Garmin has released Venu 3 and Venu 3S smartwatches on 30th August 2023. The 3rd generation Venu smartwatches come with a lot of new additions to Garmin apps.
Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S succeed the Venu 2 series smartwatches and the Venu 2 Plus series smartwatches. Venu 2 Plus smartwatch was released in January 2022.
In more ways than one, Venu 3 and Venu 3S cater to the lifestyle smartwatch segment. The Venu 3 and Venu 3S watches differ in size. However, the core functionality of both watches remains unchanged.
Display
The Venu 3 series uses an AMOLED display to offer a clearer and brighter display experience.
Both watches use the 3rd generation Corning Gorilla Glass in the display lens. This is a standard display lens in the wearables industry.
The Venu 3 series has a 1.4″ inch display with 454 x 454 pixels of display resolution. The Venu 3S series has a 1.2″ display or 30 mm display with a resolution of 390 x 390 pixels. Both watches feature an ambient light sensor to alter the screen brightness in terms of backlit surroundings.
Software improvements
Most advancements in the Venu 3 and Venu 3S have been made in the software and the various apps that are offered in the latest smartwatches.
Venu 3 and Venu 3S come with a wheelchair mode to help wheelchair users track pushes and moves all through the way. There is even a wheelchair workout to help wheelchair users.
New apps have been added for meditation, sleep coaching, and nap detection. The generic health tracking features remain intact on the Venu 3 and Venu 3S. Some of these features include continuous heart rate tracking and blood oxygenation monitoring.
Venu 3 and Venu 3S features
Both watches carry a 5 ATM or 50-meter water resistance rating. The watches come with an in-built profile for pool swimming.
There is an 8GB internal storage on both watch variants. Full music functionality has been provided in Venu 3 and Venu 3S. You could even listen to music offline using a Spotify or a Deezer premium subscription.
The biggest disappointment with Venu 3 and Venu 3S is the lack of a Garmin ECG app in the watches. We expected the Garmin ECG app to be a part of the standard features of Venu 3 and Venu 3S. These expectations were based on the availability of the Garmin ECG app in the Venu 2 Plus smartwatch.
However, the Garmin ECG app is not available in Venu 3 or Venu 3S as of now. It is not clear if the Garmin ECG app may be added to the Venu 3 and Venu 3S in a later product refresh or product update.
Venu 3 and Venu 3S support GPS, GLONASS, and GALILEO satellite systems. But, there is no multi-band GPS capability in either smartwatch. This is because both watches lack the multi-frequency positioning sensor. The multi-frequency positioning sensor enables multi-band GPS capabilities in Garmin smartwatches.
In terms of wireless connectivity, Venu 3 and Venu 3S support ANT+, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Incident detection for select activities is available on Venu 3 and Venu 3S smartwatches.
Battery
Venu 3 features a bigger battery and provides a longer battery backup of up to 14 days in the smartwatch mode. The watch also features a battery saver mode with a battery backup of up to 26 days.
You could go from zero-battery to full-battery charge in less than 2 hours of fast charging on a Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S smartwatches.
The watches come with Garmin’s proprietary wire charger.
Price
Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S are available for a list price of $449.99. While the Venu 3 is a 45 mm smartwatch, the Venu 3S is a 41 mm smartwatch.
The price point of Venu 3 and Venu 2 Plus is identical.
Helen Kurt is a geeky nerd who loves to cover the wearables space. She has over 5 years of experience in the smartwatch domain. You can reach her on email at [email protected].