 14 days of battery life on the Venu 3 is if all the features are disabled, Wi-Fi is turned off, bluetooth turned off and watch is put back in its box. In no conceivable way do these watches get 14 days of power even with all the features stripped out. Four to five days with normal use is the reality. I bike every morning for 35 minutes using a heart rate strap. I use a static screen. Wi-Fi is disabled. The screen brightness is set to low. The screen is not set to always on. In short, it has been really dumbed down. My Venu 2 that is almost three years old gets much better battery life, and it's on a three year old battery. Go figure.

To meet these requirements, the Venu 3 is the best option. I too moved from Samsung Galaxy to Garmin Venu 3 last year to improve my fitness level and a am very happy with the change. Battery life alone will blow your mind. The Venu 3 is sleek and stylish with notifications, calendar reminders, and more.

Venu 3 does it all and also has some ‘smartwatch’ features. Bonus is it isn’t bulky at all.

I also use the Venu 3. It's a great all around watch and even has some Smart Watch features.

Bought the venu 3 and o boy I love this device. Don't miss the apple watch at all. Great battery also!

Hi! Until today I had several alerts about high stress. During a trip to France. And during a meltdown in a meeting. You don’t get an alert before a meltdown, but you do during a meltdown or afterwards. Or high heart rate. So at this meeting, the watch tells me he detected high stress. So I can get out the meeting or be mindful about the situation. First the device needs to get to know you. I read somewhere this will take about 3 weeks. And it tells you that you had high stress during the day and you need to take some rest. This was something I really needed in my life. Something or someone to tell me when I’m in a meltdown. Or when I’m tired to take some rest. Other thing is the battery life. This is really great, maybe 1.5 / 2 weeks depends on the kind of watch face you’re using. Or a lot of sports. I switched from Apple Watch to this Garmin. I don’t miss the Apple Watch at all.

all the current garmins have pretty much the same level of wellness. Though would say from a style and health perspective maybe the venerable venu 3 or the newer venu x1 (but may be overkill) is your best option. They have some additional features not all the other models have including ecg and baseline temp monitoring (there are others that offer the same but have way more fitness features)- but if that isn't required the virtually any current model.

If you want a mic and speaker your cheapest option is the venu 3, whith likely best option the forerunner 570 (there is also the more expensive and fully featured FR970 and the top end fenix 8 or the multi-use venu x1 if you want rectangular). If you can live without mic and speaker your cheapest option is the FR165 Music, however I personally think you get way more by going for the Vivoactive 5 or 6 as it offers more in terms of other recreational leisure activities, or if you want more training metrics and fitness features around running, cycling and swimming then the FR265

Apple watch ultra 2 is your only real option for longer battery life and esim and the rest of the features you want. You do know that if you have a spotify premium sub you don't have to have an e-sim to listen to music, as you can download playlists and save them onto the device, unfortunately offline spotify is only available on wear os watches (not an option for iPHone as locked to android), apple watches and garmin. Garmin may be a good option as can do offline spotify playlists, and has built in route options or can pull them from strava, syncs data with strava way better than apple does; and the models that offer music all offer at least up to 10 days battery life, and they can offer way more than garmin does in terms of built in training metric and analytics and features. Note offline music + gps on watch is a heavy battery drain - so 1hr or gps activity + offline music and you are looking to recharge every 4-6 days (maybe longer) depending on the model, compared to multiple charge per day on AW (assuming you sleep with it) or daily charge on AWU2 If you want a mic and speaker look at venu 3, FR570, FR970, Venu x1 and Fenix 8 series. Otherwise you could go with vivoactive 5 or 6; FR265, FR965, FR955 and prior fenix 7 (and its variants like Epix 2 etc).

I’ve just switched from apple to venu 3 and not having to charge every night is so much easier. Sleep tracking is good, I also like how many more features and stats it had compared to apple.

I got a Venu 3 to replace my whoop. It's worked well enough. I wish it could do like 10% more for training metrics but working off body battery works well enough. If you care more about the training metrics a forerunner would probably work better. I just didn't want something that looked like an athletic watch.

Garmin forerunner for sure. I got myself a Garmin venu 3 and it’s good but there’s a few features the forerunners have that I miss. I use that combined with Strava for community, Garmin connect app for stats, and Runna app for training plans. They all connect together. Runna automatically sends runs to my watch, then the watch sends the stats back to all three apps when I’m done 👍 Edit: it also all sends the data to my Apple health and my Lifesum dieting app which updates my daily calorie intake based on activity level

Forerunner and fenix watches seem to me like a heavier, off grid watch. Longer battery life, super rugged, heavier. Vivoactive is good for all those things but it’s lighter and a good daily wear. I have the venu 3. I lift weight, cycle, and starting to get into running. I wanted a watch that did all the bio tracking but didn’t want something rugged and off grid. 7-10 days battery life. Good daily wear. Good sleep tracking. I’ve worn it for 1.5years now. Had the venue SQ prior. I disable the messaging and notifications but still get calls just in case I don’t have my phone on me. Glad you aren’t looking at Apple Watches. Garmin is the best choice for activity and daily wear.

The main difference is that the Venu has a speaker/microphone so you can supposedly use your phone through your watch. Search Reddit for “Venu 3 calling/calls” to see reviews of that feature. It seems unnecessary to me and, since you want to swim with the watch, it might be a failure mode with water getting into the mic or speaker (although it’s rated for it). Aside from that, they are incredibly similar. The bezel on the Venu is metal and on the For is poly.

Damn, this looks sick! I'm still happy with my Venu 3 but I'm tempted...

Garmin's battery life is great. I had a Garmin Venu 3 prior to my S10 and the only thing that made me switch to the S10 is that I can send and receive messages from my watch. I say that to say that I've recently been debating on going back to Garmin again.

Have a Venu 3 and would only swap it out for an upgraded Garmin. The additional accuracy and tracking features are very nice. I've compared the HR tracking to a chest strap and it's numbers are usually within an acceptable range.

Garmin isn't the best imo okay let me rephrase I have the epix pro and venu 3, I prefer venu 3 just because it's a little more lighter and hugs my wrist better

I'd say venu 3 or venu3s. You'll get notifications, yes not as integrated as apple watch but you get the best of Garmins smart watch side and best for fitness tracking. It is comfortable to wear for sleep tracking and great battery life.

I'm in a similar boat. Started running not too long ago and bought a Venu3 in the first week. It's fine and it works, but in hindsight, I think I might have preferred a FR265 instead. The metrics appear to be a bit broader and more focused on running on that watch. I think it is more a "nice to have" than essential set of features. I don't use the smart features on the Venu at all, and sometimes I wished I had a button instead of just the main screen to adjust a screen while running in the rain or when I'm really sweaty. The touchscreen is fine, except for those conditions. I do like the spoken-word instructions in Garmin Coach and Runna workouts, I don't think the FR265 has those... I'm looking to buy a FR 570, 970 or F8 47mm now.

I have a Venu3 as well. It’s nice, the battery lasts for over a week with daily gps-workouts. I don’t find the voice assistant features that useful but I do like the spoken workout guidance from Garmin Coach or Runna during a workout. I can use my AirPods, but just the speaker from the watch is usually loud enough to use as guidance. Mind you that wrist-based HR sensors ar not optimal for lifting weights 🏋️. You might want a HR strap for that to compliment your watch, any watch…

I bought a Venu3 for 299€ Great Watch, i don’t cycle but I run and hike a lot. In hindsight a FR265 would probably have been better…

If you are serious looking for a Garmin that can do anything that an Apple can do but better you are going to be seriously disappointed, there is no Garmin that can do that. Apple has better sensors than Garmin and is far better when it comes to health tracking features. Garmin is lacking in sleep tracking as well. They are good at tracking activities and the data that comes from that and has a longer battery because its smartwatch features are so basic. The software is outdated and buggy so be prepared for endless updates and the UX and UI is terrible. The watches themselves are quite cheap looking for the prices with plastic bodies and some with the tiniest of metal bezels, not to mention the tackiest of colour combinations that "scream look at me". Probable the FR165 or the Venu3.

Use the compare feature on the Garmin website to see the specs of both watches, choose all watches and then the compare feature and add both watches. The Venu3 is missing a great deal in terms of training data. The Venu3 is a health and wellness watch, a lifestyle watch. The forerunner 265s is a training watch. They are very different. One is an entry level watch for someone just starting testing the waters and one is for someone who knows what they like to do and wants to get better at it. My daughter used the Venu3 and I have used the Fr265, she returned the Venu3 after 2 days, it is pretty yet still looks cheap with the plastic body as so many of the Gramin watches do and at the price point it is just missing too much. She ended up getting the Epix 2 pro instead.

Garmin already has battery issue on watches such as the one you use. I have used several different Garmins and there are only a few models that really have great batteries unless you start turning off features. I never got more than 4-5 days with the amount of activity that I did on FR265 unless I turned off features that I had paid to use. I used a Venu3 it was at best I could squeak out 4 days with the same use. I am still in the Garmin echo system but I don't use the watches anymore, the software is what eventually pushed me away - it is just terrible for a company of that size and the almost biweekly updates that broke more than they fixed just frustrated me to no end. For the prices they charge it is completely unacceptable. There are so many other brand options honestly. Yes Garmin offer a great deal of data but 80%+ users don't even understand or use what they are looking at and even those that do don't really need that data. The GPS is good but the watches are mostly cheap looking and the premium feel gets less and less as the bezels shrink. Garmin was once the best in the business but their priorities have changed and the direction they are taking seems to be in conflict from what they used to be.

THe Venu is a lifestyle watch, a health and fitness watch lacking a great deal when it comes to running data, even the new Vivioactive 6 has more features than the Venu3. The FR265s is a training watch and far better for runners.

I have had many Fitbits, an Apple Watch and a Garmin Venu 3. The Fitbits have gone downhill since Google bought them and they usually break right when the warranty is over. So I can no longer recommend although I have owned at least 10 Fitbits over the years. I own an Apple Watch and never use it. It shows my calorie burn insanely high (I am talking several hundred calories high each day). And it has to be charged every day which is a pain. I've had my Garmin Venu 3 about an a year and a half. I like it a lot. It is not super complex but does what I want. Like all fitness tracker/watches it tend to over estimate calories a bit as did all of them. But it is closest to accurate.

I was in a similar boat, I came from the Pixel watch to the Garmin umbrella. I didn't have set tracking (or didn't use it) on my Pixel. I like being able to track working vs resting time, logging # of reps/weight lifted etc. it's quick and easy after each set. The rep counter is alright. You can also pre-program workouts into your app and send them to your watch for the watch to guide you. I went with the Venu 3 as it's the smartest watch Garmin makes. I describe it as a fitness watch with some smart features whereas Apple/Google are smart watches with some fitness features. The tipping point for me was Pixel watch didn't allow a heart rate monitor to be connected to it. Battery life is about 7-8 days depending on activity level and GPS usage.

How long is "meh" for a garmin? I can get up to 14 days on the venu 3 with a little tinkering of the settings. Leaps and bounds longer than an apple or android watch but what's 14 days in garminville? Maybe twice that if I spent twice the money?? Could have got the venu3S for bigger battery and get an extra few days but charging once every 2 weeks is gravy for me 👍 What's the biggest power hogs on any Garmin? Plus Ox all night Lots of GPS assisted activities Fully bright screen Wifi, no need for wifi What else??

There is no point to buy any top of the line 9xx forerunner as you don't run outdoor. For your requirements, you should consider Venu 4 (or Venu 3 for the most value or even a cheaper Vivoactive 6) instead.

Venu 3 likely won’t get the advanced training features in updates. Venu 4 adds them and keeps the sleeker look, while the 570 leans sportier with better buttons. Stick with 3 if you’re fine as is, go 4 for style + training metrics, or 570 if performance matters most

If you want the most features and full maps, the Forerunner 955 is the smarter buy, especially with the sale. If you’d rather have something lighter and nicer to wear every day but still get all the health tracking you need, the Venu 3 is a great choice. The Vivoactive 6 will cover the basics, but it feels a bit outdated compared to the other two:)

This is how I use my venu3 in gym: https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/ basically, if you have a pre-created workout and wish to follow it - the watch is pretty handy.

This depends on how you want to track your sessions. Some people prefer to start "strength training" when enter a gym and stop it at the end. I use my watch to follow my program like described here: [https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/](https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/) If you want to do the same - a watch which allows to adjust weight/rep number using the touch screen is handy. I know that venu3 and F8 support this, not sure about other models. PS: Not that long ago, Garmin released strength coach (https://gelberhut.com/garmin-strength-coach-what-is-it-and-what-can-it-do/), if you want it: check one of Garmin Venu 3, Garmin Fenix 8, Garmin Vivoactive 5, Forerunner 255, Forerunner 265, Forerunner 955, Forerunner 965.

For gym it is important to be able to adjust weight/reps using touch screen. I'm not sure if Fenix 7 can this. Va6 and venu3 - can.

My venu3 counts laps correctly (I fo not use kickboard), but it confuses styles all the time - my galaxy watch 4 did a better job here. Usability in a swimming pool is good, I would say. If you want,you can check how the things look looks like here: https://gelberhut.com/garmin-venu-3-track-swimming-in-a-swimming-pool/

This is how I use my venu3 in a gym: https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/ 265 should provide similar experience. Recently Garmin added strength coach (https://gelberhut.com/garmin-strength-coach-what-is-it-and-what-can-it-do/). 265 gets it as well.

Garmins are very behind gw in the smart features department. Second major difference with gw world is feature sets - all watches have different combinations, the only safe choice is fenix. All other models require deep analysis. Venu3, the smartest watch of its time, does not have timer presets and does not show sunset in the weather app, other models do. Third, be familiar with software update policy. Unlike wearos, Garmins software updates do not assume new UI and features, you can get some of them or not, but you may not expect them.

Venu 3 is way way more laggy in term of UI, is way behind in smart features, but is ahead of WearOS watches in health and sport. Unlike GW you should not expect any functional software updates (some can come). gym workout support is a tricky part on all of these watches. When I used GW4, I used gymrun. With venu3 I use built-it feature. You can check my real-life experience here: Venu3: [https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/](https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/) GW4 (afaik, 8 is not that different): [https://gelberhut.com/galaxy-watch-for-weight-training/](https://gelberhut.com/galaxy-watch-for-weight-training/) PS: I have no experience with OPW3

Consode venu3. Especially, if instinct is not your favourite style. Here you can find how real life experience of venu3 + komoot looks like: https://gelberhut.com/hands-free-hiking-garmin-venu-3-and-komoot-alps-test/ That blog also has atticlie about venu3 usage in gym.

Venu 3 for sure

Garmin Venu 2 or 3. Long battery life, lots of activities, doesn't look offensive, and great customer support.

I am using a Garmin Venu 3 and it does have a wheelchair mode… I am tracking my pushes because I am doing a half marathon in a sport wheelchair soon.

If you are on a cruise ship but want to go on a jogging trail, make sure you do indoor mode. If not, the watches will think you are super super fast with the ship speed and your speed combined. I still do my mileages on a cruise ship still.

Wasn't considering a Pixel Watch, but I did go with a Venu 3 because I wanted a round smartwatch (or fitness watch, whatever you want to call it). Previously used an Apple Watch series 5. Disliked that I had to use Strava or similar to extract my run data in order for me to view it on my desktop. Also I was switching to a Pixel phone. But, seing the regular improvements to fitness in the Apple Watch have made me consider returning when/if it's necessary to find something other than my Venu. That I don't particularly enjoy my Pixel phone is also a factor.

I think the venu 3 lacks some of the advanced metrics like Training Status & Training Effect but it has the better hear rate sensor

I have a Venu 3 and I find it extremely useful as both an everyday watch and for my strength training and cycling. The GPS boots quickly, battery life w/out gps is over a week/ 7 days with two gps events. There are more fitness activities loaded on it then I could ever find time for, and it has never failed on me (to start, track, boot...whatever). It connects to all of my power meters, my Wahool Kickr, HR monitors, cadence/speed sensors, bike lights and Varia radar. I have yet to swim with it, but I did have an original Venu that I snorkeled with in the Galapagos and that watch did not disappoint. I would guess that those with gripes are used to "smart" watches and not true fitness watches. My girlfriend has a Samsung watch that she has to charge everyday! I find that appalling!!

I have had the 3 since November '24 and not a scratch on it. My old original Venu was a little over 4 years old when I swapped it out and it has one minor scratch (across the face, but thin), and some other minor scratches. I've owned analog watches that suffered worse. My original Venu survived hikes in AZ, Maine, NM, and cycling trips all over the US. And I wore it every day of those 4 years.

An update: I was putting on a backpack in downtown Vancouver and a shoulder strap caught on the watch band, causing one of the pins to pull back and the band to fall off. The watch hit concrete and the face cracked in maybe six ways. Garmin is replacing it for $150, but I was surprised that it shattered that easily. I'm seriously looking at cases to put over the new one, but I have yet to find a satisfactory candidate yet.

Use a Garmin Venu 3 myself and really like it

My apple watch was fine for swimming but only counted laps (not what type of stroke). I use a Garmin venu 3 since December last year and I'm happy about the change. (Venu 3 was affordable for me and offered all the SmartWatch options I wanted) Sometimes it counts more laps than I actually swam, especially if I dive or change stroke midlane.

I'm happy with my Venu 3. It does what I need it to and it is one of the lowest profile Garmin offerings.

As long as you’re happy with the AW battery life then keep it till it breaks. Or replace with a newer watch or Garmin Venu 3 or Forerunner 165

That’s fine then and still pretty good for a AW. I only have a Garmin because I swap between IPhone and Samsung phones every two years. Plus my Venu 3 is a back up to my Garmin Edge 1000 if I forget charge it.

Got a Venu 3 which is my Days off watch and for the majority of my walks and HR monitor for Cycling. Battery lasts about 10 days. My VA3 is for work to count steps as I can’t wear anything below elbow in Healthcare. Clip it to my pants. Battery lasts 3 days now. Had it since 2019

I've owned both. 965 is sleek and fantastic for metrics. Venu 3 is slim and low profile, but lacks metrics. Best to start big imo, the 965 should last you years with what it provides

I think the venu 4 is probably the worst generational upgrade of any garmin yet. Venu 3 is much better value

I'm six weeks shy of 70 and have a Venu 3. I walk 5 times a week on a treadmill despite serious health issues. I like the pulse ox and ecg app. I share this data with my cardiologist, who appreciates my input. This watch does everything that I need.

Another casual user here. I *love* my Venu 3. I don't have the money to upgrade to the 4, but from what I've seen I wouldn't even if I did.  Since you answered your own question, I'd say go for it and enjoy the fact that your mom will be saving a couple hundred bucks by not going with the latest model. 

I've had mine about 14 months now and still love it like I did the first day. I agree that the complaints I've seen seem to come from folks who wanted a bit more "fitness" in a watch that was designed to be a hybrid. I am a casual user but I still log workouts frequently and have never felt like any fitness features or exercise metrics were missing. My partner got one at the same time and ultimately decided a smart watch wasn't for him, but enjoyed wearing it for a 6 month trial period and still uses it occasionally when he wants to track a ride for a map & speed details. 

The large Venue 3 has decent battery life, a good HR sensor, dual band GPS, and some other perks you might like. It's their best "healthy lifestyle" watch that's not activity-specific like the FR watches. if you're looking for something more sporty, larger face, and maybe you'll like to get more out of the watch later, the FR 965 or, if you want to spend extra on the latest model, the 970.

I'd say 265 is a better comparator to V3 and 165 is a basic entry level sport/run watch - still capable and a great price to get into Garmin. Battery life, dual band GPS, barometric altimeter are 3 features that I'd say are close and critical to me. The 165 does not appear to have dual band GPS, so, despite being better than other brands, your accuracy may suffer on mountainsides and in big cities. Seems the 265 has a lot of perks and training metrics that add up over the 165 and you get what you pay for. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/02/forerunner-differences-comparison.html Venue 3 is less of a 'run focus' in favour of overall health and less sporty finished look. It has a later gen heart rate sensor, as well, than the 265.

Use the V3 and if it has any issues hopefully it will be in warranty and be exchanged.

I have a very basic one compared to some of the models they have. I have a Venu 3. It’s a bit more stylish or just not as “in your face” of a fitness watch as the forerunners and some other ones Garmin has. I like the data, and I like tracking workouts and monitoring my stress. I lift 3-5 times/week, run 2-4 times/week, and do hot yoga/hiit sessions 3-4 times/week. I’m very active but kind of an all around active, hence not goin with a more run - dominant watch. The venu 3 has capability to connect to your phone (I don’t have mine enabled) and I would say it’s the most like an Apple Watch out of all the Garmins. I might could have gotten a different watch more suited for how I train and what I use it for but oh well. I love it. It gives full sleep data and all those metrics, V02 max, stress, fitness age, monitors HR and breaths per minute, can track a variety of different workouts, and probably my favorite thing is I can watch/monitor my pace while I’m running. It gives an insane amount of post run data, too much for me to type out. You can connect it with all of garmins various other gadgets, like chest strap HR monitor, weight scale, ecg scanner, etc. I think it cost ~500 dollars. 2 ish week battery life. Takes about 10 minutes to charge fully.

I use my Garmin Venu 3 to track the laps I swim in my local 25m pool. Very rarely the watch tracks an extra lap. Works great for me and I don't have to charge it every other day. I also use it for biking, running and hiking. I have my garmin paired with my iphone.

I'm really enjoying my Garmin, bought a venu 3 but they have a lot of different watches depending on what your fitness tracking needs are. I got the bigger 45mm but I believe the venu 3s is a little smaller.

Buy the venu3(s) if batterytime is what you want, and you don't want to give in into to many of the functionality of an apple watch. But know all Garmins are sport watches first, and except for displaying notifications just not so capable smartwatches.

I've owned several Fenix watches. I currently use the Epix Pro and Venu 3. No issues whatsoever. Sounds like the Fenix 8 has issues. I hope Garmin gets their quality control back to normal. Watches at this price point should be flawless.

People failing to understand that apple "smart" watches are not the same as "fitness" watches. An apple watch is like a smaller, more compact mobile phone. My wife was showing me her new apple watch and the features are incredible. One for example, she can open the camera app on her phone, set it across the room, and view the live image on her watch and then take the picture from her watch. Theres too many cool features to mention. My Garnin Venu 3, yes it has a colour screen and can track cool things like HRV, my sleep, stress etc. But thats it. Her apple watch also does this, but with 6 million other functionalities. It also takes her roughly 20 mins to charge it to like 80% so the charging doesnt bother her or cause any inconvenience. The watches cannot be compared, they are for completely different target audiences who are interested in different things.

Who cares? Probably the roughly 300 million people who have bought apple watches since the first release. As I said, they are for a different target audience. I love my garmin Venu 3. Would I get an apple watch like my wife? Never. Would she get a garmin Venu 3? Never.

The venu looks cheap, plastic, disgusting for the money, the glass is scratched right away, the speaker is quiet, it disconnects through one wall, sleep is a disaster, I was watching TV and I was already asleep, or when I go to the bathroom in the evening, the venu didn't even notice that I was sleeping, or didn't even recognize that I went to the bathroom. This is not the case with the galaxy watch ultra, the tracking is much better, everything is completely different.

hi, I had a GW 7 but now I have a GW ultra and I am most satisfied, GPS and all measurements are better on both the Garmin venu 3 and GW 7

The fact that I can actually sleep with it in and I don’t have to charge it before hand is worth the money spent on the Venu3…. Even though my main reason to switch is “it’s pretty”… also my husband and daughter are Garmin users so it’s pretty fun comparing metrics! I never used the apple watch for all its capabilities as a smart watch, so this was a seamless switch for me!

I agree 100%. If a person wants to be healthy either watch is fine. Most folks in this forum are garmin enthusiasts and really appreciate their watches. But at the end of the day, being fit is much more about the person wearing the watch than the watch itself. My current daily driver is a Venu 3/Fenix 7x/instinct 3 Solar/Apple Watch 10/Apple Watch Ultra 2.

My venu3 autodetects walks, runs, cycling and elliptical machine.

I got a Venu 3 and it’s amazing!

I got the Garmin Venu 3 and it’s been great. $300-400 on Amazon

I'm a toddler parent and went from Galaxy Watch 6 to a Venu 3. The Venu is way worse at detecting wake ups. Like I'm up at night to put my kid(s) back to sleep and it'll take 40 min and the Garmin would still insist I slept well and was only awake for 10 mins during the night. Just based on aligning with how I felt, the Galaxy Watch 6 was much better.

I came from a Galaxy Watch 6 to a Venu 3 so maybe I can give you some perspective? The GW6 is a smartwatch, the Venu 3 is a sportswatch. I don't care how much Garmin tries to sell it as a smartwatch. The difference between a real smartwatch and a Garmin watch is night and day. I think really the only thing Garmin has going for it is the battery time. It's great compared to all the real smartwatches but it of course comes with a price. The UI on the watch looks like it's from the early 10s, the animations are nowhere near WearOS or Apple Watch OS. The notifications are very poor in comparison, the integration with an assistant (Gemini) is slow and weird. The UX in general is kind of garbage. I also found the sleep tracking on the GW6 to be much more reliable. I have small kids so I wake up every now and then during the night and on the Garmin - it's so frustrating to be told in the morning that I had a great night of sleep with only 10 mins of time awake when I spent 40 mins trying to get my 2yo to fall back asleep. What I miss from the GW6 is that \* The notifications were so much better. I could act on notifications \* The visual elements looked much nicer \* The assistant was actually useful (I used to start timers from my wrist by voice) \* Steps tracked across phone/watch. With a Garmin, you have to wear the watch to get your steps counted (so no steps on days where you might not wear your watch for an event or something), and you also need to not... push a stroller around for example which I do a lot. Not an issue on GW6 since it would use a combination of phone+watch steps but Garmin does only watch so the step data is completely useless for me \* Apps. I have never had an Apple Watch so I don't know about the app offering there but on WearOS, it was okay-ish. I could install Google Calendar on my GW6. I also installed FotMob so that I could get football results on my wrist. The GW6 allowed me to put the phone away more reliably because I could add a calendar event, I could check the football scores, etc. on my watch. I spent a lot of money on a Venu 3 and I still have no idea what I paid for even though I am several months in. Garmin decided against putting running features into it so it's very limited for my running. At the same time I don't feel like I got anything else instead. So I am definitely disappointed in this purchase and wouldn't recommend the Venu 3. Now the Venu 4 seems to be more rich in features and comparable to the FR 570. But I think the point still stands that AW and wearOS watches are smartwatches. Garmin watches are still sportswatches which can do some smart things (but in a wonky way)

I feel the same with the Venu 3. I haven't made any custom programs, but it seems to automatically detect the exercises mostly correct when I run the strength activity (type of exercise and reps), and I can fill in weight between sets and adjust anything else in the connect app afterwards.

All running features and stats! I was missing that lately on my Venu 3 and was hoping on Venu 4-and…there it is!

Look into the Venu 3 or Venu 4 and compare the functions. Venu 4 just came out last month. The Venu 3 at my local Target in Chicago on October 2nd have the Venu 3 for 50% off, see photo. If you do not want the extra features in the Venu 4, go with the Venu 3. Both watch have ecg. Target online store does not have the Venu 3 50% off. It is best to go to the store or call the local Target store to inquire if the location have 50% off for the Venu 3 as there is a Target store in Chicago offering 50% off. Below is the link of one comparison between Venu 3 and Venu 4. Good luck on your decision. [https://garminrumors.com/comparison-garmin-venu-4-vs-venu-3/](https://garminrumors.com/comparison-garmin-venu-4-vs-venu-3/) https://preview.redd.it/na0s4cj5u5tf1.jpeg?width=810&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70cd34599ea922b39347f28d7ca37164d377d117

Had a Venue 3 now have a 4. Display is much brighter and very nice. Can't speak to exercise/coaches additions as I am laid up right now with foot injury. One feature I LOVE is the flashlight. Thought it was a gimmick, but I use that thing all the time. Have not stressed it but it is known battery life will be slightly less than Venue 3. First impressions are this is great watch, but those with Venue 3s might want to wait for Venue 5. There is not a right answer just what is right for you. The first detailed reviews of Venue 4 are appearing on Youtube which highlight changes between 3 and 4 and compare it to Apple watch.

Same for me from AW8 to Venu 3

I switched from AW8 to Venu 3 and I would never go back🙊

If running is your main aim, go for FR 165 or even the FR 265 (if your budget allows it, I would recommend thsi for future proofing too). Vivoactive and Venu series will never get any important feature updates. FR series on the other hand will always get some update (better than Vivo and Venu). Skip the Vivoactive and Venu series. Edit: I have the Venu 3 and it is almost 2 years now (it was launched in Sept 2023) and until now, it has received only 1 proper feature packed update. So updates are a big NO for Venu and Vivoactive series. Garmin neglects them severely.

Any watch will do for that amount of running, since CrossFit and weight training do not benefit much from a watch. A heart rate strap would be better to control HR during workout, specially CrossFit where it is impractical to use the watch in some workouts that I can get damaged. Anyway, since you want calls I would just chose the ones you like more aesthetic wise and budget from the ones that support microphone and speaker (Venu 2 plus, Venu 3, new Fenix and new forerunner lines)

If you don't want a rugged tank like the Instinct models, I'm partial first to the Venu 3. I sold my Epix Gen 2 and have been using the Venu 3 for about 6 months happily. But I just run, walk, golf, treadmill, and lift once in awhile for activities...the rest is just health tracking. REALLY like the golf app for quick glance at distances to the hole. I am intrigued by the 50mm Instinct 3 the OP reviewed...maybe someday...if only there was demand for the Instinct Crossover I bought a few years ago I could sell it and put the proceeds towards :)

I have a Venu 3 from Garmin. No complaints. I am however eyeing the GT 5 Pro as it is on sale here for 268 GBP equivalent. How are the health metrics and analysis on Huawei watches?

If you are wanting more of an Apple Watch style with great Garmin features I have a Venu 3 that I adore. I run, cycle, swim, play ice hockey, lift weights and it has seperate activities for each. I love the data it gives me and I can tune the “smartwatch” features to my liking. I’m a Venu 3 fan girl for sure.

I use a Venu 3 with a Garmin heart rate strap. I u r it for ice hockey where wearing a watch under my catching glove would interfere. They pair perfectly and there’s no ongoing cost after purchase.

Venu 3 or epix pro (from secondhand) -screen is amoled. -ui is best as it gets (apart fenix 8 ofc) -elevate 5, as in best sensor there is.( This should be most important thing to keep in mind choosing garmin) -venu has voice assistant if you are in to that kind of thing, venu is slimmer and smaller more formal sort of -epix is a tank, it looks like you can destroy a brick wall with it.

Get a Venu 3

The Venu 3 and 3s are awesome start watches and it looks stylish on the wrist if you care about that

Look for sales on the venu 3, as the 4 is about to come out. Or dip your toes in with a refurbished vivoactive 5, I bet those are really cheap. For what it’s worth, I started with a vivoactive 5 to see how I’d like it and after a year I wanted more smart watch features (like being able to read a text from my wife while on a run). I couldn’t leave garmin, battery life and the connect app are just too good. I landed on a venu x1, but there are a lot of great options to choose from.

I currently have the Garmin Venu 3. It tracks about 95% of my swim laps correctly and can also detect the swim style pretty well. I'm thinking about upgrading to the Forerunner 570, since it allows you to record drills and use training plans. But I can't find much information online about other watches that also support both features (drill recording + structured training plans). Does anyone know of any good alternatives or have experience with this?

I already have a Garmin Venu 3. It's very much a smartwatch, not just a sportwatch. You get notifications, but you cannot answer the text messages from the iPhone. In swimming I go 100m then rest. Sometimes it doesn't record 25m, sometimes even 50m, which is frustrating. Doesn't happen that often, but once per swimming session for sure, for about a few months! Don't think I'd switch to AW cuz of the battery life!

I actually bought my fiance the Venu 3 at first but we exchanged it for a FR265. Hes a beginner casual runner but he wanted the FR running metrics. Also the Venu doesn't show hiking trails as maps or breadcrumbs just a directional arrow, that's all. During activities Venu 3 allows you to pause but on FR you have the option to resume later and exit out fully and then continue later. It also gives you better data screen options for during activities. Venu 3 just looks a lot better, it's more streamlined. I got myself a Venu 3S after seeing his Venu 3 that we returned on. I wear the FR for workouts and the Venu the rest of the time.

I didn't go straight to the Fenix. Had a venu 3 first. That at least lasted 4 to 5 days.

Yeah, i bought my Venu 3 in May, well.. i guess ill go for Venu 5 then.

I went with Garmin instead of Apple because of battery life. If you are ok with the MIP screen, the 955 is a good choice. If you want the AMOLED screen you're looking at the more expensive 965 or something like the Venu 3 (although it doesn't have native maps). Full disclosure, I have the Venu 3 and love it

I’m waiting for a great deal to pick one up for my wife. She’s a triathlete, and the flashlight idea makes her giddy because she’s often setting up her transition in the dark. I have a venu 3 and she loves my display, so going to the 970 and away from mips seems perfect

The Venu doesn't have the triathlon setting like the forerunners (switch from swim/bike/run and transitions with the push of a single button)

Vivoactive is the best watch imo coming from another watch. 955 is buttons only which is tough coming from apple. Venu does offer much more if anything more than vivoactive

I bought a Venu 3 earlier this year as it seemed to be the best midpoint between golf and other fitness features. I usually just use the regular Garmin golf app for the distance features and then keep score on a card or in the ghin. Definitely recommend the venu 3 as having a ton of features without being too expensive

It is a good watch, but it doesn’t have the “training load” feature so it won’t advise you on how much training to do like a Fenix or a Forerunner would do. Not sure if that interests you, because that’s not exactly what you asked for in your first post. It does have the stress monitoring and body battery features I was talking about. Here is a thorough review of that watch: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/08/garmin-review-analytics.html

Go for the FR 955. I initially got a Venue 3 (switched over from Apple Watch) and decided I wanted maps and a more sports focused watch. Don’t care for the overly rugged look of the other watches but the Forerunner is literally perfect. Could not be happier.

Can’t go wrong with the Venu3. Of course it comes down to your budget and need.

Yeah, I went from a 3 to a X1. Up to 8 data screens for running.

It works great on the the Venu 3. The various mobile apps are useless, as they don’t upload your data to Garmin connect.

I use a Venu3. I am happy with it. I am not serious enough to need an actual computer with map capability. I know the routes I am riding, not super adventurous going on bike packing trips, etc.

Really? I looked it up online, and they said that while the Venu 3 has a mic, it can not store audio recordings on the watch. There may be an option when connected with your phone using voice commands to take notes, but the phone has to be present. Can you confirm that? It's actually the only reason I didn't hop on the watch. Im a football official and want to record the fouls but can not have my phone on me

I’ve had a Venu 3 for about a year. I like it a lot but the sensors are trash, sleep tracking is inaccurate, the connectivity to iPhone is annoying, and the app really sucks. I have also worn a whoop for the last year and much prefer the app, data parsing, and experience. Today I bought an AWU2 and I’m so stoked. It immediately felt better and the connectivity to phone is so much better. Sensors are much better. Continuous HRV tracking through the day. Much more scientifically rigorous sleep metrics.. SO much more functionality it’s night and day. The battery thing will suck. With Bevel app advancements this will easily replace my whoop and garmin tho and simplify my life while allowing me to be farther from my phone which is killer.

I have a Pixel 8 Pro and went from years of Galaxy watches, the last one being a 5, to a Garmin Venu 3 about 4 or 5 months ago. For my usage, I don't see myself going back to a Wear OS based watch until there is a significant increase in battery life. Yes, I know the Pixel watch and Galaxy watches have more "smart" features, but I don't care about those. I wanted something that would show me notifications with the ability to reply to a text in a pinch, track my sleep and various activities, and have great battery life. I got all of that with the Venu. I'm also a fan of how Garmin doesn't lock out features depending on the brand of phone you're using. If it's an available feature on your model of Garmin, you can use it regardless of whether you're using a Pixel phone, Samsung phone, or something else. I also like Garmin Connect a lot better than Samsung Health. As others mentioned yes, they can be tricky to use sometimes with settings buried deep in menus, but it's not bad once you get used to it. Someone else mentioned that Garmin won't auto start activities, which is true of my Venu, but it will auto pause. Just has to be turned on in the activity setting. Ultimately a Garmin might not be for you, and that's fine, they aren't for everyone. But I love mine and thought I would give the perspective of someone who just switched. Happy to answer any other questions.

I went from a Sense 2 to a Venu 3. The Venu is much nicer in all aspects; build, OS, functionality, etc. The Connect app is more advanced, as well and much more fitness oriented, where the FitBit app is pretty simple. Notifications and alert are comparable, though the Venu 3 has audio alerts which I find a plus. Battery life is great and comparable to my Sense 2. I usually get a week or so between charges though I don't have the face always-on. The Connect app does not show battery status which seems like a big miss. So no push notifications that battery is getting low, only on the device. Connect will show you calorie burn based on activity but doesn't allow for logging calories, if that's what you were looking for. You have to use a third-party app to log calories and sync with Connect. Step tracking is comparable, though Garmin will only nudge you after 60 minutes of inactivity and you can clear the activity alert with a few minutes of activity, though for some reason I can never clear it just walking indoors around my house and up/down the stairs. I liked that Fitibit would prompt near the top of the hour to get in the remainder of your 250 steps and also has the hourly activity tracker. I find the Fitbit was more motivational in this sense to get me out of my desk chair. I also miss the weekly report email from Fitbit. I haven't found a similar option with Garmin. HTH

What the 265 has over the 255 (Music) \* OLED display vs MIP - I would have preferred MIP. Neither is a pro or con. \* Touch Screen - I wanted a touch screen, coming from a 2-button Vivoactive 4 \* 265 always has on-watch Music while there are 2 versions of 255 / 255 Music \* 255 did get some activity profiles, but DID NOT get the Training Readiness score - I can live without the training readiness score. Most 3rd arty watch faces don't display it anyway, even the new Venu 4 All Stars version of that watch face sold by Garmin does not have a data field for Training Readiness (currently, it's full of bug, I expect updates) \* 255 has better battery life, but 265 isn't terrible. - I charge my 265 about once a week with 30min to 1.5h GPS activity every day. \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* \* The 255 and the 265 share the same mold for their watch body.- They wear the same \* They have the same strap style, albeit the 265 ones come in cheesy 2-tone colors. - Replace them with a strap of your choice anyway. \* They have the same set of activities \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* When I got my 265, I actually wanted a MIP watch that also had touch screen ( the 955 was as expensive as the 265 then and I felt it was too big for me to wear 24/7 and I knew I didn't need the map features of it anyway.). I did not want a Venu 3 either and found the Vivoactive 5 a slap in the face for Vivoactive 4 owners. The FR165 missed indoor rowing and some other tidbits in the Garmin shop listing, so I did away with that one. I basically bought the 265 because of FOMO, for me the OLED wasn't even desireable. Now, after over a year with the 265 I can say: \* I rarely use the touch screen on it (it doesn't work as well as the one on my VA4. The touch targets for OK and cancel are tiny and at the brim of the watch (next to the buttons). I forget to use it for scrolling, which works well. \* I can read the OLED pretty well, but I still miss the MIP's true always on. \* Always on with the OLED is a false friend. It halves the battery life and for most watch faces is so dim that you hardly can read it in daylight. If it's bright enough to read it, you live in constant fear of burning out your display.... \* Forerunner x65 watch faces suffer from overuse of gradient high-glow color schemes. To me, they appear gaudy. Also of the 10+ designs, only a few make for a readable and informing watch face. There is no good "classic" watch face in analog. The basic digital watch face is very barren. I have a selection of 3rd party watch faces that I wear. Most recently I bought the Venu 4-style All Stars Watch face from Garmin - while not perfect, it shows someone at Garmin can design a readable and modern looking but not gaudy watch face. TL;DR: So for me, a 255 Music would have been better. But not by so much that I would change my 265 for a 255M now that I have it already.

I have the venu 3 and use it for indoor rowing, swimming and a little bit of running and it’s great. Very much recommend. I also didn’t want the calls/texts so I turned off notifications on the watch in the settings bc I prefer it like that but it does everything I want and the battery life is great. Not had experience with a forerunner device but would recommend the venu

I’ve had Apple Watches for years but my last one died in a hot tub… just after its warranty period. I like Apple Watches but I’ve JUST switched to a Garmin Venu 3 and the multi day battery is a huge bonus for me. A lot of the extra features I had on the Apple Watch I didn’t really use anyway as they were less fitness and more social/work focused. Garmin has a lot more fitness minded features I’ve found so far.  Apple Watches do have some sleep tracking features but they’re mostly useless to me since I used that time to recharge the watch.  Venu 3 is also on sale right now I think, at least it is in Canada. 

I used a Polar H10, but could never get the thing to stay in place around my chest while lifting. Then it died on me while running, so I stopped tracking HR for a long while. I recently picked up a Garmin Venu 3 watch. It's not going to work well for KB lifting if you do any exercises where the bells rest on your forearms like cleans, or snatch. I think this criticism would apply to most fitness trackers in watch form though The Polar Verity Sense strap, and the Whoop allow you to place the sensors in different locations on your body, so they might work better for tracking during kb-specific training, but I don't have personal experience with either of them

I can go for a run with my Apple Watch and AirPods and not need to bring my phone. I still bounce to my Venu 3 but there are plenty of reasons

Venu 3, S for smaller wrists, in particular women, is probably the closest to a traditional smart watch experience with 'health and fitness' features.. "Style and design meet health and fitness" is pretty much the advertisement for it on the official page. Vivoactive series is also a slightly cheaper option..

If you can at all up your budget at all; I would look at Garmin Venu 3. You would have best of both worlds for the most part..

Depends on the watch. Venu series makes a decent smartwatch watch if what you're looking for is notification triage and glancing it, not not necessarily interacting with information. I like to say it like this: If you want a very good smartwatch that makes a good fitness device, get a wearOS or WatchOS device. If you want a very good fitness device that makes a good smartwatch, get something like a Garmin.

My Venu 3 can absolutely make and receive phone calls via bluetooth. My Venu 3 absolutely can respond to text messages. Not as quickly or elegantly as my Pixel watch could, but it can. My Venu 3 absolutely could call Google Assistant. I even mapped a long press of the middle button to do that. It does less well with Gemini. Garmin does have Garmin Pay. It is not as well supported by merchants as Apple pay. Again, I'm not saying that Garmins are as capable in those functions as an Apple watch or WearOS device. But it is incorrect to say that certain Garmin models cannot do that.

I have a Venu 3... I mainly use it for health and wellness. I have all notifications turned off except phone, text and security stuff like google home

Garmin's ECG monitor is FDA-approved as well.

It debuted on the Venu 3, which you can get for $349 now (if the sale is still on).

Firstly, your Apple Watch should not have failed from a swim, so take it back to Apple and get it changed. If you really want to go from Apple to Garmin (and there are lots of pros from doing so), the nearest Garmin makes is the Venu 3. No Garmin watch replicates the ‘phone on your wrist’ that the AW represents, but the Venu is pretty good and with some apps from Garmin’s IQ store you can cover some if what the AW does. But far from all of it - that’s why it has a 18-hour battery life and the Venu lasts 3 days with always-on display permanently on.

The Venu 3 or 4 is the closest Garmin make to an Apple Watch (non-LTE but does have mic & speaker for calls), but the Fenix 8 Pro is the only one that has LTE and is thus independent of a phone. But the F8Pro costs a lot more than the AWU3 and needs a Garmin subscription to use the LTE and satellite communication features. Garmin Pay works exactly the same as Apple Pay but is useless in my country as no banks support it (it's nothing to do with the retailers).

I just ordered the Venu 3 because my Forerunner 945 has the glass delaminating issue. I wanted something more elegant than my 945.

Let's gooo I bought my venu 3 from rei like 2 months ago and have 1 more month to return it. Perfect timing. Also pretty disappointing as it seems fairly identical 

I really like my Venu 3. It tracks basically everything and does a good job. It's pretty. I tracks my sleep a lot better than my Vivoactives did and it doesn't invent heart rates like my Vivoactives did. The only thing it doesn't have is a thermometer to see how cold the lake is when I swim which is weird because it does have a thermometer because it measures skin temperature. I think they just turn the feature off since it can't measure air accurately since it's connected to your wrist. But it should still let us choose to use it, I'd just take the watch off to get an air or water temp.

I think the venu has training readiness. I'm not sure what that entails, but I know it has recovery time so when I go on a long bike ride, it'll tell me 96 hours recovery. If I did something shorter, it'll say 20 hours or whatever. So that looks like readiness, like when it's zero, you can train hard again, with it's not, you can train easy or rest.

Weird, i usually dont have this kind of problem with my watch (venu 3). It does happen when i change styles midlap, or if i have to emerge to breath midlap while diving. Came here to say that not all garmin watches have suport to add swimming workout programs, so this is something you want to look out before buying one

FR265 has a lot more features like training load, training effect, etc. The Venu 3 on the other hand has the newest HR sensor (elevate v5 vs v4 on the forerunners), but is missing a lot of the in-depth training features.

i bought venu 3 two weeks ago for general wellness im pretty satisfied with it works awesome batery is perfect its stylish

i just bought the venu 3 as my first garmin .. i hope i will not regret it that much when the 4 comes out >< also maybe the venu 4 will cost more?

The Garmin Venu 3 fits all those characteristics. Easily lasts 3 days and has all those features.

GT 4 is great for average sports use. With recent updates even better since it got maps if I saw correctly. Venu 3 is also great but severely limited by Garmin in functions, thus you do not get much more by moving to Venu 3, and you lose some things. Garmin watches in general can be good at customizing data fields/pages, data hoarders (offer loads of data, some unreliable, some can be useful if you care for it), and more detailed ecosystem (if you want to track your progress during time), but most of that stuff is not needed for casual use.  Also, Garmin intentionally severely limits their watches in software features (such as Vivoactive and Venu watches), so do not buy Garmin watch expecting a feature. You must go into details to see whether the features you need are there or not in Garmin watch you are looking at, which is very confusing for many people due to big number of Garmin watches, each with its share of features and limitations. In my view, Venu 3 is very overpriced. So much money for watch with no maps, resume later or some relatively common sport profiles,  cannot disable auto updates (and many updates are introducing new bugs) is not worth it.

Venu 3 (or 3s if you want a smaller one) would probably fit the bill.

i’m going watch free for a while but i loved my Venu 3!

I can't imagine having a watch you have to charge every single day. My sq2 went 11 days and my venu 3 goes 14 and 1/2, and it's STILL annoying sometimes.

I have a Garmin Venu 3 and it's great. Battery lasts for 10+ days and plenty of watch faces available to make it look how you want it. Replaced a Vívoactive 4, which itself was a replacement for a Microsoft Band. I have an Omega Speedmaster that I now never use, as I just couldn't go back to not being able to see notifications on the go (e.g. seeing work emails come in while I'm in meetings). Things like walking, running, cycling and skiing are all great to track. If it isn't on Strava, did it even happen...?!

long time Garmin user. currently i have a venu 3. it does heart rate, but i also got the cheat strap for even more accuracy.

Personally I like the looks of the Venu 3, it's a little bit classier look compared to the sportier looks of the Forerunners. But, it does have fewer running metrics, as far as race prediction and the like. So it depends on how important that is to you.

Have you checked that your Venu 3 is set up for the correct arm? Not doing so messed up the stroke type detection.

Drills affect it a lot. In fact much of the time it doesn't even get detected. You need to set up the Drill Mode manually and enter the distance manually, usually.

I still don't get it how people can compare smart vs fitness watches. It's like comparing a Ferrari to a Fiat. Smartwatches have WAY stronger hardware (we're talking about eg. 128 MB vs. 8 GB RAM, and single-core 800 MHz CPU vs. quad core 3 GHz etc.) and way more heavy firmware running on it, so that it can be generic and extendable, so that ANY even remotely skilled developer can built apps for it, in different programming languages etc. It's not the same and it will NEVER be the same. When a smartwatch manages to get eg. a week of battery, that will mean that either a new battery technology has been developed with much more capacity, or a completely new CPU/memory technology has been developed which is like 5 times more efficient. But fitness watches can also use that new technology and get a month or more of battery. So the ratio for battery duration between smart and fitness watches will ALWAYS stay the same, they all will advance at some point, but smartwatches will never even remotely be able to catch up with fitness watches. So at the end of the day, it's a decision every one of us must make: do you need a watch for sports and health tracking only? If yes, your only choice is a fitness/sports watch (like Garmin) and you will get a great battery life. But if you need an all-in-one watch, packed with apps and features, you buy a smartwatch and the expected and normal consequence is a "bad" battery life. It's actually not bad, it's just a compromise you MUST take, the same as when you buy a Ferrari. You cannot expect the same MPG as with a small diesel car :) And I'm talking from experience. I wanted an all in one watch, good at everything. But soon I realized that it doesn't exist and never will. First I went with smartwatch as a geek, but realized that I mostly use my watch for fitness/health tracking so I decided to switch to Garmin. But I went with the Venu 3 which is a good compromise between both worlds.

It's called Garmin Venu :) or if you have more money, Fenix 8 which has the best of both world. There are also some other manufacturers like Huawei or Amazfit, that don't have full-blown smartwatches on Wear OS but rather custom firmware optimized for battery. The only problem is that you're limited to third party apps that either the manufacturer or a minority of devs is doing. I have Venu 3 and it has 90% of smartwatch features one would need. You can take/make calls, see all notifications (with pictures), react to them (reply either with predefined messages or T9 keyboard, mark them as read, dismiss/snooze notifications, turn off alarms, delete emails etc.), pay (Garmin Pay), listen to music (local files, Spotify, Google Play etc.). There are also various apps like calendar, calculator, water intake monitor, camera apps (to control phone camera) etc. Unfortunately, Venu is missing lots of sports features from the Forerunner but that's just a greedy politics from Garmin. They want you to pay more. That's what Fenix 8 is there for - it has all the sports metrics and yet all the smart features from Venu.

Have you considered Venu 3? I have it and I'm pretty happy with it. Since I recently got more into sports, I'm missing some sports features, so I'm considering to switch to Fenix sometimes but for you it sounds like a good match. It's a "lifestyle" watch, as Garmin loves to call it, focused more on health and fitness tracking, but it's still quite a capable sports tracker, and it has some smart features (like mic/speaker so you can take/make calls, great notification system so you can see all your notifications from phone, react to them, respond to them, see images etc.) and the battery is rather good. Compared to 265, it has newer HR sensor (slightly more precise), skin temperature sensor, ECG, nap detection, sleep coach, mic and speaker, more advanced phone notifications system etc. So 265 is more for runners and sports in general, while Venu is a more generic watch for every day, and closer to a smartwatch like Apple. From sports features, Venu is missing things like daily suggested workouts, additional metrics (like training readiness etc.), more sports profiles, multisport etc. But it still has running dynamics, power meter, Garmin coach, good GPS etc.

I totally agree with you. For me, it's the same whether it's 5 or 8 or 12 days. As long as it can withstand any of my activities and can do at least 2 days, it's good enough. For me it was the GPS time which was the biggest difference after switching from Samsung. My old Samsung would die on 5+ hours long hiking or cycling. So, having a great battery life is definitely a plus, but not if it sacrifices features. One of examples is Bluetooth on my Venu 3 which is UNUSABLE. I guess Garmin made it weak intentionally, to save battery but I would be way more happier with 2 days less battery but usable Bluetooth. Like this, it's unusable for music and it keeps disconnecting from my phone as soon as I leave the room. My Samsung kept the connection through the whole apartment. So I'm totally against sacrificing usability and features in order to gain more battery life.

Just make sure the watch has a 5ATM certificate and it will be fine. I had three watches: Amazfit, then Samsung and now Garmin. I used all three in the water, not only pools but also in the ocean (salt water) hundreds of time and had zero issues. In fact, all three watches are still working perfectly fine, my brother uses the old Amazfit (from 2017) and Samsung (2020). The key is to properly wash them with normal water the second you exit the water. I always take with me at least 0.5 L of water just to wash the watch. Then I dry it with the towel and that's it. If you leave it to dry itself after salt water, the salt will cause damage to it after some time (my colleague had such issue where charging port on his Fenix rusted completely and it was no longer possible to charge it). HR reading is tricky underwater though. It seems to be working on my Garmin but I'm not sure how precise it is. But everything else works fine, and I find my Garmin Venu 3's GPS rather accurate in open water swimming. You only need to be careful not to keep it too long underwater because it loses GPS fix and it won't work anymore. I usually swim either freestyle or backstroke so it works flawlessly. But if you're doing breaststroke, you need to put your hand above the water every 20-30 seconds and wait for few seconds to catch GPS signal. There's no such issues in pool swimming though, as it doesn't use GPS but it detects when you reach the end of the pool, and you configure the pool length so it correctly calculates. If you're going with Garmin, and you need it only for swimming, try to avoid Venu, Vivoactive and other lifestyle watches from them, because they're missing physical buttons so you're stuck with only one screen underwater as touchscreen is not working. When I was on Samsung, I had the rotary bezel which I used to switch screens. Now I have the Venu 3 and I can't switch anything, and one screen can display only up to 4 fields. But I have a third party app to display 7 fields.

Sadly won't be buying this. I bought the Venu 3 and after 1.5 years, it's developed an intermittent charging issue. Some days it charges just fine and other days, I'll plug it in and it just won't charge. Some days it will charge for a few minutes and then stop. I've cleaned the connectors and done everything it says online to try and fix it and it hasn't helped. For an expensive watch, the durability has been unbelievably poor me.

Same here . I'm really happy with my Garmin Venu 3.

Recently had the same thing happen with my charge5. Second Fitbit that failed after a couple years. I landed on the Garmin Venu S3. There was a labor day sale and I got it for under $400. I love it.

My Garmin Veno 3 measures distance skated and speed (for whatever that's worth). Rocking a top speed of 13.1km/h last week

It was indoors. I was surprised the GPS worked

The venu 3/3s would probably be the most accurate because of the combination of how light it is as well as its elevate 5 sensor. 

For swimming, Garmin has no competition. Built-in GPS and the ability to measure underwater signals, not just strokes, but also heart rate, breathing, etc. I have a Venus 3 and I'm in love with it.

Venu 3/3s (smaller) or vivoactive 6. Venu 4 should be teased this month or September according to Garminrumors.con Check out the quantified scientist on YouTube for testing and reviews of dozens of fitness trackers (including almost every Garmin)

I would personally always take a Forerunner over the Venu series, as I am pretty serious about my fitness. I don't really care much about smart watch features, just need a bare minimum. And the venu series seems to take tradeoffs with fitness features to accommodate the increase in smart features.

I don't know.about the samsung fit 3 (msntioned below) but most galaxy watch will have 1 to 2 days of battery life. I get 2.5 days with my Galaxy Ultra. My 70 years old dad is not a runner (walk) but I got him a basic and cheap Garmin forrunner 55 instead (he loves it) - 1.5 to 2 WEEKS battery life (my dad won't charge a watch every day) - always on display (reflective display, not amoled) - display phone notifications on the watch - basic vital, sleep tracking, HR, GPS etc - emergency call/fall detection over BT (needs phone nearby, not LTE, which he has with him all the time). - not touch screen, button only, but he prefers that too. Other Garmin (venu series) have amoled touch screen etc and still have a week of battery life. The forerunner was good.enough for my dad's need (long battery, notification,readable screen). https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/741137

Been wearing the same Garmin for 5 years now. Sometimes the splurge is worth it. If you can wait, there will probably be some deals for the upcoming holidays and Black Friday, but that is a bit away. Personally I do like an all in one smart watch for fitness tracking and phone syncing.

Garmin Venu series are comparable to an Apple Watch. Garmin’s GPS tracking for outdoor activity is a little bit better/accurate. That’s something to consider if you want to log hikes, bike rides, walking, running etc. I use an iPhone and just download the Garmin Connect app, that’s where all the data is stored. The Venu series are more fashionable. The first Venu model has the basic sleep tracking. I know the newer ones have some other updated features. I do find the sleep tracking, body battery, active/resting calories data to be pretty accurate based on how I feel.

If you want a watch that leans more towards the social side in appearance, go with one of the Venu series that fits your budget. If you want a watch that leans more towards the sporty side in appearance, go with one of the Forerunner series that fits your budget. Both will fit your requirements.

Most people coming from apple go vivo active or venue. Venue being closest to a smart watch. Personally, I'm a instinct guy. Although I'm wearing a Fenix today since I didn't charge my Instinct for 2 weeks and it died before bed. I've swam tens of thousands of meters (more like hundreds but..) in pool, open and salt water with my Garmins. Done free diving (only to about 40ft, I'm not very good) and press the buttons regularly sub surface. I've also done cliff jumping with every watch, and haven't lost a garmin to water intrusion. I would definitely select a 100m rated model for water sports. Any watch can fail but I've had 6 garmins and none have. I also had a bunch of Casio and Timex over the years and not one failure.

From what you have written, budget is not a constraint for you. I'd go for a watch. Tracking sleep is very useful. I am implementing small changes to improve sleep and the data from the watch is helpful. Eventhough it's not perfect. If i could afford it, I'd buy a Garmin Venue right now. Also, while a chest strap may be a tad bit more accurate for heart rate tracking, it is not something you want to wear for hours at a stretch every day. There a watch is useful.

People have to stop comparing these. These are for two different people. I would never wear an Apple Watch based on battery life alone. I specifically got the Garmin for a wrist based gps and mapping tool to track and orient myself. You buy an Apple Watch to use smart features and be connected to your phone. Garmin has never been in that market. It’s a whole company based on gps systems for outdoor activities . You buy an Apple Watch to have Apple ecosystem. you can’t use half the feature of the fenix on an iPhone bc they only want you to use their watch… Garmin are all specifically made for their audience even down the the model . Apple watches are just to keep you plugged into your phone and have no bearing on actual outdoor activities despite calling it ultra. The Millitary has been orienteering with Garmin wrist based gps systems forever. You’d never catch an Apple Watch on patrol in Afghanistan. 😂

Garmin - They have a lot of watches at different price points. There is built-in GPS and the battery lasts for several days, unlike a smart watch that you typically need to charge every night. The Garmin app easily syncs with other fitness apps, if that's important to you. If you have a smaller wrist, go for the "S" models that will look and fit better.